atomicAdam
09-07-2010, 11:59 AM
I did my first multi-pitch climb yesterday.
A loose alpine style crag in the San Gabriel mtns about an hour from my house. Was pretty sketch at the bottom and final pitch. Rocks breaking like mad. It was still a great time, though I'm not sure all my climbing partners agreed. Loose rock is scary.
Here are some photos. I got shut down half way up pitch two. A 10.b move and I was just not feeling like making the bike move with a new belay partner and being tired. I'll go back and get it next time. Our second team got to the last pitch, and 11.c and got shut down about 20ft from the top. Great effort on their part. 11.c is no b.s..
Here is the face we were climbing - a 10b -> 10b or 10c -> 11c or 12a.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/tunnelcrag.jpg
Here is the view to the cars from the belay ledge at the start of pitch 2.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/carsfromsecondpitchbelay.jpg
There were a lot of bikes - especially as the day went on. They were very noisy and it was hard to hear your partner when a whole pack would go by. It lead to some tense moments but no one got seriously injured so all is good. And when you are 150ft off the deck sometimes emotion flares and we all know to expect that, so we all take it with a grain of salt.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/motos.jpg
This is me chillin at the belay station of pitch 2. Probably should have just kept going instead of waiting for the second party. I got kind of burned out waiting and sun burned and wind exposure was driving me a little nuts. Plus I was getting pretty hungry, so when I bailed at the middle of pitch 2 - on a bump with a sweet right hand under cling but nothing above it - I wasn't motivate after failed attempt 3 to find another way. Came down and let my partner try. We both bailed an rapped down for food and water after that, and to encourage our friends to keep going up. You can just barely see them on the full face image above.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/waitingonsecondpitch.jpg
This is chuck finishing up pitch 1. It is rated a 10.b we think, but really just a 10.a or hard 5.9 with some crimper at the last two bolts.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/chuckonpitchone-neartop.jpg
Here is the travers and ledge for the belay at pitch 2. Surprisingly it felt safer than the ledge at the start of pitch two. Yes 100+ ft in the air on a 12-18inch wide shelf - but the anchors were solid and it was pretty flat. So we chilled there for a while waiting for team 2 to come up. It was fun when convertibles would drive by cause we'd yell at them and the people would be all lookin around for someone and found no one. The roadies were more fun to tease though. Being on road bikes they could easier look up. Pedal harder SUCKERS!
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/secondpitchtravers.jpg
We all got off the face fine and had some Stone IPA on the way home. Good stuff.
A loose alpine style crag in the San Gabriel mtns about an hour from my house. Was pretty sketch at the bottom and final pitch. Rocks breaking like mad. It was still a great time, though I'm not sure all my climbing partners agreed. Loose rock is scary.
Here are some photos. I got shut down half way up pitch two. A 10.b move and I was just not feeling like making the bike move with a new belay partner and being tired. I'll go back and get it next time. Our second team got to the last pitch, and 11.c and got shut down about 20ft from the top. Great effort on their part. 11.c is no b.s..
Here is the face we were climbing - a 10b -> 10b or 10c -> 11c or 12a.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/tunnelcrag.jpg
Here is the view to the cars from the belay ledge at the start of pitch 2.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/carsfromsecondpitchbelay.jpg
There were a lot of bikes - especially as the day went on. They were very noisy and it was hard to hear your partner when a whole pack would go by. It lead to some tense moments but no one got seriously injured so all is good. And when you are 150ft off the deck sometimes emotion flares and we all know to expect that, so we all take it with a grain of salt.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/motos.jpg
This is me chillin at the belay station of pitch 2. Probably should have just kept going instead of waiting for the second party. I got kind of burned out waiting and sun burned and wind exposure was driving me a little nuts. Plus I was getting pretty hungry, so when I bailed at the middle of pitch 2 - on a bump with a sweet right hand under cling but nothing above it - I wasn't motivate after failed attempt 3 to find another way. Came down and let my partner try. We both bailed an rapped down for food and water after that, and to encourage our friends to keep going up. You can just barely see them on the full face image above.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/waitingonsecondpitch.jpg
This is chuck finishing up pitch 1. It is rated a 10.b we think, but really just a 10.a or hard 5.9 with some crimper at the last two bolts.
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/chuckonpitchone-neartop.jpg
Here is the travers and ledge for the belay at pitch 2. Surprisingly it felt safer than the ledge at the start of pitch two. Yes 100+ ft in the air on a 12-18inch wide shelf - but the anchors were solid and it was pretty flat. So we chilled there for a while waiting for team 2 to come up. It was fun when convertibles would drive by cause we'd yell at them and the people would be all lookin around for someone and found no one. The roadies were more fun to tease though. Being on road bikes they could easier look up. Pedal harder SUCKERS!
http://gallery.audioreview.com/data/audio//500/medium/secondpitchtravers.jpg
We all got off the face fine and had some Stone IPA on the way home. Good stuff.