After a short rest, Matt thought I could try something a little more difficult, so we hauled our gear up the trail to the 'Red Wall'. Its a beautiful series of basalt flows that turns a more reddish hue as it climbs. The photographs don't do it justice.
First I had a shot at 'Sheer Stress', rated 5.10. You start on the chalky holds a bit left of the corner. Then you traverse right towards the little crack with all the chalk, and work your way up to the bomber hold about a third of the way up. It feels great to match both hands on that hold and just lean back on your arms to stretch. Above that, you traverse a bit left to share a ledge with some spiders and nettles. I accidentally destroyed a spider's beautiful web, for which I apologized profusely, but I was paid out by getting a tiny nettle barb in my left pinkie, the kind you cannot see but you know is there. I rested a bit, before pressing onward and upward to the right of the nettles towards another chalky edge that felt good to get on and hang. Then comes the crux. The bolts, and end of the route, are on the little face to the right, at about the same level as the tree branches that are visible in the upper right of the photograph. Hanging on the edge, you bring your feet up high, so you are stemming on either side, then reach with one hand up and around to where there is a nice flake. For me, it was a minimal dyno-move, and I was nervous. But I did it, then hauled my carcase up to the bolts, to complete a 5.10a. I was pretty stoked!
Being all impressed with myself, and after some rest, I next decided I wanted a go at 'Classic Crack'. Matt warned me that the hardest thing about that route is that it has been climbed so much that the holds are all polished smooth. He ran up (as always) without apparent effort to set the rope, and I watched what he did. Then it was my turn. Things began well, and I made my way steadily up through the large crack at the bottom, and fisted into the smaller crack above it and hauled myself up, left foot on small holds off to the left and my right foot torqued into the back of the large crack. The next move was to fist thumb down into the next smallish crack with the right hand, place your weight on your left foot and bring the right toes up to torque into the small crack you just left. While in that position, you then bring your left hand up and fist, thumb down, just above your right hand. I was able to do that, but my left foot kept popping off and it was taking a lot of strength to keep my right hand in the crack. Those holds are indeed slick! I just didn't have the strength or balance to press up on my right, torqued, toes (my knee was in my chest) and here I collapsed and took my first fall of the day. A toprope fall isn't really a fall though. I rested a couple of minutes and tried again. I managed to get a bit higher, and then I tried a little lie-backing to see if that might work, but the realization eventually came that I wasn't getting up there today.
So I came down and we packed up to go back over where we had started. There is a good 5.8+ route, known as the 'Sickle' for a curved crack about two-thirds of the way up. First, we hiked up around the back and set the rope, and then I rappelled down, and Matt got a couple shots of me. I wore my helmet on all climbs, but had forgotten to bring it up here.
