Ah, the
first (of many hopefully!) beautiful spring days of the year. Nine degrees and
nothing but sun! I spent the day at to Devil's Glen with Jared and Justin.
I had one
route in mind: The Project. A line I bolted last year during the winter and
have been dreaming of the moves ever since.
Step One:
Get to the crag. Let the epic hike begin!.
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| Not sure if Jared got out or not. Every men for themselves during this epic hike. |
The hike
began down the busy road, where cars are speeding by every second. Luckily, one
of those speeding cars was a friendly officer that offered to give us a ride.
It must of been the strangest sight for any person speeding by and witnessing
one man with a shovel, another with a painting pole, and one innocent Spanish
man getting into the cop car. The officer dropped us off at the head of the trail where we gave our
thanks to the officer. Then the four
feet of snow started. Due to Jared's unquestionable bravery he broke
trail for the team. Jared's third step resulted in half of his body
disappearing beneath the white blanket. We all laughed and made a game of who
could take the most steps before falling into the hip high snow.
The project
is on a wall called, "The Sun wall", which, depending on your wants
and needs, is perfect for tanning and climbing. . Once we got to the cliff line
I rappelled over the project at which point I hung all the draws.
The project
is around 40 feet high and maybe goes around 5.14c (a rough approximation). It
starts off with a crimpy v7ish compression problem, which then leads into a v10
crux. The v10 crux is off a big slopey hold to a micro crimp. The feet are
small and you're throwing your full body length to this micro crimp. Once
you hit this crimp you have to heel up and hit a mono, bump off this mono, hit
an awful slopey side pull and quickly turn your right hand to a side pull to
prevent the barn door. Then comes the real crux. The one move I still have yet
to pull off. Two juggy side pulls await you for what has now become your
personal choose your own adventure situation.
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| The throw to the micro crimp |
Adventure A:
If you choose the straight up variation, you have picked the mono adventure.
Which entails hiking your feet really high and throwing to a mono, lock off
that mono to hit another mono, hit a micro crimp and dyno to a jug ( I put one
session last year with this beta and could not complete the lock off
move.)
I feel Going left of the juggy side -pulls is the easier
adventure.
Adventure B: This adventure entails going left to a slopey
crimp, hike your right foot up, lock off that slopey crimp and hit a nothing
hold (I would love to say micro crimp again, but that is giving this hold too
much credit) and hit a good crimp, followed by the same dyno as the mono
adventure. This way sounds easy, but still goes at v12+ or maybe harder.
At the end of your delightful adventure you finish off with
some lovely 5.12+ climbing to the anchors =)
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| The Gully |
The days
adventure did not end with the rock climbing. I would of loved for the
adventure to be over at this point because I was ready for a nap, but
apparently the most challenging route of the day was to be our climb out. We
squeezed through a frozen gully and climbed up the icy exit. After a
few slippery steps we realized this would need a team effort. I (begrudgingly)
pushed Jared and JT up the start and they employed the use of a stick (my
saviour) to help me out of the final slippery crux.
This journey
led to another Project of mine being soaked. Although this is frustrating it
has at least provided with me with a reason to head back to the gym. Which, all
in all, is not a bad thing as I learned I need to work on my lock off skills if
I want to complete this DG project. Well,
I'm off to Kentucky with my dad for 9 days. Hopefully, my passport comes in
this week or I'll be swimming across the border.
The things I do for rock climbing :)
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| The top of the icy exit |
Joe Skopec
