Week three in a row for us to head up to the mountains. Conditions kept improving throughout autumn and with the gyms closed everywhere there was no place better to climb. But this week was different, and winter made an early guest appearance. The temperature gauge showed 5 degrees in the car when we pulled up to the Glen. And then the wind picked up and increased throughout the day. We lasted for about 3 hours at the Glen, where the sunniest spot was Junket Pumper wall. Chris and Roman worked on the crux thin boulder problem of Wrong Movement, but numb fingers made the small crimpers extremely painful. Chris came very close sticking the crux three times in a row and falling on the dyno after. Yet the hardest task fell on the stiff belayer shivering in the wind swept tunnel below. We bailed after Chris pulled a hideous looking flapper on his last move at the top of the climb.
Crag number two was a recommendation from Big Johns: Upper Mount Boyce was in the sun and out of the wind, sort of so, it was a little less freezing. We got to work on some nice warmups:
Vambrance (21*) with a thin undercling move and a nice juggy top
Watergate (23**) with its crux gaston and cross-threw to a nice steep but juggy top.
That was about it for the warmups and the wind started picking up again in the early afternoon so we tried our hands on the classic technical testpiece of this crag:
A Bird in the Bush (25**)
Chris put the draws on and winged his way to the top. It was my turn and the little pocket traverse at the beginning sent my digits into completely numb mode. The right gaston felt sharp but good, unfortunately I could not get my left opposing leg high enough. Crux one felt knarly and after a little rest a couple of moves up the second undercling crux waited. I could not pull into it with both hands just not enough power. Reach high from the undercling and a couple of nice scoop moves powerful but not too bad lead to a easy juggy finish. I lowered worn-out and numb and it is Roman Juniro's turn - he cruises easily to the top: not too bad he said. The wind picked up a little more at crag number 2, but I wanted another shot to try the two nice boulder problems again. I fell again on the first gaston crux, but the pockets felt better. I managed to do the second boulder problem and climb to the top exhausted. It was only 3pm so there was definitely time for one more crag. Three in a day must be some kind of record, right? |
