Friday 4/26/02
Slightly cloudy and damp but otherwise nice day on the rocks.
We jumped onto "Cascading Crystal Kaleidoscope" (CCK) (5.7+/5.8).
My goal was to lead the 3rd pitch today. Ethan led P1 which was
pretty wet, as well as the dreaded P2 (5.7). P2 has a funky start where
you go up to an overhang, then traverse under the overhang in an
awkward position where the feet are up too high to give positive
handholds - plus the pro is thin and because you're traversing not
too far up from the GT ledge, groundfall is a possibility. I
find this move harder than the final 5.7+/5.8 pitch. While I was
belaying Ethan up P2, I saw a strange sight. Feet were dangling
from the "Updraft" chimney. Someone was downclimbing the thing with
no gear - just a chalkbag and climbing shoes. This guy tiptoed
past us, down to the GT ledge, then went wandering over to find another
route to downclimb to the bottom! Made me very nervous to watch him.
No thanks, I'll use a rope. So, after that distraction, it was my turn,
I grunted through the move, thinking to myself "I'm glad I didn't have
to lead that pitch!". Finally it was my turn to lead P3. The rock
looked so white, clean and beautiful, I was actually quite excited.
I had followed it before and found it not too difficult, so I guess that
helped my confidence. Ethan put in a piece in the corner above the
anchor so he wouldn't have to catch a factor 2 fall, and off I went.
I put a small blue alien in the crack, clipped the pin, another alien,
then a red camalot in the flake. I felt great, it was so exciting to
be out there! Ethan was taking pictures like crazy, I was a little
worried, but the pro was good and he was only using 1 hand to take
pictures - his brake hand was still on the rope and at no time did I
need to tug for slack. This was one of the best photo-ops at the Gunks,
so he was going bonkers. I easily led the pitch, brought Ethan up
and just felt GREAT! What a fine pitch to climb!
Our next climb was "Moonlight" (5.6). This was kind of an anniversary climb, because we climbed together for the first time a year ago Saturday (1 day off) and the first climb was "Moonlight". So to celebrate our very succesful climbing partnership, we went to climb it again. I led the first pitch, easy climbing, good pro in the corner. Had some rope drag problems despite the double ropes - something got flipped by the tree and caused intense ropedrag - Ethan said the pro was set just fine, just one of those things. I had to tug with all my weight to bring up the rope. Ethan led the exposed scarey 2nd pitch. The start is pretty thin on pro, I was nervous watching him climb - could have been easy for him to deck onto the ledge. I remember last year being pretty nervous on the crux move around the exposed corner. This time I was pleased to see that I climbed it much better. We had a great day and couldn't wait to head over to the Otter for some beer and to meet some gunks.com folks.
Ethan made the mistake of telling Mike and Karen to meet us at the Uberfall at 7:30am. Not only was this too early, but if we had met them at the parking lot, we could have made them carry the ropes. We schlepped the gear up there and were 1/2 hour late. We went over to the Guide's Wall and Ethan led Mike up "Hawk" (5.5), while I led Karen up "Finger Locks or Cedar Box" (5.5) to the second pitch of "Hyjek's Horror" (5.4). I had never climbed either of these, they had good pro and were enjoyable. P2 of "Hyjek's Horror" was a very long and straight 5.4. It went on and on, for at least 140 feet of easy climbing. I enjoyed getting the chance to climb and climb and climb and I even managed to have some slings left at the top. I brought up Karen and we met the guys at the Madame G's rappell station.
Back down at the bottom, Ethan started to lead P1 of "Hyjek's Horror" (5.8-), which had some very thin moves at the start before you could put any pro in. He was still having problems with the pinched nerve and numbness in his arm, and fell on the opening move. Mike and I caught him, and he had the guts to try it again... and fell. The third time, he scraped his knee on the way down, and some part of his anatomy pulled my thumb backwards and sprained it. Oh well, we'll have to save this one for another day. Ethan was bumming big time.
Then Ethan led "Cakewalk" (5.7), and set up a toprope for Mike, Karen and myself. There were a couple of tricky moves on it for a 5.7... awkward moves working up flakes in a corner. The pro up to the corner was pretty damn thin and Ethan was not happy about it.
We needed to get home early, so we headed out of there, had some beer and munchies by the van, and headed home. Another fun weekend!