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Well, it's been more than 24 hours since I left the small meadow across from the Pat and Jack Crag, where we enjoyed the fine food provided by Brutus of Wyde, and no one else has yet to post a report of the weekend. So here goes. Apologies in advance for leaving anything out, I wasn't able to be in all places at once this weekend, so hopefully others will fill in the holes in the tale. Apologies also for any mistakes, my short term memory is not so hot.
Friday night, I roll into Hodgen campground. After finding the campsite, a bit unsure I was in the right place, I stumbled to a fire ring. Bill Folk, Theresa 'gung' Ho, and Tom 'ergophobe' were sitting round the fire. I settled in, popped open a beer, and began to relax. I'd never met these three before, but we were quickly swapping stories..... Brutus and Em were there, but had retired at an early hour. It wasn't too long before Chris Kantarjiev and Pat Caruthers arrived, finding the campground by following the sounds of my voice. They were followed by the arrival of Inez, Sumo and Jens, who completed that night's arrivals. We all settled in for several hours of beer drinking and general fun campfire stuff before retiring into the night. Some old aquantices, some new, but all freindly and fun.
Sat morning rolled around, I rested in the cocoon of my sleeping bag until my need to pee overcame the desire to remain enveloped in the warmth. Crisp, fall yosemite air. Slowly, gradually, people began to appear. I met Brutus for the first time, he was drinking a beer as I had my morning juice and coffee. Looking ever so much like a fit, muscular version of a character actor who's name I can't place, he is instantly likable. Em is quiet, smiling and pleasant, with an air of practicality that seems perfectly balenced with Brutus's slightly off-kilter being. Coffee is made, and a van rolls in, the (in)famous Karl Baba has arrived. After a drawn out breakfast, extensive gear racking, and lot's of 'what are you going to do?' we all set out to Reed's Pinnacle, with the exception of Pat, Chris and Em (brutus in tow, but not climbing). They had a plan to climb Bishop's terrace, but after forgetting something, end up somewhere else, with the day culminating in Em climbing Generator Crack, a fearsome offwidth. <they'll have to fill you in on the details> The Reed's Pinnacle contingent hiked the short approach, then splintered into groups. Tom 'ergophobe' had his sights squarely on the Left Side of Reeds, a 5.10-something offwidth-chimney, 3 pitches long. With him was Bill folk, and Jens. Theresa 'gung' ho, had her sights equally focused on Lunatic Fringe a 5.10-something crack a few hundres yards to the right. In the middle was Reed's Direct. Bill had led the movement to convince me I could led it, and I was ready. the campfire discusion of the route had included phrases like 'hardest 5.9 pitch in the valley'. I led pitch one, which felt solid, but Sumo struggled on it, so we didn't do pitch 2. We rapped, and walked over see Inez just finish following Lunatic Fringe. Karl Baba followed it blinfolded. As he rapped, he set up a TR on Old 5.10 (10d). I was eager to try it. Sumo kept insiting it looked 'easy'. Hah! Wild leg press moves on ledges, weird balences moves. As I climbed, taking forever and falling more than once up this difficult climb, the sky darken, and thunder was heard. As I approached the crux, and the easy moves that followed it, rain started to fall. Knowing this route would get harder wet, and ahving gear at the top, I elected to swing over, batman a few moves, then finish the easy moves to the anchor. As i cleaned the anchor and set up to rappel, the rain turned to hail, which became lots of hail. I rapped as everyone began to stuff their gear into their bags and head down the trail. the walk down to the cars became quite a bit harder than before as it had tons of slippery hail. the last part of the descent is a steep roadcut, with loose rocks in loose dirt, that became looser as it got wetter. I had visions of sliding out of control into the street, just as a huge RV passed. Karl, Sumo, Inez and I piled into Inez's jeep, cranked the heater and shared a few beers. Inez, with the anxiousness of a protective mother, but a mother with faith in her broods skills, watched as Tom, Jens, and Bill finished their route and rappelled down. theresa had gone to the base of their route to make sure everything was OK. A stuck cam and a stuck rope were left behind, for future recovery. After a cold and wet climb/descent, everyone made it down Ok. Bill, Jens and Tom might share a pound of Bodyfat between them, and all looked really cold as we headed abck to camp, but were all cheerful.
At the same time, Andy Gale and Brent Ware, who had not yet been sighted, were up on Serenity Crack/sons of Yesteryear, 6 pitches off the ground when the hail hit. By joining forces with another party, they were able to make a speedy descent, but still got soaked in the cold storm.
Back in Camp, a fire was built, dry clothes we put on, and the sun appeared. Everyone was in a cheerful mood, although it was quite some time before Bill stopped looking cold! Andy and Brent apparently killed some time in teh Mountain Room bar, before joining us in camp, while Pat,chris, Em, and Brutus missed the storm and while the rest of us shivered, were eating Pizza in Camp Curry.
An Extended afternoon of drinking led into an evening of drinking. Theresa and Tom went off on a nightime rope recovery mission, which apparently wa complicated by Tom forgeting his shoes, and required the use of some tunneling skills. Inez made two types of soup, cucumber salad, and had bread&cheese, which served as an excellent appetizer for the pasta and asparagus prepared by Em and Brutus. which they followed with some excellent brownies. Yummy! Drinking and debates and stories followed, with good cheer and comraderie.
sunday morning looked much like saturday morning, as people slowly emerged from tents, trucks and bivy sacks. Breakfast and coffee were prepared, and the groups set out again, with nearly everyone setting out for the Pat And Jack crag. What Transpired there early in the day i don't know, because Tom and I had decided to go back to Reed's Pinnacle. Our Plan: Do reed's direct, then Tom would tunnel through the normal Reeds route, then drop down and try to retreive the stuck cam. we racked in the parking lot. 'Ropes?' 'check' 'Rack?' 'check' 'Sledgehammer?' 'check!' Unfortunately, Reed's direct had a line on it, so we chose to do Reed's regular. Tom led the first pitch 5.4, which was interesting for me when I simply couldn't follow him under a chockstone he'd gone under. After climbing the outside of the crack, I stook on top of the chackstone, untied and retied my rope, and followed up to the belay. Tom handed me the rack, and I led the second pitch (5.8) which was fun once I'd grovelled out from the large flake. We wlaked across the eldge, adn tom climbed through the tunnel which several people had told me I simply wouldn't fit through, then rapped and attempted to clean the cam, which unfortunately he couldn't do. I sunbathed and chatted with some british climbers. We rappelled, pulled our ropes, hiked out, and headed to P&J crag to meet the others. We met Kelly Rich in the parking lot, before he went to go do some 12-something crack. Nice guy. Tons of climbing was going on when we arrived. Jens had just led some 10b that inez was following, theresa shortly hopped on Knob Job, which she climbed with great style. Andy was leading some 10c crack. Sumo apparently turned a 5.8 handcrack into a face climb by climbing way off route next to the crack. Tom led a 10b face, which I TR'd. The highlight of the weekend for me was following tom up the Tube (11a, trad). It started with a longish section of akward 10b/c crack, then went into and 11a fingercrack/liback/roofish hard to describe but hard crux....a full 100 ft of hard climbing, with only one short 'easy' section. Tom did a great job leading it. I followed it and fell a few times in the same spot, but still felt great about the climb. It worked me pretty solidly though! I was tired. As I got to the acnhors, I watched Jens lead some pretty desperate looking face climb to the left.
As well finished up these climbs, the sun was setting, and we reluctantly made out wars back to the car. Brutus had prepared some awesome burritos, so we had a hot dinner waiting! Awesome. As I sat round the picnic table, I was basking in the glow of a great weekend. Saw some old friends, made some new ones. A great time. Thanks to all.
Geoff aka Kilonewton ;->
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