The Red, Day 2

Sorry about the long delay between posts.

Day 2 saw us headed to the Southern Region, an area rich with crags. Not exactly secret. We started out at the Shire (new to us), where Angie led Audie, 5.8, thinking it was a 5.7 and Chad led Miranda Rayne 5.9+, thinking it was a 5.8. Pumpy.

I started on Audie, then got on The G-Man, .10c, thinking it was the 5.9. Ha. Half-way up, I thought, "Man, these are some tough holds for a 5.9." It's a nice climb, with interesting side pull pinches and slopers the whole way, and it's pretty consistent. Yusuf had a slow start, mostly belaying before getting on MR.

We then decided to hit Amarillo Sunset .11b, a five star rated route in the book. Amarillo is the first route as you walk into the North Forty, and it's worth every star. Read the description and some of the comments and you'll see why.

We decided to head over to Bob Marley, where Yusuf was itching to get on Ultra Perm, .13d. I belayed. Bob Marley was one of the sites of the recent Petzl Roc Trip at the RRG. Fifty Words for Pump, Southern Smoke and other notable climbs are here. Not an easy crag; there's one .11a warm-up and it moves up from there.

Yusuf climbed well, getting to the crux and sussing out moves before working the crux about 7-8 times. I think he's reasonably close to figuring it out. If you've seen pictures of UP, you know that it's striking and steep. When he came down, I opted to try, Where's the Beef .12c. It's next to a few different similar climbs, and starts with decent holds on a steep wall, moves into a 10-15 foot horizontal roof with sharp pockets and finishes on "easier holds." I never got to the easier holds, but I almost figured the roof out on my 6th try. Next time, I guess.

It started raining around 4pm, so we wrapped it up for the day. Check out the previous post of Day 2 pics to see some of the stuff we did.