We have some state park passes that expire at the end of the month, so we have been trying to use them all so that we aren't wasting any money. Now the only state park that is very close to us that has climbing is Lake Perris where Big Rock is located, so we decided to head out there again this past Saturday. Now Big rock really isn't the best place to go when it's hot outside since it just bakes in the sun, but at least when we get too hot we can head over to the lake for some swimming (which the kids love). We got out of the house a little bit later than I had hoped, but when we got to the big rock parking lot it was kind of overcast and didn't feel too hot, so we thought we might get to climb for a little longer than usual. Unfortunately, as we started hiking over to the rock the sun finally burned through the clouds and it got hot.
On the upper portion of Big Rock there are two prominent 5.7 cracks in a couple of big flakes that just look soo cool. I've climbed the right one (creatively named Right Flake) a couple of times, but hadn't climbed the left one (Left Flake) yet, so we decided to do it as our first route. Now of course both of these flakes start 100 ft off the ground and are generally climbed as the second pitches to the lower routes, so I decided to link up Variation to Boogaloo (5.9) with Left Flake for almost a full ropelength at 190 ft. I started up the route and noticed that not only was it hot, it was humid too (at least for SoCal) and I was just dripping sweat as I climbed. Luckily it was just a discomfort and didn't really affect my climbing too much as I was able to redpoint Variation to Boogaloo, and get the onsight of Left Flake.
After I rapped off, Amy TR'd the two combined routes (we tied two ropes together), but she climbed right flake instead of left flake because it was more directly in line with the rope and really doesn't feel any different from left flake.
Once we had finished the linked up routes we decided that it was really too hot to keep climbing, but as I tried to pull the ropes we realized that they were stuck. even with both of us hanging from them they wouldn't budge, so we decided to have Amy anchor one side of the rope, and I rope soloed up the other side. I ended up TR soloing Wedunett which is a 5.6, but I went directly up to the first bolt which bumps the rating up closer to 5.8, then for the second pitch I TR soloed a 5.10a called Cheap Thrills. I have to say that Cheap Thrills was an awesome route and I'll have to go back to lead it. The route is a pure friction route with basically nothing at all as far as holds go. I did slip off once but I think that was due to the heat since I was watching the rubber on my shoes deform and roll off my foot with each move. When I got to the top of the route, the only problem was that the rope had become twisted around itself a couple of times which when combined with the low angle slabby nature of the topout created enough friction that we couldn't pull the ropes. I untwisted the ropes, rapped off, we pulled the ropes, then we headed over to the lake for some water fun for the afternoon. Sorry, but we didn't take any photos of this trip, maybe next time.
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