We went to the Picnic area on the Wisconsin side of Taylor's Falls. It's called the Picnic area because it is at the far southern end of the park, closest to the beach area where families gather to picnic and grill on summer days. A quick hike up a steep hill takes you to the top of the cliffs and to the very recognizable formations at the top of the climbs. As we reached the spot I groaned upon seeing a bunch of webbing and a climber flaking out a rope; I assumed that the spot was well and truly occupied and we would have to hike on. But the guy said they were almost done, and Katie and I dug out the ropes and webbing and gear and started setting anchors. As we finished our toprope setups they were tearing theirs down, and soon we were scrambling down the "easy" way to the base of the climbs.
The left rope is hanging on "Picnic crack", a very leadable 5.6 crack. In fact, after we both toproped it I pulled the rope and lead it, and then belayed Katie from the top. We then rapelled back down. She had never rapelled before, so I had the pleasure of introducing her to another essential climbing experience.
This happens to be one of the best spots for a hot summer day; shady all day with a fairly flat area for setting out gear. It can be comfy, as can be seen below. The greenish sunny area past my foot is the river.
Katie didn't realize I was taking this picture of her.
And I didn't realize she was getting in to this picture!The blue rope was hanging between two climbs; "Picnic Face" goes straight up the face at and to the left of the rope, rated 5.10, and "Picnic Right" goes up a diagonal crack out of the photo, and then up and over the tiny overhang just right of the rope. It's a committing lead; you get gear in just below the overhang, but then the next good gear spot is a ways up. I lead it once, years ago, and on the same day my friend Tracy lead it and fell from above the overhang. It was actually a sweet catch; I hardly felt the impact when my belay caught him, but it shook him quite a bit and seemed to be the beginning of his loss of interest in climbing.
After doing those routes Katie and I pulled the green rope and scrambled around the corner to "Weird Overhang". I had done this route with my friend Dave years ago; he led it, couldn't get past this weird spot below the overhang, and I climbed up and finished the lead. This time I was going to do the entire lead. I was being kind of wimpy, taking my time and doubling up my pro. The awkward spot is in a flaring corner; you have to pull up and into the flaring corner, and then the left wall of the corner falls away into a sloping ledge. A sloping ledge may sound easy to climb on to, but the only foothold to get onto the ledge is a small, triangular spot in the corner, and the hand sequence is tricky; a righthand crimp allows you to grab a sidepull above the ledge with your left, and then by folding your torso over the ledge you can reach a good solid crack with your right. Then you can place protection in this crack (from this somewhat strenuous position) or a bold climber might make the move to get a foot up on the ledge before placing pro. I was not that bold climber; I tried a couple of overly large cams in the crack, and then had to downclimb to get the proper size cam from the other side of my harness. Then, however, it was cake.
Once you're on the sloping ledge you're actually squeezing into the space below the overhang. Swing out around the left end of it and up the wide, easy crack, and you're done. I threw a couple of cams into cracks at the top, tied off a tree root, and belayed Katie up. After feeling a little wimpy about my ascent I was made to feel like a hero as she groaned and gasped, said "I don't think I can do this" at the hard spot, and finally finished it off. When she came over the top she said, "You're a rock star." I dissembled and preened.
We finished off by rapelling the blue line, climbing it again, and hauling our packs to the top. An excellent day with plenty of climbing.
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