I began this week on Monday climbing at Harrison South. I had not had a rest day from the previous day at Metcalfe Rock, so I drugged myself up suitably with Tylenol.
On the way, we met Mark and his friend Gord. Apparently Mark is a fairly experienced climber who climbs quite often with Bob and Neil, who Chris knows quite well. Anyway, we decided to try top-roping two potential routes. The first will have to wait for a better climber than Mark or Chris (I didn’t bother trying it), but the second showed a lot of potential. I worked my way partway up a variation on the chosen line, but the problems on it are really a higher grade than I could manage that day. We ended up leaving quite late after the sun went down.
On Wednesday, we had another relatively light day of climbing at West Rocks in Owen Sound. We did our usual warm up on Happy Face, Chris lead it, I top-roped it, placing gear on the way, and he cleaned the gear and examined the placement. He then lowered down, pulled the rope, and asked me if I was going to lead it now. I kind of hummed and hawed, but ultimately decided to give it a go. I actually performed surprisingly well, until I got to the last section with very thin feet and a bit of a runout. I climbed and downclimbed a few times before finally asking to be lowered from my last piece. It was a bit disappointing not to send the route, but I still left feeling somewhat accomplished. I think the next time I go I will have to give it another shot on lead.
We then decided to move left to another route I had never tried before. It was a fun route, but apparently the pro was pretty difficult and spaced out in sections. We decided to head home after completing that route.
Yesterday, we decided to head out to Cape Croker. This was Chris’ first time, so I was somewhat anxious that his first time on my favourite crag be a good one. Despite the long weekend, it was surprising quite at the crag. When we arrived, there was only one other couple from Barrie climbing Insatiable Mandingo. Unfortunately, peace was not to be had, as the park itself was busy, and the noise from the beach carried to the base of the cliff very well. We got on Garden Party to warm up. It’s not a terribly challenging climb and I find it rather unenjoyable as far as routes at Cape Croker go.
We moved on to October, a trad route with a 5.10b grade. Chris managed to flash it, though he didn’t enjoy the route that much, despite its two star rating. I enjoyed it immensely on top-rope. It was chock-full of unique movement, and was just challenging enough to be enjoyable.
We then got on Isolated Beauty, one of my favourite climbs at Cape Croker, with a crux that I still haven’t really worked out yet. Neither of us wished to setup a top-rope, so Chris decided to start leading the route. He got to the third bolt at the lip of the roof before the crux, and then got completely shot down. I mentioned the beta I had used in the past, but he was unable to find one of the holds. Finally he lowered, and I climbed up to try that section. I managed to find the holds I used, but was unable to use the same beta as before, so I decided to move for a crimp instead, leading to what I recall was a fairly positive ledge. Unfortunately I slipped and fell, and decided that was that for the route for the day. The two pockets I work of are extremely sharp, so it’s difficult to spend a lot of time on the crux. Chris then returned and using my beta, he was eventually able to get past the crux; however, he was unable to exit it properly, and ended up being stuck with no holds to move to and unable to clip the next bolt. Suffice to say, he eventually fell and decided to try the crux again with some slightly different beta, but the sharp pockets were too much and we eventually left the route. Chris was a little put off by how painful Isolated Beauty was. Personally, I think it’s the sort of route you can only really give two or three shots at before leaving it for another day because of the painful holds.
I convinced Chris he should get on Ivy League, the one route that I was fairly sure he would have an affinity to. On impulse, I decided I wanted to lead the route. Realistically I knew I hadn’t worked out the crux yet, but I had the section leading to the crux quite solid the last time. I tied in and started climbing. The bolts are actually fairly spaced on the route, and there was probably groundfall potential between the first and second bolt, and the first bolt was quite high off the ground as well. Nevertheless, I clipped the first bolt no problem, and then assessed the next section for the necessary beta. I was a little sketched out by the spacing, but decided to go for it, made the next clip and moved directly into the beginning of the crux. It starts by moving across through some fairly powerful sidepulls into an undercling, from which you get some high smearing feet, and move up to a fairly positive ledge, and then move back across again, on practically nonexistant feet. I knews the beta for the first part, but was usually too pumped by time I got to the second traverse to give it much of a serious go. Anyway, the first time I just went to the undercling, and then retreated back into a take, but Chris goded me on to give it another go, so I worked my way further into the crux before pumping out and falling. It was nice to actually move into that position knowing I was going to fall and just accepting the fact. After I lowered off, Chris got on the route, and discovered how beautiful the route is, and also how challenging it is. With lots of rests, he eventually made it to the top and the cleaned the route. I was nice to leave knowing that he had something he wanted to return for.
Partway through our effort on Isolated Beauty, these two guys showed up, obviously knew to the crag and looking for something easy to set for the two girls accompanying them. I mentioned what some of the grades were, so that they had an idea and wouldn’t set them up on something they would be totally frustrated with, to which I got the response that they had no problem with 5.10s and 11s, but they were just worried about the girls. I shrugged and let them be, but my eyebrows did raise a little when the one guy set his eyes on what I believe was a 5.12 and decided to set a top-rope on the route for himself and the other guy. By the time he started rappelling, we were already working on Ivy League. As I belayed Chris, a drama unfolded beside us. The guy seemed to really be fumbling around and I wasn’t too sure he actually knew what he was doing. I gathered in overhearing their conversation (it could hardly be helped since it was mostly at the top of their lungs) that he was rappelling of a rope that had been tension hitched to the tree at the top. This seemed a little bit odd to me, but I suppose there was no problem with this. Anyway, once he had set the rope in through the rappel rings (not really kosher, but I guess it made sense in this case), he started lowering again, before he realized he wouldn’t make it to the bottom since he basically only had a third of the rope to rappel with since it was still hitched to the tree at the top at the halfway point. He started furiously yelling for his partner to untie the rope, but his partner was stuck in the middle of setting up an anchor for the other group. Finally after several minutes, the other guy untied the rope and the rappelling guy got to the bottom. When the other guy finally showed up from walking down to the base, the rappelling guy just bit into them and they got into a rather heated yelling match and it sounded like they might not climb at all. They must have settled things between them though, because eventually the rappelling guy started climbing. It wasn’t long before he was completely owned by the route. Instead of conceding, he started using the bolt hangers as aid, hooking his finger into them! Fortunately he was on a top-rope and it was slightly less risky than falling on lead with a finger in a hanger, but still, he could have very likely left with a broken finger, if not have his finger ripped off entirely depending on the situation. Chris and I decided it would be prudent to leave. We were already pumped, and decided that this was only a disaster waiting to happen.
Filed under: Climbing | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cape Croker, Harrison South, Owen Sound, Sport, Trad, West Rocks
No Responses Yet to “I’m a trad leader? Maybe not quite.”