High Crimes!

1

Strictly From Nowhere 5.7 (pitch one only)

So we got out climbing a bit last weekend! First rock climb of the season. The juju still works!

It was surprisingly warm last weekend. We (of course) got a late start, and by the time we got up to New Paltz it was already lunchtime (mmm, tacos....) It was between going for a bike ride and going climbing. Climbing won (went for a nice bike ride on Sunday).

Let me just tell you, this has been an awful winter as far as my health... I've had a nasty upper-repertory infection-ish thing on and off all winter. Currently ON, though getting better; I was full of snot and coughing and weak on Saturday. But still...

We decided to do Strictly, a fun three-star pitch that I've done about a million times before. Hell, I've even soloed it, back in those days. I kind of wanted to start with something harder, Christine wanted to start with something easier, so we compromised. (I am deeply superstitious about my climbing: I have a deep-seated belief that the first climb of the year is a portent for how the rest of the season will go. There for I wanted to do something hard and horrible to start the season off right)

I placed gear fairly sparsely over the first three-quarters of the pitch, running it out, enjoying the sensation of moving over rock. Then I got up into the steep stuff. The last 20' or so of the route is vertical-to-overhanging. And definitely awkward: the trick is to keep moving. I pulled up onto the little pedestal that marks the beginning of the crux sequence (for the sake of argument, yes you can have a crux sequence on a 5.7); and immediately felt the rock pushing me out, off balance. Became very aware of the nut I had placed maybe 10' below; thought about what would happen if I fell and that (perfectly good) nut blew out; I'd be hitting a ledge HARD. Had to step down to place an alien. That made me feel better. Moved on upward.

The next move is the start of the REAL crux. You are standing on a tiny little platform, about 80' in the air; the rock is pushing you off balance, and the rest of the climb is overhang. I know from experience that there is (kind of tricky) gear in the overhang there; and that the hand holds get nothing but better as you move up. Fished in a nut, and two aliens into the weird little crack at chest level. (started off with just one nut: added a green alien, didn't like that so much and added a yellow-red alien hyrbid. SOMETHING's gotta hold, right?) Moved on up through the harder climbing above: it was about as easy as I remembered, and not particularly hard or terrifying. Just HYPER-aware of the fall potential, and not feeling incredibly confident about FALLING on my gear. Sigh. Scrambled up and over to the belay without incident.

Belayed Christine from the bolts on the little ledge, 100' up, next to a tiny, long-suffering little tree. (she climbed it with flying colors, no whining, no crying, no yelling at Lawrence)

Before Christine was even up to the crux, the next party started leading up. Leader was a hippy kid who had come by before when I was racking up and asked if we were on this climb (YES). Mildly annoying, but no big deal. Christine rapelled down first. I rapelled down just as hippy-leader-dude topped out. Man, I thought I ran it out! He basically skipped almost all the gear on the lower part of the climb, only put in one nut at the crux where I put in three pieces. Made me feel old and wimpy. Which is of course, silly, but there you have it.

That was all the climbing we did... it was already starting to look dark and threatening to rain. Did a bunch of socializing at the Mac Wall (I was tempted by MF, but opted for discretion as the better part of valor. Next time.) Then it DID start to rain, and we high-tailed it back to the car.