THE RED BETWEEN THE DROPS

Climbers:

Meghan, Carine, Sophie, Josh, Woody, Tony, LJohn, Yusuf, Calvin, Tall Tim, Drew

Full album of the week-end here

Chapter 1:
It was going to be 11 of us this time, a nice group involving THREE girls!. ouh ouh! the ratio is increasing! Watch out boys! 

Tony and I left the earliest on Friday, the car full of camping gear, ours and our friends'. He he we should start a guiding service! Every one knows driving to the Red is a LONG painful ride. It looks like the Irish man and I wanted to make sure it was so and some more, when we realized 50 miles beyond Lexington we actually had veered off South on Hwy 75. Don't ask...I wish I could have taken a picture of Tony's face when I asked him why the signs were saying Interstate 75 instead of 64 when we stopped wondering where the Mountain Parkway exit was. We were in fact on our merry (or not so merry) way to Alabama! Oh yeah 100 miles or so added to the drive. Fantastic. Just see for yourself.

A 6 1/2 hours drive turned into 9 hours or so, 5 tents to pitch, camping set, and yes we managed to make it to the crag for a minute, Tony determined to get at least a climb in. By that time my energy had crashed, and I resorted to my belaying "talents" only...

We came back to camp to find Josh and Woody comfortably installed on camping chairs on the flat bed of Woody's truck, sipping on beers.

Chapter 2:

I swear to you: I am done with Miguel's crowd on these holiday WE.  Getting to sleep while surrounded by drunk screaming or cussing out of their lungs is an exhausting and frustrating task.  And yes there was also dear Calvinicious waking me up at un-godly hours, looking for his (already pitched) tent...while standing right in front of it!  he he....that made me very happy as you all can imagine!

So by morning the rest of the posse had made it in, and off we were to the Muir Valley.  Perfect day, not a cloud in the sky.  Direction: de Bibliotek and Animal Crackers walls to start. 

Animal Cracker, a small slab wall seemed perfect for Meghan, Carine, and Tall Tim who had not been climbing outside much this year and needed to get their outside leading head on.  They did great there, litterally walking up the lines.  Oh yeah there was that 7 with a 10 start....

Woody, Josh and I opted to warm up there as well when Calvin, Yusuf, LJohn and Drew moved on directly to the deBibliotek, a striking overhung face which offers a series of stellar 11s and 12 (and one pumpy 10).

After playing on slabs for a while we moved on to meet the rest of the crew at deBibliotek.  The big boys were still playing on some of the long 11s on the main wall, Yusuf and Tony had moved on to the stratosphere on some incredibly small and crimpy 13 whose name is as unknown as undiscovered distant planet.

Pumpy 10 to start and play on, "The short and happy life of Francis Macomber".  Carine, and Tim getting their bearings on the Red Pump factor.

Josh, Woody, Meg and I got on a sweet 11a, "100 Years of solitude".  A classic route starting with some delicate crimpy and balancy sequences to finish on decent hold on a pumpy face.  



Woody struggled at the begining, trying to find a way to make his big fingers fit on the the tiny crimps, but the rest of the day would prove he was on his game on steeper routes. This was definitely my sent of the day as I realize all the endurance work in the gym paid off when I shook, moved, down climbed, back up, shook, for what seemed an eternity, as I was right under the anchor and totally pumped OUT.  So I sent it clipping one anchor... the European way!  The purist would say 1/2 a send...who cares...  The main thing for me was to see I hung on.  

Meg followed with brio.  Falling a couple of times at the beginning, but totally "walking" the rest of the route.  This girl is a convert!  Forget boulders!!!!

Moving on in the afternoon towards the Bone Yard, the Arsenal and finally the Solarium.

Woody was on his game flashing Bathtub Mary at the Arsenal (11a) and moving on to on-sight Air-ride Equipped, a steep beautiful 11a with a succession of small roofs and big jugs.

Here Drew and I on it. A pump feast to finish the day.

Meanwhile Yusuf, LJohn, Tony and Calvin "played on a couple of 12 to the right, which let us enjoy a couple of big whippers (LJohn, and Calvin) and epic route cleaning.  But what in the world is John pointing at? :)




A good day it was. Clouds were rolling in....
By the time we had ordered food at Miguel's the skies had opened up. And it rained, and it poured. The campsite starting to look like a marsh land. Tomorrow would be another day. We would see.

Chapter 3:

And the flood passed, and the light came.  Sunday was to be "dry" after all.  The posse had gathered back to camp, some coming from drier shelters (Meghan and Carine had retreated to a motel room, their tent being quite "moist"!).  We were to find areas which would have been sheltered from the angry skies.  This was to be a overhung routes day.  Yeahhhh!  Ah the boys were rejoicing.

Pendergrass it was.  Shady Grove first, and then probably the Playground.

Shady Grove is a very striking Amphitheater like crag.  Unless you go to the end of it and warm up on a mossy 9 and a couple 10 slab, you are on to a 10d steep warm-up to only move on to some sand bag 11, all great routes though.
This should give you an idea of the angles....

While Josh, Tall, Meghan, Carine, Woody, Drew and Calvin warmed up on the 9 and the slabs, I opted for the pumpy 10d "Girls gone Wild".... Aouch hard way to wake up!

Tony, LJohn and Calvin moved on to a sandbag 11d "Coming out party" I believe is the name, an incredible line long and soooo steep. Tony and LJohn worked out the beta, and I believe Calvin sent it. A nice feat I'll say. Woody gave it a go but he might have spent most of his energy crushing everything the day before! I had my eyes on an 11b, "Citizen Arete" a tricky pumpy line on a pretty steep face moving to an arete. It made me work, got a nice bruisy fall on it, but worked it out to the end.
By mid afternoon everyone had moved on to the Playground, a small crag 5 minutes away from Shady Grove.
There Tony put on his war face paintings and proceeded to on sight everything... in sight.

...while Calvin picked on the girls...

There is a little bit for everyone in that small crag, hence the name. From 9 to 12. Playground it is! "Capture the Flag" a nice pumpy 11b was voted by those who climbed it as the greatest line on that wall. I had my eyes on the 12a to the right of it "Crack the Whip", and climbed it twice.... no more energy to do anything else. This was a sweet short route going from 10 to 12 powerful and crimpy. SWEEETTT! Of course Tony On-sighted it as it was a mere easy 10.... But I am glad he did. That convinced me to get on it, and yes, gave it a couple of good grunts!
Good day it was. Climbing on dry rock all day after the night deluge. Our good star was right above us.

Chapter 4: Climbing in the rain.

Yes that is the magic of the Red.  The elements are not always deciding of your day.  It just influence the steepness of your daily climbs!

Waking up to a drizzle....Leaving then or climbing?  Tem Saucisson does not get pushed away by a few drops.  On to the Zoo!  Nothing really moderate there but we swore we would have time for a couple of routes before heading back West and we did!  Ahh "warming up" on overhung pumpy 80 ft. long 11s!

Two 11b "Monkey in the Middle", "Geezers go Sport", and a 12a "Hippocrite" for Calvin and Tony, would make it a day.  By the time I had reached the top of Geezers, rain turned into a downpour.  Overhung or not, I reached the last quickdraw before the anchor while taking a shower.  FUN!  Thanks god the anchor had hooks, no cleaning required.  I should have taken soap and shampoo, that would have taken care of Miguel's lack of shower.

We left under torrential rain, packing a bunch of wet body into our cars, we headed out.

Three days later my car still retained the fragrance of wet gear and smelly climbers.  YUM.