RT&D

Sending Petranta, notice the knee bar pad :) (my t-shirt)

We awoke to the all too familiar smell of “sendage.” It was a Wednesday morning and no one mentioned the stench of sendage for fear of jinxing its benefits. We all had standing projects yet to be completed, and it was our last day of climbing before another rest day. The pressure was on. The mosquito killer stopped working in the middle of the night, so no one slept incredibly well. Waking up every 30mins to buzzing in your ear, only to swat at nothing but air in a drunk-like frenzy. Just by looking at one another you could tell there was a lack of sleep, no questions needed to be asked. I decided to stay in bed to get a couple extra hours of hopefully mosquito free sleep, and meet the other two up at the crag later. It was 9am when I awoke from my restless sleep, feeling recharged and energized like never before. Having already eaten breakfast with the other two at 6, I strapped on my bag, plugged in the iPod and headed up towards the crag by 9:10.

Showing off our sponsored knee bar pad by Grand River Rocks 

            When I arrived Jess was already working out the moves to Super Themelina. After he came down I did a quick warm up on Adolf at the Bay, and felt extremely strong on it. Joe was staying warm as he was going for the send after I finished. I came down and Joe plugged into his iPod, Paper Towels playing loudly, and he was putting the utmost care into strapping on his shoes, tying the knot, and applying the liquid chalk. He was ready. I came running up to belay, yelling in my best announcer voice “The challenger, weighing in at an astonishing 1.65 stone, undefeated in his last 3 battles, Joe Skopec. And the reigning champion of the crag, Racooomelooooo!!” It received a smile from the very “in the zone” Joe. I attached the gri gri and off he went! The whole time he made it look super easy cruising through the first crux! We knew he would send as we watched him hopped over the bulge of the last crux. But as he started clipping the anchors his left foot began to crumble away, it was a ticking time bomb. Luckily he clipped the anchors quickly and was able to take the weight off the foot. Congratulations on the send Joe!

Joey relaxing after his send

            Jess was tired and wanted a bit more rest so I tied up to attempt my project. Just like Joe I cruised through the bottom pumpy crux, hooking the knee bar and scrambling up the tufa to the first rest. It was only after the rest that my foot slipped and I fell. I was disappointed but I knew it would happen today. Another attempt later and I fell missing a jug, one move away from the slab section, which would be a sure send. On my third attempt I nailed every move, never once feeling weak or pumped. Making it to the slab section, I knew just one more dance with the devil was in between me and my first 12a (7a+). We tangoed our way up the steep sharp slab, traversing across monos and tiny crimps. Flirting with death has never been so calming before, I kept my poker face and before I knew it I was doing my full extension stretch to clip the anchors. I had done it! But it was weird, I didn’t feel like a fought hard for this send, it seemed easy and I wasn’t as satisfied as I thought I would be. On to 12b I suppose.

            Jess was drained of energy all day, sneaking in naps whenever he could. The 13’s were just killing his body and being the 3^rd day had no power left. He still got up the ropes sending Themelina (7b+) and Sevasti (7b) but when it came to the extension (Super Themelina) just could not connect the moves. He wasn’t too worried about it and was happy about nailing a couple more hard 12’s. It was our last day of projecting, from now on we will just tour the different crags and put the miles on all the classics.

Working on Petranta

Jess Tarry being a ninja on Themelina

           That night we celebrated with some beers and watch a movie/show called Treasure Island. It was terrible; I left 10mins in while Joe and Jess stayed due to the lack of something better to do. Goodnight Καλιμικτον

Joe busting a massive heel hook

Celebrating with some brewski's