Ramblings of a Monkeygirl I laughed, I cried, I fell down…

Climbing with a “stranger” on my 1st trip to Lovers Leap

Thursday (July 30) started out as an imploding ball of foiled intentions and trampled climbing dreams… My idea to drive up to Donner Summit on Saturday, camp, and climb on Sunday with Jeff and Kelli was being derailed by work conflicts, and it was looking like I would be stuck at sea level with no prospect of climbing outdoors.  I lamented to the Twitter climbing community and stomped around the house, pouting and futilely shaking my fist at the sky.  Yes, I was disappointed. I was upset. I was downright miserable. Then, like unexpected heroes, both Ben (@benpope) and George (@sudarkoff) swooped in and offered to climb with me.  Well, ok, maybe not quite so dramatic and definitely lacking capes, but they sure saved my day. Twenty four hours and a billion emails later, plans and work schedules were arranged, rearranged, and rearranged again until the final plan consisted of me, Ben, Jeff, and Kelli heading up to Lover's Leap on Saturday afternoon.

So here’s the thing. Ben and I had been following each other and chatting on Twitter for a while and had read each other’s trip reports, but we’d never met in person or climbed with each other before.  I know, I know… he could have been a serial killer or, possibly worse, an awful belayer.  Even so, I decided to take a leap of faith based on having gotten to know Ben a little through our very chatty and wonderful Twitter climbing community.  Meeting up with Eileen (@rockgrrl) in Tuolumne and climbing with her was such a positive and fun experience that it made me eager to meet more Twitter climbers in person.  (Eileen even vouched for me when Ben joked about the possibility that I was a mass murderer.)

The moment of truth came when I went to pick Ben up late Saturday morning. He stood up from where he was sitting on the curb with his gear, and I peered at him from the car.  He didn’t look like a serial killer…heh.  A flurry of “Hellos,” “nice to meet yous,” gear tossed into the car, and we were off.  Now I don’t know how Ben felt about the drive up, but I thought we got along quite well right off the bat.  We chatted most of the way up while Ben looked up routes for us in the guidebooks and played DJ.

Saturday - Luther Spires

We arrived at the Lover's Leap campground around 4pm, and we were lucky enough to secure a site. Since it was late in the day, we decided to hit up Luther Spires for some top rope and sport climbing fun rather than trying any trad.

I texted Jeff, and he and Kelli said they’d join us there too. A drive and a trudging, uphill slog… and then we were at Luther Spires.  I had just started to lead Dog and Grigri, Two Bucks when Jeff and Kelli joined us.  In addition to that route, we did Beer and a Hotdog, Two Bits, and Cheap Commercial Steak Sauce, Two Fifty – some on top rope, others on lead.  We didn't do anything particularly hard but the routes were fun.  After the long drive and uphill hike, it was just nice to stretch out and touch the rock.

The setting sun bathed the rocks in a soft, golden glow that put me in a relaxed and happy state of mind.  Climbing with the gorgeous view of the valley below in the mild summer air was pretty much the perfect way to end a day.  I suppose it also gave Ben and I the chance to suss out each other’s abilities and habits before trying out any multi-pitch trad together, but I don't think it really crossed my mind at all.  I felt comfortable climbing with Ben from the moment I tied in to lead the first route.

A little before the sun completely set we packed up and hiked back to the cars to drive to South Lake Tahoe for a delicious pizza dinner.

Sunday - Lover’s Leap

I had foregone the rigamarole of setting up a tent in favor of sleeping out on a tarp on Saturday night so I was able to enjoy waking up slowly to the dawn light filtering through the trees around 6am. I didn't have to wait long before Jeff crawled out of his tent (he and I always seem to be the first ones up).  It was a new climbing day, and I felt GLORIOUS! (Cutting back on caffeine the prior week probably had a lot to do with my new-found morning energy, but I prefer to give the credit to being outdoors...)

Jeff and I perused the guidebooks and decided on Hogsback to give Kelli something easy to climb for her first, long multi-pitch climb.  They'd climb Knapsack Crack while Ben and I would do the 5.7 variation of Deception.

Ben and I decided to do the route in 2 pitches, and he graciously let me lead the whole thing.  We cruised through the climb without difficulty and met Jeff and Kelli at the top.  After a snack and water break, we all headed back down to try other routes.

Jeff and Kelli decided to try the regular 5.6 route on Deception while Ben and I went over to try Harvey Wallbangers, Right.

Ben let me lead again, and the first pitch was an easy cruise.  The second pitch, however, was a different story.  I didn't have doubles of the larger sizes in my rack and I'd left 3 of them back in the anchor.  This left me with a lot fewer cams to work with than I needed for that particular pitch, and, for some reason, I kept forgetting I had hexes and nuts.  I was worried about running out of gear for the crux move and bulge at the top of the pitch, and I ended up needing to run out the climb more than I really wanted to.  While running out the climb didn't bother me by itself (the climb was easy), the lack of gear that was forcing me to run it out really bugged me and left me feeling a bit sketched out.  I like to be prepared for everything, and thinking I didn't have enough gear really didn't agree with me.  In addition, the wind picked up in the middle of the pitch, obliterating all other sound.  For some reason this made me feel really alone and exposed, despite the fact I could see Ben below me.  Combining it all together ended up making the pitch a lot more heady than I would have ever expected.  In the end, though, the crux and bulgy bit at the top were pretty easy and straightforward, and I was a little surprised at myself for letting my head get away from me.

We hiked down off Hogsback, and Jeff and Kelli packed up to head back home. Ben and I didn't feel quite ready to leave yet,  but it was about 4pm by the time we got back to the car to refill our water bottles and snacks so we didn't really think we could do another multi-pitch route.  Instead of messing around with single pitch routes, we just decided to have some fun playing around on the campground boulders.

We didn't have a crash pad so mainly played around V0 and V1s, including an easy V0 traverse around the backside of Monks Rock which could be joined to a 5.7 chimney climb to the top.  I came around the traverse, stopped to give the chimney a half minute of thought, then went right on up.

Once I got to the top, however, I didn't really like the idea of down-climbing the chimney.  I scrambled to a low point on the boulder and asked Ben to toss up the rope so I could set up a top rope to rappel off the bolted anchors on top of the large overhang/roof of the boulder.  Once I had the gear, Ben climbed up the chimney too, and we set up the top rope so he could try the V2 problem under the roof.

A couple guys we'd met the night before (Planet Granite SF regulars; we let them share our campsite) came by and asked if they could use the top rope too so we let them try the climb first.  Neither of the guys were able to finish the V2 much less the V4 that shares the same start, and we were all beginning to think that the route was mis-rated.

After they both gave up, Ben gave it a shot.  He made a couple valiant attempts to get over the roof, but wasn't able to either.  By this point I knew I had no chance, but I tried anyway.  Of course I didn't make it, but it was still fun.

Ben and I climbed up the other side of the chimney to take down the top rope anchor and rap down again.  We then finished out the evening climbing on the two V1s on the northwest face of the Mushroom Cap boulder.  It was pretty much a perfect day of climbing.

Reflections

Two things particularly made this trip stand out - 1) my reaction on the second pitch of Harvey Wallbangers and 2) climbing with a completely new person I'd met online. My reaction while climbing opened my eyes to how just a couple things can turn an otherwise easy climb into a heady route.  While feeling sketched out about not having enough gear and having to run out protection is pretty obvious, I was surprised at how the wind affected me.  By blocking out all other sound, it forced me even deeper into my own head.  I could probably turn that into a positive thing at some point, but I know, for now, I really don't like feeling as alone on a pitch as that made me feel.  Still, I'm pretty happy I learned these things about myself on an easy climb with beautiful weather.  Knowing how I react will make it easier the next time I find myself in a similar situation to control my head.

As for meeting a relative stranger and climbing with them, this experience has just left me wanting to meet more climbers. I've rambled on and on before about how cool the Twitter climbing community is and this weekend was just another confirmation of that fact.  People thought I was crazy to want to climb with someone I'd never met, but I didn't feel unsafe or uncomfortable with Ben belaying me at any point in the weekend.  Interestingly enough, I felt that way climbing with Eileen in Tuolumne as well – I guess maybe there’s something to getting to know climbers through Twitter and their blogs after all.  Now I'm sure there was a chance we could have rubbed each other the wrong way or had absolutely zero in common in addition to the possibility we might not have climbed well together, so maybe I got really lucky.  In any case, I had a total and complete blast, and I'd like to think I've made a new, real life friend through Twitter.  It's sad that Ben has to go back to Boston at the end of this week, but I'm sure we'll keep in touch online.