Lover's Leep - July 2003
So -- I was reminded again tonight that I hadn't yet posted anything on the climbing trip that we did so I'm finally getting around to it -- my apologies for the lateness...
My Lover's Leep Trip
The group:
Dan
Candace
Sarah
Paul
Aaron
Barley (the dog)
Me!
The trip for me really started on Thursday evening. I headed to the gym to meet up with Sarah and Dan to find out when we were leaving. They were planning on leaving Saturday morning which would have been okies but while we were trying to decide things, Aaron stopped by. He could only stay until Sunday evening and he was leaving on Friday night. So I offered to go with him to make sure we had a campsite saved for the group who would be up Saturday afternoon. It also let me get in one more climb! w00p! I headed home and finished packing. I got all my gear in two bags -- one for clothes and one for climbing equipment. Plus my sleeping bag, boulder pad, tent, etc.
So Friday night we started out leaving Santa Rosa around 8ish -- arriving in Strawberry, CA arround 12:30am. We stopped by the first "official" campground run by The Access Fund -- it was swamped full. The day-parking was full -- not to mention the campground parking.
So we headed back up Highway 50 for another couple miles to the "overflow" campground. It was quite kewl really -- we ended up much closer to the clijmbing and only had to deal with very little shade in the morning. And no pit-bathrooms. But we gained a river with ice-cold water in it, fewer people around, and a short hike to climbing! It was quite nice really. I set up camp -- camp being two crash pads laid out and a sleeping bag on top of 'em. It was really quite comfortable. Stretched out -- and was asleep in hardly any time at all.
Day 1
Now we didn't have watches to really pay close attention to the time so I don't know exactly what time I woke up. But I got up feeling quite refreshed. It was probably around 8:30-9:00am-ish. I lucked out and had shade when the sun came up. Some nice trees blocking the sun for me. I woke up and wandered around a little -- came across this old abandoned house that was pretty kewl -- and decided to head back and see if Aaron had woken up yet.
After grabbing some granolla I sat back and watched Aaron make breakfast. Only his breakfast looked AWESOME. It was diced potatoes fried in some olive oil along with some bell peppers. Mixed that together with some eggs -- throw in some cheese, some hot sauce -- and put it on a tortilla and you suddenly have a breakfast burrito! He offered some since he *said* he had made more then he could eat -- really I think he saw me eyeing his food hungrily and felt bad that I had only eaten, as he called it, dirt.
Then it was time to gear up -- that including going through all our gear and figuring out what we were going to need to take with us and what we could leave behind. Basically we used all of Aaron's equipment and used my rope. After putting on our harnesses, gathering up the other gear, rope, chalk bags, climbing shoes, and other assorted necessities (fud and water in that list) we headed on over to the base of the climb. It was about a 15 minute hike over and then without much waiting, we were off. Aaron, since he was leading, got to pick the routes we did that day.
So -- what was my first trad/multi-pitch climb you ask? Haystack. It was rated 5.8 and was 3 pitches (just under 600 feet in length). We managed to climb a pitch an hour. So the route took us around 3 hours. It was unbelievable. I had been very worried about being up that high -- I'm not really scared of hights but you never know when you get up there -- there is a big difference between being 40ft up and being 400ft up. But everything was just fine -- I was relaxed in my climbing and sitting at the belay ledges was quite relaxing with an amazing view! The only time I started to tense up was in the second pitch. There was a roof maneuver that if you climbed it correctly, it was a 5.8 move. If you didn't -- well -- I think the way I did it the first time was much more like a 5.10b/c move.
I knew the roof was coming and Aaron even mentioned it and that it was the hardest part on the entire route. He then proceded to tell me that he wasn't going to give me the beta for the move and that I'd just have to pay attention and figure it out. No problem -- I can do this -- it's only a 5.8, right? Well when he got to the move, the sun had just peeked over the edge of the roof making it impossible to watch how he did the move. After he finished the pitch I got up, made my way towards the roof and just couldn't see how he had made it look so easy. I made it -- but I decided that I didn't like doing roofs without the beta. And of course once I got past the move I saw how I should have done it. Ah well -- live and learn!
We topped out sometime in the early afternoon and walked back down to get some food. We saw Dan's truck so we knew everyone else had arrived but there wasn't any sign of them around. So we headed back up to do East Crack -- another 5.8. This one went smoooooothly and while on the third pitch, we spotted Sarah below us. She shouted up that the rest of them were going to go bouldering down at the other campground. Again, this climb took right around 3 hours with us finishing up around 5ish in the evening.
Got back to "base camp" and I sat down and started nodding off. It was the farthest I'd ever climbed. The rest of the group was back at camp so we all sat around talked for a bit -- they hadn't yet gone bouldering and it was starting to get dark. They all finally decided to hike down to the main camp to get some last minute bouldering in before it was completely dark.
Aaron started making dinner which again he was kind enough to share. It ended up being GREAT. It was a box of something like mac'n'alfredo, fresh bell peppers lightly fried again, some cilantro, and a couple sausages that were nice'n'spicy. I'm not sure if it was cause I was so hungry or what, but it was one of the best meals I've had while out on "the road" and camping. It was NUMMY!!!
Everyone else showed back up and they started to make their own dinner. It was Dan's 40th birthday (yah -- he's REALLY old now!) so we had gotten some wood together to have a good little fire to help him celebrate. After their spaghetti dinner, the girls (Sarah and Candice) brought out the brownies they had made for Dan. They even managed to stick 40 candles in one of the pans. With a little help from the wind he managed to blow them all out and then it was time for brownies!! Yay!!!
I had never really been around a bunch of other climbers before -- at least not more then whats normally in "my group" so I was rather surprised when other "random" climbers came and joined us at our fire. It was really quite kewl. Candice impressed everyone with her knowledge of obscure religions and Paul hooked up with someone else who was wanting to do a night climb. It was a full moon that night.
After a couple hours around the campfire everyone started drifting off towards their beds and I re-assembled mine and zonked right out.
Day 2
I woke up to see Dan standing about 10 feet away and was up with a start. It wasn't so much that it was shocking to wake up to his grizzly image (okay -- so he wasn't grizzly but you know what I mean) but that I had no idea what time it was and if everyone was waiting on me. Luckily people were still waking up and getting their days started. It was quickly decided that Aaron and Paul would climb together as they had to be back for work on the next day (Monday).
The rest of us kinda just lounged around. I moved my gear down to where their campsite was and we tried to decide who was going to climb what. After a serious lack of decision within the group we all agreed that since there were still lots of people around that climbing at The Leap could be difficult. Our other options? 90 Foot wall with sport climbing and DL Bliss with bouldering. We decided to start at DL Bliss and see how that went -- possibly going to 90 Foot wall after that.
It was supposed to be about a 20 minute drive (according to the girls who were navigating) -- but that quickly turned into about an hour drive. That wasn't all *that* terrible. We got to the turnout and all hopped out of the vehicles and realized we had forgotten to stop for water before we got there. And it was a hot day. And we were going to be climbing on white granite. And there was little shade around. But that all came later. First we had to find the place.
The directions we had gotten off a website were -- well -- not good at best. We walked down the "sandy ravine" which looked like it had been washed out several times in the past couple years. The first set of rocks were only supposed to be 100 yards from where we parked. Well after about 200 yards we started really wondering where these rocks were. There happened to be two places we could boulder at -- the first place which we ended up never finding -- and a second place with a good network of trails and boulders you could see. We ended up spotting cars from down in the small stream-cut dip we were in and walked up to them, found the trails, and saw the rocks.
Again, the directions on where there were actual climbs was quite misleading and we spent considerable time trying to decide where each climb was supposed to be. We wanted to warm up on som V0's (although we were all really quite warm already). We finally tracked down a couple of promissing boulders and hopped on 'em. With a couple V0's in our bag, we turned to finding climbs that were in the shade. It was rapidly approaching the mid-90's out and with no breeze it was just dang hot. Candice found a promising boulder with what looked like at least two routes. And it was in the shade.
We decided that we'd eat some food before attempting anything else so after a quick lunch break, it was back to these two problems. I finally finished one of them -- it wasn't on the printout from the website that we had but I'd rate it a hard V3 -- at least it was a hard V3 in that heat. It might've been not all that bad if it wasn't so dang hot out. We moved to another climb that was mostly in the shade -- it was rated a V0+ in the book -- I think primarily because it was quite a high-ball. Candice sent it without a single hiccup and so I hopped on it. Let me tell you -- you get up about 20 feet off the ground and without a rope and you start wondering exactly what you are doing. It makes my palms sweaty just thinking about it! I topped it off (there was no hopping off this climb) and downclimbed the slab on an opposite corner to get back down -- then it was off to try and find another climb in the shade.
We found another boulder -- actually I think it was Barley who officially found it since he was laying underneath it in the shade. It looked like a fun traverse along the top "rail"-like edge. Everyone gave it a couple shots and we'd each make it a little farther each time. This was super slabby handholds and teansy weansy footholds. I learned all about ticking food holds with chalk so you could see 'em when you were climbing the problem. There wasn't any tape out here labeling the feet with nice big markers. Everyone else had given up on the route as it was obviously not climbed often -- if at all -- the top rail had loose granite that you had to slap hard to keep from moving -- and it was the little crumbly granite that looks like cottage-cheese. However I was on a mission. I wasn't going to leave this place with a climb started and not finished! So I made it a little farther each time and finally got to the end of the rail and was like now what. So I topped it out -- turning the rail into a mantle and getting feet way high and finally getting to the top.
Dinner that night was going to be another night of pasta but we had decided that we deserved Pizza after being out in the blazing sun all day. We stopped back on our way through S. Lake Tahoe and got some water, found out where there was a good pizza joint and went and enjoyed some excelent Pizza food. Then it was back to camp and another nice fire at which Dan brought out a bottle of wine that he had brought to celebrate his birthday. After passing around the bottle (nobody had brought glasses -- or really anything like cups) we hit the sack what was probably really quite early. But it had been a long day in the sun -- and at least for me -- a quite fullfilling day. I know the other four (including Barley) didn't really enjoy their day out at DL Bliss but I really did.
Day 3
On the third day we had decided to actually do some more trad leading. We woke up, ate breakfast and had another group un-decision time trying to figure out which climb everyone was going to do. Sarah wanted to do Haystack as she had lead the first and third pitches but not the second pitch (with the roof). Candice, the other leader out of the four of us left, wasn't 100% confident that she could lead it. After thinking it through tho, she decided she'd be ok.
I pared up with Sarah and after talking it over with Candice, decided that we'd be climbing first. So back up Haystack I went. It was a fun climb the first time around and it was just as fun the second time. It's interesting following different leaders -- you could see how their styles differed in placing gear. Both were solid climbers and I felt confident in their leading abilities. Sarah is a little less "seasoned" and each nut that she placed was yanked on hard enough that I had to use the nut tool on each one to get it out. It was amazing! Every single time she placed a nut it was SO solid that I had to really work to get them out.
On the second pitch, the one with the roof, Sarah got up and was trying to work the roof and ended up taking a good 15-20foot fall. The last piece she was clipped into was a very solid piton that had probably been there for at least 20 years -- but it held just fine (I wonder how many falls it has held?!?) but she got back on the rock and in a very shaky voice told me she was going to start climbing again. This time she made it through with flying colors. As I got up to the roof, I remembered the beta I had figured out and sailed right through it without even a stumble. I topped out the climb and we decided to wait at the top for Candice and Dan to finish the route. Only Candice missed the teansy third belay point and ended up doing a hanging belay when she ran out of rope. It took them another good 45 minutes to an hour to top off so Sarah went and got Barley who was waiting ever so patiently at the base of the climb and I waited at the top for Dan and Candice to arrive.
Once they did it was back down to camp to eat lunch and finish packing everything away for our trip home. We decided to eat lunch at the other campground as it had not only shade but pit-toilets and running water! We ate a great lunch and then the other three took me up to the boulders that were nere this campground to show me some of the routes. I decided to give two of 'em a quick shot and flashed right through a V0 and then went to another one that Dan had fallen off the previous day. He and I worked it and after listening to the girls' beta, I decided to make up my own since they were doing it the "short-persons" way. After falling off it a couple times I finally managed to keep my feet on the rock, make all the cross moves and hit the last hold. It was deffinately a V4 -- at least for us *taller* people (the girls had said they thought it was way easy for a V4 -- but we proved them wrong! Or maybe I was just really tired from 3 days of pretty solid climbing??).
We took a couple pictures of the "remaining group" and then it was time to head back home.
A big thanks to Dan and to Aaron for giving me a ride both *to* and *from* Lover's Leap!! And a big thanks to everyone else who went and helped make this a great trip!
Stupid Moments
Okay -- everyone has stupid moments -- when you are tired from a day of climbing or not thinking things through completely -- or maybe when you just think outloud... we had several of those. In fact out of the 6 of us that went, 3 of us kept having them over and over!
Brent: Of course I think this one is the most emberassing -- but probably because it was just me. But this goes to show you -- if your leader asks you to do something -- you do it! On our approach to my second trad climb (East Crack), Aaron looked back at me and said, "I can't remember if I grabbed my car keys -- can you check my back pocket?" To which I looked at him like he was on crack and then reached out and patted his rear pocket on his shorts. "No no no NO not that pocket -- the back pocket on my backpack!!" At which point I turned BEET RED. Ah well...
Dan: Dan had two moments. The first was on Sunday morning when we were trying to decide where to go. There were ants EVERYWHERE at our camp. One crawled up his leg and up his shorts. He suddenly jumped up screaming "Ant's in my pants are sure getting me goin'!".
The second was later that day while out at DL Bliss. I was getting ready to go climb another bouldering problem and was trying to get everyone else to have *some* energy in the heat. Dan looked at the other two and said, "Boy -- Brent sure is Hung Go!"
Candice: These events all happened on the day of bouldering at DL Bliss except for mine. However, Candice's was really quite humorous. After being out in the sun all day we had gone to have Pizza. We were standing outside waiting for a table (was around a 20 minute wait) and Candice was staring at the Pizza sign. After a couple seconds she blurts out, "479 to 1950?" To which Sarah and I just looked at her blankley. Then it dawned on me. I said, "Thats the telephone number, Candice" -- to which she replied "Oh -- I thought it was dates". Sarah and I both cracked up laughing. It was just a long day.
Full set of pictures can be found here.
Thanks to Candice, Dan, Sarah, Paul, Aaron, and Barley for a GREAT Trip!!
Posted by BBBach at
10:27 PM
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