The City II.

Rapping off of "Jackson's Thumb"

My wife and I went back to the City for a few days climbing while I rested for my trip to Rainier. It was a very enjoyable trip. The weather was nice until the last night when it ripped our camp up while we were eating pizza at Rock City!

We were able to climb some fun stuff and she led some stuff in Castle Rocks. We did a 5.7 on Jackson's Thumb called "Theater of Shadows" first thing because I've tried to climb it twice and have been shut out because of weather. I love the City!

I'm back from Rainier. We made the summit under a full moon and great conditions! I will put more up here with some pictures soon.

Summit of Rainier

The City.

Chris and I spent a weekend climbing at the City of Rocks.  It was more like dodging weather than climbing.  We took a long hike that started at Window Rock and circled around the inner City and back up Circle Creek.  I got to see some routes that I had been too lazy to check out in the past when the weather was good and climbing could be done!

Mushroom Rock

I wanted to take Chris up a nice moderate multi-pitch.  I hadn't climbed "Theater of Shadows" and wanted to, so we drove to the parking lot at the overlook and started the approach.  The weather seemed to be stabilizing, but it also looked like it could go either way real quick.  

Do you feel lucky?  Well, do you punk?

We got to the base of the climb and started up.  Within about 5 minutes the wind picked up and brought a wave of rain.  I lowered back down and we waited for about 30 minutes.  We had a break in the weather and I started back up.  By the time I was below the first belay, a HUGE bolt of lighting ripped across the valley.  

The Gods handing us our asses.

Then the rain started again, but much harder.  I rapped back down and we bagged it for the afternoon.  We headed into Almo for pizza and Scrabble at Rock City.  After pizza the weather improved a lot.  I took Chris to Castle Rock SP and we climbed a couple of moderates.  After such an exciting day, we soaked at Durfee Hot Springs for about 45 minutes.  We made it back to our camp spot and after a couple doses of fermented malt, I racked out.  I woke up later in the night with an iPod earbud in my nose and my headlamp in my eye socket.  I must have thought that I was going to read before sleeping, but things didn't work out that way...

We were able to accomplish our mission of hiding another Mammut geocache.  The bonus was climbing on Window Rock and seeing the brine tanks at the top.  

Good Times or Pure Pleasure (5.6)(I can never remember)

The hiding spot!

Mammut Shoe Chase.

Too Easy!

I suggested two spots to hide a geocache and have hidden one close to Boise.  If you want to look for it and be a part of the Shoe Chase go to the Mammut Basecamp and go find it!

Smith Rock.

We traveled to Smith Rock to do some climbing last weekend.  I knew that the weather would be suspect, but I figured that we would be able to climb all three days.  We could and we did.  There was rain each day.  Sunday turned out to be the best, unfortunately we were headed back home and could only climb a couple of hours.  We got there on Friday and went straight to Cinnamon Slab (5.6).  It was a cool climb.

Cinnamon Slab (5.6)

Bonnie and Sierra climbed it and then we moved on.  Having people right next to you is different.  At the City you can skitter from crag to crag and never HAVE to climb right next to someone, not here.  

Rapping Cinnamon Slab

You really have to just accept that you will wait in line to do the popular climbs and that people will be right behind you and rapping over you.  One guy next to me said that if the river flowed in a circle around the park it would be Disneyland.

I wish we would have taken more pictures, but we were using our older camera and it's a piece.  I prefer the "duct tape" camera.  Placing gear there was also different.  There are so many little imperfections in the cracks that you really have to make sure of the cams.  I can understand why Metolious created their fatter lobed cams.

5.7 under cover

We climbed a short but sweet 5.7 that was completely under an overhang and while it rained hard we climbed!  It was a great weekend.  Now, on to the City...

Spring Skiing...

After seeing pictures on idahosummits.com I really wanted to ski 2nd Peak above Soldier Mountain Ski Area.

Chris and I decided to drive up on Thursday and ski Friday.  He has a really nice Airstream and wanted to take it out for a spring shake out.  I wasn't going to argue!  We set up in the parking lot at Soldier Mountain and had dinner.  After dinner we just stared up at the dwindling snow on the ski runs.  We thought that some night skiing would be nice.  We made one run and it was nice.  Unfortunately, the moon is not up early in the evening, so we skied with headlamps on.

We went to bed and in no time, the alarm went off.  We were off at around 8 a.m. and skinned up the cat track that leads to the saddle between the two lifts.  Surprisingly, we had snow all the way up to the top of second chair.  We stopped and the top and ate.  The "backcountry" cat skiing track was set up very nicely and leads all the way to the summit of 2nd Peak.  We only had to cross mud once!  The temps were hot!  T-shirts and glacier hats were the clothing of choice.  Once on top, the temps changed.  

The snow conditions were perfect!  We skied the face down into the large bowl and enjoy a LONG run of great corn snow.

If you are wanting good corn, this is the place to be.  The approach is 4+ miles and gains over 3,000 feet.  I'm not sure how long a person will be able to skin from the parking lot, the snow is melting fast.  There is plenty on the N.E. side of 2nd once you make it there.  It would be nice to camp up there like Splattski and get in lot's of turns!

Obscurity.

Friday we went up to the Black Cliffs after I got home from work.  We went to the Mids (section 1) to climb "Little Boots" since my wife hadn't gotten to climb it last week.  She climbed it, then we packed up and left for home because of the wind and cold.  The weather was supposed to be nice for Saturday, so why not come up then?  I did get to climb on my fresh resoles.  My La Sportivas are pretty old, but they fit perfectly.  I like resoling them rather than wasting money on new shoes that probably wouldn't fit as well.

The guy that you want to do your resole job is Fly'n Brian.  Not only does he do the best resole that I have ever seen, he is a bad-ass climber!  I was happy to get them back since I was climbing in my eVolvs and they are great for the gym, but not great for extended wear!

Saturday appeared to be shaping up when we left the house at noon.  We were going back up to the Mids, but this time we were going to be down at section 4 (ref. Sandy Epeldi's guidebook).  When we climbed "Nut'n a Sling" last week, I thought that it was cool to be on a route that wasn't covered in chalk.  That made me start thinking about the "obscure" routes at the Cliffs.  Friday night I went through Sandy's book and made a list.  First on the list was "Nikita".

Bonnie cleaning "Nikita"

"Nikita" is a thin seam with some very cool moves on it.  Unfortunately, it started to rain about half way up.  We had waited to see if the weather was going to get better.  I thought that it was, so I started up.  Five minutes later the sky opened up.  I got to a nice bucket and plugged in three pieces of gear and lowered off.  We hunkered down and ate graham crackers for half an hour.  Then the skies cleared and we were back in business.  I climbed back up to the bucket and started back up and was stopped by a blank face with only the seam and a side pull.  I was able to get a good finger lock in and friction on the face.  I could see a nice jug about two feet over my reach, but I had my right fingers in the seam and left hand side pulling.  I pulled up with my right and reached across with my left.  I was out of balance and on my way down.  Left finger lock, right hand reaches.  Much better.  The rest of the climb is nice.  I had to scoop dirt off of some of the holds where the angle eases.  There is also a giant rock at the top that teeters when you step on it.  I don't think that it will come off since it is on a big ledge below the chains.  I wish I knew who the first ascensionist was because I would like to move the chains to the face to the right of the current location.  The chains are different to clip.

The kids gave it a go.  They both made it to the ledge below the crux, and gave it their all to go higher, but couldn't work it out.  I try not to spew beta at people climbing (including family) unless someone asks, because I like to think that most people want to figure it out for themselves and if they want beta, they will ask.

We were going to try to cross another one off of the Project Obscurity list but the weather wasn't having it.  I'm glad it's not a long drive to the Cliffs.  "Nikita" is a very enjoyable climb.  It would be nice to get some more traffic on it to clean it up.  It's rated 5.8 and takes nothing bigger than a #4 Metolius TCU with the emphasis on sub #2 Metolius TCU sizes and small nuts.

More Black Cliffs

With the weather so good, I decided to take today off and take the better half up to the Cliffs to climb.  The night before, I had gone into The Benchmark to return some totally bitchin' 80's climbing films that I checked out and saw Seth.  He said he wouldn't mind coming out.  We were out there at around 11:30 and the temperature was great.  You can truly only enjoy the Cliffs on the North side of the river in the spring and fall.  The summer is just too hot.  I went back to "Nut'n a Sling".  Seth is getting a nice trad rack built up and wanted to observe gear placements.  I led it and he cleaned it.

Seth on "Nut'n a Sling"

After we top roped "Nut'n a Sling" a few times we went down to "Little Boots".  It has a thumb's up in the guidebook and it definitely deserves it!  It's a really fun climb.  Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time, so I led it and Seth cleaned it.  We then hurried home to meet the rototiller dude (with a detour to the coffee shop).

Starting "Little Boots"

Below the crux on "Little Boots"

We also got a Trango Cinch to belay with.  I really like using it on bolted routes and for top roping.  It's very easy to lead belay with.  Easier to use AND cheaper than a Gri Gri!

Cinch in action