My Outdoor Climbs

I can probably be considered a 'Gym Rat', since I spend ~10 hours a week climbing there. But when summer hits, and I can't snowboard anymore, I really enjoy going outdoors and doing some 'real' climbing, on real stone.

Here is a list of the outdoor climbs I have done, since I started climbing.

Tuolumne Meadows

7/12/97

River Wall

Boat Party 5.9 (TR) Setting the Top Rope on this one was a major bitch. The climb was quite thin, but not exposed at all. Lotsa mosquitoes.
??? 5.9 (TR) Same Top Rope. Not sure what this was...The mosquitoes, and the 2.5 hours it took us to find the wall, caused us to bail at this point.

7/13/97

Daff Dome - South Flank

Alimony Cracks 5.8+ (S) Horler led this climb, which we could have completed as a single pitch, but we turned it into a 2-pitch climb. Went second, up a beautiful crack traversing left. Had major problems removing one of my brand new FCUs, and left it (a nice guy, who was climbing next to us, retrieved it later in the day).

Honeymoon's Over 5.8 (TR) Horler had led this one as well, and we top-roped a nice crack here as well. Nice climb.

Castle Rock

8/10/97

Goat Rock

Lunge Route 5.8 Variation (TR) Took an easy variation on this.To the left of the main attraction:
Great Roof 5.6/5.10a (TR) A huge move at the end makes this a 10a. Didn't even make it to the cave at the top, before the 'big' move. Freaked out, coz of the exposure... Then, they wouldn't let me down, except to take the plunge. No down climbing. I finally convinced Scotty to let me down climb a little before jumping off.

Billy Goat

All 5.9/5.11/5.10a (TR) Tried all the routes on Billy Goat, and I couldn't get up any of them. Sigh!!!

The Waterfalls

The Waterfalls 5.8 (TR) A longish (~100ft) thin 5.8 (5.10) if you start at the very bottom. Way dehydrated, so I hung on this one (5-10 times).

Owens River Gorge

8/30/97

Negress Wall

High Seas 5.7 (TR) Very easy.
Crowd Pleaser 5.8 (TR). Also very easy. Good confidence builders.

Great Wall of China

Attempted a 5.10a (TR) No Dice. Made 2 moves and got stuck.

Negress Wall

High Seas 5.7 (L). My very first lead ever!!!!! I'm psyched!

8/31/97 (The one-rope day)

Lower Elbow Room

Stella 5.8 (L). My second lead. ~20ft between bolts 6 and 7, but very slappy at that point.
Frank 5.9 (L). Interesting. Definitely a little scary in places... First bolt pre-clipped, due to our lack of real pro.

Gorgeous Towers

Giveaway 5.9 (L). First clip was a bitch. Was pre-clipped for me... Hung on the first 4 bolts. Very tired.

9/1/97

Lower Elbow Room

Stella 5.8 (L). Nice warm-up lead... God, I sound condescending already.

Upper Elbow Room

Post Partem 5.10a (TR). An amazing climb!!! A long, steep, narrow ledge, that turns into some exposed face climbing, with long traverses... I'm amazed at Horler, for being able to lead this sucker. Hung twice.
Induced Labor 5.10d (TR) 2/3's of the way up. Amazing liebacks on a beautiful flake. Hung and was pulled up to the flake, and then bailed.

Red Rocks, NV

10/24/97

Mass Production Wall

Parts is Parts 5.8 (L). Very easy, but the wind was stiff, and the temperature was low. Very cold.
Battery Powered 5.9 (L). An easy 9 as well. Horler had gotten into a bad mental state, and was unable to complete the climb, after 4 bolts. I finished the rest. The wind was pretty bad this time as well.
Hit and Run 5.9 (L). Woooaahh! Very, very scary! The first bolt is useless (~7 feet up), the second is OK (another ~6 ft), but the third is very run out, probably about 20 ft. There was no screwing up on that one, or you were close to a ground fall... The rest was easy, but well varied climbing. This red-point was not taped... Bummer!

10/25/97

The Magic Bus

Neon Sunset 5.8 (L). An easy lead. Only scary part, was when I got to the top, expecting open cold-shuts for the anchor, and finding a set of chains. Had to unclip one bolt, and move it up, to have anything to secure myself into the anchor with... I'll read the descriptions better, the next time. This route is overprotected, in my opinion.
Technicolor Sunrise 5.8 (L). Another easy lead. Got up there, and hung out with Hanne's camera, to take pictures of Horler as he went up.
Electric Koolaid 5.9+ (L). Another easy one. This one's all the way on the left side of the wall. It shares an anchor with the 5.10- (see below), and of course Horler and I both reached the top at the same time. Setting that anchor was awkward to say the least. The book doesn't mention the bolts that are placed on this route...
Blonde Dwarf 5.10- (TR). Everyone was really surprised about this one being rated 10-... Felt more like a 5.6. A total ladder takes you to a couple of bolts to the right of the 5.9, and then to the same anchor. Very easy. Didn't lead it, because it required placing pro. Didn't feel that I was skilled enough to do that.

10/26/97

Black Velvet Canyon

Frogland 5.8- 7 Pitches. This 840' climb sits on the shady side of a beautiful sandstone formation, and has only one pitch which is 5.8-. This is a trad-climbing route, with a few tin-foil bolts stuck in here and there. Jan and I were climbing together, and Hanne, Horler and Lars were in the second team. We started climbing at 12 noon.

P1 5.7 (S); 140'. Jan took his time setting the pro, and making sure it would work, if he should take a fall. We were at the top of the pitch in about 75 minutes. The belay from the ground was very easy, and the climb (with a full pack; Ugh!) was beautiful, and very varied, with a little power required on a crack, as well as a nice slappy ledge, a couple of dihedrals, and a few other goodies. The 3-person team was right on our tail, mainly because Horler was leading a lot faster than Jan. Another 15 minute break (so, it's 1:30pm), and then...
P2 5.6 (S); 150'. Jan did the lead, again cautiously setting excellent pro, and taking his time. The belay was off a large bushy ledge, with great trees for anchoring. The climb was very nice, giving me the chance to do some off-width climbing in a large chimney. The backpack made things a little more interesting. The variety was great again: traversing, stemming, and face climbing made it a great experience. This pitch also took 75 minutes. (we're now at 2:45pm; do you sense a pattern here?) At this point I had started airing the idea of rapping off the second pitch, but Jan wouldn't hear of it. Yet.
P3 5.6 (didn't climb); 150'. Jan started to lead, just as Horler came up to the belay station. We had major issues with rope drag, and Jan had to down climb 20 or 30' twice, to clear the rope. This slowed his ascent even more. I made a mistake, in telling Jan that he was below the belay station, when he was in fact, standing on it. I misread the topo, and that combined with the fact that Jan had only dragged out about 100' of rope, lead me to believe that he would have to move further up. This meant that he moved further up, and had to set up an anchor where there really wasn't supposed to be one.
Descent: At this point it was 3:40pm, and I was becoming adamant that we rappel off, because the sun would set in less than an hour. It was decided that Horler would follow Jan (because he was more bummed, that we weren't gonna complete the climb than I was) and drag a second rope up, to avoid any of the rope-wedging problems we were having earlier. They would then rap off these ropes, and we would all rap off in quick succession. Everyone was on the ground at 4:50pm, at which point we had the last inklings of dusk. Very dark! The walk-off was not a pretty sight. We lost sight of the path many times, but eventually made it to the car.

Mount St. Helena, CA

Mark, Lars and I went up to Napa, on a Sunday morning, with the weather having trouble deciding what to do. One minute it was sunny and warm, and the next, it was windy and cold. Quite a long hike up the mountain, through some switchbacks, to a fire road, and then a small path, to the formation called 'The Far Side'.

5/10/98

The Far Side

Unnamed (#1 on map) 5.9 (L). My first outdoor climb of the season! Leading this 5.9 was fairly easy, but the exposure needed some getting used to. It's not the same as in the gym. Quite far between the bolts.
Unnamed (#3 on map) 5.9 (L). The thought of taking a drop on this climb was not pleasant... There were 3 bolts (plus the anchors), and the climb is about 70'. I was especially high on adrenaline, just prior to clipping the 3rd bolt, which is quite exposed, and hard to reach, considering that I had jammed myself into a large crack, and I needed to get out on to the face of the climb. Made it, though...
Unnamed (#2 on map) 5.10 (TR). There were only a couple of 5.10 moves on this climb, which is off the same anchor as the one above, but more to the right, and on the face.
Unnamed (#6 on map) 5.10 (TR). Mark moved the anchor to the anchor for this, and rapped off it. I went last, and was having a bit of trouble with a section where I thought I could (and was urged to) face climb, instead of traversing over to an arete, and climbing the arete. A little tired. Cleaned the anchor, and walked off.

Owens River Gorge, CA

5/23/98

Great Wall of China

Tsing Tao 5.10a (L). Kind of a tall order as the first climb of the day, but the crowding sort of forced us to go with this one. Luckily the starting moves were pretty easy. This is a 4-star climb, and it has some very nice moves on it.
China Doll 5.8 (L). A very easy 5.8. Rescued a locking biner from some folks from the gym. They had left it up there, as an additional safety measure, while top-roping it.

Emergency Room

Show Us Your Tits 5.10b (L). Awesome!! Just awesome!!! 10 bolts... Scotty did the first lead, since I had done the first on all the others, and didn't want to hog it. So I went up to the 8th bolt, and I was completely pumped. Hung on bolts 8, 9, and 10, before topping out. Elated! An awesome climb, that traverses across a vertical face, and makes you focus on your feet. Back to the gym for endurance training...

Great Wall of China

Heart of the Sun 5.9 (TR/L). Went back to the Great wall; Lars and Mark were working hard on this climb, and had all but the last bolt up, when Mark went up to get it. His arms were dying on him as he was about 6' above his last clip, and he had to fall. He took a 25' whipper, and he was screaming as he came down. He rolled slightly on the rock, as he hit the wall, so his elbow and ankle were a little scraped. Worst hit was Lars, who was pulled into the wall by Mark's larger bulk, and accelaration, slammed his knee into the rock, and re-opened his biking wound. Lotsa blood! I finished this climb without incident.

Social Platform

Nirvana 5.10a (L). This is a really nice 10a, with a thin crack that makes you do different liebacks, etc. I recommend it. Hung once.

5/24/98

Upper Elbow Room

Stella 5.8 (L). Stella again... Good warmup.
Post Partem 5.10a (L) Oooh! Scary. The fact that you're doing the ledge, makes it harder to not look out at the exposure. I did, and freaked out, just before clipping the 4th bolt. Downclimbed to the 3rd, hung out, and thought about it. Retried once, which didn't work, and then did it. After that, my mental state wasn't all that great, so I hung two more times. Topped out, after leaving a considerable amount of blood by the 5th bolt.
Induced Labor 5.10d (TR). This is the flake climb that I was pulled up, last time we were in Owens. This time I almost flashed it on Top-Rope. On the flake, there's a section of rotten rock, which I placed my foot in once, and tore off 2 pebbles, which caused me to slip off... Damn! I totally had the lower section, and had no problems with the flake, except that I slipped... Damn Damn Damn!!!

Gorgeous Towers

Giveaway 5.9 (L). Scotty did the first lead. I had the first bolt pre-clipped, to avoid the scary start. Nice route.

Triple Play Area

Snapping Pussy Doll 5.10a (L) Flashed this one, on the first lead. It's a very nice face, which makes you look for the route quite hard, because it's hard to see from the bottom. Had a few trust moves on the way up. Thank god for chalk marks.

5/25/98

Negress Wall

Crowd Pleaser 5.8 (L). This one seemed a little scary, somehow. Maybe it was the early time, the 2 days of climbing before. I don't know. Got up it without major incident, though.
Humbly, Mumbly, Jumbly 5.10a (L). Tried to clip the first bolt on my own, but couldn't do it quite right... Borrowed a clip-stick from some nice guys. Quite a nice climb, after that.

Red Rocks, NV

Mark and I met up in Vegas for this one day excursion. We had both forgotten the guide book, so we went to the 'Desert Rock' climbing store on the way to the crags. They were sold out, but then by a stroke of luck, we hooked up with Eric, from Wisconsin, who had a guide book and a rope.

10/17/98

Dog Wall

Cat Walk 5.10a (L). Did the first lead on this one. Seemed quite easy, but longer than we're used to in the gym. A really nice climb, as a start. Good moves where you must get your feet in position, before moving up.
Wok The Dog 5.7 (TR). Top-Roped this easy climb, on the far left side of the wall, using the anchor from Cat Walk. Very easy, and quite uninteresting.
It's a Bitch 5.10b (L). Went second on this one. A little more sustained, but not really a problem either. Did not use the anchor at the top, because the shuts seemed quite burned out, so we went to the anchor for Cat Walk, again. Also a very nice climb.
Cujo 5.11d (TR). Eric lead this climb, with only 1 fall. He's a very solid climber. I had major problems on this one, I hung about 8 times, I think, and I got help from my belayer, but I did get up. Very thin holds, and very long, balancy moves.