Women climb Red Wing

Yesterday Katie and I met Sandy at Red Wing. I had met Sandy last fall at Taylors Falls; she and her climbing partner Eugene had come up from Chicago to experience the basalt wonder of Interstate Park. Shawn and I got to chatting with them and Sandy and I had exchanged email addresses. I had been in contact with her sporadically, but recently we had been trying to engineer a climbing rendezvous.

Katie and I got there first because Sandy got a bit lost on the way from her campsite near Cannon Falls. We warmed up on Cinq Jours D'Afille (5.7), and when Sandy found us we got on Micro Balls (5.9+). I had climbed it once or twice before, and remembered well the awkwardness of certain parts. I was gratified to see that Sandy found it awkward, too. It has all the downsides of a Red Wing climb (polished, slippery holds, dirty ledges, tiny polished footholds, lack of friction) with none of the upsides. From that we moved to Annadonia (5.11b). Thanks to climbing it with Shawn the weekend before I remembered the difficult sequence at the beginning. I had one hang before the top crux, and then moved through the powerful crimps to grab the chains in triumph. We each ended up climbing it twice, because I wanted to try the alternate, easier finish and Katie and Sandy both wanted to work through the bottom crux.

Then we moved down to No Whippin Boys (5.10), possibly my favorite climb at Red Wing, and I led it with one hang. Not bad, but I know I can do it clean. I just have fears about gear blowing out and it makes me timid. Katie and Sandy toproped it. Then Katie and I both toproped Prairie Fire (5.10c), which shares anchors with No Whippin Boys, and Sandy boldly decided to lead it with the first bolt pre-clipped. She had carefully watched our sequence through the crux. It is, incidentally, a pretty intense climb; getting to the first bolt requires the use of a very polished foothold, and the landing is not good if you blow the sequence. Getting from the first bolt to the second is perhaps the real crux of the route; the key for me is a tiny foot pebble that allows me to move off two bad crimps. That allows me to throw my left foot into the large dish and stand up to grab the next two crimps - bad, but not as bad. Those allow me to work my feet up to the crimps that my hands had been on. Damn good climb. After Sandy led it I decided I had to, also. So I did. Major happiness. Katie and I both climbed No Whippin Boys a second time. Love it.

By then we were all tired and it was after 5 p.m. We wandered down to the sunny side so we could point out climbs to Sandy. Found some guys who were finishing up on Foreign Affairs (5.10d), and they put our rope up on it. So we got one last climb to complete the exhaustion! Hard climb. I want to lead it someday. Not yet. And not when I'm already tired.