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

Crack Climbing: Addiction within the obsession

How Yosemite and The Grotto taught me to love crack

A boulderer friend of mine on Twitter recently joked that "Friends don't let friends climb crack." At the time I just laughed, but I'm beginning to see the need for such a warning. Once you start crack climbing, there's just no going back. The already all-consuming obsession with climbing turns into a burning new addiction that will leave you aching to stuff your hands into hand-chewing crevices and twist your feet into toe-squashing seams. Oh yes, I think I'm starting to understand...

I'd managed to avoid crack climbing for the first half a the year while learning trad on super easy routes that didn't really require crack skills.  I've always been enamored with crimpy face climbs and balancey slabs, and cracks generally reduced me to a whimpering pile of failed climber.  Around August, however, I realized that I was going to have to actually learn to use the cracks effectively if I wanted to progress in trad climbing.   Since then I've been slowly learning how to crack climb.  I've been lucky enough to meet and climb with experienced crack climbers who generously shared their tips and tricks with me and have also been cheered on in my newbtastic endeavors by other new-ish crack climbers whom I recently befriended.  In the last few months I've practiced crack climbing at the gym, the Leap, Yosemite, and Cosumnes River Gorge but it didn't really "click" until the last two weekends at Yosemite and The Grotto.

Yosemite, October 24-26

Commitment and Selaginella

The weekend started on Friday with a mellow cruise up the Regular Route at Sunnyside Bench with Adrienne and Jeremy. I led the first pitch, but after that I just followed as the third person so my day largely consisted of basking in the sun like a fat and content lizard at the comfy belay stations.

Adrienne and view of Five Open Books. Regular Route, Sunnyside Bench (click pictures for Picasa album)

Jeff and Kelli joined us at the campsite that night, and in the morning during breakfast I convinced Jeff to link Commitment and Selaginella with me while everyone else hopped on Munginella.  He was a little hesitant at first, but he was no match for my persistence and excitement.  I was ecstatic when he finally agreed to the route.

I'd led Commitment a few weeks earlier so I wanted Jeff to get a chance to lead the more interesting first (beautiful splitter crack) and third (roof) pitches.  I'd told Jeff how slippery the start of p1 was so he sort of shot past the first 8 feet it by reaching high and putting a foot on the tree at the bottom of the route. He cruised through the pitch and soon it was my turn to follow.  The first time I climbed Commitment, I was concentrating on placing protection rather than focusing on the crack climbing.  This time around I was able to just relax and enjoy the hand crack and put some thought into how I was using my feet in the crack.  I'm pretty sure I had a giant smile on my face when I reached the belay station.  Jeff and I had decided to trade lead the whole day so I cruised up the easy p2 and he led p3.  When it was my turn to climb around the "crux" roof, without thinking about it, I opted to use a hand jam to get up and around the corner instead of using a hold like I had the last time around.  Yes, I willingly used a hand jam instead of a known face hold!  Something was clearly shifting in my head...

After a short snack break Jeff and I started up Selaginella.  It was my turn to lead, and from the ground, the 165 feet pitch seemed awfully long. Jeff offered to lead it, but I made a face and declined the offer.  About half way up the pitch, however, I almost wished I had let him lead.  I hadn't really thought much about the little letters "O.W." printed next to the pitch on the topo map at the start of the climb, but it was becoming very apparent to me that it didn't mean there was just a tiny off-width section.  I'm sure someone shaped differently than I am would have had a completely different experience than I did, but for me it was just... awkward.  When there were smaller cracks in the back, I couldn't get both arms in to fully use them but it wasn't quite wide enough to chimney.  I wasn't really freaking out about the actually climbing since there were a lot of options to protect the climb, but I was afraid to use too much gear on the long pitch since I had no idea what to expect at the belay station.  As a result, I think I ran out the climb more than I otherwise would have (yes, this is starting to be a running theme in my leading...) and that didn't set my mind at ease at all.  I think I was moving slower than expected because Jeff yelled up that there was an optional escape route if I wanted to rap off. Yeah, great...

At one point, however, I looked down at left arm and broke out with a grin. Well whaddaya know?  My arm was in a chicken wing position! Holy crap I was using off-width techniques!!! I laughed a little and suddenly the rest of the climb didn't seem so daunting.  I totally forgot to look for the rap rings and went right for the top of the pitch. I whooped a little and then set up the anchor to bring Jeff up.  After Jeff reached the belay station, he told me that he couldn't figure out what was taking me so long until he actually started climbing the off-width.  Then, apparently, he got it. Heh.

My next challenge presented itself in the very beginning of p3 in the form of a really awkward off-width/chimney with a fat chockstone that was almost too big for me to get my arms past.  I set a cam so I wasn't terribly worried about making the move over the chockstone, but I felt so extremely awkward that it was messing with my head.  Suddenly my foot slipped on a dusty spot and I found myself dangling with my left hand wedged at the back-left of the chockstone and my right hanging on desperately to keep from weighting the left hand more.  I was a bit shaken and, once I got my hands free, I just sat on the rope a bit to shake out my hands and bruised upper arms.  Jeff asked how I was, and I just kept telling him "I'm ok. I'll get it."  I sort of grit my teeth, felt around and then, like magic, I easily got over the chockstone like it was no big deal.  Funny how that works sometimes.

The third pitch had more fun in store for me, however.  The cruxy part of the route is actually a section where you have to take a long step over nothing (you can see all the way to the ground!!!) around a slightly protruding corner to the belay ledge using face holds.  There was a new looking bolt in the wall just before the traverse so I was happy to clip into it before heading out.  The thing was, I wasn't sketched out in the slightest.  This traverse was cake compared to the crack climbing and off-widths I'd done earlier.  Also, don't forget, I love face climbing.  As I grasped the edge of the corner and took that first step, all I could think was, "Awww yeah..."  After that, Jeff blasted up the last pitch, and I yanked out a stuck 0.75 C4 on the way up. Booty!

I don't care how tepid Summit Post makes Selaginella sound or the snotty forum posters who bag on the climb for having some wandering, easy and not pure crack parts.  The climb had so much variation and different challenges that it was just plain FUN!  Also, it was my first successful off-width lead so I'm always going to remember it for that if nothing else.  I was pretty damn proud of myself that day.

Top of Selaginella - Me, Jeff, and Half Dome (click pictures for Picasa album).

Church Bowl Tree, revisited

The next day we all set off for Church Bowl, and, right off the bat, Jeff turned to me and told me that I was going to lead p1 of Church Bowl Tree.  Now this is a route that I completely failed at back in May so I wasn't really sure if I wanted to try it again after a night of too much wine and whiskey (i.e., yes, I was a little hung over).  Still, I'm never one to back down from a (reasonable) challenge so I racked up.  I put in two pieces but had to lower and restart when I realized I'd forgotten quickdraws for the nuts.  Once I started again, I was extremely happy to make it past the point that shut me down the first time I tried the route.  In fact, I found it pretty easy to get over the first hard part this time around.  The middle of the pitch was also easy, but then I was facing the section of finger locks and marginal feet.  At this point the previous night's whiskey and the past 2 days of climbing was making itself known, and I was feeling pretty out of it and beat.  Still, I managed to get up to right below the anchor chains.  It was ugly, there were a couple falls, and I had to rest, but, dammit, I got up to the top!  Once there, however, I was denied by the last move to get up to the chains.  I managed to just touch the bottom of the chains a few times but couldn't actually get up to them.  A much better climber than me on Twitter assured me that the last move is height dependent and told me, "It's an impossible mantle onto a horribly sloping shelf with no feet. Schwat?? I just clipped the chains and called it good."  So I feel ok about not actually clipping the anchor chains.  Even without the last move and an ugly climb to boot, I felt awesome for having led a climb that had previously defeated me.  I'll go back sometime and try it when I'm fresher (and, yes, not hungover).

Me leading Church Bowl Tree with Jeff belaying (click pictures for Picasa album).

The Grotto, October 25

I'd heard a lot of good things about The Grotto so I decided to head up there for a day with George.  The Grotto is a surreal sort of place - you drop into a pit and you're surrounded by basalt columns and cracks on one side and a bulgy, lumpy sport climbing wall on the other.  The temperature is noticeably cooler on the floor of the pit than up top, and I started the morning with my climbing shoes in my jacket to warm them up.

After an easy warm up on Sidesaddle, a 5.9 sport climb on the Ort Wall, I led Table Manners (5.8), a fun route with two cracks you stem across. Then I hopped onto Go With the Flow (5.9) and had a blast with the hand jams. SO MUCH FUN!!  While I took a break to eat a snack, I stood under Three Fingered Jack and contemplated leading it.  It's rated 10b, which would make it the hardest trad route I've ever led.  I wanted to do it but wasn't sure I could manage it so I put my hand into the crack and let it convince me to give it a shot. As soon as I started the route, I relaxed because knew it was going to be fun.  The crack was PERFECT for my hands, and it was exhilarating to cruise up the crack with that much ease.  I love, love, LOVED it.  To be fair, I think the rating is a little soft since p1 of Church Bowl Tree in Yosemite was harder for me and its rated 10a.  Still, whatever the "true" rating might be, it was awesome.  George was initially hesitant to try the route, but I think my enthusiastic reaction convinced him to give it a shot.  He flashed it on top rope and seemed just as excited about the route as I was.

After that, George and I top roped Granted (5.9), which I found more difficult than Three Fingered Jack because it was essentially an off-width for me, and I spent most of the route stuffing my whole forearm into the wide cracks.  George, however, found it to be perfect for his much larger hands and fists. Finally, I finished the day by top roping AC Devil Dog, a fat, refrigerator-wide slab with not much other than friction for the feet. It was a fantastic day of climbing!

Reflections

I'm more than a little OCD about fitting things together and packing as many things as possible into a given space (i.e., a car or moving truck). I can't help it. There's something about putting pieces together tightly and efficiently that just tickles some part of my brain so that it feels good when everything fits "right". I think crack climbing has the same effect on me. Perfect hand jams almost make me want to shout out loud with joy and bomber finger locks feel like dropping the long, skinny Tetris piece to clear 4 lines at once.  Off-widths, while burly and hard, are like tricky puzzles, and you have to figure out how to make your body fit right to make it work.  Oh yes, I'm addicted. More please!!!