SkiSickness

Florian and I climbed a stellar route in the Sandias today.

Wizard of Air follows the prow on the right side of Torreon.

(The right-most sun-shade line on the formation.)

Before the climbing, let us wish Miranda well as she starts graduate school in Denver. We had a going away party.


What gives? Florian and I actually left Los Alamos circa 6:15 am this morning. Ouch!

Florian leads the first pitch. He did a great job. I thought it was devious.


The second pitch follows classic Sandias seams.


Then it's the business. Florian leads the pumpy, overhanging third pitch through the bulges.


The fourth pitch is the crux and climbs the most beautiful, exposed arete.


Florian in a zone of steep, desperate crimps.


The move to the arete here took me plenty of tries. Wizard of Air, indeed!


The technical difficulties ease for the last two pitches, but caution and care are necessary. Florian begins to work his way up one of those special 9+ Sandias pitches.


WARNING: MAXIMUM AMPERAGE EXCEEDED: FIRE HAZARD

Super sharp pictures! Looks like an awesome Sandia's climb. Glad you're having so much fun.

Cool looking pillar. Is it road side, or just a short hike?

It's about 45 minutes by a steep scramble down a gully with some 5th class steps, or an hour via a nice trail then a short bushwhack. I'm just pulling these numbers from my head so they're probably inaccurate.

Looks like it has all the elements of a rad climb. What does it go at?

The pitches are rated 11-,10-,11+,12-,9+, then one more rope-stretching pitch of unrated alpine funk, some 5.8 or 5.9 moves then lots of loose blocks. The 12- pitch was fully bolted but not in such a way to allow progress by A0 action, just gotta giv'er for 10-15 feet and enjoy the air time. I thought there might be some gear after the last bolt and carried a full rack. I didn't see any gear but I was psyched to hit the anchors only 15-20 feet later. It was stimulating to keep making difficult face moves without knowing the shape of things to come. The route was established ground-up in `05 and I would say the FA party made something beautiful. I get excited trying to imagine drilling bolts on that crux pitch hanging from hooks on crimpers.

skykilo wrote: 11-,10-,11+,12-,9+

so, uh, what grading system are we in here?

Yosemite Decimal.

Vous aimez la cotation francaise? Ca veut dire 6c, 6a, 7a, 7a+, 5c+, ou quelquechose comme ca.

can you please stop by my local climbing gym sometime and loudly talk about how you climb uncertainly bolted 12- ?

Je prédis un grand succès, o algo así.

I steer clear of climbing gyms, klar. They scare me. I've climbed at one once, about ten years ago.

But I would love to ski in Austria one of these years!

That granite looks way nice. Just a bunch of VII+ climbing. Come to the Alpz, you will soar.