After laying down our sleeping bags in the communal yoga room, we proceeded to find our way to the campfire with a bag of candied pecans & a mixed 6-pack of Harpoon IPA and Negro Modela. A head lamp would have been highly prized for this mission, but we managed with the light of my cell phone and many giggles as we dredged through the snow, falling through the icy crust unexpectantly every 8 steps or so - resulting in the giggling. We finally reached the campfire and chatted for awhile with some fellow climbers from Quebec City about the climbing conditions at Rumney.
We didn't sleep much that night. It was unusually hot in the room and there were 7 or 8 of us sharing the space, including a snorer. I think on the next trip we will try camping or getting a private room. Easter morning we awoke around 8am & enjoyed a delicious farm breakfast of scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes, kale with garlic & fresh milk served out of a jar with a ladle. Perfect fuel for a day of climbing.
We packed up and headed to the crag around 9:30am. The sun was shining, but it took a little while to warm up above the 30's. We met some other climbing parties in the parking lot and proceeded to the aptly named Parking Lot Wall to start our first climb of the day. Maria was leading & started with a 5.7 slab route called Easily Amused. I top roped it & cleaned the anchor after her. She then got pretty confident & decided to lead a 5.9+ route just to the right called Easily Aroused. I was nervous for her getting to the first clip, as the party that had just jumped off of it used a stick clip. She nailed it. She was really nervous, but managed to keep it together and stick the pinchy, sharp holds. I top roped this route after her & struggled a few times on the crux. I can't imagine how scary that was on lead. From there, we moved on to The Meadows area where we both hopped on another party's top rope to climb Holderness Arete - a 5.10b route. We then grabbed some lunch & tried to find the 5.8 Crag to meet up with some friends. Somehow we got lost and ended up free climbing this steep cliff of rocks and trees, which would have required a rope to safely descend. We decided on a safer route back down which required a ton of butt scootching in order not to slip on the leaves that covered the ground.
We gave up on finding the 5.8 Crag & just returned to The Meadows where Maria continued her leading streak with 2 more routes. A 5.7 route called False Modesty, which she nailed cleanly & then a harder route, which was either Dung Beetle 5.9 or Easy Terms 5.8 - I'm not sure which. She had not taken a lead fall outside yet, so the plan was for her to take an announced fall after the 3rd clip, which she did, but I had the rope managed so tightly that it really wasn't a big fall. She proceeded to clip into the 4th clip & then started working on the crux just before the anchor. Unexpectedly, she fell on the crux and took what we both now refer to as her first outside lead fall. It was probably 6-8 feet and brought me to my tip toes on the ground. She shook it off and continued to clip into the anchor as she didn't want to leave any gear (good motivation!). After that, we decided to call it a day. The sun was tucked securely behind the clouds and the wind was picking up making it a little uncomfortable.
We packed up & headed back to the car. Next stop before making the 2-hour journey back home was Plain Jane's Diner for some well deserved, hot Easter meals. All-in-all, it was a successful short climb trip for NE in March. I didn't get any leads in on this trip, but my focus was really just enjoying the trip & getting a feel for Rumney again. Next time, I might try to lead Easily Amused 5.7.
No comments:
Post a Comment