A bit tired from yesterday's run.
5/2, Tuesday - Yellow Spur - 2000', 5:17
Biked to Eldo to meet Anton to climb the Yellow Spur. We didn't move particularly quickly but that wasn't the goal of the day. He led to the Red Ledge which was all familiar terrain to me, I had always been turned towards Icarus here due to time restraints. I took the lead up the first pitch and was only held up by this awkward friction-y corner that I eventually solved by just toe jamming up to the big shelf. Tony then lead the final premier pitch to the finish. Its tough climbing but its basically just a sport route (minus the traverse) till the final 5.6 arete. Downclimbed the East Slabs back to our bikes and rode home.
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| Anton following the second to last pitch at lightning speed! |
Quick short run along the creek as the skies cleared of morning rain clouds.
5/4, Thursday - 3 x Mile - 11 miles, 400', 1:15 || PM: First Flatiron - 3 miles, 1600, 3:13
A mediocre workout. I wanted good rest between each interval (6 minutes) but still couldn't get my splits as low as I would have liked (5:17, 5:25, 5:27). Ah well, got the effort in -- the last quarter of each repeat was good if only as a mental workout for not giving in. In the evening I met Abby for her first time up the direct route on the 1st Flatiron. I soloed the rope up to belay her for the first 3 pitches to the party ledge, then we scrambled to the slot where I belayed her up to the arete. We then scrambled the remainder of the north arete as the sun fell behind the Indian Peaks in the distance. I'd never actually rappelled off the 1st -- always downclimbed -- but given the darkness it would be easier to just set up the rope than try to point out holds in the dark. Actually a really cool rappel, the bottom 30ft or so are free hanging and a 60m rope reaches the ground just fine.
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| Abby taking a lead up to the North Arete at sunset. |
After gulping down a ton of water, I hopped on my bike for a splendid session in Eldo. I had to make a slight adjustment to my Wind Tower circuit as West Overhang was taken -- so I skipped that -- and Wind Ridge was taken so I explored to rock up Tigger than traversed back to the Wind Ridge route once above the party. I was making good time and the wind was calm so I hustled over to the West Chimney where I was able to get going right before a large party began up Rewritten. What an absolute pleasure it is to move freely over such a beautiful wall. I hadn't soloed Icarus in a long time, so I was reminded of just how phenomenal of a route and position it is -- the arete to the top of tower one has got to be one of the best in the state if not country!
5/6, Saturday - Sooberb Lite & Blind Faith - 2500', 6:57
Kyle and I biked down to Eldo with plans for long day of climbing. We first got to Long John Wall, which was taken so we went a bit further up the hill to Sooberb Lite. Right as we were about to lift off a guy down towards Washington Irving -- not sure what route exactly -- took a near a ground fall bouncing down slab and through trees. Or at least it sounded like that. We unroped and ran down to find him moving and talking but clearly concussion symptoms. He had plenty of friends there to help (one was a nurse) so they said they didn't need any more help and sent us on our way. Sooberb Lite was actually a fun really fun route, though overshadowed by everything else in the day. Kyle led the first two pitches -- the second being the good one, while I lead the final. We then ran down to Redgarden and literally everything under 5.11 was taken so we jogged to the Bastille. Blind Faith (which was first climbed free solo) was open and I'd been wanting to try it for ages. I took the lead and got up just fine to the crux. Oh but the crux! I tried several times never able to commit and taking a fall once -- my first fall leading on trad. I definitely need to get better at crack technique and do some more pull ups! Eventually, I just traversed around to set up an anchor for Kyle to give it a shot with a top rope (after the rope was severely stuck on an under-cling!). I think he made it further than I did but then had to hang -- you can't really rejoin the route after hanging once on TR -- he was then hanging on the upper portion of the right crack variation and finished up that. I started leading up the next pitch but we were both so pumped and mentally shaken by this point that I down-climbed while back-cleaning gear then we set an anchor to bail. Thankfully, some guys were heading up as were rapping (moving quickly). The leader undid our anchor and sent down all the gear we thought we were having to leave, lucky for us it was not as expensive of a bail as we expected. Not a huge day by the numbers but mentally one of the harder days I can remember.
5/7, Sunday - Pine Tree Route - 1400', 3:35
Fun day with my house mates. Mike broke his leg pretty severely 10 months ago and today was his first day back outside and he wanted to lead -- and suggested biking to the crag! We ended up on Pine Tree route waiting for another girl to lead it (who broke her jaw last year and was also getting her head back on!). Mike took the lead with the mental trauma still major obstacle. Physically, he could walk up this route and I'm sure he would have scoffed at it before his accident. Today wasn't about physical limits it was instead about mental limits. It took a while but it was important to give him that time and space to sort out his thoughts. My other house mate, Jorge, followed the route then I soloed it. Hoping to squeeze in one more route I rushed the rope over to East Slab on the Dome but the storm broke before I could even get ready, I met the guys back at our bikes for a soggy ride home.
Week Totals: Running
20 miles
2200'
5:10
Week Totals: Other bike-climb-scramble stuff
112 miles (mostly biking)
9700'
21:30
Clearly, I didn't actually run that much this week. In fact I mostly just climbed, 5 days in fact -- time to retire my rope! -- which translates still to some good time on my feet and is frankly the most fun you can have! I also definitely needed to back off a bit of the volume to give my legs a chance to actively recover for race week. Quad Rock 25 next weekend, looking forwards to it!
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