Ethan and I plan to climb Snot Girlz today. We get up early - but someone at Rancho Cerro Gordo leaves before us and gets it first. So we take our time eating breakfast (multiple eggs), and head over. They had an early start, so there's a good chance we may still get a chance on it. Luckily for us, they moved quickly. We had to wait about 2 hours, and occupied our time by talking to Paul the guide (that we know from the Gunks) and the "Jersey Girls", Kathy and Cynthia. We didn't want to waste our energy climbing other things. By the time they pulled their rope, we were ready to go and started up approximately 1pm.
Snot Girlz - on the Mota Wall - 7 pitches: 5.10d, 5.10d, 5.10b, 5.9, 5.9, 5.9, 5.9. Guidebook says:
This obvious crack summits the small spire known to locals as El Gallo, The Rooster... Can be done with one 60m rope. Double 60's are recommended. This route has been climbed in 1 hour. Care must be taken to avoid knocking rocks onto parties climbing below on the mota wall.
One hour? You have GOT to be kidding me! But she's serious about the rock fall, there's LOTS of loose stuff up there and the Mota Wall is a popular climbing spot. Anyway...
Ethan lead the first two 5.10d pitches together with some hangs. The first pitch was sustained and stiff. REALLY HARD! I had lots of problems - it didn't help that I was carrying the pack with water and snacks as well as dragging the extra rope. The first fall I had put me back down below the crux, so I had to do it again. By then my arms were totally shot. I took lots of hangs, sometimes between every couple of moves because my hands weren't working anymore. The jams had skinned my knuckles, I had blood dripping down my hand and left some on the rock as well. Bob and Roger were watching from the canyon floor and later told me "you didn't look like you were going to make it". I may have fell and hung often, but I got up on my own power, didn't pull on any gear. Considering 5.10d is beyond me & Ethan's usual limits, we were proud of ourselves that we made it up. It's fortunate that the hardest pitch is the first one, then you know whether or not you'll be able to do this 7 pitch climb. In retrospect, Ethan figures he should have only done 1 pitch at a time because it's so sustained that a rest is really needed after P1.
When I got to the top of the second pitch, I was supposed to lead the 3rd 5.10a pitch. My arms were SO wiped out from thrashing up the first two pitches I couldn't, and Ethan had plenty of rest while I thrashed. So he led the third 5.10a pitch, which wasn't a problem for me to follow. By the 4th 5.9 pitch I was back to normal. I led it without any problems, it was an easy pitch. Ethan took the 5th pitch with a wild looking exposed traverse out to a layback corner. It was rated 5.9 but was much trickier than pitch 4. What you can't see in the picture is that there's a nice hand crack under the overhang, but there isn't much for feet. Ethan tried to string pitch 5 and 6 together - and he managed to continued up part of pitch 6 and stopped at a palm tree because the rope drag was immobilizing him. The traverse of pitch 5 makes it almost impossible to string these two pitches together. I continued past the palm tree a couple of bolts to the anchor and brought him up behind me. Then I led the 7th summit pitch, 5.9. A couple of interesting moves, a nice and clean, but too-short layback crack, then the summit - which appears like a large scarey pile of huge loose rock. After bringing Ethan up to the anchors, I tied into a long sling and sat on the top, carefully trying to climb only rock which appeared to be solid. Ethan followed, but all that loose rock gave him the creeps. We took our obligatory pictures, and headed down.
The climb veers to the right (if you're facing the cliff) and has a couple of traverses in it, so the rappel isn't straight. We rapped on the side where the canyon was, instead of on the south side where we came up to the summit. This is NOT a climb to rappel in the dark. You have to be able to see the bolts and follow the route to the next set of anchors, and it's not always easy to see. The top rappels require some traversing to the left as well.
We left the 2nd rope at the top of the 2nd pitch on the way up and were rapping with 1 60m rope. The rap between pitch 5 and 4 was the worst. If the ropes are even, the end of the rope (without a knot) put us just above the anchor chain - enough to grab it and ease off the rope onto a small ledge. But when Ethan went down first, the rope wasn't exactly centered, and he found himself too high above the anchors. He had to try to even the rope out as much as he could, and rap off of his rope, sliding down slowly and clipping the anchor chain at the same time as he slid down. Not a comfortable thing to have to do. We were glad to get to the top of the second pitch, tie our ropes together and get down in 1 shot. By then the ropes felt so heavy it was hard to get them through the rappel device, but it felt so good to be down on the ground before it got dark!
We wandered across the canyon to congratulate the guys on "Space Boyz", who got down moments after us, then headed off to Checo's. "Snot Girlz" was an excellent climb, some say more interesting than "Space Boyz", although not as high. Our hands were so filthy and torn up, we just had to take a picture. The dried blood added an extra touch.
Roger and Bob were already at Checo's, sharing a long table with many of our new and old buddies, and we added on a table and joined them. Ethan retired his old black rope and left it for someone to make use of, perhaps as fixed line on a 3rd or 4th class pitch.
Knowing our cab would arrive at 6:45am, we packed up camp and planned to sleep on the couches in the pavillion. By 10:30, the place was dead quiet. This was not a late night crowd - everyone is tired by the end of the day and there's plenty of climbing to do in the morning. Pockets, the cat, slept on Ethan for the first part of the night, then moved over to sleep on my chest. Although I'm allergic to cats, I missed snuggling a cat to sleep, haven't done that since I had a cat as a teenager. Pockets was so sweet, sucking on my fleece blanket and kneading with her paws. It was the coldest night so far, could have easily been in the 30s, and we had to bundle up.
Saturday: The cab came early, at 6:30. I was still packing. I rushed like crazy, and didn't have time to figure out how to fit in my fleece liner sleeping bag, so Ethan took it in his bag for me - since he left his rope, he had plenty of room. The cab ride there was amusing. Besides their usual wild driving, the radio was playing Afroman's crazy rap, which is filled with obscenities and sexual situations. I don't think the cab driver had a clue what he was listening to, but we were cracking up in the back seat.
At the airport we got donuts out of the display at the snack bar to eat. Later we realized they had ants all over them. Guess they were from yesterday. Ick. We shopped for souvenir presents to pass the time. My flight left first, so I said goodbye and headed through security - they hand searched luggage, and searched some people's carry-on luggage (but not mine). Luckily, it was an uneventful flight home. What a great trip! Couldn't wait to go back there once again to climb the beautiful tall limestone draperies under a warm blue sky amongst warm and friendly climbers and locals. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....