Well, post of shame.
hiked up to Afroman this weekend intending to fix to 4. Man was that pack heavy on my back – was getting 250′ or so on the uphill before I had to stop for a breather, stupid heavy beaks. Got through pitch 1 fine with a bit of groveling through spiny weeds at the midway point of pitch 1 and then a bit of sketchy dirt scrambling to move from the first anchor bolts tot he second anchor bolts at the base of the 2nd pitch. Joyfully, there was a steady seeping drip of water directly onto the start of the second pitch, getting my ropes wet but onwards and upwards until i got halfway through the second A3 heads pitch and got stuck right on a detached block. Couldn’t figure out what to do and/or wasn’t willing to do some other stuff based upon my desire to not fall, god no, no falling. nested some nuts and lowered back to the anchor and rapped in shame.
I feel like there was perhaps a head placement that i didn’t want to make because I knew I could get a marginal grey/purple metolius offset in it but had already placed both of them lower, really I was done and pissed at the constant dripping (big drops) that was coming down on top of me. Plus, I couldn’t see the next obvious placement before the fixed head that would allow me to pendulum into the jungle (wasn’t looking forward to that either) so I confess, I lost heart, again. Whatever. Down I went and down I hiked.
Luckily my flask of bourbon was not judgmental of me when I got to Hardin Flats.
Hoping to get some more climbing in, On sunday I headed up to El Cap to climb Outer Negative A3. Super hot. Thin stuff and I reached a section before the first hook and rivet. It looked like it would accept an arrow straight up. Standing on a #2 pecker above a #1 Tomahawk I started to drive it and noticed two things, it rang twice then changed pitch drastically, at the same time i noticed a hairline fracture moving all along the breadbasket-sized flake. Did I mention it was hot? Also, earlier, a couple of climbers were walking down the trail and when they tried to go under my rope, it got caught between his pack and head. Instead of backing out, he kept moving forward, effectively pulling me down each time he tried to go forward. Not confidence inspiring to be focusing on going up when something starts to yank you back down to your third step.
Anywho, I was done, didn’t want to deal with a fractured flake and so down aiding i went until i hit the ground. Hiked back to the car and headed home.
Not the best weekend, but I forced myself from time to time to look at the surroundings around me and appreciate where I was so that was cool. Think I’ll do a few easier clean walls next so I don’t have to carry as much weight.
I learned 2 things
1. (well this is more remember, than learn) after you retreat from a point on the route (or at least after the fear goes away) your mind gives all sorts of wonderful solutions that were missing on the wall. Way to go mind, now I know what to do next time, maybe
2. I have done enough A3 pitches to know that I can climb A3 and I have climbed enough A3 pitches to know that I can’t climb A3.
