Scott has been great this past week, helping to install our new patio door. This morning, he showed up at 9am and finished casing the door, a tricky job due to the walls of our house not being plumb. I guess the reason he's being so nice is that I've been very agreeable to where we've been going climbing this past month. After finishing the job this morning (as well as bacon and eggs grace a Liz) we headed out to the rough and readies to finish off a trad route that Scott has been eying for some time.
Scott's route takes a clean-crack just left of one of his other new unnamed routes. the crack is fun, and well protected and tops out on a ledge about 60 ft high. Instead of stopping here though, Scott continued up over low-fifth jumble of loose rock until he gained a final 20 ft head-wall. this is the kind of climbing most climbers avoid, especially at a sport-area like the Rough and Readies. The only time climbers purposely climb over rotten rock is to reach summits, so this had the feel of training for a mountain route. The final 20 ft was a little better, and it achieved something that very few Rough and Ready climbs do, it attains the top of the crag. We un-roped and meandered around on the plateau above, noting that the other jeep in the parking lot was gone, and commenting on the chossy upper cliffs, and how there could be some routes in there as well.
The second reason for leading this trad climb was to throw a rope over an adjacent roof formation to see if it would make a good route. The over-hanging section was actually pretty good, with good incut holds up the steep section and solid-sounding rock. Too bad the first 30 ft is a chossy mess. I think Scott still wants to bolt it though.We finished the day with burns on Rough Rider (5.11a) and Brangus Muffins (5.11b), both led by Scott. My arms are not used to these pump-fests.
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