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Pinnacles, April 1 2006 |
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| 30% chance of showers? Good enough. Elbow tendinitis? Who cares. Sprained ankle? Ace wrap, trekking poles, and no cracks. Can you tell someone was getting stir crazy and needed to get out? We woke up on Saturday morning to rain pissing down in Berkeley, but it didn't phase us (the rock at Pinnacles is great when it's wet), so Chris, Casey and I piled into Casey's car and headed to the land of mud and pebbles. In truth, Chris drove, Casey snored and drooled in the back seat, and I gave Chris bad directions while navigating. We made an excellent team. Amazingly enough it was bright and sunny when we got to the park, so we made for the Monolith, and snap shackled our way up Hawaiian somethingorother (5.10a), POD (5.11a), and Foreplay (5.11b). The only other people we encountered were tourists, who assembled in droves to watch Casey lead POD. Actually, we did encounter one other party of climbers in the afternoon, but they were the only ones we saw for the entire day. |
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| Charles inspects the guide, and Chris takes off on the 10a | |
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| Casey on Hawaiian whatever it is, and looking cool and collected on POD | |
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| The throngs look on in awe as Casey leads POD, and my lunch of champions | |
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| Charles and Casey engage in some Foreplay | |
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| After we were done with the Monolith, we hiked back to Discovery Wall, where we did Verdict (5.11b) and Broken Arrow (5.10c) which was a new one for me - a fun technical face climb that goes to the top. We called it a day at that point, and returned to the car, only to find that the left front tire was flat, so Chris and I displayed our manly prowess, and with many neanderthalesqe grunts changed the tire. A wonderful ending to a beautiful day. |
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| Chris on Broken Arrow |
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| Casey and Chris tackle Verdict, and Chris and Charles tackle a flat | |
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| It was so great to get outside again - it had been so long that I was way past withdrawal, and into the real of utter despondency and despair. I had forgotten how much fun Pinnacles can be - it's been 4 years since I was last there. I wonder what the weather will be like next weekend? |