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I've stolen a bunch of pics from Susan. It took a little effort, but I somehow managed to persuade Jack to accompany me to the Valley this weekend. Perhaps it was the forecast of perfect weather, or the fact that this might be the last nice climbing weekend there this season, or maybe because it was my turn to drive, though there was some discussion of the latter - if I've driven for the last six weekends, how is it still my turn to drive? In any case, we made the weekly pilgrimage to Hardin flats on Friday night, where we ran into Dan and Lynsey. They had plans to go huh... huh... hiking on Saturday! Damn, I can't even type it! Hiking? When the granite calls? It just seems wrong! When we got up the next morning, Dan and Lynsey had already left for Clouds Rest. We had much lowlier ambitions in mind - The Cookie. Just as we were hiking away from the pullout at the base of the cookie, Matt and Susan arrived - they had just driven in from Berkeley. How is it that we who had camped there weren't able to get there before them? We warmed up on Outer Limits (5.10c). I plugged in 6 pieces, and Jack one upped me by putting in 4. Bugger. This means that next time I'll have to use 3. Or is that 2? We had planned to do Hardd next, but there was a party on it, so we proceeded directly to Crack A-Go-Go (5.11c), while Matt and Susan took over on Outer Limits. Jack took the lead, and despite a brave attempt, had to hang at the crux. The gear there is so sketchy, as it's really hard to see what you're placing due to the leaning nature of the crack. When he finished it, we rigged a TR with a couple of lines, and then I had a go. This was my first time on it, and I was a bit worried of its fearsome reputation. However, once I started going, I found it rather casual - I used the left crack to walk my feet up, and the crimps/sidepulls on the right for my hands. No problem. Jack was not amused when I told him how mellow I thought it was. Heh heh. The four of us did a couple more TR laps on it, then Jack and I moved on to Red Zinger (5.11d).

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Matt on Outer Limits, and Jack on Crack-a-Go-Go

I went up first, and blew it at the off fingers crux, getting tunnel vision and not using my feet well. The Anasazis worked much better for me than the Mythos though. Then it was Jack's turn, and he cruised it. However, at the crux, he reached right and used the crack that's 4 feet to the side to achieve a great rest. I was highly offended by this, and threatened to give him 20 feet of penalty slack. When he came down, we had a discussion about ethics and what's on and what's not, then I went up, and using the same beta, sent it. At which point I concluded that it was in fact on. Yes, I'm highly hypocritical. Jack then went back up again, and tried to send it without the right crack, but had a brain fart, misused his feet, and blew it at the crux. Bugger. Meanwhile, Matt and Susan had gone off to play on Generator Crack (5.10c). Jack and I finished off the day with a TR lap on two thirds of Meat Grinder (5.10a/c). Didn't feel like 10c to me, so that section must be at the very top. There were dozens of mice that were running around at the base as dusk fell. One of them even ran across my leg as I was belaying Jack, the cheeky little bastard. But if you were a mouse, wouldn't you want to hang out at a place called The Cookie?

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Jack on Red Zinger and Meat Grinder

We met up with Matt and Susan at the pizza deck, and were shortly joined my Dan and Lynsey, and then by Dan Rampe and Mike. It was still early after dinner, so we all headed over to the Ahwahnee and relaxed in the upstairs lounge, playing cards and reading, before returning to the pines to crash. I think that all that decadent luxury of the Ahwahnee made me soft, because I couldn't get a wink of sleep that night. Jack had the same problem. Weird.

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Scenes from the Ahwahnee

The next day we returned to the cookie. Dan and Lynsey were already there, warming up on Outer Limits, so Jack and I hit Hardd (5.11a). Turns out that a 60m rope is a little too short to TR it, so Jack had to downclimb the initial chimney after leading it, and I had to solo up it before tying in when I followed. Scaaaarrrry. You can just barely rap down with a 60m. Then it was time for me to put my money where my mouth was yesterday - Crack-a-go-go. It is surprisingly more difficult to lead than to TR! I got rather sketched just above the crux, trying to plug a 0.75 cam into a flaring crack with no success, then said f*ck it, put the cam in my mouth and kept on going, hoping that the tiny gear that I had left below would hold. I vaguely heard the peanut gallery saying "yeah Chuck! you can do it!" then as I blew the cam placement and kept going "ohhh, errrrr" and silence..... Luckily I didn't come off, and continued on to send the route. Woo hoo! I think I know the gear now, so it should go better next time. A 70m rope would also be useful here. Jack had another go at it, but blew it at the crux, and fell onto a well placed blue alien. He had really good gear beta this time. The key is to place the blue alien high off the good crimp/jug, then go for the pod. You know it's good, and if you move fast you won't pump out.

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Jack on Hardd, and Charles on Crack-a-Go-Go

Dan and Lynsey had left for Pat and Jack's, but Matt, Susan, Jack and I hung out at the cookie and did some more laps on Outer Limits and Crack a go-go. Jack and I had originally planned on doing the Nabisco Wall as well, but for some reason lacked the energy.... We finished off the day at Generator Crack (5.10c), where I flailed, and managed to do serious damage to my pinky. Those who might wonder how one could damage a pinky on an crack that never gets smaller than 5 inches have never seen me climb offwidth. Of course, Jack and Matt cruised it.

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Charles hangs out on Generator Crack.