Our first stop was Fairview, where I wanted to make a real topo of What Would Jeff Do? (5.11b) (here's the topo), and to replace/add a couple of bolts. The route went fairly quickly, and I got my first chance to wield a hammer on granite! It took surprisingly little time to drill holes for a 3/8" bolt, though my arm did get tired pretty quickly. Hate to think what it took to drill the 30+ bolts for the rest of the route, which of course, were drilled by hand, and not with a power drill....

It turned out that Jeremy also had a site at the meadows, so after dinner we went and socialised for a bit, before the early morning start and the toils of the day caught up with us. It was very fortunate that Jeremy was there however, as Seth had forgotten his sleeping bag back at my house, and Jeremy had a spare.

The next morning, Mike and I headed back to Fairview, to have a go at Heart of Stone (5.12a). I really wanted to try out the roof on the last pitch, which Bryan and I had bailed on last time. The first pitch did not start well though - for some reason my head was not in the game, and I kept on not seeing obvious feet. Eventually, I made it to the anchors, but it took embarrassingly long. Someone has been replacing bolts on the route, but for some reason they didn't touch the last two - rusted quarter inches are just what you want after the runout crux. Mike made short work of the next pitch, and lo and behold, we found NEW bolts, where there had not been any before. Hmmmm. Interestingly enough, some of the old bolts were still there. Why add new ones without replacing the old ones? We were both baffled. The new bolt added on P4 is in a very bad place - far too high, and draws you way off route. Mike took the 12a corner pitch, and did really well on it - getting the stems, and not lie-backing the whole thing like I had tried to do last time. I was able to send it while following, and discovered all sorts of good rests. There's a great, no hands stem rest right before the crux, where you can get it all back. The "pitch of mantles" was just as fun as I had remembered from last time, only more so as it was my lead. Wheeee! Finally, it was my turn to lead the roof pitch. I found an ok blue alien placement just over the roof (roof bolt is still original), but chickened out making the move, aided my way up over it and got a piece in up high, then came back down and was able to send it pretty easily. It's not too bad once you know the beta. It's especially not too bad on TR ;-}. I think it'll be fine next time.

On Sunday, Mike and I headed to Medlicott, to try some wider stuff. We racked for bear, and started up The Yawn (5.9). I was packing an extra pair of shoes, as we also intended to do Lighter Side (5.12b), which I didn't want to attempt in my mythos, and didn't feel like doing wide crack stuff in my anasazis. What a prima donna! I bore the brunt of my decision, as doing the wide, flaring offwidth crack, and chimneying with an extra pair of climbing shoes as well as my sandals on my harness was less than fun. The first pitch is no gimme, with some rather awkward moves through a bulge, and then a strange traverse in a cave. I'm glad I brought the green alien! Mike took the second pitch, and while it starts off pretty easily, the 5.9 o/w is no gimme either. It's not necessarily really hard, but it is energetic. By the time I made it to the dihedral, I was a bit blown, so I gave Mike the lead again, for a go at the 12b arete. It's really hard to onsight that route, as you really don't know what slopey knobs are good, and which suck (ie, most of them). Mike made it to the 5th bolt, with a few hangs, then came down and gave the lead back to me. It was really cruxy getting from the 2nd to 3rd bolt, but not so bad on TR ;-}. For me the real head crux was getting to the 7th bolt. I went up and down about 5 times before I finally committed to the move. It's definitely not over after that - the remaining two bolts aren't pieces of cake either. I still think that the technical crux is the arete after the 2nd bolt.

We finished off the last two pitches of the Yawn (the guide book definitely lies when it says "...a 5.7 hand crack in a corner that climbers dream about." First, it's not 5.7. Second, it's not a hand crack, but rather a 5.7 o/w flare. And third, I for one, will never dream about it. Lies upon lies. We were pretty tired by then, and after encountering Seth at the base of the sun deck, headed for the lake for a quick and very refreshing dip before heading back to the Bay.

An awesome weekend, with perfect weather. I'm really glad the forecast for thunderstorms didn't come true when we were on Medlicott! That could have made the Yawn rather more interesting....