Thursday, June 08, 2006
PICTURES OF ASSESThere are two types of climbing pictures: those professional ones which depict snarling finger grabs from above, the climber flexing and growling as he looks directly into the camera; then these, taken point-and-shoot from below, showing, mostly, the asses of the climbers. Still, they serve to prove that we were indeed out climbing, and even showing off some moves.
A few terms need to be addressed before I can move on, they are just climbing terms, and no one will be asked to take a test on them later, I promise.
Arete: pronounced A-rate
A sharp, narrow mountain ridge or spur.
Dihedral: pronounced die-he-drawl
Formed by or having two plane faces; two-sided
Buttress: pronounced but-ris
in climbing: rock resembling a support buttress, four sided, standing alone.
Jamming: pronounced jam-ing
using your hands or feet as a wedge inside a crack for leverage.
Those should do it, now on to the pictures:
We arrived at Taylor's Fall's around 6:30, and already it was light out. I feared we would not be able to find a decent climb. I should not have worried. It was empty in the park. So much so that in the 7 years I have been visiting TF, I have NEVER seen it so dead. I had to ask a park ranger why no one was there. He had no answers, but assured me the park was open. And so we ventured back. I had never been to an area known as "Delicate Dihedral" before, so we decided to set up there.
DD is actually a buttress standing about 30 feet high, and sporting about 6 decent climbs. It is not as high as most of the things we climb, but the cracks looked like they could be fun, and since we had a first timer with us, we thought the shorter climb was ideal.
This is a good illustration of what we were looking at. Chad is up there climbing a fun little 5.6. He is trying to make it harder by avoiding the obvious crack to his left.
I was there for a neat little 5.8+ named after the area. The climb takes you under an arete, and up an off-width crack to the top. This pictures shows me balled up under the arete, waiting to dyno (a dynamic move) out.
Here is the completion of that move. I am on the crux, or hardest part of the climb, now. To the left is the crack Chad and I would climb next. It is a 5.7ish, which means it is a little easier, and I flashed it in about 30 seconds. Still, it had some neat looking moves, and we both enjoyed it.
Carly had her first real climb here. She is on the same climb as Chad was in the earlier picture. See her dipping for more chalk like a pro? She made the climb no problem.
When we got done we moved to the taller climbs, but we were all so beat, we just let other people climb our set. I got to take a couple kids up again, and like last time, it was a blast. Kids put everything they have into climbing, and they enjoy it so openly and honestly. Chad also ran into some friends and got to send one up. He is turning into a climber right before our eyes. He totally gets why we are out there.
At the end of the day we ate at Smitty's: it is tradition now. I will make sure to get photos, though I have to report Smitty no longer owns the bar. Ask Chad who is next in line, sometime, he came up with some very clever names.
Then, as you already read, on the way home I got a speeding ticket. Luckily I was still on a climbing high, or I might have also picked up assaulting a police officer. At any rate, I think we will be taking a different route next time, but I hope the rest stays just the same.
