The temperatures climbed into the 90’s as we descended from Snoqualmie Pass (2 hour delay, vehicle fire) Friday morning to the hot, dry side of the Cascades. As we passed the fruit stands and convenience stores of Naches and Tieton I started scanning the guidebook for somewhere cool. 5000 feet up and with promised 2PM shade, South Fork fit the bill. Julia’s truck made the zigzag up logging roads a lot more comfortable (if not in a high clearance vehicle, it’s mostly fine, just bumpy, but be careful dodging the washout low down, and consider parking at “turn left at the last fork” instead of driving the last 0.7 mi).

One unique feature of South Fork is that one of the walls there is composed of tiled hexagons. If you think of the usual vertically arranged hexagonal columns at Vantage, Tieton’s Royal Columns, or even Devil’s Tower, these are sideways and you climb on the column “tops”!

Hexagons!

I’ve eyed the hexagon walls in the guidebook for a while but have never made it to one (the other one is mostly 5.12s, so this is probably the more realistic one). We did two easy routes on the hexagons (there are also several more listed as “Project” that we didn’t try), but I was most impressed by the neighboring Astral Wall. It’s blocky, steep, surprisingly clean, and the 10a and 10b we did (the easiest routes on the wall) were really fun. It continues with an 11 and some intriguing overhanging projects with fixed draws (this forum post seems to have the most up to date information on new routes). We didn’t have time for me to fall my way up a 200 foot long 5.11 so I’ll have to leave those for next trip…

Astral Wall

• South Fork, Hexagonal Satellites, Hexavalent, 5.7 sport (lead) low angle, mossy, the climbing isn’t so amazing, but it’s cool looking rock
• South Fork, Hexagonal Satellites, Hexagonal Crack, 5.8 trad (lead) same as above, but trad
• South Fork, Astral Wall, West Arete, 5.10a sport (lead) long moderate overhanging sport route
• South Fork, Astral Wall, Thanks Andy, 5.10b sport (lead) similar to and not much harder than West Arete, maybe a bit more sustained

Saturday morning was cool and cloudy at our campsite on top of Lava Point, so when I failed to locate the “obvious rock cairn atop a stump” leading to Dream Wall in a timely manner, we went down to the Bend to enjoy some columns. We started on the left, with Julia leading a nice crack. Next I made a mockery of a slabby bolted route (clipped two bolts on it, decided I was not up for this slab stuff, went around back and climbed a dirty crack instead). I decided to stick to crack climbs for the rest of the day. The only other misadventure was throwing the rope into the wind and getting it stuck in a broken pillar about 6 routes over, necessitating 1 rap to an anchor halfway down, a tension traverse to another anchor 2 columns over, and finally a rap to the stuck rope (lesson for the day: no knots at the end of the rope when rappelling a half-rope-length route). The whole operation was definitely tedious. We were both at the top and had plenty of gear and plenty of cracks to put it in, so we weren’t that worried, but Dakota was — fortunately she was anchored in or she would have came up after us.

Cracks and more cracks at The Bend

Despite all the shenanigans we got quite a few good crack climbs in on lead and TR. The clouds made for nice temperatures all day, dramatic views across the valley, and even held off on precipitating until almost sunset.

• The Bend, People, Places, and Things, 5.8 trad (TR) led by Julia
• The Bend, Cherry Bomb, 5.10a sport (TR) tagging it TR even though I “led” it. Led it by corkscrewing around the whole column on easy cracks because it was too slabby for me. On TR it was fine, but it would have had some moments on lead…
• The Bend, Dancing Bear, 5.10b trad (lead) climb was fine, rap anchor is a little annoying to get to, descent was a little epic
• The Bend, Heartbreak of Psoriasis, 5.10c trad (TR) similar to above
• The Bend, Hallowed Ground, 5.9 trad (lead)
• The Bend, Reckoning, 5.10b trad (TR) may have been the best route of the day… should have led Pure Joy, a 10c that shares the same start, but it started raining

Sunday started out cool again, and we both had routes we wanted to get on at Royal Columns (Inca Road for Julia and Orange Sunshine for me), so we went to try our luck there. It turned out to be clear and sunny, so the conditions weren’t as great as Saturday, but we got there early enough that the wall was still shading itself. We got on Inca Road right away, then Little Known Wonder.

By the time we were done with this, Orange Sunshine had been baking in the direct sun and was hot to the touch. There was still a short window to find shade in cracks shaded by neighboring columns, but the sun was coming around fast so I had to pick one quick. We set up (including moving the puppy anchor to a nice shady cave) and I got on Jam Exam, a straightforward 5.9, which I kind of rushed through because I could feel the sun creeping up. It actually felt good to stop at each rest just long enough to place gear and not completely think through the whole route. I watched the sliver of shade disappear as Julia cleaned it, and by the time she was done the brick oven was in effect. We could have driven to a shaded area, but we bailed on that in favor of getting home at a reasonable hour and picking up some peaches on the way back.

• Royal Columns, Inca Road, 5.9 trad (lead)
• Royal Columns, Little Known Wonder, 5.7 trad (TR)
• Royal Columns, Jam Exam, 5.9 trad (lead) racing the sun

Dakota likes Miuras too

I always have fun climbing with Julia, especially since we share some favorite crack sizes. And, puppy!

One other highlight of the trip was sleeping in my new hammock. Though since it was not a fancy camping hammock with a rainfly my stuff got half wet while we were racing back in the rain on Saturday night. So I turned my pillow over and my sleeping bag inside out and joined Julia and Dakota in their tent (where Dakota thought it would be fun to chew on my hair).

Looking back on the trip, everything was very enjoyable, but I feel like I missed a few opportunities to do more challenging routes, even though I was trying mid 10’s (which I think of as my limit). I should probably be working on leading faster though, since there were a few fun routes that I did on TR instead of leading to save time. I secretly enjoyed getting the rope stuck and unstuck (not enough to do it on purpose of course!). I did discover two new favorite areas: South Fork which was brand new to me, and The Bend, where I’ve been once before (but never got to lead anything).

[all photos]

It’s all part of the charm of the domes of Leavenworth — crashing through tick-infested brush, slipping on pine needles, rereading approach descriptions (the new book has better maps and directions, but this seems to only make me feel sillier after getting lost). All in pursuit of unfamiliar rock to climb — squinting up to catch the flash of sunlight off the anchor bolts, figuring out the sequence for the route, and maybe discovering a new favorite spot.

Soon enough we were up at Planet of the Eights. It’s kind of typical Leavenworth foldy-bulgy slab, protected by a couple tricky gear placements and a couple bolts. I kind of like slab climbing but I don’t think Sketchy and Denny were in the mood for more after their leads. Anyway, it was easy to lure me away by offering me the first lead on Poison Ivy Crack, a clean curving finger-to-hands dihedral (which we passed on the way up).

Poison Ivy Crack turned out to be as fun as it looked (too bad it was so short). And yes, there is poison ivy at the bottom (leaves of three, let it be…). After we all had our turn (and I did some TR flailing on the 11b slab next to it — note to self, helmet cams and featureless vertical slab climbing do not go well together) we wandered over to explore the rest of Purina Crag.

El Caliente, 5.9

We only did one route. There was definitely more that looked good, including a bolt-protected 11 that looked a bit exciting but not too hard. Careno Crag is just a little further and looks way better on paper — multiple-starred multipitch routes in the 10- range, and lots of starred single pitch stuff in the 9s 10s and 11s.

• Planet of the Eights, Surveillance of Assailants, 5.8 mixed (TR) kind of dirty, fun slab
• Planet of the Eights, Make Mine a Bold One, 5.8+ mixed (TR) more of the above
• Purina Crag, Poison Ivy Crack, 5.9 trad (lead) fun!
• Purina Crag, El Caliente 5.9, trad (lead) seemed easier than 5.9

After the easy and familiar was done with, it was time to look for a bit more of a challenge. I was a little confused because of a missing bolt and my inability to tell the difference between a 5.8 “difficult mantel” and a 5.11, but I did manage to find Princely Ambitions without any actual 5.11-attempting. The first pitch was super fun (even with treating myself to some classic rope drag and having to fix it with some downclimbing and backcleaning), with lots of I-hope-this-works and there’s-got-to-be-some-texture-on-that-blank-looking-slab. I even got to see a little snake retreating into a finger crack I was going to use! It’s also nice and long (40m if you count the easy block scramble between the ground and the first bolt). Because the route makes a sharp turn at the crux, it’s just as exciting for the second, but Chris cruised it despite not having done much multipitch climbing recently.

Chris on Princely Ambitions 5.9

After this assurance that 5.9 at Index is challenging, but not toooo haaard, we went looking for some more 5.9s. The classic Godzilla was occupied, of course. Some Index regulars saw me flipping through the book, and suggested a 5.9 offwidth called the Quarry Crack. We never made it there because someone else suggested a semi-secret moderate pitch — starting up Shirley (listed as a 5.11c in the book, so I flipped right past it) and escaping to another set of anchors before the hard part. The crux of the abbreviated version is a pretty arch feature marked as a 10a on the topo (or maybe the “exciting” traverse to the escape anchors). A nice bonus was the view of the crux of Thin Fingers (who wants to set up a TR for me on that?).

As I was putting away my rope, someone yelled “Rock!” I looked at them, saw the rock coming straight at me, and barely had time to stop looking at it as it hit me on the side of the head. I think I was literally the only person at the base wearing a helmet. All it did was make a loud noise, but if I wasn’t wearing a helmet it could have been a bad time. I’m not sure if I would call that bad luck or good luck! I climb at famous choss factories like Vantage and Exit 38 all the time, and the first time I get hit is at Index!

Slug and purple-stemmed monkeyflower

I definitely want to do a lot more at Index, especially if the rest of the 3 and 4 star 9s and 10as are anything like the two I got to try this time…

• Lower Town Wall, Great Northern Slab, 5.7 trad 3p (lead) Woo, easiest route at Index!
• Lower Town Wall, Princely Ambitions, 5.9 trad 2p (lead) Fun!
• Lower Town Wall, Little Shirley, 5.10a trad (lead) The first pitch of Shirley, escaping right to another anchor before the hard part. Fun little arch feature.

Me

This is also the first time I’ve been at Exit 32 in the morning. The angle of the sun makes such a difference. In the afternoon the sun is behind the wall so it looks kind of dark and menacing, but in the morning it’s all beautiful grays and whites.

Salal and Sara

The highlight of the day was Sara’s redpoint of Son of Jesus. I got to lead it twice, too! I was surprised how easy it felt (except for a moment when I stuck my whole hand in a jug full of mud) since it took me a few tries to get it last year. I would like to claim that it was because got better but I’m afraid that I’ll have to credit buying new shoes, or maybe just having done it so many times. BLM-6 was really fun climbing, but it didn’t feel as good because I felt like I was cheating. I could just barely reach a pre-placed draw to protect a hard move at the 2nd clip (so I wouldn’t have been able to reach the bolt), so I may have backed off the lead if Mike hadn’t left the draw.

Mike

I also got to watch Mike work on a tricky looking 12b (this might be the only route I’ve tried that I haven’t even been able to fall my way up on TR…).

• World Wall, Reptiles and Amphetamines, 5.9 sport (TR)
• World Wall, Son of Jesus, 5.10c sport (lead) Sara and Mike let me lead this twice! thanks!
• World Wall, BLM-6, 5.10d sport (lead) note to self, bolts are positioned for a much taller person, much easier if the draws are there
• World Wall, Dairy Freeze, 5.12b sport (TR, didn’t finish)

Unfortuantely this year the WCN group called it off because of the avalanche forecast. I’m sure plenty of people did it and had no issues, but most of us decided we’d rather not have to worry about it anyway, especially since the danger would inevitably disappear after a few weeks anyway.

There was also the temptation of Plan B at Vantage. It seems I’ve been there a lot this year, but in the spring the scenery is changing weekly. The pink phlox-looking stuff is not in bloom anymore but these were:

Puffy Flowers

And of course it’s great to spend time with friends in such a beautiful setting!

Dawn and Traisa

• Sunshine Wall, Air Guitar, 5.10a trad (lead) one of my favorites, and easy for a 10a, but I need to get used to people watching/talking about me when I’m climbing…
• Sunshine Wall, Clip ‘em or Skip ‘em, 5.8 sport (lead)
• Tomato Wall, Hamhocks 5.9 trad (lead w/falls) proximal cause of falling was getting a cam hooked in a loop on my shoe, but if I had chosen better gear placements (ie. placed nuts from the good rests and saved the cams for the awkward layback stuff), I may have been able to untangle myself without freaking out. Or if I had just borrowed everyone else’s .75s. Or if I hadn’t climbed over-conservatively because everyone told me the route was a sandbag (I don’t think it is; if I can almost do it it shouldn’t be more than 5.9)
• Tomato Wall, Go Cat Go 5.10c sport (lead w/falls) just couldn’t figure out this one (or I’m too short), a lot of climbing up to reach a clip, then downclimbing to get back on my line

We started at Fish Wall, a bunch of moderates with some bolted routes with “optional” gear and some gear routes with couple of bolts (making full use of the color coding in the new guidebook). At Leavenworth that usually means nicely textured slabs with some short cracks of unknown funkiness.

Jack on the Fish Wall

We started out on a slightly mossy 5.8. The one moment of excitement was when Sketchy was leading, Jack was belaying, and I was laying in the sun a bit away from the rock. I saw a round dark shape come over the edge right above us. I yelled “Rock!”, Jack tried to get out of the way, I sat up and grabbed my helmet/pillow to actually put it on my head… and the wind carried the pine cone a few feet over us. Apparently the top of the crag consists of huecos completely filled with pine cones.

One thing I like about less traveled mixed gear/bolts routes at Leavenworth is that they aren’t completely covered in chalk marks, so I get to actually think about how to climb them. What I don’t like as much is that sometimes the difficulty and protection are kind of inconsistent, so it seems like arbitrary wandering around rather than a logical route.

Sketchy saw a chimney that he wanted to TR around the corner. It was right next to a bolted slab, Bottom Feeder, so I managed to convince him to let me lead the slab. I was glad that I did; it was my favorite route that day. The chimney was pretty uneventful climbing because I only did it on TR. Sketchy wanted to lead it, so I set myself up at the anchor so I could take pictures from above.

Sketchy leading out of the unnamed chimney

One unexpected treat was the brilliant yellow monkeyflowers and other plants growing in the moss cushions formed around seeps in the wall. Many climbers may only think of the granite in Icicle canyon in the cleaned and playable state, but I think the micro-ecosystems formed by rock and water are fascinating (and sometimes delicious — try the wild onions and miner’s lettuce).

Monkeyflowers

After leading a couple easy slab routes, I finally felt like I’d (almost, maybe) gotten used to the Leavenworth style of climbing again. There were a couple of possibly more difficult routes at the Fish Wall that I wanted to try since we were there anyway, but somehow we ended up having to leave. Leavenworth is kind of an odd place to climb for me because I love climbing there so much, but it seems like usually we leave as soon as it’s starting to get fun.

• Fish Wall, Bohemian Blowfish, 5.8 trad (TR) kind of wandering and mossy.
• Fish Wall, Sardine Routine, 5.9 trad (lead) also wandering, less mossy.
• Fish Wall, Bottom Feeder, 5.9+ sport (lead) book says “a small piece can be placed before the first bolt”, I’m short so I needed two
• Fish Wall, Unnamed chimney right of Bottom Feeder (TR) led by Sketchy. He had two #4 Big Bros which were just barely big enough
]]> http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2010/05/08/leavenworth-may-2/feed/ 0 http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2010/03/07/exit-38-march-6/ http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2010/03/07/exit-38-march-6/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:27:04 +0000 Laurel http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/?p=476 Dawn invited me out to Exit 38. You’d think I’d know how to get to Headlight point by now, but we wandered up the trails in the forest and somehow ended up on top of Squishy Bell, home of the shortest routes at 38. We rapped down and, since we were there anyway, led all of them. All pretty short and easy, but a nice way to warm up. After that we worked our way down Eastern Block and Headlight Point, doing pretty much every route that didn’t have a rope on it already and pulling the rope between our turns so we could both lead.

It was a beautiful sunny day for a full but non-stressful half day of climbing. Exit 38 is not always the most exciting place but it’s March! And we’re climbing outside!

• Squishy Bell, Sumptuous Bits, 5.5 sport (lead)
• Squishy Bell, Winter Rushing In, 5.8 sport (lead)
• Squishy Bell, November Glaze, 5.9 sport (lead)
• Squishy Bell, Catatonic, 5.6 sport (lead)
• Eastern Block, Ellie’s Sweet Kiss, 5.10a sport (lead) fun, not as long and intimidating as it looks, surrounded by three random routes not in the old book
• Eastern Block, Missing the Taco, 5.10b sport (lead) I missed the taco getting to the second bolt, had to traverse and downclimb to get to it…
• Eastern Block, Lip Service, 5.10b sport (lead) around the “block of doom!”
• Headlight Point, Nocturnal Remission, 5.8 sport (lead)
• Headlight Point, Swarm, 5.7 sport (lead) was trying to do Carnage Before Bedtime, but missed the turnoff
• Headlight Point, Carnage Before Bedtime, 5.10b sport (lead)
]]> http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2010/03/07/exit-38-march-6/feed/ 0 http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2010/02/22/vantage-february-20-21-spring-is-here/ http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2010/02/22/vantage-february-20-21-spring-is-here/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:37:27 +0000 Laurel http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/?p=425 Sketchy and Denny had to work on Saturday, but I knew there would be plenty of Seattle climbers looking to take advantage of the unseasonably warm and dry weekend. Sure enough, I found a Saturday morning ride with Nikki’s friends Dennis, Bill, and Tigger the dog. We joined another large group of people, who turned out to all know each other from a Mountaineers Basic Class. It was a kind of unwieldy group in terms of the number of people and the kind of routes we wanted to do, so we did the default of hanging around the Feathers and then hanging around the Sunshine Wall.


Sunshine at the Sunshine Wall

Bill and Dennis weren’t staying the night, so I said goodbye to them in the parking lot and made my way across the campground to look for Denny’s red Subaru in the usual spot. When I dropped my bags off next to it I heard some yelling from the Feathers. Denny and Sketchy were apparently getting a few quick climbs in before dark. I grabbed my harness, shoes, and headlamp and went up to join them, just in time to watch Denny take a spectacular penduluming lead fall. I was glad to have the headlamp to help finish that route.

On Sunday my goal for the day was to go back to a route that I tried to lead — and needed my gear rescued on — more than three years ago. I didn’t know the name of the route when I tried it, so all I remembered was that it was 10+ish, started out on the less steep left side of a big overhang in the entablature with 11s and 12s, traversed right on a jumble of jugs and slopers, and finished on vertical balancey stuff in the gas pocket layer. The guidebook picture and description of Pornstar on the Fat Man Wall seemed to fit this description, so we headed straight over there in the morning. When we got there, it didn’t look right — in particular it didn’t look overhanging enough for me to have taken a 15 foot lead fall on. I figured the length of the fall had increased in my memories after 3 years. It turned out to be an onsight because I have actually never been on that route before. I’m still not sure what the route I did three years ago was, but I have another candidate (Queen of the Gym at Powerhouse).

Since I’d gotten my goal for the day out of the way already (or what I thought it was), and I’d gotten some remarks about me “showing off” from Sketchy, I kind of backed off deciding what to do and let him run the show instead, so we went back upstairs to the Sunshine Wall. After a couple of nice longer crack routes, we went to the lower level again to the Jigsaw Wall. I tried the easiest route on the wall, a 10c, but it became clear that I was the only one who wanted to climb any more, so we left after that. I would like to go back to Jigsaw when we are more in the mood for it.

• The Feathers, Dance of the Shaman 5.10b sport (lead) we had kind of an unwieldy group in terms of group size and grade spread, especially for the Feathers
• Sunshine Wall, Boschido 5.10b sport (lead)1314 clips (fortunately the last bolt is easy to back clean) — fell off just about halfway like I always do on this route
• Sunshine Wall, Vantage Point 5.8 sport (TR) TR’d to clean after Dennis led it
• Sunshine Wall/Tilted Pillars, Chapstick 5.6 trad (lead) We played around on this while waiting someone to finish TRing on the Preying Mantel anchor. The guidebook says it’s “a nice beginner’s crack” — the climbing is easy enough but the gear placements might not be close enough for a real beginner
• The Feathers, Wish I Were Skiing at 49 5.10b sport (gear rescue) headlamp climbing!
• Fat Man Wall, Day Tripper 5.9 sport (lead)
• Fat Man Wall, Pornstar 5.10c sport (lead) not the route I thought it was, but still fun
• Sunshine Wall, Tangled Up in Blue 5.9 trad (lead)
• Sunshine Wall, George and Martha 5.10a trad (gear rescue)
• Jigsaw Wall, Jigsaw 5.10c sport (lead)
]]> http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2010/02/22/vantage-february-20-21-spring-is-here/feed/ 0 http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2009/11/13/vantage-november-8/ http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2009/11/13/vantage-november-8/#comments Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:34:36 +0000 Laurel http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/?p=337 We pulled in to the campground after dark on Saturday night and ended up next to a friendly group of college students from Bellingham who were equipped with a case of Bud, a stack of pallets (including the sign from the Quincy Veterinary Clinic), and a few musical instruments (some of which musical instrumentation was emitting sounds well into the night).

Sam was thinking of joining us on Sunday, but he decided not to because the weather forecast had a small chance of rain in it. Chris from Cle Elum was thinking of coming too, but he said something about being stuck up in a tree and having to put his truck back together. I thought we’d be on our own for the day, but while we were taking care of business involving shovels and blue bags at the mesa top, Liz sent me a text saying they had pulled in to the parking lot and were heading to the Sunshine Wall. So we sat down on the sign and waited for them (and about 30 other people also heading to Sunshine Wall). Soon we saw Liz, Shayna, Rebecca, and Micheal in the train of people coming over the mesa top, carrying a jug of orange juice and a bag of cookies.

When we got to the Sunshine Wall it was complete chaos as expected. Welcome to the only dry rock within 200 miles of Seattle! All the moderates like Party in Your Pants and Vantage Point were of course taken. If I didn’t want to try Stems and Seeds again we would have left the Sunshine Wall for somewhere quieter. Steel Grill was open so we started with that and Sunshine Buttress.



Sunshine Wall is Full

By that time we were done with those two routes, the chaos had migrated to our area. Steel Grill has the only chains for that whole set of routes so there was a bit of logistical fiddling with people descending. My anchor draws ended up on another route (backed up with a hot pink vintage 1985 gear sling (??)), people were leading to anchors already used for topropes, ropes were left up for descending, etc. Fortunately everyone was paying attention so nobody dropped anything or rappelled on top of a leader, and I think everyone ended up with the right gear and got to climb what they wanted to.

Surprisingly or not, there were three of us that wanted to climb Stems and Seeds, but the other two guys kindly let me have it while they did the other 11s in the area (Bob’s Your Uncle and Mix it Up). It starts on a pillar just big enough for two people and a rope, so we started with a debate over whether the gray TCU was 4kN or 6kN (we’re both wrong, it’s 5kN). I backed it up with the smallest nut I have anyway. The gear was there (even if it was tiny and required some fiddling with nuts and fumbling of TCU’s), and it was nice to already know what to bring from TR’ing it 2 weeks ago. It was definitely nice to be able to place the .75, 1, and 2 camalots that I’d stashed on the back of my harness for the roof and wider crack at the top. The only, uh, hitch was the overhand knot that appeared in the middle of the rope. Fortunately it appeared at the only point in the whole route that had a giant ledge to stand and wait on.



Mike on TR on Stems and Seeds (doing it the right way)

Sketchy was looking for offwidth, and he found a nicely unpleasant one on Stroken the Chicken, but unfortunately it’s surrounded by the rest of the route, which features ladder-like jugs in a comfortable corner. He still got to place the big cams and big bros, but I got to ignore the wide stuff and 5.6 my way up. The other side of the offwidth crack is called Shady Chimney, and looks like it might be more of what he was looking for.

I wanted to try Mix It Up (5.11, begins on 4 bolts then goes into a gear protected crack), but Sketchy pointed out that the sun was in the process of setting so we started packing up. Short days and crowds aren’t really conducive to getting a lot of climbing in. We did get to see Chris on the way back through Cle Elum, and hear about his tree- and truck-related adventures…

• Sunshine Wall, Steel Grill, 5.9 trad (lead)
• Sunshine Wall, Sunshine Buttress, 5.10a sport (TR) at first wasn’t sure if I’ve done this before, but I think I’ve done every 9/10a on the Sunshine Wall
• Sunshine Wall, Stems and Seeds, 5.11b trad (lead) which would make 11b my hardest redpoint grade, but I imagine doing it in the right side crack instead of stemming actually makes it easier…
• Sunshine Wall, Stroken the Chicken 5.6 (follow) aka the wrong side of Shady Chimney
]]> http://www.mountainsquirrel.com/2009/11/13/vantage-november-8/feed/ 0