Newhalem: Granite, almost...

Well, actually Newhalem is gneiss and in my opinion it's highly similar to granite in every way except for the texture, the stuff is smooth! After overgripping every other hold on the warm up I decided to just trust the smearies and, well, it worked well. Saturday, the hard core oly crew of Micah, Lisa and Me all piled into the subi for a longer than excepted drive to the sticks for some non little si sport clippin'. When we eventually arrived at the smallish cliff it blew me away! The climbs looked clean and easy to read plus they were highly over bolted(YES!). We threw Lisa on the warm up, Luna an excellent 5.11a, for the onsight and she did really well deciphering the cray moves all the way to the chains. Next, to keep the trend, we asked/persuaded her to try the 13a OSX first and she put the draws up to the crux. Micah went next and managed the slab but was too scrunched at the crux. I went next and flashed to the jug but only managed to get a pad in and then fell. After a quick sess to the top I sent next go and was happy to go to a new crag and do a 13. It is not really a sport climb, more like a V6, but what ev.

Next up was Lisa's adventure on a 12d which we found out later is a deemed classic, Cinnamon Grove 12c, but after getting shut down in the lower 1/4 part we had to call it quits due to a time frame. I look forward to trying to onsight this beast in the future. After this I was up on a cool 12b called shoe phone. After pulling the very cool first crux, I balanced my way up the top slab and to the chains! My first 12b onsight on probally the most classic(minus the slab) 12b I've ever done! The crux sequence is so cool! Then Lisa gave it a few burns and core shot the rope and had an impromtu lower. Next up was Micah who sussed out the crux but had problems on the slab. I then onsighted the 12b to the left, 12c for a day, and then roped solod(scary) a 10+ to get some draws back. All in all it was a good and fun day for me and I think Micah and Lisa had fun but they seemed to struggle with the lack of footholds and the ocasional power move on the vert/slably walls. I hope to come back here and clean up the rest of the 12s and proj. the 13s.

Also, the dedicated Oly climber crew is always looking for anyone who wants to get out for the purpose of rock climbing let me know, we always love fresh psyches! Come and join the projecting club!