Andrew was keen to work on the razor crimps of Superweak (26***), Chris worked on Hairline (28****) and Roman decided on Some kind of Bliss (31***). Roman Senior tried to put the draws on Slink it Again (25**) but the bottom section was just too hard for my warm up routine so I bailed back to the safety of the easier Access Ledge.
Uncouth Youth (23**) has fixed hangers and a very hard balancy crux move that felt hard as a warmup. Andrew did a great job and send on his second shot.
You Crazy Diamond (23***) probably one of the best routes of a lower grade at this neck of the woods. Lovely moves through a steep face heading towards an arete finish. Will gave it a couple of nice shots.
The Bolt Bloke (23*) Unfortunate bolting on a beautiful line. Two parts: the lower arete is magic until a big ledge followed by an imposing vertical face with astounishing moves. Unfortunately, if you fall on the first two bolts you will hit the ledge and die. The run-out after that is also of concern and quite a few of the bolts have surface rust. The route terminates with two old carrot bolts and you can only rap of the route to the left with two chains, but it makes cleaning very difficult. Probably would not waste time on this – there are better things to get on, but it was busy on Saturday so I fought my way to the top.
Meanwhile Roman Junior was making good progress on Some kind of Bliss (31***) he put the draws on easily and cruised through all the sections. He broke it down into 4 sections: 25 start to a rest jug. The famous V7 campus problem, followed by a little bit of 24 climbing to a final thin V7 boulder problem to the finish jug. While he was working the route he noticed that the dogbone’s of some of the fixed draws were showing fire-damage. Particularly one of them near the crux looked particularly bad and he decided to replace it. This may have saved his life in hindsight and he lived through his first ‘close call.’ On his last red-point attempt of the day he decided to go for it and really push for the top. When he fell on the final crux just before the top, he fell about 5 meters onto the quickdraw below. The dogbone just disintegrated and he kept plummeting to the next quickdraw which was the one he had replaced. All up he fell a good 10 meters still well clear of the deck. Interesting to think about if he had not replaced the quickdraw – would it have held? Anybody’s guess but he lived to tell the tale. Go here to see one of his redpoint burns before his close call.
We always need to leave a little of ourselves behind at our place of rock worship. This can be a memory as much as an unfinished project for which to come back one fine day. The last route of the day wasThis time I choose just one more route to mention for future trips:
Diamond Jack (25**) Probably my favorite route at Diamond Falls, fantastic face climbing on a long stunning orange face. 30 meters so watch your rope-length. I counted three distinct cruxes: two closely together with no rest in between and then a final bulge move with two shallow pockets to a gast-on. The little runout at the end adds some spice but the climbing is easy to the first anchor. The second pitch is only 19 but soars high with lots of exposure. Definitely worth another visit.
Watch the YouTube near send of Some Kind of Bliss (31***) here:
