Next Morning, we woke up to warmer temperatures and a thawing roadway. Coffee was made and eggs were scrambled, both were vital in starting the engines which would keep us chugging along through the day. Little did I know that this cup of coffee in my cocker-spaniel mug would be it last….
We pulled into the nuttall trailhead, sacked up our packs, and took off down the trail. We were aiming to climb at the central endless area, with a good bit of ideas on what to get on and climb. I have never been to this area but have heard many good things. To our surprise as we walked down the honeymoon ladders, everything was soaked. So we changed plans and hopped on what we could.
We started out on a really cool technical route call “strike a scowl.” It had some awesome position out on the point, and you could see all of Kaymoor and the mines. Afterwards we looked at “leave it to Jesus” and “Jesus and tequila”, both were kind of iffy with wetness. We walked down pass the Legacy area, it had be overrun with people and dripping water. So we hiked further down and found “aesthetica” completely open. Luckily “fantasy crack” had drew the attention of a near pack of rabid hippies. While they were busy setting up the hammocks and doing odd yoga routines. Austin and I snuck “Aesthetica.” I managed to get an awesome onsight of it, with no prior knowledge of it, other than it was just a good route. Austin was able to huck his short statured frame up past the long moves on the route.
Afterwards Alex put up the draws on “Black Happy”, which starts with pretty sharp and thin crux for 3 bolts. Then some really cool and balancy moves leads you to 2 roof section at the top. Here you need to hike up high and find the hidden holds to reach the anchors. I was close to 1 hanging the route, but got completely burn out and trying to find this mysterious hold.
We wandered further down the cliff, and Alex got on a nice adventurous crack route called “Big Gulp”. It probably hadn’t be climbed in years. A sketchy move to a sketchy flake got you established in this sketchy feeling crack, which then follow up to ledge below a roof. Feeling the need for one more climb, so we rounded the corner and hopped on a short route called “blue angel.” Tiny but neat moves led to a single bolt anchor. Now feeling burnt and tired, we called it a day and headed back to the parking lot.
The sad ending of the day was caused by the untimely crushing of my coffee cup. I hid it under the jeep before the walk in in the morning, but I had forgotten to remove it. I was even reminded multiple times. It was good mug, it had awesome but short life.
