Unrepentant Geek Grrl: First day at Red Wing

Sunday I woke stiff and sore from the run on Sat. Ross and I met Micah, Jen, Everett and Brenda for breakfast at the Zumbro Cafe. Love the Zumbro. Love the company. Love the food; I was very hungry, and had eggs benedict plus much of an order of pancakes.

Then I met Katie and Kimson at Shawn's house shortly before noon, and the four of us drove down to Red Wing. The climbing at Red Wing is on once-quarried limestone cliffs at Barn Bluff, at the southern end of the city. When we pulled up to the parking area I was appalled at the number of cars there - obviously LOADS of people were climbing. We had to search for unoccupied routes to start on. And then we were joined by Adrien, a woman Katie had climbed with at the gym, so we broke into the female group of me, Katie and Adrien, and the male group of Shawn and Kimson. Us women climbed Pleasant Summer Absence, a shockingly easy 5.10, and then Vertical Vice, the hardest 5.8 in the world. It has been climbed so much that the once-useful small edges are all rounded and polished (a disadvantage of the rock at Red Wing) so I usually work my way up to the left of the bolts. I was the designated leader for the women, and felt pretty good in that role aside from some trepidation on Vertical Vice. There's a challenging move on the upper part of the route, but then the killer for the leader is the delicate traverse above the difficult move which also ends up being well above the last bolt.

So we went on from there, climbing several routes. Around 5 o'clock the crowds really thinned out and we discovered the beauty of starting late; we had the place to ourselves and the late afternoon sun coming around the bluff made everything glow.

Shawn led Prairie Fire, which is something of my nemesis, since there's one hard move I had not been able to do, and it's an intimidating lead. I toproped it and managed to do the hard move! The same anchors can be used to climb No Whippin Boys, which is a stellar finger crack - one of the rare routes at Red Wing which take trad gear (i.e. nuts and cams for protection, rather than bolts). I tried to lead it last summer and ended up leading it in the worst possible style, pulling on gear all the way and hanging repeatedly on the rope. I didn't have gear to lead it with on Sunday, but I did climb it smoothly and in control. The lead is in my future!