Monday, March 8, 2010

Revenage on the Rain, Leavenworth

Finally, perfect weather in Leavenworth for the Beaty Family. Last Fall I took Ryan, Amanda, and Jimmy out to Leavenworth for a hopeful two day trip, as we drove up to the city, the 30% chance of rain kept on pouring. So we attempted to climb in the Swift water cave and then called it quits, packed up and headed on home. On Ryan's previous trip to Leavenwoth, he unintentionally experienced the unrelenting heat of a Leavenworth summer sun.

But the snow capped peaks told a different story this time! The pair of siblings, Ryan and Amanda, Lisa and I, got out of the cramped Jeep and made our way to Mad Meadows for some warm up and projects. We started off a the Hueco Route, an excellent V1 with an V11 finish I'll project some day. After a rather quick warm up Ryan and Amanda began sluicing out the beta for Drug Store Cowboy(V3). Ryan, dispatched the line from the proper start and then Amanda followed from a stand. (This is her first 'real' outdoor climbing trip). I gave the peephole a few burns after relearning the sequence and feel confident it will go with some dedicated weekends of projecting. After our thorough warmup we migrated on up to the Pocket(V4) and after a mini photo shoot of Lisa headed even further up to allow Lisa to return to her duel with Hanta Man(A monkey God, Ryan told us, he learned from a Religion class project, fitting name). She made good progress on the roof V9 but still couldn't decide what to so at the crux. We'll definitely be back here for some more. Ryan and Amanda then started projecting Sponge Bob Square Pad(V3). A rather technical and burly 3. After a few good efforts on the opening moves Ryan sent The Tentacle(V3) 2nd go and Amanda followed quickly. Then after watching Lisa throw herself at Hanta Man for awhile we moved on to the Hook Creek Boulder which none of us have ever seen before.

The boulder was, well, HUGE! About the size of a small two story house. Luckily the cruxes are within 10 feet of the round. I gave Atomic Energy(V9) a couple burns, shredding my elbow on the wall, leaving a few nice gashes on myself. Then two burns later my left hand blew and raked my knuckles deep, making for even more blood. The line starts off the ground with two O.K Feet, crossing to an O.K crimp, then the fun huck out right about 4 1/2 feet to an in cut slot. It took about 8ish burns to finally hit the slot(and nothing else on the way over) and then did one more cross to a jug that leads to the high top out. This is an excellent climb minus the difficult down climb(5.6 slabbish thingy).

Our final stop was the Carnival Boulders where Ryan fired off his first V4 2nd go, Giant Man. He also made good progress on The Rib(V4). If we had another day he certainly would've sent. This trip was a good practice run for Bishop. Ryan and Amanda need to learn to trust their feet and have faith in the pads beneath them, and I learned my knees are going to KILL me. cramped for hours on end. Next weekend is a comp at the MAC in Portland, so no rock unless the weather holds and then maybe some ozone, but if not the next installment will be from BISHOP!

4 comments:

Micah Bryan Humphrey said...

Nice one on Atomic Energy, did you try the V.8 as well, or are you saving that for the flash next time?

dom said...

Nice job jimmy, another day trip another V9, I see a pattern emerging. Sounds like you guys hit up a lot of areas, isn’t giant man and the rib at the carnival boulders though? Watch out Bishop!

jimmy said...

Yeah, I gave Dali Lama a few burns coming inches of the jug but the protruding rock and tried arms deterred me. And yeah, we hit up mad meadows, hook creek, and Carnival boulders. I'll probably give Mr. Joel's Wild Ride a few good burns when I'm fresh. Sport Training in 3 weeks!

dom said...

I saw some photos on the face of what looks like ryan trying the sit start to spongebob squarepad, did you try it as well? what do you think of grade and quality?