Pinnacles:  Bear Gulch  2/27/99  with Dennis

A nice sunny day, for once!  We explored more offbeat routes,
in Dennis' quest to redpoint all the 5.11s in Bear Gulch.

1. Wet Kiss 5.9
Our old standard warmup.  Dennis led it, (and all the other routes).

2. Embarrassment of Rich's 5.9+
We had been curious about his for some time (ever since Kelly Rich
reported it).  It follows the right hand crack system, immediately
left of "Between a Rock and a Hard Place".  Much loose rock rained down.
It's crumbly getting established at the first bulge.  After some stems
and crumbly pockets, one is soon astride a large lump below the second
bulge.  While following here, I reached into the crack for a jam,
and debris rained down into my shirtsleeve!  After making a move
onto the big stance above the bulge, I used a nut tool to remove much
of this debris, considerably deepening the crack.  Actually the rock
improves greatly here, with an abundance of good knobs and the crack
for solid pro.  At the final crux bulge, where the crack slants wildly
left, Dennis had placed some wide gear from a stem and handjam.
After one fist jam, I reached the great final hand jams.  At the
short headwall above, Dennis elected to traverse left to the Melvin
anchors, due to rope drag.

3. Daddy Long Legs 5.11d
Dennis redpointed this nicely (he had worked it "bolt to bolt" 2 weeks
ago).  He downclimbed a couple of times above the second bolt, but
got it in a great effort with no falls.  I tried to follow this time,
and surprised myself with being able to do the moves, albeit with
2 hangs.  My fingers were rather numb from the cold, and they didn't
have much strength/endurance, either!

4. December Shadows 5.11c ('91 guide) / 5.12a ('95 guide)
This is the short but fierce thin crack, just left of Daddy Long Legs.
Dennis worked this, and tried to redpoint it, but it was starting
to tear up his hands, so he aided through so I could try it on toprope.
As we both suspected, it was fairly easy for me on toprope, with the
rope and gear not in the way.  My tape gloves also helped on one of
the jams.  For a toprope rating, I think 5.11c would be fair; it's
also one of those routes where leading it is much harder.

5. Coffin Nail 5.11a R (attempt)
This is the direct finish to Nailbox Crack at the lower left end of
Discovery Wall.  Above the Nailbox anchors, the moves stiffen to 5.10a
reaching the first bolt.  After placing a #4 Friend in the crux big
roof, Dennis gave it several tries, but didn't have the strength left
and took a couple of hangs.  Eventually he used a knee bar to clear the
roof; I used a heel hook.  The rock is nightmarishly loose above the
roof; not too inspirational.  After a bolt and two questionable fixed
pins, it traverses out the second roof.  After some tries, Dennis
wisely chose to retreat back to the bolt, unwilling to risk a big
fall onto the pins.  He then traversed to the Pillbox Crack chimney
and belayed me up.  Another party was getting ready to do Nailbox,
and we didn't want to get our rope into the poison oak at the base,
so we elected not to use the Coffin Nail rap anchor.  I rapped
single line from the Trauma anchors, and Dennis walked off.  We talked
with the people at the base, and it turns out that one of them (John)
had a printout of the new routes from my web page -- I was glad to see
it was getting some use!

6. Black Dagger 5.11b/d
Dennis tried to redpoint this, but didn't have enough power left
so late in the day (a couple of falls/hangs at the second bolt).
I can still reach some pretty high holds from the tree, so the
way I toproped it was definitely the 5.11b version.

7. Ape Index 5.11c (attempt)
Dennis checked this out, but it was getting too dark to see the
holds very clearly!