Get Down to Get Up
It was time for a try-hard weekend, despite conflicts and weird weather. I piled the Jeep up with gear, and drove partner-less Friday night, time dragging on slowly with podcasts and Sheetz food. As the latitude rose, the snow on the ground got deeper and my thoughts wavered. Nevertheless, I committed to meeting Alex and Austin at the ACC campground and I do not bail. While pulling into the campground and seeing the 5-6 inches of snowy-icyiness packed on the ground, I knew Lady Luck would hold all the good cards this weekend and make or break it. The question was would she call out, “Go Fish” or hand us a set?
In the morning I crawled out of the back of the Jeep to handle task number one. Alex’s new car was stuck. Apparently, he was the first one to pull into the campground since the blizzard. With a flat back tire, and floor mats, we got the bald Subi to crawl to hard ground. With NASCAR speed and agility, repairs were made, and we hit the road to the Meadow. Luck gave us a pair of sixes.
Walking down in the morning, ice was sticking on the cliffs. If the day stayed cold, it would have been a ice climbers dream. Thick and meaty daggers hung from the tops of the overhangs, but as the sun crept up into the sky they eventually let loose crushing everything below. So we picked the driest lines and dodged ice blocks as the came. It took awhile to get into the groove of things. Warming up on “Winter Harvest” was the topical and logical thing to do, so we all made quick work of the fun arête. Two lines down next to the icy waterfall, we hit up “Bust-A-Move”. The route was big, reachy, and just out of the waterfall spray. Austin made the route look easy. During my turn, I had to use my maxed out lock offs and wing span to hit the rings. Now the sun was in full force and the ices existence was soon to be limited. While climbing you would hear daggers and blocks cut off the wall about 10 feet behind you and explode on the ground. It was scarier belaying than climbing. Eventually, we became desensitized to all the noises and splatters.
I headed back to the car to change out my contacts and the warmth had changed the trail to a mud pit. When I met back up with Alex and Austin they were just wrapping up “Ghandian Dilution” near another waterfall, which was now raging. With hero roof moves and an easy but thoughtful headwall, it put a smile on my face. The line photographed really well with its position just outside of some ice drippings.
Then came the main events, Alex had his sights on “The Greatest Show on Earth” and I had my eyes on “Puppy Chow”. Alex went first and got to the roof with ease, however the one hold we thought would be good pretty good to rest on, wasn’t so much. He figured out the needed moves, and got established in the dihedral and worked up the corner smoothly. There was old fixed c3 in the crack which looked haggard and used for years. So he clipped and worked the redpoint crux. With a small whip, it popped and tossed him down to the corner on to a red x4. The route is now free of old manky gear and Lady Luck handed us some Jacks.
It was my turn, I suited up and started up “Puppy Chow.” After a quick dumb move, I missed a “BIG” pocket at the first bolt, flash was gone. Oh well, pressure was off, so I reset and went again. I cruised through the opening clips and arrived at the roof base. The roof had perma-draws extending out to the lip. Making big moves on cool flakes, I clipped them one-by-one. I arrived at the roof heuco, with surprisingly little pump and good set feet. This would be the big move for me, make or break it time. I felt ready and set out to clipped and go. Boom, the permadraw fell right out of the roof and onto me. The draw, nuts and hanger all detached from the rock. . Inspection afterwards showed that the nut had unwound itself and apparently just clipping the draw caused it to fall into my lap. During this time my brain tried to compute, “Oh shit, that’s not good, I wonder if the other ones – were they still in the rock? Okay. Should I go? No, I don’t trust these on a whip, since this one just fell out. Shit I can’t see if the others are good.” My yip and internal monologue alerted Alex, and we worked out a slow take and lower to get me to the ground. It wasn’t a send but I felt happy. I’ll take not splatting any day. Luck had graciously gave me some Ace’s.
We finished up on “Just Another Pretty Face”. This had some sweet moves getting out in the exposure zone and nice delicate tip-toe walking ledge with tiny hands. While finishing up last 15 feet, I felt a whoosh go by ear and my hair tingled. I glanced around and see a sheet of ice pour down. I let out a yelp and Alex looked up. All I think was, “oh crap. no, no. don’t hit him… okay it’s going to hit him,…hold on in-case he gets knocked out.” As it hit him, the ice exploded . He looked up and smiled. Huh, okay then that’s that. Luckily, the ice rotated flat and he curled up his neck, so the force was spread out.
Feeling that our luck was used up, we packed it in and sloshed our way to Pies and Pints for pizza and beer. We didn’t have any hard sends, but we’d rather take being lucky and healthy. Plus now, we have a couple projects at one of the best crags around.
