Aaron and Matt invited me out to climbing at Looking Glass Rock for the first time, specifically the north end. The other time I was there was back when I visited Alexis before moving here. We did a quick day hike to the cliff face and I got to experience stinging nettles for the 1st time. This trip I was aiming to be more vertically inclined, rather than horizontal stung.
Aaron had his sights set on “Creatures of Waste”, a really pretty and steep climb at the middle of the cliff. We set to work on it while waiting for the sun drop down a bit. The onsight/flash (whatever) attempt for me went well, the bottom felt funky as I walked out the big ledge system. It constantly attempts to buck you off it sloping line. Then I got into steep, but blocky holds before the 1st crux. A lone bolt protects a technical move before I gained a finger crack system. From there I had to gas it up to a flat ledge, but it held a super secret mega jug. The end wass guarded by some great moves way above the tree tops, pulling a couple hard moves led to a thank god flake. As Matt put it, “This route makes you feel like the king of looking glass.”
After the onsight, I hauled up a camera and tripod and rigged some filming equipment. Due to battery charging error, I only had enough battery left for one filming chance and it surprisingly worked out well.
Looking Glass Rock – Creatures of Waste from Nalevanko on Vimeo.
Afterwards, we went down to “Invisible Airwaves”, Aaron led it with style through a memorable traverse and beautiful dihedral section. I hope to get the chance to film this one next time.
The last memorable move of the day was a nice run in with a baby copperhead. It almost got me as I stepped on to a log, but I was lucky enough to see it hiding in the leaves beside it. It slithered on into some rocks and we both (snake and I) rested easily.
