What a great week! Pretty nice to take off a few days in the middle of summer…a rare treat, that i promised myself earlier in the year. After spending a few days with Evan, Mikey and Fitz, I realized…i need to climb a bit more for myself!! I love my job and the work I get to do, but it is always nice to mix it up once and a while and reconnect with some good friends and get worked on some projects!
The other day Greg and I got on the ultra classic…Tall Stories on Grotto Mountain. This is a fairly new route still that is 8 pitches, 5.11c, and well protected and suuuuuper fun! WE had such a fun day and both managed to onsight it so we were psyched:) Stretch out your butt for the first pitch crux highstep. The second pitch on this route is probably one of the best 5.11 pitches I’ve ever been on, never too desperate, but just sustained enough to keep you working and enjoying! Keep a bit of mental juice for the final pitch as it offers some more tricky 5.11 climbing.
We rapped the route which was nice so we didn’t have to bring our shoes up with us. A must do route! If you go, be careful you don’t start up another route that so far goes nowhere…I know a few people who have accidentally done this.
After this enjoyable day out, I thought it was time to get back on the project train. Having only been to Planet X one day, my buddy Rob wanted to go, so I was psyched to check it out again. We got on Sticky Buns. Super bouldery but fun! Rob did great and so we headed back in there again a few days later. As projects go though, this time was still pretty darn hard….so no sendage. I started to work on a route called Shooting Star this time though and decided that this would be my project instead. After humming and hahing over whether or not to subject myself to the cornice overhanging the Greenwood Locke on the North face of Temple, i decided rather to go cragging again instead and scare myself on something a whole lot safer!! Got on Shooting Star again yesterday and made some good progress on it but it still has a ways to go. This route has it all though…steep, lots of climbing, lots of tricky sections, no rests, small holds and fun body positions! Hopefully next weekend:) Thanks to all my friends who put up with me being away so much and are always psyched to get out and have fun on the rock. I’m a lucky girl!!!