The Red, November 6 - 8, 2009 (UPDATE - Day 3)

Climbers - Yusuf, Little John, Calvin
Weather - Crisp, Clear and Cold... and then a bit warm

It was a weekend of fun tries. Sometimes, you don't send. John and I drove down to meet Yusuf at the Red. Yusuf had already been there for several days and had already sent Tuskan Raider .12d at The Dark Side. We got there at 2am Friday morning, setup our tent and quickly crashed for the night. A few minutes later, I heard a car approach; little did I know it was Yoli and Christian, freshly married and returned from a honeymoon/wedding in Hawaii. Congrats!

Day 1 was Friday. We awoke to a brilliant blue sky, but very cold temps. We ate breakfast quickly and headed to the Sanctuary in Muir Valley. John's project was Jesus Wept, .12d, a brilliant climb starting on a slight overhang and moving into precision vertical climbing at the crux.

Yusuf started with a beta run on Prometheus Unbound, .13a, one of his mini-goals for his trip. PU starts to the left of JW, but looks heinous, with a variety of difficult pockets, sidepulls and devious cruxes. After sussing beta, Yusuf lowered and John gave a strong attempt on JW. Our plan was for a beta run, but he felt good and progressed through the lower crux to the high crux that involves moving from a right two (or three) finger pocket, a left 1 pad crimp to stabbing to a right mono. Yusuf claimed you could stack your fingers into this mono, but I couldn't manage that. John fell at the high crux, but felt pretty good.

I then tried JW (what the eff, the draws are already there, I thought). The lower crux involves a good left-handed crimp, and a pretty small right-handed crimp, angled the wrong way (to the left). You step both feet pretty high, and swing through to a hard deadpoint to a good pocket with your right hand. If you're not careful, your feet cut, but it's a good hold. After this, it's moderate .11 climbing to a very good rest, then .10 climbing to the high crux. I basically climbed it bolt to bolt, and thought, this is a bit beyond me.

Yusuf then promptly sent PU, skipping a high bolt for some spicy climbing! Nice job dude. That inspired John and I, so we geared up for a strong burn. John fell at the high crux again, after looking very strong. I surprised myself by climbing almost to the high crux, then finishing the climb after a brief rest. 1-hang on my second try, I thought I might have a chance to send that day.

Well, I thought. John looked strong on his third try, but fell at the same spot. I fell at the low crux a few times, and knew I was out of gas. Yusuf then worked on Triple Sec, .13a (soft?) to the right of JW, and we called it a day.

Day 2 started as another brilliant day at Solar Collector, a popular winter crag. Solar is studded with massive huecos throughout the wall, which is really weird looking, but striking all the same. It's also gang-banged by all the climbers looking to warm up for the Gold Coast and Dark Side climbs. It was a bit too hot to be there, but we had a good time, starting with Super Pinch, .10d (hard?), and moving steadily to the right. Solar is home to some of the best .11's in the Gorge - see Ethics Police and Buddha Hole, .11d. Our intent was Blue Eyed Honkey Jesus, .12c, but I knew very early on that was out of the question. You know those days where your arms tell you ahead of time that you're not sending anything hard. No sir.

John and I both sent BH, which has some great climbing. Yusuf got a bit of beta on BEHJ, fell early by accident, lowered, and promptly sent. Nice. John then flashed Supafly, .12b (soft?), making it look like a stroll in the park. Very nice! I biffed somewhere in the middle, and struggled to finish, gasping for air.

We then headed to the Darkside for a bit of reconnaisance; John worked Tuskan Raider, and I decided I was recovered enough to try Mama Benson, .12a, something I'd tried a long time ago. The high crux is a couple of long moves to small crimps, and I predictably fell there. Still, it was fun to try. :)

Day 3 was our last day. Another fine start, with temps even warmer than before. Yusuf took a rest day in preparation for an assault on The Force, .13a for Monday. We headed to the Gallery to check out Mosaic, .12c. After warming up a bit, I gave it a recon burn and hung draws. The route starts with a small scramble, then a minor crux leading into an overhung but moderate, say .10+ section to the 5th bolt. You get a great rest here.

Moving out of this, you criss-cross left-right, from a good sidepull to a bad right hand, move up to some bad slopey crimps (clip), then move hard left to a very good finger-sized sidepull (left). It gets both delicate and powerful here: you have to grab a bad right hand hold to move your left hand up to the positive top of the sidepull, and stab to a good two-finger pocket. Good footwork really helps. From here, it's a hard clip, then two worse holds lead to some high stepping into a left-hand undercling, which is the so-called crux. I think everything from the 6th bolt to the end is one big red-point crux, with no super hard single move. It really burns your forearms to make it though. I made good progress and one-fell on my third try. John manned up and hiked it second go!

That was a common theme for the weekend; I struggled with endurance and power. John simply got stronger and stronger as the days went by. After encouraging me on my 3rd try, he hopped on the .11d left of Mosaic and flashed it as a parting gift to himself. Nicely done.

We got back late to St. Louis Sunday night, happy the weather was so great and thankful to be outdoors for another great fall weekend. I took away a couple lessons: 1. I need to train more to do well at the Red if I expect to do better on mid-hard 12's and 2. Training is no longer just climbing a couple hours at the gym. I need to work on finger strength (read: hangboard) and forearm endurance, no easy thing in a gym only 32 feet tall. At the end, I'm still having great fun, so I'm looking forward to more great times outside!