Gadget’s Airstream Chronicles

Ah, yet another climbing post. Shouldn’t this go on the new Climb AZ site? Sure, it will, but it’s also part of the Airstream Chronicles (especially this one). So it goes here too. Hey, content can cross more than one site folks!

Brooke & Andy popped over this afternoon for a little climbing. No beatings on Thor’s Wall today. This time we picked a different challenge back on Time Zone. Yes, I know, Time Zone has easier climbs, so what gives? Simple, we were practicing leading sport routes today.

Before I get into all that, we’ll rewind. I’ve had several notes from folks curious about climbing, what you bring, etc. So, this morning while cleaning my gear and checking it I took a super sloppy photo to show you what goes into the bag. Here’s the photo…..

So, what are you seeing here? Well, the braided items are slings that are used as anchors. 4 of them, 30 feet in length, but doubled up, so only 15 feet each in reality. All of the clips with straps and clips at the other ends are called “quick draws”. You use them to clip into bolts for protection when lead climbing. In total, 16 quick draws with two clips (beaners) each. Pretty darned heavy. Then there’s my climbing shoes, harness, chalk bag. The two sacks behind that stuff has 60 feet of static rope (for creating anchors as well), many locking beaners, extra belay devices, etc. In total, about 40lbs of gear in my pack. Oh, so what’s the pack look like?

My pack is a nice little Osprey day pack. Not huge, but not tiny. It’s a comfy pack, and best of all there’s an air cooled mesh screen on the backside that you can slip your water pack into. Very nice! But lately the pack seems very heavy.

So, there’s the answer folks. Gear and pack.

Now, on to today.

As I said earlier, Andy & Brooke popped over and we headed out to Time Zone again. That wall has several sport climbs, and we were going to re-do them, only this time leading them. Normally we top rope there, and leading changes the dynamic a lot. Top roping means you create an anchor on top of the climb, run your rope through the anchor, and climb. It means that if you fall, you only fall a short distance.

Leading you climb up to a bolt (place in the rock), put a clip in, and then put the rope through. If you fall before the bolt, you fall! Once you’re clipped to the first bolt you climb to the next, and clip in again. If the bolts are 10 feet apart, and you fall right before your next, you will fall 20 feet, plus some slack. Long ride down.

So, the dynamic of the climbing on a favorite wall changed for me today.

As we got ready to climb Andy decided to break open a snack.  You can see clearly above Andy used his “extra special” mind powers to open the wrapper and start in on his treat.  If you didn’t know, Andy’s a “special” guy.  Now you know a little more! 

Andy did the first lead on the same 5.5 he led the other week.  No surprises, no twists, no turns.  Then I headed up and cleared off the gear so he could do another.  He led a second route, this time a 5.6, and no surprises there either.   I went up after, and cleared the quick draws off once more.  Then it was my turn to lead the 5.5.

While I got ready, Brooke shot the photo above.  Andy loving on his “guns” as it were.  Hmm, I’m glad I don’t see everything all the time…..

I headed up with no troubles (although I was wondering it Andy was posing some more).  But I’ll tell you, I was nervous.  I haven’t led in forever.  And doing this style of climb is working without a net.  Top roping you know, falling isn’t a big deal.  So I kept telling myself to be sure I’m happy with every spot I placed a foot, thrilled with every handhold.  A little extra adrenaline to say the least.

After my first bolt and quickdraw I continued up.  2 more bolts, then the pair at the top of the climb.  Everything went fine, but it’s been a long time since I’d done this, and much had changed.  While confidence is being restored, this type of thing really calls it into question.  And it did that for me a lot today.

Moments like the shot above are the ones where you’re trying to work quick.  The last point of protection is a ways below you.  You’ve gotten a quickdraw into a bolt, the rope isn’t in there yet.  You’re not safe yet.  Unnerving.  Yup, that’s about it.

After I popped down from my first lead in forever Andy did another.  Then I did another.  Then Andy did one more.  Back and forth.  For both of us, today held the most climbs in one day.  We did many back and forth.  Finally Andy led the 5.8 (near Nick of Time).  He did well with it, so hoorah Andy!  I then went up afterward, clearing off gear so that we could wrap up and head in.

At the top I had an interesting experience.  I’d already hit the top several times, and removed the last quickdraws from bolts at the top of the climbs.  You get to the top where a pair of bolts lie.  You clip a small sling to your belt, then to the bolts.  You then take the quickdraws out, take yourself off the rope (hanging by your sling now), and feed the rope through the bolts in order to rappel down to the ground.  No problems, right?  Wrong.

On the last climb I cleaned up.  I got to the top, beaners on both sides of my harness, and I hooked in with my sling to the bolts at the top of the climb.  I untied the rope and felt uncomfortable, and ill at ease.  But I’d done the same thing 15 minutes earlier.  Hmmph!

If you drop the rope before you feed it through the bolts you’re screwed.  No rope, no way down.  I put the rope in my teeth while I rearranged.  Then I started feeding it through.  My sling was secure, but I just wasn’t happy.  The rope wasn’t going through the bolts fast enough, and for the first time in a long time I wanted DOWN!  I talked to myself about it while I was working and reminded myself this was an easy thing quite a while ago.  And I’d just done it.  No biggie.  But still, the adrenaline hit there, and it hit hard.

I finally got everything fed through.  Next big challenge, set up my own belay, make sure it’s good (while remaining calm), unclip my sling and head down.  It all got finished just right, but man, for 2 minutes I was well over the edge of my comfort zone.  Haven’t been there in a long time, nice to say.  All the same, I did it.  I’ve led again, I’ve unhooked on a wall again, I rapped off a climb again.  Progress, albeit uncomfortable progress.

So there it is for today.  I’ve been happy to regain so much that was toasted the past few years.  And some of it comes at the cost of extreme discomfort (believe me, there’s been a ton of that).  Today held another one of those moments.  And doing this stuff, it’s serious.  If you mess up it’s a long way down.

Well, I’m spent.  Glad to get out with my friends again.  Glad they pushed me to do more again.  Necessary, even if it didn’t all feel proper. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 9:22 pm and is filed under Arizona, Climbing AZ, Notes from Gadget, Outdoor Gear.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.