Boulder Rock Club Report

Went to the BRC early today because I thought I had a meeting at 1 p.m., but I
guess not...

Anyway, I climbed with Steve Merschel. He's a friend of Jeb's (my cycling buddy)
and quite a load as he packs a duece. I warmed up on a 5.9 and then onsighted
a 5.10+ that I knew was hard and had the beta on the crux. So I guess that's
a beta flash and not an onsight.

I then went to my 11c project and hung on the second bolt (I skip the first clip
so this is my first piece of pro). I was disappointed because I had climbed
higher on Wed. But I did send the route from there without any more hangs.
I tried it again and got within one hold of clipping the third bolt, but fell and
was hanging from the same bolt again. I sent the route from there again.

The crux move is grabbing this small vertically oriented hold over a 1-foot
roof (the route overhangs the entire way, but gently). To really grab this
hold I need to pinch it a bit and that was hurting my left thumb badly. I
decided that wasn't in the best interest of my thumb and moved on to the
5.12 route on the Mary Jane Wall.

This overhangs the entire way and there are no features to help out. It
starts with a hard boulder problem, but I think I have it down now. I get
up to the second bolt clip, then I ran it the third bolt, figured the next
hold was better for clipping but was wrong. I fell nearly to the ground
because Steve believes in very soft catches. I hung and then went
again, this time clipping from the two-finger pocket a bit lower. I went
clear to the upper crux and fell off again. Then I finished the route.
Alright. Just two hangs.

On my next try I got up to the fourth clip, but couldn't clip and, once again,
nearly fell to the ground. Exciting stuff with big soft catches by Steve.
I hung and then made it nearly to the top before peeling off for another
grand fall. So, I did the route with two hangs again, but nearly one hang
and I'm getting further up the route on the first hang. I'll get both of
these next week, I hope. I have three days to get it done...

I eventually talked Steve into trying a 5.10 and he hung on the thing
for 20+ minutes. I was about to just lower him. I don't think you should
take that long on any route. You have to take turns. He never finished
the route. I'd have gone off route to at least clip the next bolt and that
way he'd make progress the next time he fell. Oh well.

Bill