Jinx!

After a great rest day, we felt recharged to head back up the steep hill, through the goat gate, pass the tree of life and through the labyrinth of rocks to attempt our projects. Joe and I warmed up on mine since the first half is jug hull, with big full extension moves. Joe also brushes the cruxes for me. We finish warming up and the crag starts filling up with other climbers. All our projects feature cruxes that are our anti-style. Joe’s (Daniboy, 8a)is very steep and long, beginning on big holds and getting smaller, to monos. It also featured a knee bar, which Jess had to give him the 101 on. There is a first time for everything. It took Joe a lot of work build the strength to connect all these moves. It saved him a ton of time when he received beta from two climbers out of Vancouver.

Jess’s (Arena, 7c) project was a long sustained route, with one insanely hard move in the middle! He didn’t make this move once on our first two days of projecting. It was a full suspension move, from a right hand side pull, to left hand pinch. To imagine what he was shooting for, bend your index finger towards your thumb leaving about 2cms of room before actually making contact. That is the position your fingers are in when holding the rock. Joe worked it for a bit, and couldn’t pull the move. He says it was the humidity making the friction bad. Maybe so.

Working the crux of Alexis Korbas

My project (Alexis Korbas 7a+) had a very pumpy beginning with no seriously good rests, well for me at least. Than just as the rock started to become overhanging, the rock became super small, sharp holds with delicate moves in between. My first mission was to hit a small 2 finger crimp from a 2 finger right hand pocket. After managing some heel hook beta I made the move. Now the only thing in between me and my send is the move from the crimp to side pull, fairly far away. This move must be made absolutely static or else the pull will throw you off the wall.

Jess, laced up this day, and the one time he made the hard move on his route, he sent his first 5.12d!!!!! Congradulations!!! It is important to note that I was the one belaying. Joe and I came close but did not send today. As well as his project Jess also sent Spartacus, a beautiful 7b+ going up the cave beside Daniboy. He did this on his 2nd go!

Making some friends

Once again the next morning we did our usual routine and headed up to the cliff side. Jess and I warmed up on a route called, Les Amazones, which has an awesome sequence between two tufas, which offer stunning stemming capabilities. Joey did his usual warm up on my project, brushing the thin holds for me. He is a very nice guy. Sometimes. Joe finally sent his project, getting his first 8a of the trip on the first burn of the day. I put about 4 burns into Alexis Korbas, but without succeeding, I was getting frustrated and decided we move on. I’ll come back and send soon.

We had planned to go put up draws on new projects in the Iannis sector, which is closer to our studio. But by the time we got back, were just drained from the hike, and did not feel like hiking back up. So we had a relaxing afternoon watching climbing movies, and Jess picked out a nice chick flick for us to watch.

Finally the sun sets

The next day we woke up to light rain, which quit around 8:30am. Giving the rock a couple hours to dry and air out we headed out around 10:30. All 3 of us warmed up on a 6c+ called Adolf in the Bay. An amazing climb, which will defiantly be done again in the future, then it was off to scope out the projects. Jess’s and mine shared the same start. In fact he is doing an extension to mine called Attitude Extension (7c+). Just Attitude is 7a; I picked something a little easier than Alexis Korbas just to gain some motivation and much needed strength endurance. Joe saw a bouldery route called O Draconian Devil (8b) but after pulling some of the moves, determined that the crux move was all of his injured hand. He cleaned the route and picked another 8b called Racomelo. We only got the chance to give a couple burns on our projects before the sun hit hard on the cliff side. Our plan for the day was to bring lots of food and water and try to live through the sun until it cooled down enough to climb again. Jess had to go to the washroom, so left back to the studio, and felt no remorse to take his time and grab a sit down coffee. He was also instructed to bring our games up so we had something to do in our cave.

Joe working the moves out on Draconian Devil

The sun hits the cliff around 3:30 and at about 6:30 it drops low enough in the sky that the ocean breeze is cool enough to provide good climbing temperatures. Around 7:30 it disappears behind the island of Talendos, this we call the Golden Hour. The same thing happens in Lions Head. Where we are climbing there is a cave, full of goat shit – actually the whole crag is full of goat shit, and the cave was in shade for what we were hoping the entirety of the 3 hours before it became cool. This was not the case, the cave provided shade for maybe the first 45mins. The rest was an absolute sweat fest. I thought we would die of heat exhaustion. Jess finally came back and we begun a game of catan. Half way through, heat stroke took the best of Joe and he chugged the rest of the water, declaring that it was everyman for himself. After he saw a mirage out of an old dirty sock, Jess and I figured it had gone too far and gave him our stash of water we had hidden. Clouds rolling in blocked the sun sooner then expected and we were able to start climbing again! We were all able to get a couple more burns before I headed back to start dinner, and Joe and Jess joined me after one last burn. To celebrate the sending that occurred, we went out for some beers and played some Catan. Typical.