Yosemite - Reed's, Cookie, Pat + Jack - 3/5-6/05 - Johan Hvenmark I heard that Johan will be climbing at Indian Creek with the Stanford Alpine Club folks (Johan, me, Jared, and probably Marshall and Polly) in mid-March, so I invited him to head to Yosemite for a few climbs to get into shape! I hadn't free climbed very hard in awhile. In December, I got up a few routes at the Cookie, but my hand strength wasn't very good. Johan hadn't climbed outside in awhile, given that he had arrived fairly recently from Sweden where the winters are long. So whatever pitches we could get in would be a great help for Indian Creek. We drove up on Saturday morning via 140, which took 3.5 hours. Saturday - Reed's Pinnacle and the Cookie. 1. Johan led the first pitch of Reed's Pinnacle Direct (5.9). I showed him my preferred method of taping hands, figuring it would help him save skin and try out taping. He didn't have any problems leading the first pitch. 2. I led the second pitch ("hardest 5.9 in the Valley"). I felt fairly comfortable, finding several reasonable rests. Although I did hesitate a bit at one hard section, where you have to do a couple of moves between jugs/bomber jams. A lot of threaded slings have appeared at the midway point; some of them should be cut off because they interfere a bit with the jamming. I was a little slow at the crux, where I put my right knee on a horn and it took a little while before I made some moves to get my foot on. Johan was pretty solid following. About midway, one of my cams had locked up a bit, and he had to burn some energy to clean it. Up at the crux he had a hang as the pump clock had been running a bit too long. I was a bit "brutal" for a warmup, really, but we were just being somewhat aggressive about getting in shape! 3. I led Lunatic Fringe (5.10c), which I have pretty wired from numerous repeats. I was pretty solid on the initial crux, although I climbed quickly to avoid problems. At the midway crux (where you have to do a few fingerlocks), I usually climb up to place a #1.5 Friend and then climb back down for a rest before climbing through. But this time I didn't want to delay, so I placed the Friend and then went immediately into the fingerlocks. I got to the jug but was feeling a little sketched, so as I was placing the jams above I was somewhat gripped and bruised my left hand a little. So it wasn't quite as smooth as I had hoped, but at least I didn't plunge. The final crux went smoothly. Johan climbed through the thin hands section fine, but when he reached the good hand jams just above, he had a hang. Just a little rust from the long layoff, I think. He had no problems with the rest, looking pretty solid. NObody else had shown up to climb at Reed's, so we had the whole place to ourselves. It was fairly sunny, until the last route where a cloud had emerged from the west and put us in the shade. We drove over to the Cookie to extend the workout. There were several cars parked, and a couple of climbers were hiking down as we headed up. Catchy was busy as usual, so we continued onwards and found Outer Limits was free for action. Johan was considering leading it, but I tried to emphasize the sustained nature of the main part of the pitch and in the spirit of staying conservative on our first weekend out for awhile, I got to lead it. 4. Outer Limits (5.10b). I was feeling pretty solid until the few thin/slick moves reaching the wide pod. Here I was afraid that if I went for the hand jams deep in the back, my feet would skate off the slick rock below and I'd end up taking a plunge. So I had a struggle to first place a cam above me and then finish the moves (left hand jammed high and right hand pressing down on the flake to lift my body so that my right foot can go up onto the flake). I got a good no hands rest by inserting one leg/knee deep into the pod. I didn't feel so fresh anymore, but I knew there were solid hand jams the whole rest of the way, so wasn't 100% confident, but I wasn't in fear, either. I headed up, placing gear from good jams. I reached a steep section where a flake overlaps the crack for a couple of moves. Here I was having trouble getting my feet to stay put - they skated out, and I realized the foot pain was getting to me. So I hung from the cam I had just placed. I took a few minutes to get pretty fresh. Then I launched up through the flake with some long reaches, to friendlier ground (more comfy foot placements) above. Soon I had placed the #3.5 Friend and done the easy lieback moves onto the jug. Over to the bomber flake and up the easy jams to the anchor. Johan was quite solid in following until above the pod. Here it looked like he might be having foot pain or hand pain, as he was trying lieback moves to get past the overlapping flake. He had a couple of hangs, having gotten a good pump and some hand bruising by this point. He reached the anchors, feeling a little discouraged, and I had been spanked by the climb as well, so we had to keep it in perspective as a workout on our way to getting in shape! During this time, we had been entertained as the locals (Bob, Ron Skelton, Sean Leary) did toprope/miniTraxion laps on Crack-a-go-go; Sean also led Cookie Monster and Bob followed. It was starting to get dark as we packed out and we reached the car without headlamps. We drove out to Mariposa and had a nice big pizza. We were ready to sleep at this point, and the drive back seemed a little long. But soon we were climbing into our bags for a good night's rest. Johan had a thin bag and lots of extra clothes, which fortunately was plenty warm enough. Sunday. We drove over to the Church Bowl and had breakfast in the sun. Assessing our bruised hands, we selected Pat and Jack Pinnacle as a good destination, with some crack climbing, but not as sustained, so hopefully we wouldn't deepen the bruising. 1. Knuckleheads 5.10b - Johan led. I hadn't been on this in quite awhile. The lower crux was quite puzzling and ready, and I didn't have any good beta to offer, but Johan cranked it anyway. The upper crux, where it is a bit sloping and tricky, had Johan pausing a bit as he tried out different things. I remember climbing up and down there many times in the past myself. Steve Schneider arrived at the base and led up the 5.8 start. Johan invited him to climb through, and then Johan cranked it, having been shown the beta, plus a dose of Steve's friendly and positive attitude! I followed and we rapped. The lower crux is definitely stiff for 5.10b; I am not sure how shorter folks do it. 2. Knob Job 5.10b - I led, after we waited awhile for people to clear off it. This was much friendlier for 5.10b, and I felt solid on the upper crux, just cranking up on good fingerlocks. Someone has removed the old bolt belay at the end of the first pitch (I could see the two holes), and the previous parties simply combined the first two pitches as one. I belayed near the bolt holes using gear. Johan followed easily. We put some slings over big horns/ knobs to rappel from, as people were toproping from the Sherrie's Crack chains. 3. Nurdle 5.8 - Johan led. This was mainly to pass some time while waiting to do Sherrie's Crack, and to retrieve our slings. Johan had no problems, and I thought the first couple of moves in reaching the crack were a bit stiffer than I had recalled - rather reachy. 4. Sherrie's Crack 5.10c - I led. We could have toproped it, but I knew it fairly well, so it was not that hard to lead it. Plus it was a good way to check how I'm doing on leading. I felt solid on the fingerlocks and placed a wire and TCU at the start, then cranked up to the middle of the crux and put a TCU in quickly. Then a couple more moves and I was at the jug. The upper crack went fairly well in spite of my slightly bruised hands. Johan looked very solid following; no doubt he could lead it. His bruised hands did not look too comfortable in the upper section, but with a little speed that was over quickly. 5. Boneheads 5.10b - Johan led. A knob route on pillar above Babble On undercling. He looked very solid on the thin initial face and had no problems on the juggy upper part, either. *Much* easier than Knuckleheads. I followed without looking too sketchy on the lower part and soon we were back on the ground. We drove back and were home by 9pm. There was on embarrassing incident on the return trip, when I tried to turn into the McDonald's at Los Banos, in front of its big highway sign. There was a dark patch by the road there, but it turns out that it was not a driveway - it was a couple of curbs and some dirt. Fortunately my car survived this impromptu off road journey. Mission accomplished on getting in shape - some excellent workouts on the classics so we will climb harder and smoother as Indian Creek draws near.