trad trad trad trad

My thumbs are sore! Its a first for me-- to have pumped thumbs from handjamming. My fingers are fine, as are my forearms. But some different muscles in my back are sore. And the skin on my hands is really tender right now (even though we made tape gloves).

I went to Indian Creek wall yesterday with a big crew of people. We set up topropes on some splitter hand cracks and got to work. Many of us are sport climbers, for whom a full crack climb involved movements completely foreign to us. It was a lot of fun to watch everyone learn (and to figure it out myself). The sport climber will do anything to avoid the awkwardness of a full four-limb jam. On a 5.9+, there was serious stemming out onto nothing footholds, long, strenuous laybacks, double gastons, and plenty of moaning...



On Saturday I went to Fortress with Jeff and Geoff where we did some trad lines. I got in a couple of good leads-- Calypso II and the first pitch of Bedtime for Bonzo. I was nervous and tried to not barf of my belayer but, in the end, it felt really good to place some gear.

(me leading calypso II)

(jeff)

(at the top of the route, hanging out while Geoff tried where lizards dare)


(the second pitch of bedtime for bonzo. "exposed" but nothing compared to the gunks!)

(team green!)