Slash Face - V3R - Joshua Tree National Park, CA
I hit the jug and breathed a sigh of relief. Only it wasn't over. I felt that I could hang all day on the bucket handhold. Only the mental crux was sitting there staring me in the face. It wasn't going to go anywhere. It wasn't going to suddenly transform into something that was any less scary.
We had worked the aptly named problem, Slash Face several days before. Just Kevin and I. After throwing ourselves at some other bouldering routes, Kevin floated the problem -- working his way through the Joshua Tree V3 crux down low and then keeping his composure as his feet approached the hight that angels flutter at in renaissance paintings. It's only a V3 I told myself as I worked the crux. Only I had eaten away at the skin on my hands earlier in the day while working a V6. The six was easier. My feet never much higher then ten feet. Still a safe fall onto the crash pads below. But the crux -- the big throw to the top of the V6 eluded me. I'd slap and slide. Slap and slide. Sliding down until I had bright red spots on my fingertips warning that I was running out of skin. The Joshua Tree granite working like 80 grit sandpaper tearing into my skin more and more. So on it was to Slash Face.
This face -- with it's horizontal slashes working their way down toward the ground was an unimpressive boulder when we first spotted it down the wash. "That's a V3R?" I asked while laughing. We kept moving toward the boulder and it slowly grew. It reminded me of those bathtub toys parents would buy for their kids. You know -- the ones that came in the shape of a giant pill and when you added water would slowly dissolve and you'd suddenly be presented with a sponge in the shape of a animal or some extinct reptile. The boulder did the same but minus the water. You'd look up from trekking down the dry wash and suddenly be presented with a boulder that was twice the size it was a few moments ago. Continue on and it would keep growing. As we left the wash the ground rose slightly before suddenly dropping just before reaching the boulder, adding to it's tremendous size.
So I whined like a baby and said that my tips were hurting and that I didn't think I could do the crux. I worked it a couple of times before simply giving up -- meanwhile Kevin was doing laps on the route. Making it look easy! Pausing at the crux to tick better footholds should I make it that high. I had it in my head that this was another impossible Joshua Tree V3 and was ready to get back to camp.
We went back out a couple days later with three goals in mind. To show our friends Slash Face, for Kevin to get up on Equinox, and for me to finish the V6 I had lost so much skin on. First on the list was Slash Face. We were out with video cameras and were all ready to film our friends having their wits scared out of 'em from the top of the boulder. Little did I realize that I'd be the only one at the top whimpering.
Kevin hopped on the route and floated his way up to the top. Then Rob and Sarah got on and worked the crux out down low. I needed Rob's beta as he is my height and the high foot Kevin and Sarah were using put my knee up my nose. Not the most comfortable position -- nor the most straight forward position for a power move off a small crimpy handhold. Rob's beta was simple. Leave your feet down low on the good holds and then just stand up. Lock off the crimp and use that +2 inch ape index to reach through to the next good hold. Not a problem I thought! Kevin had taken over as filmographer from the top of the boulder so I had gone down to help spot Rob on his walk up and top out of the problem. Both he and Kevin have great heads for highball boulder problems. A description I had read of the route said, if it had been found by anyone else then the first assenctionist, the route would have had bolts on it and we'd be doing it as a rope climb.
Sarah and Gabe stepped back to let me have a go on it. Kevin's beta about using the bad crimp's little crystal granite tooth on my pinky was running through my head as I brushed my climbing shoes off on my pant legs. I totally didn't expect to make it up to the crux -- much less past it. I wasn't warmed up and had been watching people take falls all over it. A few deep breaths later, a technique I learned in the gym to clear my head, and I was up on the route. The ground quickly fell away beneath my feet as I worked higher up the boulder problem when the inevitable happened. The crux. It was right up ahead of me. I crushed the left hand crimp, digging my pinky into the crystal tooth that was threatening to tear away the skin. I shuffled my feet up in the most ungraceful way imaginable and stood up over them. Reaching high above my head I reached into the mailbox slot that was the next hold. My hands started to sweat and I suddenly realized I had no idea what to do past this point. Rob was leaning over the top and he began shouting out tips. "Match hands and get your foot in that little edge... now reach up your left hand to the hold that is ticked... Great! Now match it up and reach right hand up. Don't worry the holds just get better!" The last was in response to my whimper about the sloper hold I had suddenly grabbed.
As soon as I had completed the crux my head was screaming, "We made it! You don't have to go ANY higher! Just drop to the ground! It's still not that far away!" Only my gut was insisting on finishing up the route. So up and up I went. My hands threatening to slip off the rock at any moment and send me plummeting down on to the crash pad now 20ft below me. One last quick dip into the chalk bag and I grabbed the last jug. I hung there just breathing. Looking down. Looking up. Chalking. Trying to get my frantic puffs of air back into some semblance of regular breathing. All I had to do was top this boulder problem out.
"I don't like high balls," I mutter louder then I had intended. Everyone gives a nervous chuckle. Rob is leaning over the top ready to grab me if I make the wrong move. I make a small mistake. I leave my feet too low and start to turn the huge jug into a mantle. It threatens to dump me back down the 23ft I had ascended. I slap around looking for any type of edge on the smooth rounded top of the boulder. I'm committed to topping out now. Half my body leaning over the top and my feet still dangling dangerously below the edge.
I remember considering asking to be just pulled to the top. That is just about the only thing I remember thinking -- my mind completely blank as I do my best to not think about the fall back to terra firma. I can't think about moving up because I'm concentrating so hard on not thinking about falling.
But just as I'm ready to give up, Kevin shouts out, "Match your left hand with your foot!" So I attempt that. It involves some more ungraceful shuffling of the feet and then suddenly I can lean over -- my waist finally reaching the top of the route. It gives me that little bit more to get my right foot unweighted and over the edge. I stand up and breathe a sigh of relief. The top never felt that good. The top never felt so solid. The top supported me as I sat down and realized I had just pushed myself so hard mentally that I was exhausted.
I was at the top.
Posted by BBBach at
03:47 AM
