Saturday 1^st

On this day I went to Whitestone with Josephine, Wolfgang, Toru, Moritz, Kumu and Ashley. We had a lot of fun sweating it out under a blazing sun on about half a dozen different top-roped routes. There were a couple of firsts for the day, Wolfgang got to use his own complete top-rope setup for the first time, Ashley was spending his first day on real rock, and I think it was the first time I had climbed outdoors with Kumu. We didn't see anyone else all day long.

In an effort to rediscover my lead-head I tried a couple of leads ...

The first lead was far easier than it looked and it looked like a cake-walk. Josephine belayed for me, this time making sure to keep a little slack in the line (last weekend she had short-roped me a bit) and followed up, cleaning the route. She reckoned it was 5.3 at best. Ashley, who was spending his first day on real rock (he had climbed in the gym for the first time during the week), didn't have any trouble climbing it either. So I didn't feel so wonderful about the lead.

Pointless 5.3
   FA - I wouldn't admit to it.
Boring, dull, a pile of utterly uninteresting corners to the left of Something. Don't bother, the experience may actually subtract from your skills.

To be truthful, there is little in climbing that gives me greater satisfaction than leading something a partner finds difficult (or at least tricky) to follow. The trouble is that most of my climbing partners, the ones I trust to belay me on lead, don't actually lead-climb themselves ... so I'm not certain they fully understand the mental challenges that come with this style of climbing. Consequently informed feedback is scarce. On top-rope there is little to fear (provided of course that you have someone competent with setting anchors and belaying) and you can push your climbing abilities to their limits every time. On lead (especially traditional lead), however, it can be a bloody frightening experience to find yourself at the end of your rope (so to speak). So I lead routes at least two grades below my limit in the gym. But my lead partners, who do no leading, can easily climb the routes I lead on. It's a little frustrating for me and perhaps a tad dull for them.

So, I came away from the first lead thinking that it wasn't worth doing in the first place and thinking that I had better do something decent before succumbing to the gentle world of top-rope climbing. Moritz had set up a tricky looking line near the western end of the crag and I looked up at the main crack just to the left. A few months ago, back in February on an unusually warm day, I photographed David Ross top-roping the same line I intended to try and lead ...

Locked in the John 5.6
   FA - Don't know, but I saw John Peterson lead it back in February.
At the western end of the crag start just right of an evergreen which is growing out of a fissure about 10 feet off the deck. Move up and then step between the tree and the rockface to follow a vertical crack system straight to the top. The last 20 feet is difficult to protect.

Anyway, I stepped up to the line and tried to stoke the fires of my bravado. Josephine was dithering a bit while trying to set up a belay anchor, so in the tradition of mad John Peterson I said that I would start climbing and wouldn't bother putting any pro in until she had me on belay. Of course I only got about 10 feet off the dirt and decided to wait for her to catch up, in this time I pretended to look around for a really good spot for some pro. Once I was properly on belay, and once I had placed a wired nut, I moved up over the low fold and then to the point between the evergreen (which seems to be trying to claw it's own path up the route) and the rockface where I looked for some more pro. After a short while I had worked up to the "last good ledge". Beyond which it looked like a run-out to the top. If you look at this photo of Dave, he's standing on the ledge I'm talking about, I managed to squeeze in a red tri-cam in a crack right there and then lay-back/mantle up onto the ledge. I only had about 12 to 15 feet of climbing to reach the top.

That last run-out stretch was thin and a bit nerve wracking, but it wasn't as frightening as I had thought it might be. There was (just) enough in the way of features for a non-dynamic (i.e. I didn't have to lunge or jump for anything, very scary stuff to do on lead) trot to the top. However, it was scary enough for me to let out a somewhat involuntary howl of relief once I pulled over the top. Josephine, who had given me a really good belay, again followed and cleaned the line. She did pretty good and found it interestingly tricky ... so I was further gratified. Toru tried the line too and practically ran up the thing. Sheesh. But perhaps for me the best came when Moritz, who also does a bit of leading, climbed it.

He got to that ledge where I had placed my last piece, looked up at the run out and said I was nuts. Cool.

I was satisfied, with a good lead under my belt I could relax. We moved our top-roping to a more shaded place as it had been hot as blazes on the slabs all day and spent another hour of pleasant climbing before finally heading off for home.