Saturday, August 02, 2008

Lover's Leap Day Four: Deceptively Easy

We awoke the morning of our final day with the anticipation of getting a few more climbs in before having to split back to real life later in the day. "PBR" had a soccer camp to get to in the Bay area, and "Ratherbe" and I had a connecting flight out of Sacremento to catch in the early evening so that we would be comfortably red-eye bound on a Long Beach-to-Boston flight closer to midnight. The morning wasn't very stressful because we had a plan to get up as many climbs as we could before noon, and then we'd head back to the parking lot, tear apart our gear, repack it, shower at the Strawberry Lodge, eat, and get to Sacremento (construction delays or not) before our flight lifted off. It was a good plan, and we stuck to it even though we were all a little spent (emotionally and physically) from the preceding eight days.

Deception Direct (5.9R) - Three Pitches - Gear Anchors - All led

Approach: Deception Direct is on the far left of Hogsback. Hike out the trail across from parking spot #19 (turn left at the top of the stairs) and follow the ankle-breaker trail with the back of Hogwild and Hogsback to your left and Lover's Leap to your right. You'll follow this path for several minutes, looking for a small path that leads uphill and off to the left before turning right. This path is nearly as far down as the path to the left side of Lover's Leap, and it is not marked well. In fact, there is a smaller path on the left that you'll probably see first and wonder if this is the the correct one to take. It likely is not the correct path. I guess the easiest way to know this path is if you see the large, slabby boulder across from the right-hand path leading to Lover's Leap, then you've gone too far, by about 50 feet or so. Once on the path, follow it as it starts left and turns right and eventually to the slabs around Hogsback to the talus field. Knapsack Crack starts at a tree that is about a third of the way up the cliff, and Deception Direct is a bit more to the right and follows a right-facing corner most of the way up. Start at the small tree that is right of the corner.

Pitch One (5.2) - 90 Feet - Gear Anchor - "Ratherbe" led

There's nothing special to report about this first pitch except that it feels a bit harder than 5.2, but probably isn't much harder. The gear is good and there is more than one place to establish an anchor. "Ratherbe" set the anchor on the face just left of the corner just below and left of a small roof to her right, probably a bit lower than the full 90 feet. Essentially climb the corner until you come to a good anchor position on the face on the left.

Pitch Two (5.9R) - 120 Feet - Gear Anchor - "PBR" led

This was the money pitch, and "PBR" led it well. To climb this, follow the corner to the small roof where the corner ends and a thin seam appears. If you protect the corner well, then the seam (the R section) isn't so intimidating.
The moves here are less than dynamic and require solid concentration, balance, and commitment. But if you have good feet and can trust smearing a little (using your legs really helps here), then the tough series of moves (about 10 feet worth) are over before you know it. It helps that this is fairly low-angle, as there is a section where one is clearly depending little on hands and more on feet that absolutely must stick, but what makes this "R" is that the fall would be nasty; likely sliding straight down over a roof and alongside a corner after that. I'm not talking about big, flying whippers, just awkward and uncomfortable slides into unavoidable objects. Anyway, "PBR" took command of this climb like he had nearly everything else throughout the week and handled it with ease. I felt a bit thin on second, but managed it without incident. "Ratherbe" was also strong bringing up the rear (there's a good series of pics of her coming up this section when you click the link for photos at the bottom).

Pitch Three (5.6) - 120 Feet - Gear Anchor - Greg led

The Supertopo says this is 120 feet, but it felt much less than this (90 feet maybe?) because I was at the top in no time. There are many options on this climb to make this interesting, but essentially the route goes up the crack to the boulders, and then up over the boulderes
to the top. The variations come at the top where the boulders are. Either climb easier ground to the left, 5.6ish ground straight up, or harder to the far right. I chose the blocky section with the offwidths just for fun, which I must say is unusual for me considering my lack of love for cracks. However, the stuff to the left appeared too easy to seem interesting, and so I made an executive decision that the route went through the blocks to the top. My apologies for not having a good picture of the start of this pitch, but you can see the blocks in the above picture of "Ratherbe" coming up on second.

Descent: Fade down the slabs to the left and find the path that will take you back right toward the ankle-breaker path.

Accessory Dogs (5.10a) - 90 Feet - Mixed Bolts and Gear - Quick-Clip Anhcor - All led

Approach: Start at the path from parking spot #8 and follow the path to telephone pole 2569. Take that right and head up to the base of the cliff. At the base, look for a series of bolts on the face just as the path turns up to the right.

Accessory Dogs: This was a fun climb, though maybe poorly bolted. It is a thin-feeling route with some fun moves that'll make you think before you commit. All the moves are fairly easy, however, enough so that
I wonder if this is a 5.10. I struggle with this a lot. It seems that 5.10 is often easier than 5.9, and I'm not saying just outside either, but inside as well (because I'm well aware of the reason why many 5.9s really are harder than 5.10s outside - due to the now defunct decimal system formally establishing 5.9 as being the hardest possible climb, and older routes not being regraded as a result of the expanded system). For me, a 5.8 often feels like good holds and good moves. A 5.9 feels like good holds with crappy moves, and it is often awkward enough to make me grunt or sweat. A 5.10a often has good holds and good moves, too, but the moves require a bit more commitment and are spaced apart more than on a 5.8. It's difficult for me to say this route is soft because the moves don't feel as easy as 5.8, but they are certainly aren't awkward either. I find them to be very clean and easy, yet committing. I guess it really is 5.10 despite my feelings that this could be a very nice, un-awkward, 5.9 if one wants to look at it that way.

To climb this route, head up to the third bolt, and traverse left about three feet before moving up again. Once around the arrete, clip the fourth bolt and climb the corner straight up to the easy-clip anchors. We all led this succesfully, though "Ratherbe" was fairly tired and glad to have this as our final climb of the trip.

I guess the good thing about ending at this time was that the sun was getting hot, and we knew we were going to have to repack everything in the parking lot, which was devoid of shade for the most part. But all in all, the trip was OK. It wasn't fantastic. It wasn't a complete waste of time. It was OK. There were personal differences that were occassionally overcome, climbing deficiencies and achievements that added flavor, and a bit of learning, too. No one parted ways with a gold medal, and no one walked away any lesser of a person than upon arrival. I personally learned some things that I hope to post in my summary later on. Most of what I learned were reinforcements of assumptions I had already held regarding personal pursuits and ethics, and I'm not sure most people are going to agree with me. In fact, I expect a bit of a backlash, and my critics may be correct and it may turn out that my current beliefs are misguided, but I'm not so sure of that. As with anything, I'm sure there will be a little bit of pure disagreement mixed with a dash of inarticulation, with both shaken together with inexperience, ego, bold proclamations, and misiniformation to create a debate well worth thinking about. Oh well. That's life, and if part of our reason for being here isn't to learn and grow, well then, what the hell are we here for?

In the meantime, The Ramones spelled out essentially how I felt just moments before hopping in the car to Sacremento:

Twenty-twenty-twenty-four hours to go
I wanna be sedated
Nothing to do, no where to go, oh
I wanna be sedated

Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane
I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain
Oh no oh oh oh oh

Just put me in a wheelchair, get me on a plane
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go insane
I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain
Oh no oh oh oh oh

Just put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go loco
I can't control my fingers, I can't control my toes
Oh no oh oh oh oh

Just put me in a wheelchair, get me to the show
Hurry hurry hurry, before I go loco
I can't control my fingers, I can't control my toes
Oh no oh oh oh oh

Ba-ba-baba, baba-ba-baba, I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-baba, baba-ba-baba, I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-baba, baba-ba-baba, I wanna be sedated
Ba-ba-baba, baba-ba-baba, I wanna be sedated



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