Chris Hubbard came to the January ACSD Meeting at Mesa Rim. He gave everyone a brand new topo that explores the right side of the Mount Woodsen Path. We did a few climbs but most of the day was just exploring.
It has been a while since I've gone climbing outdoors, so even todays easy day ripped me pretty good. It was a good day overall and it felt good feeling just that much more comfortable with bouldering. The hardest route I did was a 5.9.
Click here for photos>>
The first thing we did was climb practice boulder right off the trail. Tony tied one end of a rope to a tree and draped it over the boulder. It was really great because I don't know how I would have downclimbed otherwise.
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| Tony and Michael with thier gear. |
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| Rope over the practice boulder |
I worked on that friction climb quite a bit that morning.
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| View from the Top |
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| View from the top |
If you are wondering how we used the rope to get down, here it is.
Its not like Scott needed the rope though. He could walk up the route like it wasn't even at a 70 degree slant.
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| View from the Top |
Here is a phot of me doing an awkward off width
They were particularly impressed with my side foot technique.
I also climbed this other practice boulder route that required a serious layback.
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| layback not pictured |
Then we ventured out into unexplored territory. Michael found this tree adjacent climb and was able to ascend, but asserted that it wasn't a very good one. No one but Michael could get up it either
The next thing we tried was called Sand Castle. The route was crumbly and I lost some skin trying to ascend it. It turned out that height played a big difference in this 5.10. I couldn't do the first high step.
lost wrist on skin.
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| Skinned Wrist |
Then we went over to a route the topo called "axe warmup solo" which had a cute 5.8 and 5.9. I wouldn't have tried to solo them, though. They had gnarly dropoff at least 15 feet tall.
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| Setting up for Axe Warmup Solo |
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| Axe Warmup Solo |
I did well and I accomplished almost everything I tried today. It wasn't a too difficult day, and I'm excited to get out there again.
Also, if you are keeping track, I actually completed part of a resolution. I have visited the mountains. I just need the desert and the sea and I'll be set.
Maria
