Goat Rock, Pinnacles:  trips with the kids and Wayne  2/1999

2/1 (Monday)  Skyler, Lance and I made a morning visit to Goat Rock
(at Castle Rock State Park).  Skyler had told me that Lance wanted
to do some rock climbing, so I thought he should try the Swiss Cheese
Face where Renata and Skyler had been successful a couple of years
ago.  It turns out that Lance is not quite ready to trust the rope
and get very far off the ground yet.  He also managed to take
a swinging fall on the rope when his clunky tennis shoes slipped
off.  Skyler climbed the face, although he had a fair amount
of trouble on the upper bulge.

2/19 (Friday)  Wayne Burleson, his wife Nancy, and their son Bram
were in California for a conference.  It had been rainy, but the
weather on Friday was nice and I went to Goat Rock with them.
Nancy toproped the left side route 5.9.  I had a good attempt it
its direct finish 5.12a, but couldn't quite hang on to let go for
the last reach.  Wayne did it on his second try -- plenty of
power to spare!  Wayne also toproped the big roof 5.11.  I had
to leave at that point, but Wayne and Nancy tried a couple of
routes at Billy Goat Rock.

2/21 (Sunday)  Skyler, Lance, and I went to the East Side of
the Pinnacles.  Wayne, Nancy, and Bram met us there.  It rained
at times on the drive, and very few people were there.  We had
some sun there, but mostly it was overcast and cool.
Skyler and Lance climbed Tiburcio's X Back Side (4th class).
Lance had trouble climbing down in his clunky shoes, but didn't
trust the ropes to lower down either.  After some good efforts by
Skyler and Wayne to show him where to put his hands and feet,
he was still stuck.  Finally I was able to help him down, by
setting up a rappel, and clipping him to my harness, so he
could hold onto me as we descended.

After visiting with everybody at the Reservoir, Wayne and I went
to the Monolith.  Wayne led POD 5.11a in a light drizzle, which
fortunately stopped quickly.  Then he led Monolith Direct 5.6
after starting on Subterranean Tango.  He set up topropes on
both and we returned to the reservoir.  Nancy, Skyler and I came
back.  Skyler toproped Monolith Direct very nicely.  He wanted to
climb the summit block to sign the register, but I told him that
would have to wait until next time.  Nancy toproped it also.  Then
she toproped POD with one brief hang at the crux.  I took a turn
toproping POD, too.  It felt easier than I expected; probably because
I usually do it at the end of a long day when I'm fairly weak.
Nancy toproped Hawaiian Noises 5.10d with a hang at the crux.  Wayne
also took a lap on it.