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The logistics fro this trip were horrible. People kept on changing their departure and arrival dates, which made coordinating cars an exercise in frustration. At the end I finally gave up, and drove down with Jack. Luckily, Daniel and Tina had been in the park for a couple of weeks, and had secured some choice sites for us - the buttery flake site of Hidden Valley campground. Ed and Viv also made the voyage down on Saturday, and we rolled in at a reasonable hour, being pleasantly surprised by the superb evening weather - we didn't even need down jackets to sit around that first night. The next morning dawned with nary a cloud to be seen, and warm enough to walk around without a shirt on. This was by far the best Thanksgiving weather I had ever experienced. We could only hope it would hold. Jack and I warmed up on Coarse and Buggy (5.11b), but I fell below the crux, lowered down to the ledge, then sent it from there. This time I was stemming it instead of using the crack, as the rope was always in the way. Much more difficult and tenuous, especially for someone with poor footwork like me. We then moved over to Sow Sickle (5.11d). Jack took the lead, tried to get the crux a few times, then lowered down and passed the sharp end to me. I tried as well, failed, then aided up past it and clipped the next bolt, then lowered down and tried again. Even with the security of the TR, I fell the first time before pulling through. A very awkward series of moves - don't think I would want to lead it again. The top section is pretty trivial, though the rock is a bit loose. After lunch we headed over to the Dairy Queen wall, where Jack led Pat Adams Dihedral (5.11b). Talk about sustained! Decent underclings with polished feet on a severely overhanging dihedral. I was completely out of breath by the time I finished following it. We then set up a TR over Toxic Waltz (5.12a), and Jack went first. We should have guess from the name, and from the fact that it only got 3 stars that something was off. Bloody hard, and pretty horrible all together. We both flailed, though Jack lost more blood than I. I'm pretty sure that some holds have broken off, as it felt far, far harder than 12a. I have come to the conclusion that it isn't worth getting on any .12 or .13 that doesn't rate 5 stars.

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Bunnies invade the campsite, and Jack on Pat Adams Dihedral

On Monday, Jack, Tina, Daniel and I headed over to Echo Rocks, where we warmed up on Wangerbanger (5.11c). What's with all these 5.11 warmups? Jack went first, and cruised it. So much for being off the couch! He made it look so easy, that I didn't have any hesitation to go too. Of course, it wasn't quite as trivial as it appeared, and the tight hands section gave me a bit of pause - Jack and Daniel were sure I was going to whip - but I managed to pull through. After running a few laps on it, we then moved over to O'Kelley's Crack (5.10c), which has a ridiculously hard 5.11 start. Why does a crack rated 5.10c have a 5.11 section on it? Daniel reached up high and placed a yellow alien for us to keep us off the deck, then Jack tried some very tenuous lieback moves a few times before sending it. I tried to use the crimp way out to the right, but ripped all the skin off a couple of my knuckles when it blew. Did the lieback approach after that, and left liberal amounts of blood all up and down the crack. Once you get past those initial few moves, the rest is pretty moderate. When I came down, I tried doing a comparison test - I put crazy glue on one wound, and new skin on the other, to see which would work better. The crazy glue worked better at the start, but I think the newskin is healing a bit faster.

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Jack and Charles on Wangerbanger

After lunch Jack and I had a go at Spider Line (5.11c). I let Jack lead this one. Much harder than Wangerbanger, and much more awkward too. Following it was tricky, as Jack kept on plugging cams in where I needed to put my fingers. Otherwise I'm sure I would have sent it... right. We finished off the day on Intersection Rock, where we ran into Matt and Susan. Matt was on Left Ski Track (5.11a), which I followed, while Jack went and did Right Ski Track with Susan. The left is a bit of a tricky lead, and more of a face climb than a crack at the crux.

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Matt and Jack top out on Right Ski track

We decided to take it a bit easier the next day, and headed into the Outback to do a couple of mellow classics on the Astro Domes: Solid Gold (5.10a) and Figures on a Landscape (5.10b). Barker Dam was full of water, and we had some fun scrambling around the west side. The domes weren't too hard to find, and there was nobody around when we arrived. I took P1 of Solid Gold, which is thin edges and crimps all the way. I'm happy I had brought the Anasazis instead of the Mythos like Jack did. Despite the less than stellar edging shoes, Jack made short work of the pitch on follow, and then went on to lead P2, which was a little spicy for a 10a. Not much gear is needed - the largest gear we used was a 0.5 camalot for the belay, though Jack used a #1 for the anchor at the top. When we were half way up, the hordes arrived - a group of about 12 showed up. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to get on Figures, but they hung around Solid Gold, so when we moved on we were alone once again. Jack took P1, and tried to link it with P2. He went back and forth from the bolts to the crux seven or eight times, exploring the lower and higher routes, and all variations in between, but never committed, until he finally took at the belay and passed the sharp end to me. Thanks Jack! Not only did I get the crux, but the sketchy unprotected traverse to the belay too! I tried the lower route, and used my extra reach to pull through. Spicy indeed! I belayed Jack over to the next anchors just after the crux, then ran it out to the top. At the summit, there was a crew setting up a slack line between the north and south domes, with major amounts of rigging gear. We couldn't find the rap station, so we walked off the west side, which wasn't really a problem. Once again, not much gear was used. Next time I head out there, I'll just bring singles.

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Jack on Solid Gold and Figures on a Landscape

We hiked back, avoiding the pond behind the dam to the east, and headed over to Hemingway to get one last pitch in. Dan, Lynsey, Matt and Susan were all there, so we ran up Poodles are People Too (5.10b) right behind Susan as the sun was going down.

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Wednesday was our rest day. Jack, Ed, Viv and I lounged around the camp for a while, then headed into town for a shower, food, a game of Trivial Pursuit (honkies vs asians: honkies rule!), and to watch Harry Potter. We had intended to eat dinner at the Thai place, but a party had reserved the entire restaurant, so we were forced to look elsewhere. Across the street we saw "Sam's Pizza and Subs (and Indian Food)". With a name like that, how could we resist? We tried the Indian, and it was actually remarkably edible, and far superior to any of the Mexican places in the vicinity. Add it to the list. There was a big party going on at the Spaniard's camp next to us, with Matt throwing many pallets on the fire, taking his shirt off, and jumping it. Ahh, it brought back such fond memories of last year.... We planned to drive back on Saturday to avoid the horrible Thanksgiving Sunday traffic, but wanted to get a few climbs in before we left. We joined Amy, Aaron, Ed and Viv at the Oyster Bar, and warmed up on what I think was Darts, Anyone? (5.8) on Target Rock. It's shown in the overview map, but not described in the text. We then went over to the Oyster Bar proper, and did a bunch of sport routes, namely Oyster Delacacy (5.11b), Oysters from Heaven (5.11c), which are very thin, crimpy face climbs, and an unnamed one on the face to the right of the corner. It's a one or two move wonder, but that move definitely takes a bit of thinking. I'm guessing hard 10. We called it in at around 1, and began the long trek back to the Bay area. We got caught in stop and go traffic at 4 Corners, but found a secret short cut that let us bypass it all. Woo hoo!

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Scenes from the Oyster Bar

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