Saturday started out as another gorgeous day. The guys got up way too
early for my taste, before sunrise, but I was up anyway since the walls
of the trailer were so thin I got to hear everyone urinate, flush, wash
hands, etc... Made it kind of difficult to sleep. After a good greasy
breakfast at Plain Jane's Diner, we headed to the crags. To beat the crowds,
we were going to climb at some areas with a longer approach from the parking
lot. Ed's wife, Becky, met us in the parking lot.
We started out at the Darth Vader crag, to hit two favorites that will certainly
have a line on them later on. We did "Yoda" (** 5.9), and "Oby-Won Ryobi" (* 5.9+).
Some of the guys led them, I decided to top rope them, as the start was very
steep, but the end was a sweet delicate crack and sharp rock with unusual horizontal
striations. Then we moved onto the Jimmy Cliff, to get on the favorite "Lonesome
Dove" (*** 5.10a), and "The Junco" (** 5.8+). I led both of them. "Lonesome Dove"
was probably the nicest climb of the weekend - clean, delicate, balancy arete moves.
Ethan wanted to get to the top of the mountain to take foliage pictures, so we
set out and "climbed" the 5.3 bolted route "Clip a Dee Doo Dah" (***), which is
a two pitch friction slab - the rock is so sharp, you don't want to touch it, you
can practically walk up it most of the way. After lunch, photo ops and rapping
down, we joined the rest of the gang at the Bonsai Wall. At Bonsai, Ethan led
"Masterpiece" (** 5.10a), and "War and Peace" (** 5.9+), which I then top roped.
Around the corner, Bob had to climb "Peer Pressure" (*** 5.10d) twice - first to
lead it, then again to retrieve the gear.
The Bonsai crag was very crowded, tons of people. It's very popular because
it's at a very steep angle with huge jugs. We chatted with a very nice
woman that the guys were drooling over, who was doing some hanging but
eventually succeeding on the 5.9 and 5.10 climbs on that cliff.
She was worried that she wasn't learning the technique well enough yet.
Then we found out she had only been climbing 2.5 months! I took me 20 years
to climb 5.10!
While the rest of the gang watched Bob climb "Peer Pressure" yet again,
Ethan began whining about needing beer, so we headed back down to the parking
lot, set up the portable couch, grabbed our cold beers, put our feet up on
the cooler and chilled. We got some thumbs up from others passing by - this was
the way to end a day of climbing!