Last weekend, Bruce Fortnam and I went to the Valley.  After a casual 10:15pm
start from Mountain View, we arose a bit groggy but headed to the Cookie
anyway to see if we were in shape (I hadn't led a free pitch since June...).
Bruce led Bev's Tower 5.10a nicely, while I wondered what to do with my feet.
I led Wheat Thin 5.10b - a good choice for my condition (strong arms for the
power moves, but no endurance -- glad for all the rests).  We had been
hoping to do Catchy Corner, but it was still in the hot sun, so we had
lunch and I took a nap.  Seeking to boost our confidence while still saving
our arms for Sunday, we did some Aproneering (I haven't been there in
awhile).  Bruce flashed Dr. Feel Good 5.10d, and I led Mr. Natural 5.10c.
Bruce finished up by toproping Green Dragon 5.11b with lots of falls to
check out his new shoes.  I passed, avoiding the flail.

On Sunday we worked on our Snake FFA project (left of the East Buttress of
El Cap).  To refresh your memory, Joel and I tried it in June but eventually
got soaked by Horsetail Falls.  Bruce and I then rapped down from above to
clean out nearly all of the grass.  This time, Bruce and I went up the
East Buttress, where he showed me how to finally free the crux of the EB!
It's a mega reach move, pushing off the left corner with your left foot;
I'm not sure how short folks do it.  We had gotten a late start, and 2
parties of Germans were well above us.  After the arete, we did the long
"talus" traverse left, and up the zigzag 3rd and 5.2.  The dark rock was
sizzling to the touch, and we stopped for lunch, gazing at all the folks
doing walls.  Up the short 5.8 hand crack, then Bruce led a 5.10 pitch
to my high point with Joel.  Bruce fell at the crux when a hold broke, and
the bolt I had placed there proved appropriate!  I fell there too; it's
a weird reach to a pinch which is too shallow/steep to stem as I had
originally thought.  On the next pitch (5.10 also), I had to stop and
place a bolt (3'8", by hand) at some fragile flakes below the big roof.
The roof went moderately via an exciting layback, although I used some
hangs to place the gear because I was so scared.  I stopped partway up
the ramp above at a sling belay as it got hard.  Bruce freed nicely
following, but it was getting late, so I aided the rest of the ramp to
reach the steep main corner for a rap anchor.  This second half of the
ramp will hopefully be a nice 5.11 pitch when we return; the crack is
extremely thin, but it's low angle enough so the feet can hopefully
be used.  The rap anchor was problematic, as the fixed pin pulled out
when I bounce-tested it.  So I hauled up the hammer and sunk it back
in, and added a #5 Rock sideways.  This tested fine, so we began rapping
with a single headlamp.  A bit of 3rd class downclimbing was interesting,
but soon we were down and heading for home.

We're planning to be back on 10/16-17 to free the ramp and come to grips
with the main corner.  Hopefully it won't rain before then and put it
out of season until July again!

Clint

P.S. We now have Peter Hunt's "cave" in our back yard, so any of you who
live nearby should feel free to drop by and check it out for an intense
workout.  We figure we'll either get strong enough for Jailhouse, or
totally do in our tendons!