Jackson Falls - June 6, 2009

Climbers - Yusuf, Calvin

Weather - fantastic.

Yes, June 6, generally accepted as unreasonably humid and a nasty time of year to be at the Falls and outside. But we were blessed. Lucky. Both, probably. Yusuf and I traveled to the Falls and experienced a wonderful day of climbing and weather.

As usual, Yusuf was late a few minutes, but we got started without a hitch. Upon arriving, we saw only a few people in the parking lot. WTF? But we weren't going to question our blessings... we hurried down to the Gallery to start warming up. We first climbed Group Therapy, .10c (the usual), then Sore Throat, another .10c about 4 climbs to the right of Group. Fun climb, with just enough spice to make it interesting.

We discussed heading to Bursting Out by Battle Ax Tower, but logistics won out and we headed to Cro Magnon, which had a line of 5 people waiting. Nevermind. Saw Russell and Katie (from the gym), and a few other folks we knew from trips down there. Two climbs to the left of Cro Magnon is Little Johnny Jewel, .11b. At first, we thought we had the wrong climb. You really can't see any holds. It looks horribly blank.

The descr reads, "Difficult entry moves..." which felt about right. This route reminded me of all the Mt. Lemmon crimpy (pumpy) climbing. It's all on your fingertips. You start with an undercling, high step/smear, long reach to another undercling (!), thumb that, figure out something with your other hand, then attempt to staccato your other foot up. Whew. From the undercling, up left to a now visible pinch, then another smear into another undercling (!!). Alarm klaxons were now going off in my forearms and I had only climbed 1/4 of the route. It eased up, but stayed very sharp for a couple more bolts, until you hit a strange dual pocket pinch, which didn't feel quite good enough but was, and high stepped-reached to an edge. I didn't scream on this route, but I was inside. Yusuf, of course, onsighted it, then encouraged me up it.

We then took a long break, which I desperately needed. Soon after, we headed over to Snakes Roof, and took a look at some climbs. Yusuf decided on Here Come the Snakes, .12c, which has a nice face start (big moves), and continues for 3 bolts through a roof with an entry big move, then holding on for dear life (from what I could see). Yusuf styled it second go. I think the crux of this route is stick clipping the first bolt, when your only stick is a tent pole contraption. That bolt is on the roof (???) and is about 22.345743 feet high, or about 2 inches too far away, no matter how hard you try. After 10 tries, Yusuf finally managed to clip it from his perch on my shoulders.

I opted for Umbrella Girls, .12a, a Josh Portell route bolted a few years ago. It's not in the book, but rockclimbing.com has it at .12a, which might be fair. It felt easier than Everybody Needs Friends. Very nice route though. Classic Jackson slopers, with some long moves and creativity required early. The latter half has good rests and a couple power moves, but nothing harder than V2/3. It went second go, which felt good.

We met up with Lauri and Vanessa (from the gym), who had been there with friends/family camping for a few days. They were climbing the 5.8 at Royal Arch. Yusuf finished on Archangel, .10a, a nice slab I climbed with Josh and Catherine several posts ago. I tried Sunflower, .11a (I suck at slab, but .11a whatever dude). True to form, I did it bolt to bolt, with the second bolt requiring many, many, many tries, Yusuf's beta, then simple desperation, the third bolt requiring many, many tries, Yusuf's beta, then finally ghetto technique (ask Yusuf).

It wasn't the absolute best way to end the day, but I still had fun (I think) on the climb. I will be back to try it again when the temps are better for slab. Saturday, it felt harder than Galaxy 500, a .12a/b on Big Starr.