Saturday, October 30, 2010

aka Jeff on Goliath

~i'm not gonna edit my journal for grammar. if that bugs you at least there are pictures this time. you can see that we were out in the woods rock climbing~

my short work week ended uneventfully sunday morning with a stroll through the damp hospital parking lot. to my knowledge the Bago was packed and ready to roll out to the Etower for the October climbing finale. joe carrie and I had a plan with some loose goals, mostly get pumped, take big falls and have fun. For me, the drive was uneventful. the bago didn't break down.I slept pretty much til we got to datil. fueled up, talked with the skinny hick in the market about the routes at the Land Beyond and met some crazed newmex hippie who had been traveling india for a bit then bought a Bago kinda like mine. I was real cordial but I was afraid he was going to hug me. We bounced our way down the dirt road. There is a strange vertigo feeling i get when it feels like the bago could tipover on sketchy roads... it only happened once. We parked and I was finally feeling awake. The idea I had about what to accomplish this trip was quickly thrown out the window when joe was PSYCHED on Goliath. Quick warmup which included some Rumpelstiltskin...


carrie on rumpelstiltskin. i think. maybe that's grendel..
 then I got the opportunity to hang quick draws from the 16 or so bolts on Goliath. As the sun was setting we retreated to the comfort of the Bago. Day 2 brought us a lot of wind, just like the internet had said. We started late and still climbed a whole lot. started with a tour of the good moderates around the tower. Ooey Gooey is always fun. Checked out Blessed and Blissed.


Joe Morgan. Blessed and Blissed
  I 'flashed' that I guess.. as the terminology goes... that was nice... then we got blown around on Goliath. An ongoing debate over Bruce Lee movies was ended in a draw. Carrie nourished us with more bomb cooking and I made a Krusteaz. Due to subpar conditions we all left some gas in the tank. Day 3, tuesday, was the day where it all came together high up on Goliath for me.


Goliath
The top crux which is about as hard as a warm up boulder problem I thought was damn hard I admit to being weaksauce pretty often but I really didn't want to tell anyone just how hard i thought the crux was. I wanted to skip the clip cause even if i did the moves there was no way i could find the fine motor ability to clip that draw as pumped as I am there. That's an obvious catch 22 because if you skip a clip on that route your fall went from really big to fuckin huge. In all honesty i was ready to throw in the towel on the route for the season. I decided to try a move that is really big for someone like me with short arms instead of the rad body tensioney cross over deal I had tried again and again and again. Sure as shit. Not only did I stick it... I clipped, I breathed, I rested, I chalked up and hung out there. So I rested and went for it with my new knowledge of movements. I knew at the first rest that the end of my thrid day on was a bad time for a focused effort went for it and fell. The day was over. We kicked it and watched the origianl Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Day 4. last day of the trip. Joe sent the first pitch of Goliath. It was awesome to watch the endurance grow in a guy with all that power in just 4 days. I essentially warmed up on Goliath then went for it. floated all the cruxes only to be thwarted by a foot hold hidden around the arete and under a draw. when i found it, it was too late. hands opening...  i desperately tried to deadpoint through the last hard move anyway although it was obvious I wasn't gonna stick it.

Lowered off, rested, tried again, regressed, snagged all my draws cause it was time to go home. the sun was setting fast and we still ahd draws on two of the north facing routes. I burned up those carrie cleaned them on TR. I wanted to repeat humpty dumpty, one of my first 5.12s. pretty much tried it in the dark. looked right when i needed to go left at the top just like the first time. hah. The pump was dizzying after those bonus pitches. Carrie and joe walked back to the bago. I sat and chilled. Ended the trip sitting at the base of the tower as total darkness set in. I soaked in how good it feels to have a breakthrough on a project. Sending is nice but it's like acing an Algebra exam first you need to learn Algebra. For me, the first time I really 'figured it out' was the most memorable and that's the feeling that sticks with me forever.







3 comments:

  1. sick, sounds like a rad trip. Wish we could have come along. definitely captured the essence of climbing in this entry as far as I am concerned.

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  2. Nicely said Jeff. Even the grammar smitty in me is impressed. Your free flow of thoughts really represents the ebb and flow of a great weekend climbing with friends.

    Keep it up. You're already ahead of me on posting this month!

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  3. Nick, thanks. It was the best trip of the month i do believe. Would have been so sweet if you guys were there.

    Angela, I'm glad you were able to make sense of it and see it as a freeflow of my thoughts becasue well... that is exactly what it is.

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