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On Sunday, Seth and I ventured to the Leap for a day of mellow cragging. We came in by the north/east entrance, which is so much more convenient for routes on the East Wall - I'll never bother parking at the main lot again. We wanted to do some stuff that neither of us had tried before, so we started off on Scimitar (5.9R) with Seth taking the first lead. It's always fun to get on these R rated climbs, and try to guess ahead of time how much trouble you're going to get into. This time, the R was on pitch 2, and very mellow, maybe 5.5 or so. The rest protects well, and is very fun. We were still in the shade, and the wind was blowing, which made me very glad that I had brought my windshirt - for some reason I seem to be stuck in shorts mode these days. On P3, the topo shows to go onto the face to left of the arete just below the roofs, but Seth said "screw that" and went through the roofs instead, which was actually very fun and probably a much better line than the face.

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Seth on Scimitar. Can you guess that he works at Cliff Bar?

After topping out, we walked back down, turning a "short cut" into a manzanita thrutching scramble (oh, why did I wear shorts?), and then it was my turn to lead Fantasia (5.9R). Distinctly more R than Fantasia. First piece goes in about 50 feet up. A couple of fun little roofs/mantles to pull, then another 70 feet of runout to the anchors. Whheee! P2 was more of the same, with the runouts being much less trivial than on Scimitar. P3 was the crux. It was hard to tell exactly where the route went, but there was a likely looking pin up and to the right of the belay, with a tempting looking roof 15 feet above it, so I went that way. The moves to the roof are distinctly non-trivial, felt harder than 5.9, and completely unprotected. Definitely puts the "arrghh" in R! Way up above, I saw a mouthwatering roof that I really wanted to go through, and the topo doesn't provide much help as to exactly where the route goes, so I just made straight for it. Once again, pro was poor, and I spent a bit of time hunting around for the "best" way to get there. When I did finally arrive, after 80 some feet of runout, the roof was way fun, and I actually got a piece of pro in. This route is definitely DFU, and unless you're VERY creative with dubious gear placements, is more like an X than an R.

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Sir Run-It-Out doing his thing on P1 of Scimitar, and Seth on P3

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Charles and Seth at the top of Fantasia

We encountered Janelle and Alex at the top. They had been at the Leap since Saturday morning, and had just done East Corner. We paused a bit for a late lunch - or at least I did, as Seth was subsisting on Cliff Bar products, then went round again for a go at Psychedelic Tree (5.9). We were in full sun, and the corner of the buttress shielded up from the wind which had made the temps bearable thus far, so it was rather on the hot side. The crack was very vegetated, but none the less Seth linked P1 and P2, and I finished off with P3. It felt very strange putting in pieces. Or in reality, having the option to put in pieces.... We called it a day after that, headed back to the car for some refreshing beverages, then motored down to Placerville for dinner at Z-Pie, where again we ran into Janelle, Alex, and the rest of the crew. Fancy meeting them there! A very mellow and pleasant day of climbing, if a bit heady at times.... Just what the body needed.

(1944x2592 at 2578.5 kb)