I must be getting soft. Really soft. I'm actually enjoying this. I'm eight feet up a 5.1 slab crack and soloing beside Wolfgang who is on his very first lead. He's on a face-route, four feet to my left, which is probably 5.2 or 5.3 and only about 30 feet long. It's the perfect class-room to introduce him to placing lead gear with real intent. He's doing fine too, the first part is an unprotected lift to 10 feet, it's not difficult but I know that he knows he isn't on top-rope now. But he's still cool as a cucumber.

As he sets himself on the narrow ledge and looks at a perfect horizontal crack right in front of him (you know, the sort that has the "come-hither" look that tcu's and tricams cannot resist), I step across and stand next to him and watch as he makes his selection from the full rack (and he's got everything, even my #4 camalot) I made him drag up here. He puts something in, gives it a bit of a test and then allows me to give it some inspection. It looks fine and so I step back to the neighbouring route to let him move on. He pulls upward to the next ledge and tells me that he's really enjoying the climb. Me too. Another piece goes in, gets tested, checked and then he continues. The third and last piece is purely for the sake of practise. Wolfgang pulls over the top and I join him. I get Wolfgang to set up a fast anchor (cordalette girth-hitched to the base of a sturdy tree), get him to clip in and then show him how to set up and use the autolocking gi-gi to belay for Lu as she cleans the route.

Everything went so smoothly that the others (Lu, Toru and then Josephine) took their turn doing a lead with only minimal encouragement from myself. So I found myself repeatedly soloing up and down that little slab as my friends all finally made their first leads. Actually, for Lu it was her second lead ... her first one had been an unprotected friction ascent to the first bolts of Standard Direct on Whitehorse Ledge up in New Hampshire's White Mountains ... but this was the first time she placed gear. Toru has been climbing on real rock since May, this was only his third day out, but he acquitted himself masterfully. I learned recently that Toru is a bit shy of letting his parents learn that he rock-climbs, I bet he never tells them about this. I made Josephine place gear with only one hand, but this didn't slow her down in the slightest. They each learned how to put in tricams and camalots, what appropriate gear-size actually entailed, why a sling is used between piece and rope, why it was important to clip the rope in this way and not that way, and how to anticipate a placement failing a tug-test. It was really enjoyable.

When it was over I left Wolfgang and Lu to set up a top-rope anchor and dragged Toru and Josephine away to do my own lead climb elsewhere. Natasha's son Ilya had been endlessly badgering me to let him try a lead also ... and when that failed he begged me to let him "nut-pick" (i.e. clean a route) instead. I had been a bit annoyed by his behaviour. My friends were trying something risky for the first time and he was constantly calling up at us. But he's just a kid and I've got experience ... thanks to John Peterson ... climbing with annoying kids before. Kids are kids and there isn't much you can do about it. So I suddenly announced that ok, Ilya could "nut-pick" for a lead of my own ... but I wanted to do something bigger and harder than what my friends were training on. We moved on around to a larger slab, one that had a big fold right in the middle of it which looked to be (for me) a difficult, but perhaps not impossible, crux. Natasha was a little concerned that I would climb something that her son could not, but I had a trick or two up my sleeve, he would be able to follow me ... even in his sneakers. Josephine handed me all the gear and Toru put me on belay (another first, he's never belayed a leader before ... but he's seen it done and knows what's involved, so I was unconcerned). I gave Ilya my nut-pick and a hex (to use like a hammer) and while Josephine showed him how to use it I got myself ready for the lead.

The route I wanted to follow went up the main face and more-or-less straight over the fold, it was maybe 50 feet at most. I could see on the right side (near the big corner) there was a nice side-pull I could use if I couldn't get up any other way. So when all was set I went up feeling pretty confident. The first section is dead easy, just a low-angle slab like what my friends had been practising their leads on, so I reached the big fold pretty quickly. On the way I put in an alien in a nice horizontal crack and then at the base of the fold I put in a small camalot. At the fold I searched for an easy route directly over it, but it looked like a fairly serious business, so I downclimbed back to my piece and wondered what to do. Natasha was suggesting that I follow the fold left as it seemed to arc upwards in that direction. Besides, it might be easier for Ilya to follow that line. Instead I remembered the side-pull to the right and said that if I could go over that, then Ilya could use the corner nearby. This seemed to be ok with everyone. The side-pull made things very easy for me and I was over the fold pretty quickly. I placed another alien in a nearby crack, close enough to the corner so that Ilya would be able to use it even if he slipped below the fold. The rest was a simple run-out to the top, trying to make the climb something of a challenge for myself I decided against placing further protection. It was an easy romp, I just had to make it mistake-free and I would be fine. Of course all went well (I did say it was easy) and I pulled over the top. I quickly set a belay anchor and called down for the others to tie Ilya into the rope.

The boy climbed very well. He removed the triggered protection I had used (and thus, alas, didn't actually get to "nut-pick" anything) and managed to climb most of the way without any assistance. He did use the corner and I did give him an occasional tension to haul against. But given that he was in sneakers and that this was principally a friction climb ... Ilya can be well pleased with himself. Toru followed next and climbed it very quickly. Natasha also followed and we were all (Josephine had wandered back to help Wolfgang and Lu with the top-rope anchor) soon basking in the sun. It had been a very nice climb.

We spent the last hour flailing on a desperately overhanging torture piece. What fun!