Jo lead the first 10d pitch. It was steep, dirty and we both felt sandbagged.
I'm making my way into the squeeze chimney (11a). I hung a few times but was surprised at my rapidly evolving offwidth/squeeze chimney technique. I'm glad I lead it and so was Jo.
This was the money pitch. It started with an 11c traverse off the belay.
The pitch wasn't over till it was over. The traverse was followed by stellar hand and finger cracks on a steep wall with another 11c traverse thrown in. I must say I'm glad Jo lead this one. I fell at the bottom traverse and Jo at the top traverse, otherwise we did it clean and were stoked.
We didn't continue up Babies in Kailand because the sun came round and started blasting us. We happily went cragging at Nightmare Rock afterwards. Jo is just one of best climbing partners I ever had.
We also had a super epic trying to do an alpine climb on Les Cornes, the Springbok Arete. We didn't climb due to a series of poor choices, but we learned a shit tonne of lessons.We bush whacked through steep dense trees and climbed up steep boulders in the dark with a full overnight + climbing gear backpack, got stung by hornets, bivied on small boulders and got no sleep. We were exhausted when the sun came up so we decided to go back to the car. We whacked through more steep dense trees and devils club, walked through marshes and got stung by more hornets. Our moral was low at times, but it made for a good laugh afterwards and no regrets.
The Anderson River Range peaks. Les Cornes is one of the peaks on the right. We both decided it would be nice to come back and send this route, but this time making wiser choices in the alpine and being prepared for the approach.
I very much hope to get out for at least one more epic with her in September.
David was well rested and fit to climb a couple weeks later. He realised while climbing the first few pitches of Freeway that it gets really difficult to climb 5.11 routes if you are hungover and tired, and we had to bail that time. I chose a less committing, but still stellar, route for us to climb this time: New LIfe, a 5p 11b route on the North Wall. He did great on this route!
The first pitch of New Life was an awesome long and steep 10b corner.
David lead the first 11b pitch. It was short but the crux was hard. It started with a pumpy crack followed by a reachy roof. It was reachy indeed. The roof was just not an 11b for my shorter limbs. Sky would've pinocchio-ed up it with no problem.
The 3rd pitch was a super fun overhanging V-slot. It goes as 10c. As described in the book it was burly but with good rests.
The pitches just don't stop being awesome. This pitch was an 11b traverse and had delicate moves. I put my slab feet on and danced my way across. I felt like resting but I heard Sky's voice "you need to fight to onsight 5.11's", so I fought... and ONSIGHT! WOOT!
David finished her off with another long cool 10b pitch. The North Wall is just so steep and incredible. I bet all routes are amazing.
I'm pumped to climb with Sky and get a full day epic on a long hard route this weekend. Momentarily I feel fit, healthy and untweaked... I guess it's time to get tweaked again.
