Pure Rock Fury, .13b

Thanks to my friends for making this happen.

Yesterday was quite a memorable day for me. I was finally able to do the first ascent of a route that I bolted 3 years ago.

At a suggested rating of .13b, it's certainly my hardest send to date. With a few 1-hang runs on it, and even more many-hangs runs on it over the past few years, success on the route always seemed questionable in my mind. But there is one major hurdle that I think I've overcome in my head that has seemed to help me this season – NO EXCUSES.

Climbers always joke about "having your excuses dialed in" so that should you not be successful, well then, you've got a reason, right? Well, other than injuries, height differences, hangovers, etc., there really are no reasons to lean on excuses, (especially trivial ones) – except to save face. And that's what it boils down to – too much pride.

We've got to learn to lighten up and say "Fuck it". Have fun, try hard, and should you send, then nourish that hard-earned redpoint beer. Because you never know – that last run you passed up because of some weak excuse could have been it.

Fighting through the mono-to-mono move on the first ascent run.

Anyway, there was certainly a highly positive vibe in the air at the Fins yesterday. There was a period of low gravity for a bit in the afternoon before we all succumbed to sore tips and tired muscles.

One thing I want to point out: Heather Lords is a badass. Yup. That girl has the strongest will I think I've ever witnessed on the sharp end. No way to explain it in words, you just have to see her go for it. Impressive, yes.

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Huck You and the Disappearing Fish

First Ascent Fever: Troy Neu, Tom Smartt and myself.

Yesterday Toma and I hooked up with Troy for a Fins session. The weather is getting very warm and the Fins are the perfect place to climb in the heat of it all.

The walls face east and go in to the shade at 1 p.m. making for great climbing temps. It's not uncommon for me to pull out my beanie and light jacket to stay warm at times as the temps can easily be 20˚ cooler than that of the desert floor below.

With help from Tom and Troy, I was able to finish bolting a new line on the Solstice Wall named "Huck You". It's an .11a 6 bolt arching route that has a somewhat big move at the end, or "huck", to get to the anchors. We all shared in the fun in doing a shared First Ascent. Thanks for being so patient guys. I think it was well worth the extra time though as it will make a great addition to what I hope will be a complete wall someday.

Afterwards we moved on down to the Discovery Wall to: 1) get Trot back on Martini so he could annihilate it and; 2) add mid-way anchors on a route.

We got the mid-way anchors in on an open project called Route of Discovery. The reasoning behind this was that this route has fantastic power moves for the first 50', then cuts hard right on a traverse that no one has been able to free yet. It's seriously blank, I'm not kidding. Easily upper 5.14 but no one has got it yet. So with permission from route equipper(s), we added anchors at the 5th bolt making it a rad 4 bolt .12d/.13a that will now very likely see much more traffic and people sending. The original route is stil there so it's still open season for the full Route of Discovery. We'll think of a name for the bottom pitch soon.

Troy hit the Martini route and almost sent (he did do it clean on toprope though). For the first time out there this season I think he did great. Added to that is that fact that he spent the whole day before moving into his new house. Hey, just another reason for him to come out there again!

On the way home Brittany called me asking me if something had happened to Ethan's goldfish because he wasn't in his fish bowl. I told her I had fed the critter the night before but hadn't checked it the next morning. After much discussion and investigation we are convinced that our damn cat ate it the bloody thing!

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F.U.N.

Rick doing "The Virgins of Howe", .11d

Tyson pocket pickin' on Ghosts in the Shell, .12a

Tom rapping into the Solstice Wall (the wall is not a slab, btw)

Sunrise from atop the Headwall at the Fins, looking south. Big Southern Butte is on the right skyline

This past Sunday I was able to complete a project route named Al's Diner at the Fins.

Redpointing .13a for me is something that is well within my abilities but often times eludes me. Just like everyone else I've got the same excuses, (family, job, injuries, age, blah, blah, blah) that keep that carrot just out of arms reach. This time, however, the carrot tasted pretty sweet. Plus, it got me thinking more about the whole concept of "projecting" a route.

In the 11 or so years that I've been hugging rocks, I've seen some climbers get so wound up about sending their projects that it's made me wonder if they've forgotten why they started climbing in the first place. I've seen grown men and women on the verge of tears because they fell and didn't send. I've seen seemingly mature adults throw toddler-like tantrums when success was not the outcome on a route.

Which brings me to my point: Isn't this supposed to be fun? I will admit that I too get bummed when things don't work out but the most important lesson I've learned is that even if you are successful on a route, life goes on – you still have to mow the grass, pay the bills, clean the cat box, etc. To me, what makes a better person is someone who can learn from their failures and keep smiling. It's not worth getting bent out of shape when things don't go as planned. Which bring me to another point – Don't "plan" on anything other than walking away from the crag with a smile on your face.

Oh, and Tom also walked away with a smile on his face too – and the redpoint as well on Al's Diner! Good work T-Rock.

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