Valley report April 5-6

We had nice weather in the Valley this weekend and got onto some nice
cracks.
  Saturday:  I climbed at the Church Bowl with Norman Boles and his friends
Dave and Bart.  Norman led Revival 5.10a, gardening out many leaves.
This has a long groove with a thin crack, past a roof, then a slanting
thin crack to a face with 2 hangerless bolts.  We descended by climbing
down Aunt Fanny's Pantry 5.4, which Dave and Bart had just climbed.
I led Uncle Fanny 5.7 - a straight chimney (used my kneepads) and
hand crack (I gardened some leaves).  Norman followed, and Dave and Bart
worked on their chimney and jamming technique.
  Looking for a workout, we headed for Five and Dime 5.10d, where parking
was cruxy and we talked to Chan and Brian who had just done it.  I tossed
on my tape gloves and led it without much trouble, finding many bomber jams
for my thin hands (no surprises, since I had just toproped it 3 weeks ago).
One interesting moment was when somebody tossed a rope down the crack.
I was at a bomber rest, near the top, and was able to casually ask them
to move it out of my way.  Norman followed, while Dave led his first 5.8
(Keystone Corner).  We were an hour late meeting Michael Brodesky and
some hiking companions, but we found them at Upper Pines.
  On Sunday, Norman and I climbed Independence Pinnacle Center 5.10d
at Reed's Pinnacle.  Actually, we skipped the final (5.10a) fist and ow
pitch (it was identified as "Evan's width").  Norman led a long 5.8
approach pitch, with no obvious belay to shoot for,
but found a 2 bolt belay below the crux (an arching crack
in a white wall).  I tried to climb directly to the crack, but the
crack was mostly full of moss, so I ended up going out right, up a corner,
and then downclimbing 20' from a pinnacle to reach a fixed pin near the
start of the crack.  I just clipped it with 2 runners so Norman could
follow directly, and headed up the crack.  It's thin hands, taking #1.5
and #2 Friends -- a good pump with a couple of useful stems.  As usual
I placed overhead pro through this part.  After depumping at a knobby
ramp after the crux, I finished up a fun 5.8 double crack.  These final
cracks are mostly full of moss, except for some essential gaps for jams
and protection.  Norman followed easily except for where one of my
#2 Friends had inverted it during my hasty plug-'n-clips, where he had
to get some brief tension to extract it.  We rapped straight down from
a large but somewhat rotten tree to 2 fixed pins below the bolt belay,
then to the ground.  On the way down, we got a good look at an awesome
crack -- the Independent Route (5.10b fist).  Actually the width looks
fairly reasonable, so perhaps sometime we'll follow Evan on it!

Clint