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Casey was back in town and twisted my arm real hard, convincing me to hit the valley for a day. We wanted to do something long and pleasant, and settled on East Buttress of Middle Cathedral (5.10c), possibly followed by as much of Stoner's Highway as we had time for. We figured that it wouldn't be too crowded mid week, so we didn't try to get up too early, and left the car around 7:30. Unfortunately, someone who shall remain nameless, but is about six feet tall, and perpetual injured, missed the incredibly obvious trail off the gully, or at least thought he had and so started following a much less obvious trail far to early, and ended up on the right side of the climb, forcing the dynamic duo to solo up some wet 5th class mank in sandals. A good start! When we finally got to the base, we found at least 4 parties ahead of us, and some of them were slow, slow, slow! We hung out at the base for about an hour and a half, being entertained by various shouts of frustration and screams from above - someone was obviously having some issued. At one point we heard a scream of "rock!", followed by the tink, tink, tink, thud of gear being dropped. Since we had time, I decided to go and look for it, and found a new 0.4 C4 cam in about 30 seconds. Booty! But I was nice, and clipped it to a tree at the base next to packs that were lined up there.

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We wait at the base, and again at P6

We eventually started going, and I linked P1 and P2. Casey took P3 and P4, then I tried to pass one party by doing the 10a variation on P5. A bit spicy, though the "thin, off-balance" mantle is neither thin nor off-balance, and not even a mantle. I tried to link to P6, and ended up about 5 feet from the anchors, with much rope drag. I should really have used a longer sling on that first yellow alien after the bolt! I managed to reach the anchors with a couple of long slings, then brought Casey up, at which point we spent at least another hour waiting for the traffic jam ahead to clear out. The rest of the climb went fairly fast, though I screwed up the second last pitch by going too far up the gully and having to set up an impromptu anchor half way up the last 5.5 pitch, when we had wanted to try the 5.9 thin hands. Ooops. Oh well, save that for next time.

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Summit shots

I managed not to miss the trail on the way down, and lo and behold, found the booty cam still attached to the tree where I had left it! I don't know how the owners could have missed it. Score one for me though. We got down around six, with no time to try Stoner's. Save that for next time. I dropped Casey off at Hardin Flat, as she was going to stay an extra day and meet up with Jon, and headed back home. Gear note: singles to #3 is more than good enough. And I saw the most amusing sight on the way back - just as I was pulling onto the main road after the Priest Grade, in my rearview mirror I saw a huge bus sized RV pulling a jeep start to head up it. I almost turned around to watch the fun....

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