Not the most successful climbing day
Aug. 7th, 2016 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsAfter waiting for a late-arriving climber, we (7 of us) headed for the cliffs at Lac Gervais. I'd not been there before, and I'm always excited to explore a new cliff.
The directions got us there, and the approach was fine. I lead a fine 5.7, fought my way up (with cheating) a climb graded as "5.10-", but which I fell was more like 5.10+, and we had a third climb up, when the rain started. Lightly at first, but turning into a thorough downpour. Kate TRed one 5.7, while Daniel was part way through a lead on the other. I assisted-belayed Bianca up the 5.10, and it was one of the most physically demanding belays of my life. Bianca and Kate got those routes down, but Daniel backed off on leading in the wet. So, after the rain stopped, I finished the lead on the soaking wet, steaming, 5.7 -- not clean, pulling on draws and such, but still challenging.
We had lunch, to see if things would dry, but when it started raining again, we decided to bail. Not my most successful outing.
Still, thinking on it, and on the number of days of rock climbing I've organised and lead, I've actually only very rarely actually had to bail due to rain. I'm pretty happy with my record on that.
The directions got us there, and the approach was fine. I lead a fine 5.7, fought my way up (with cheating) a climb graded as "5.10-", but which I fell was more like 5.10+, and we had a third climb up, when the rain started. Lightly at first, but turning into a thorough downpour. Kate TRed one 5.7, while Daniel was part way through a lead on the other. I assisted-belayed Bianca up the 5.10, and it was one of the most physically demanding belays of my life. Bianca and Kate got those routes down, but Daniel backed off on leading in the wet. So, after the rain stopped, I finished the lead on the soaking wet, steaming, 5.7 -- not clean, pulling on draws and such, but still challenging.
We had lunch, to see if things would dry, but when it started raining again, we decided to bail. Not my most successful outing.
Still, thinking on it, and on the number of days of rock climbing I've organised and lead, I've actually only very rarely actually had to bail due to rain. I'm pretty happy with my record on that.
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no subject
Date: 2016-08-08 02:54 am (UTC)And why was the belay so tough?
At least a partial day of climbing. :)
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Date: 2016-08-08 03:16 am (UTC)The belay was tough because I was, basically, hauling Bianca up the climb with the rope. I was basically jumping one-two steps up the climb, then hauling the bit of slack accumulated by this through my belay device and landing back down. Over and over. I probably did almost as much vertical belaying as someone would climbing the climb.
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Date: 2016-08-08 02:03 pm (UTC)