Thursday 19^th

On a dull afternoon at work I got an email from John Peterson … meet me at Sleeping Giant … 6pm … Weissner's Rib … end transmission.

Weissner's Rib? I thought dully, that was kicking over a few neurons. Holy cow.

Last year, when Leon and I were just starting to lead climb, Weissner's Rib was the very first route we discussed doing. Back in the 1930's this climb was established by a German-American called Fritz Wiessner. The same guy who would almost succeed in climbing to the top of the Karakorum's K2 in that same decade, getting within a thousand feet of the summit (28 250 feet) before running out of time.

I fired off a reply to John as fast as possible. Yes!

Leon and I had tried to find Weissner's Rib on about half a dozen occasions. We thought that we had never found it; accurate information about climbs on the Sleeping Giant's chin was pretty hard to get. As it turns out, we had actually climbed the first half of Weissner's before wandering off route on only our second try, in August 2000. But I wouldn't find that out until today.

I pulled into the car park just before six. Pretty soon John rocked up in his little station wagon and another guy wandered over to greet him. John introduced me to Gary (who was making his first visit to Sleeping Giant), then we grabbed our stuff and hiked it in along the white trail to the chin. It was a really nice afternoon, having been sunny all day it was relatively warm too. We struggled up the scree-field towards the base.

"This is the problem with bringing a younger climber." John noted to Gary as they worked their way up the scree.

From up ahead of them I grinned and called back. "You should have made me carry the rope." I wasn't feeling very young though, but with the sun heading for bed we couldn't dawdle too long.

John shepherded us up to a small ledge which marked the start of "Weissner's Rib" (5.6) and I realized that I had been here before. This was the site of my second lead climb. It was the climb I did with both Leon and Leila. The only one we all did together here at Sleeping Giant. So it was Weissner's!

John is fast. Damn fast! I was supposed to belay him, but he was up on the wall before I had even finished putting on my shoes. At least I was ready by the time he put in his first piece. He kept up an occasional commentary, noting back to Gary and I where the tricky spots where and what to do when we got there.

Gary, as far as I could tell, is an avid climber and while he hadn't started leading yet was almost ready to give it a go. He had done quite a bit of seconding and had followed for Chauvin up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire on a few occasions. He talked about moving to Tucson in the near future, and spoke with some feeling about the climbing and hiking and biking that is available in the area. Like almost every climber I have met so far, Gary is a friendly bloke. So it was pretty cool to chat with him while John marched up to the first belay.

We only had a single 60-meter rope with us, so John deliberately split the climb into two pitches and said that I should tie in at the mid-point of the rope. That was fine with me, part of what I really like about climbing is when you stop on a ledge at the end of a pitch and use the chance to look about from a rarely visited perch. The perspective is totally different.

Anyway, I followed up, vividly remembering when I led this line myself last year. Wow, that had been my second-ever lead too … I must have been nuts! I passed the spot where I had stopped, John had gone further up, and saw where our path back then diverged (going right) from the route John was following. I continued on to the layback crack while John explained that he has spent years trying to clean it out, and only one determined little weed remained. I yanked at it a bit, but it certainly had a good grip. After the layback I entered what was new territory for me, as the line continued up and a little left along a beautiful hand-crack. John was sitting on a big ledge, smiling and encouraging me along.

I got up and onto the ledge, went to the back and waited for Gary. I didn't see his ascent, but he seemed to have had fun getting up to the top of the pitch. While he was making his way up John asked me if I wanted to lead the next pitch. My lead head was still rattled I guess, so I was less than enthusiastic.

"Maybe if I brought my rack." Which is code for, No-John-I-am-too-chicken.

After Gary got up and clipped in we organized for John to finish the lead, he was going to follow it to just right of the ar๊te which forms the rib of "Weissner's Rib". John also pointed out the 5.9 variant on the left side. He moved up pretty smoothly, taking the time to tell us about a couple of loose blocks, one we could avoid and one we couldn't. He also pointed out an old pin Gary and I resumed our conversation.

Well, the rest can be pretty much taken as read. I followed up, then Gary. We high-fived and shook hands at the top. There was still plenty of light and we all felt pretty good. John even gave me a chance to top-rope the 5.9 variant of the second pitch, which I did.

Fantastic.