But only by a week or so. Went to Taylor's Falls with Shawn and Sue last weekend. Sue is a very strong climber I haven't really climbed with before; she and Shawn are going to the Tetons... actually they're on their way there right now. They had an agenda last weekend - to get in some practice aid climbing.
Aid climbing is distinguished from free climbing by the fact that you hang on every piece of protection that you place; it is a technique for ascending rock faces so sheer that they cannot be free climbed. Shawn and Sue hope to do a route that includes one 25 foot section of aid climbing. The technique is relatively straightforward, but the sequence definitely benefits from practice.
Tom, a friend of Sue's, found us at the Airconditioned/Layback Crack area, so I ended up climbing with him while Sue and Shawn did their aiding. Tom is a slightly older guy, very experienced, very mild-mannered and pleasant with much tattoos on his arms and torso. He also rides motorcycles. It turns out that he and I both have a Ducati Monster 750. We climbed Layback (the old guidebook calls it 5.7 but Tom said he thought it was easily a 5.9), and then I climbed Mantrap (5.10). Tom tried but backed off because of knee pain. Mantrap is wicked! The bottom, at least for me, involves desperate slopey slippery laybacking, and then a funky traverse under a roof. I had tried the top section before but failed; this time I pulled through to the top.
Good day, and good climbing and meeting new friendly people. Also met Jared, another friend of Sue's, and people with him. Climbing folks are usually really great people.
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