Subject: Back On the Rock With Evan

Last weekend, I tied into a rope for the first time in about 5 months,
since I broke my (right ring) finger.  It felt good!
Evan Bigall wrote up the trip report; I've added just a few [comments].

Clint
------------
Clint's hand is mostly recovered from Horse Chute and he was
ready for a weekend of top roping in The Valley so I threw my
lead hog hat in the car and off we went...

Saturday:

EB: Hey Clint, lets warm up on something mellow
CC: ok, how about Knob Job
EB: Umm, I was thinking more like 5.8, but what the heck...
[I thought maybe the easy start to the pitch might work as a warmup,
 but it was too easy.  The 5.8 bit was immediately followed by the
 first 5.10b crux, with no rest in between... oops]

Knob Job(10b)  
Took a hang in the thin hands (lame) and then struggled at the 10b crux.
Finally topped out on Nurdle, and then did the moves on TR.  Clint got it
clean, but he let his legs shake a little to make me feel better.

Some Random Thing Just Right(5.9 height dependent crux)
[retrobolted direct start to G-Man 5.10b, skips upper crux]
This is some new bolted line.  The bolts are in pretty lame places.
The crux is a reach move to a knob.  [and then a dyno/lockoff to
the next knob with no footholds] I could just barely do the move 
with a lot of effort.  Clint hiked it.  Worth doing if you are a 
bit taller than me.

Knuckleheads(10b)
Did the first few bolts of knuckleheads and then got stumped.  Backed
off and did the Trough of Justice start and then moved onto knucklheads.
Cruised past the last bolt, slung a turkey head and did a highly
speculative rock-on to a small knob.  Found myself fully hosed.
Could only reach one manky hold with my left hand with no feet
(blank lichen covered wall).   I'm 20' out from the bolt and 10' off this
lame slung knob.  Tried to downclimb and couldn't.  Set there for about
30 [15?] min before I just cranked through on the poor left hand.  That I was
going to get a jug, but it was a sloping shelf.  Desperately mantled onto
the shelf and shook like a bowl of jello for 5 minutes.
Clint struggled a bit down low [had to use the Trough start also, and stood
in a sling at the shared arete crux], but cruised where I had my troubles.
[Like I always say, it's easy to look good on a toprope, with beta]

Desperate Straights (p1)(5.9)
First bit is sort of half chimney half OW intimidating to look at,
but casual to climb.  [Clint went right side in and was a bit desperate]
Second bit is a ramp that Clint assured me
would be a "Piece of Cake." ["Casual"]  The crack in the back of the ramp
turns out to be bottoming and flared.  I desperately thrutched through,
Clint needed tension.  Not my sort of cake.  Last bit of the first
pitch was a rad 10c undercling.  I ended up yarding on a piece,
clint did the moves clean [but hung to clean the gear, as he was
too chicken to clean it before doing the move].  The 5.9 variation looked
heinous.

Desperate Straights (p2)(10a)
Wild Roof, very burly, then stiff crack up to a point where you
can stem across the other wall.  I was fully maxed on the stem.
Had a few hangs on this.  Though it was very mental.  Everytime
I hung I discovered holds I'd been missing.  :-(  Clint hiked it,
but he did moan a bit

Babble On(10a)
Cool fat hands [or lieback] crack to a 15' undercling/jamming traverse
under a roof.  Wild. I had to hang to get some of the gear in, but way fun.
Turn the corner and its mellow to the top except for a loose death block.
Worth doing.

Some random thing to the right(10a)
[retrobolted left side of Showtime 5.8 or 5.10a *]
Another new bolted line.  I struggled in places and went off route
skipping bolts.  Clint cruised it in fading light. 
[optional 5.10a slab at bottom, nice steep 5.8-5.9 knobby pillar up high]

Probably my stiffest day ever of valley leading.
[not that easy to even ride the toprope -- while belaying the second
pitch of Desperate Straights, I was nodding off, and thought there was
no way I could follow, but somehow I recovered]

Sunday:  We crossed the river and headed over to the pulpit.

Tree route (p1)(5.8)
Climb a tree and move onto the rock.  Weird spooky climbing,
balancy bulges and fins.

Tree route (p2)(5.9)
Sandbag.  The moves to the roof are very hard.  Roof itself is 5.9.
I had a bunch of hangs. 

Topped out on the summit.  Its a very cool place to be, its a pity
the route sucked (imho).

Looked at TR'ing The Sermon.  Yikes.  I think not...

I TR'd some of Pulpit Pooper(10b fist) but was losing too much skin 
on my forearms so lowered off.

And did Original Sin (10c).  It was desperate and heinous.
I had one hang, but was continuously on the verge of coming off.
[part of the problem is there are 2 cracks, and it's not clear which
one is supposed to be the route.  The left crack is cleaner, but has
a move that seems much harder than 10c.  The right one peters out into
nothing.  Fortunately at that point, you can swing over to the right
crack, which is easy at that height.]
It finishes on the Improbable Traverse(5.7)
which was sandbagged and would be a very scary lead.  Clint TR'd Original
Sin and had several hangs.  Ugly Ugly route.  [I'd like to go back and
try again when I'm fitter]
On rap Clint scored a #2 Camalot (old style) and an old drilled #11 hex
off Pulpit Pooper.  I scored a modern #10 hex off Original Sin. 

Still struggling with my lead head, but not a bad weekend.
Some cool routes and some cool summits.

Evan