Jackson Falls - August 29, 2009

Climbers - Tony, Calvin
Weather - Superlative-inducing

In other news, Rob Armstrong captured the Second Annual Chili Cookoff (tm), hosted by Josh Behrends and Catherine Walsh. Rob placed first among 8 entries. There were rumors of a vote-counting controversy, but I didn't see any hanging or pregnant chads. Nice job Rob!

Also, Team Saucisson member Tony is headed back to grad school for a year of intensive study. We wish him luck as he starts on Wednesday and hope he can find some time to get out on the rock.

Early day. We saw that the weather was going to be a high of 79, with zero chance of rain, so we bolted for a day of climbing at the Promised Land. 4am had me swearing at the alarm clock, but I was packed the night before and made it to Tony's by 4:48. 5 minutes later we were on the road. 7:30 found us at the parking lot and by 8:15 we were at the Promised Land. Good start.

It was a bit humid, but I knew that moisture levels were supposed to drop throughout the day and they did. We warmed up on XOXO .10b, then moved over to Fashionably Late, .11a. I'd TR'd this years ago to clean it, and it was a very enjoyable lead. Very crimpy, a bit sustained through the crux, and a good way to wake up your forearms.

A few minutes later, we moved over to Hubba Hubba, .12a/b (sandbag?) which had thwarted attempts on our last trip around bolt 6 for Tony. Tony put up the draws, cleaned the route and polished beta. Thanking Tony, I tried the route (last time I did it bolt to bolt after bolt 3) and made it to bolt 5 before whiffing. The climbing is nice and intricate; you climb three bolts to a sidepull rest, clip the fourth bolt out right, where it begins to move diagonally right for the rest last 4 bolts. The last 4 bolts are progressively more difficult simply for endurance reasons... they're all probably V2/+ '-ish' boulder problems, albeit on a slightly overhung face and on sloper holds.

Tony redpointed it very nicely on his next try. Right before bolt 7 is a semi-good finger rail. He pulled the second-to-last crux and rested there for a few minutes. It looked like such a great rest, I thought all I had to do was make it there and recharge like Tony. Funny thing is, I didn't remember it being that good of a rest, but I figured Tony had found a better grip or foot placement. Nope. Turns out he just has more endurance and finger strength than I do. I couldn't rest on that piece of shit finger-rail to save my life.

I fell right before that bolt, and again right after, for a 2-hang try. So it went on the next try as well. Better luck next time, I suppose. Meantime, Tony tried Poseur, .12b (definite sandbag), the first route to the left of Team Honda. Poseur and its 2 brethren are on a band of striking orange rock, increasingly overhung as you negotiate the 7-8 bolts. They're also extremely dirty from lack of traffic. Tony found this out to his woe after grabbing dirt and sand bolt after bolt. With some cleaning, it looks to be a classic Promised Land route, but has several cruxes; I tried it on TR and there is a powerful crux at bolt 3, some strong moves, then a moderate crux leading you into another very powerful/balancey crux at bolt 6 or 7 (not remembering too well).

We only climbed 4 routes for a total of 6 laps, but that was enough to fry us both. Tired, but happy, we left around 3:45 and got back to St. Louis around 7:15, in time for the party at Josh's and Catherine's. Hope you had a great weekend as well!