We were all so jacked from bouldering (mind you that we had Tupac going in the background), that we decided to go for a night climb. I teamed up with a real experienced young climber who soloed El Cap last summer to climb the North Ridge with another 2-man party. We hiked out there, wandering through the woods to finally emerge onto a very exposed, windy, and probably 10 degrees colder ridgeline. Quickly we got our gear together and set off trailing the other party. About 20ft up, the 2nd guy's head lamp fell off (fotunately right down to me at the belay), so he did the first pitch by moonlight. Even more of a bummer was that I left my partners first piece of pro. Really cold with numb fingers and in a hurry, I figured we could always come back rather than spending a long time screwing with it. That, I admit, was the wrong decision. I will not leave a piece of gear again unless it is completely hopeless. When I got to the first belay, it took three repititions to convince the guy that I really did leave his cam. He just kept saying, "No you didn't. Give it to me." My bad. He did get it back fortunately. For whatever reason, he then blasted through both the 2nd and 3rd pitches of the climb, taking every bit of the rope to reach the anchor, which was a very untrustworthy steel pipe sticking out of the ground. After topping out, all I wanted was to hit the trail back. My fingers were so cold that I could barely feel the rock. At least I didn't need any chalk. The moon and stars were incredible. I only wish it had been a smoother and warmer evening so that I could have taken it all in more.
On Sunday we went multipitchin. I climbed in a party of three, and we completed Hidden Crack and Jim Dandy, two easy routes with great scenery. I even got to lead a sport pitch of Jim Dandy, my first lead on a multipitch route.
Monday we headed down into the Gorge (we had mostly been on Table Rock) to climb the Mummy and the Daddy, two classic mutlipitch trad routes overlooking the gorge. After the tough scramble of an approach, my 3man party hit up the Mummy first. It was really good. At the top, we just sat and soaked up the sun and scnenery for awhile waiting for another party to top out the Daddy. Together we rapped down the sketchy gully and switched routes. I didn't enjoy the Daddy as much but that was probably due to mental anguish. See, I was planning to lead the 3rd pitch, an easy 5.3 mostly traverse sort of thing. Well, we thought we were a little belay the 2nd belay so I was planning on going through the 2nd belay and onward to the 3rd pitch. It turned out that we were at the correct belay, so I started going a little off route. An onlooking friend corrected me (from a climb on a neighboring cliff - The Prow) and I got back on route. Well, not realizing I was at the 3rd belay, I continued onto the fourth pitch. All this involved about 20ft of climbing up to the right, ~30ft traverse left on a ledge and then about 40ft more climbing up to the right. As you can imagine, the rope drag was similar to hauling a dead body up behind you - not fun. I was getting pretty flustered not knowing where I was and almost just stopped where I was to set up a belay but couldn't find good placements. Finally, I found the 4th belay, set up the anchor, and belayed my partners. So I ended up doing 2 pitches of trad leading (my first trad leads) on a great classic climb, and my partners said the pro was great = overall success. The sun went down as we topped out the Daddy and we hiked the long trail back to camp to enjoy a delicious, well-earned dinner.
On Tuesday, most of us headed back to Table Rock to set up some tougher top ropes. We had a 5.9 crack and a 10d face adjacent to one another. For whatever reason, crack climbing is close to my heart. I have not done very much and am not all that good, but it fascinates me. In fact, I dream about climbing in Indian Creek one day. So I really enjoyed the 5.9 crack and felt completely comfortable. I didn't bother trying the 10d - out of my league now but it was great to watch my buddies do it!
Overall, Linville Gorge & Table Rock are great destinations. You have to work for the climbing - long rough approaches, heavy vegetation, but it's worth it. The plethora of good routes - especially for beginner leaders - and good views make it an exceptional weekend (or longer) trip. I'm sure to return. I'd really like to wander farther into the gorge to try the NC wall and some of the untouched, but heavily forested, other walls.
Be sure to check out pics on my shutterfly site (in the links section).
No comments:
Post a Comment