Y:  Moratorium, New Scavenger, Lembert 6/26-28/04 - Lin

Lin and I got together for 3 more days of climbing before she
headed back to Colorado.

Saturday - Moratorium 5.11b.  This was on our list, as neither of us
had done it in awhile.  Actually, the last time I did it, I had
removed 2 big rickety flakes from pitches 1 and 3, and I was eager
to see if it was any harder now.  We took a very leisurely start on
Saturday morning, so that it would be in the afternoon shade by the
time we got to the base.

p1 5.10d - Lin led.  Both of us have trouble with the "5.10a" section
down low, which has a 1" crack in the corner that is hard to jam,
but does not have a sharp edge for liebacking, either.  Lin took a
couple of hangs there before getting past this short section for
more fun climbing above.  The "5.10d" section up high is not so
bad for us, as we have fairly small fingers which fit in easily.

p2 5.10d - Clint led.  This is actually a pretty moderate pitch,
with lots of rests and excellent protection.  Especially if you know
exactly how to do the final crux, which is easy for me to remember
after I "lucked into" the sequence on my first trip up the route
some years back.

p3 5.11b - Lin led.  This is a tough pitch.  The small arching
corner at the start is a little blind but quickly reaches jugs,
and the #3.5 Friend protects it well as I had remembered.  The
tiny corner above is deceptively tricky, as one of the jams is
badly flaring, and the jam above it is tempting to place pro in.
At the crux corner, I was trying to coach Lin in putting her feet
on the right wall, but it didn't seem to fit her that well, and
she had several hangs.  Our fingers are small enough to use the
crack the whole way, and it was fully dry (I recall it being
rather wet in the past), so we both used the crack a lot.
Maybe it was my tights, vs. cotton corduroy pants in the past,
but the stem with my feet on the right wall did not feel very
secure this time.  We rapped off and drove up to the Meadows
to have dinner.

Sunday - New Scavenger 5.10d.  One of the goals of Lin's trip
was to do (or at least recon) "Heart of Toad", a route on
Fairview that neither of us had done.  In the past this was
a combo of the first part of Heart of Stone (5.11) and the
second part of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (5.10b), for a semi-feasible
route which avoids 5.11+ and 5.12 sections of these respective
routes.  Another way to do the start which looked even more
feasible was Scavenger or "New Scavenger", 5.10d.  The original
huge flake on pitch 2 of Scavenger had fallen off a few years
ago, and "New Scavenger" is a relatively new alternative just
to the right.  I had gotten a topo for it from Greg Murphy or
Jim Herson some time ago.

The weather looked a little cloudy, so we trailed a second rope;
we figured we could just cast it off if we were going fast,
but it could be handy if the weather got bad or we had to
retreat for some reason.

p1 5.10d - Lin led.  Years back, I had tried to find this pitch,
with no success.  But Greg Murphy had appeared that day and led
right up it, pointing out the "tongue of rock" where it starts.
So at least we knew exactly where it was.  Lin made some hard
moves past the first 2 bolts, and managed to reach the 3rd bolt,
but a very hard/blank "rock on" to a knob made her grab the sling
there briefly.  She lowered down and did the move free on toprope
with a slight undercling - it looked quite stiff for 5.10d.
The small roof above still had the fixed pin I had drawn in my
topo, and soon Lin was on easier ground above.  After 2 bolts
(all bolts on this pitch were fairly new 3/8" stainless, replaced
from the original 1/4"), Lin handled the 5.9+ runout to the
belay ledge quite smoothly.  When I followed, I pulled on the sling
on the 3rd bolt and didn't attempt to free that move - quite blank.
The 5.9+ runout looked tough/slabby and I was very glad to be
on toprope!

p2 "5.10".  At first I tried to lead this, but I didn't want to
commit to the move to reach the first bolt, which involved a
step up onto my left foot that was a little runout to the right
of the belay.  Fortunately Lin was psyched for the lead, and took
over the sharp end.  She made some thin moves straight above the
belay and quickly clipped the first bolt.  Then over right on a
moderate runout to one hard move to reach the second bolt, which
is initially hidden from the belay ledge above a knob.  Here she
made some tough glassy moves above the bolt to reach a curving
flake and a little protection before the crack went to knifeblade
size.  A couple of tough moves above the pro reached a slightly
crumbly flake and a little pro with a hard long reach where Lin
took one short fall.  On her next try, she reached a vegetated
flake and a steep overhanging corner.  Lin was nearly out of
cams, and it looked hard to stop and place gear in the corner,
but she hung on and got the gear in.  Soon she was below a giant
knob at the lip of the overhanging corner.  She reached up and
grabbed it, and tried to make a move onto it, but the wall above
was too blank.  She thought at first that she was going to fall,
but she hung on and managed to get her long belay sling from
the back of her harness, and then unfurl it, get it over the knob
and clip into it before getting a spectacular rest on it.
After a little recovery, she shortened it slightly, and made a
few moves out to the right, then grabbed some sloping knobs
and made a move back left onto the knob!  Quite a sustained pitch,
with many hard sections above protection to a climactic finish!
I was awed down at the belay, and glad she was able to finish
the pitch, as it looked like a very intimidating onsight lead.
I followed, very glad to have the toprope.  It's worthy of
a 5.10d rating, especially in the final overhanging corner.

p3 5.9 - Lin led.  It looked quite far just to the first bolt,
so I didn't want to lead it; fortunately Lin was recovered and
again psyched.  She climbed nearly straight up to the first bolt,
on some rather small and rounded holds near the bolt.  Yikes.
Here the route follows a dike up and left.  A couple of moves
above the bolt is a very long reach to a small corner, which
Lin had trouble spanning.  Fortunately she managed to make the
move anyway.  She then headed almost straight left on moderate ground 
to the bolt belay shared with Heart of Stone, where she was pleased
to find 2 nice biners and spied a good cam nearby.  When I followed,
I started by going out *right* to the dike first, which was a bit
more moderate than going straight up, although it didn't offer any
extra protection.  As Lin predicted, the reach move was moderate for
my long arms.

We were getting a few sprinkles as the clouds were getting darker
(especially to the north).  And it was too late in the day to
be able to finish the route, so we rapped off as the sprinkles
increased a bit.  Before rapping, I liberated the stuck #0 Metolius TCU
which Lin has spotted.  Of course I offered Lin all the booty gear,
as I had not lead any of the pitches.  We reached the ground in 2 raps
and quickly packed up our gear, hoping to reach the car before the
rain got more serious.  However, the sprinkling stopped and we were
spared from a soaking.  Maybe we'll return sometime to try the
Heart of Stone start, or maybe the entire route, but we may not
be fast enough.  It's very demanding and it takes time to be careful
and avoid taking a long plunge from one of the hard parts.

Monday - Lembert Dome.  I wanted to try the route "Big Boys Don't Cry",
between "Cryin' Time Again" and the "Direct NW Face".  We couldn't
see the lone bolt on the first pitch, but we followed the crack
indicated on the topo, and I headed up on the moderate slab with
no pro, figuring the bolt would become visible once I got closer
to it.  I diagonalled left, as the topo suggested, and got about 80'
up to where got hard enough that I was starting to get worried that
I might not be able to reverse further moves.  I was never able to
spot the bolt.  So I gave up and carefully downclimbed the pitch.
I thought I might be able to reach the belay ledge by following
a crack which petered out, and I was able to place some wired nuts
in it, but the moves looked harder above, with protection uncertain,
so I downclimbed that as well.  Finally I headed up the Direct NW Face
first pitch (5.9), hoping to possibly traverse left onto the BBDC
belay ledge.  But it was too blank/hard to do without bolts,
so I stayed on the Direct NW Face, which is a pretty fun pitch.
I stretched the rope to the big main belay ledge, and Lin came up.
She traversed left on the big ledge / slab, over to near Cryin'
Time Again and set up a belay.  I came across and led up a small
RFC/flake above her, which looked like p3 of BBDC on the topo.
However, I could not find a the bolt above the corner, and I was
very close to Cryin' Time Again.  It was also starting to get
dark and windy, so I downclimbed, then headed over to Cryin' Time
Again, and we rapped off.  We were never able to see any of the
bolts on BBDC, although we didn't spend much time looking for the
3 bolts on p2, due to the approaching weather.

Once on the ground we hiked back to the car, and got in,
just before a moderate rain shower dampened things.
We got a bit skunked on this final day of the trip, but we were
tired from the previous days, so we couldn't really complain.
Lin and I parted ways, but hopefully she'll be back for more
visits in the future.