his last Saturday night the Loobster and I headed out to the Valley yet again. I was thankful that we wouldn't be climbing on "The Captain", but right across from it on Middle Cathedral Rock. This rock is 2000 feet high and absolutely massive. If it wasn't located so close to El Cap it would be a famous cliff, but, alas it is and must accept obscurity outside of the Valley.

The are a number of excellent, even classic, routes on MCR. The routes are mostly long free climbs. Lou and I had done the East Buttress (5.10c, 13 pitches) and the North Face (5.10a, 18 pitches) on this rock in the past and we plan on doing the Direct North Buttress -- DNB (5.10b, 18 pitches) next weekend. Both of us had attempted the DNB before and been turned back for various reasons, but we know it to be hard, long, runout and scary. To prepare us for that climb we are here to do the Kor-Beck route (5.9, 14 pitches). This climb has only two 5.9 pitches and we figured on a fairly moderate, enjoyable, albeit long, day.

Around 10 p.m. on highway 140 between Merced and Mariposa a thoughtful driver threw us a beer. Unfortunately he was doing 60 mph traveling west and we were doing 60 mph traveling east and when the bottle hit my windshield it cracked into a wonderful spider web pattern. What an asshole! It is lucky that we didn't lose control of the vehicle. I visited my insurance claims adjuster on Monday.

Sunday morning we arose from our "idyllic" roadside campground and cruised into the Valley. We were getting another alpine start as we had a lot to do and then had to drive back to San Jose. Lou headed up the first pitch at 6:00 a.m. He got lost immediately and retreated. Back on route he meandered up to the belay. This first pitch is rated 5.7, but there were a couple of short sections that I thought we harder -- isn't that always the case? The crux of the first pitch was passing a flake that was buzzing loudly with the sound of angry bees (or wasps or hornets). Luckily we moved by quickly and they didn't emerge as the angry black cloud of killer bees I was imagining.

The first belay is semi-hanging and in a slot. We deemed it too difficult to switch leaders so Lou led the second pitch (5.7) also. The second pitch is a deep slot that can be chimneyed nicely. With a pack on it makes for some interesting stemming on the rim. Of course, the toprope makes one brave.

Now it was my turn to lead and the third pitch was 5.8. This was a strenuous jam crack in a corner. The crack was thin hands so it wasn't much help for footholds. I thrashed up it a bit too aggressively trying to expend my pent up energy in this single pitch so that I would be a basket case for the remaining ten pitches. I was remarkably successful at this. In fact, both Lou and I were feeling very tired right from the start. I was thinking it might have to do with the fact that I have been going on five hours of sleep for the last two weeks. I keep telling myself to get more sleep, but I keep failing. Most of the way up this climb I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep. Strange.

The weather was hot. The Valley hit 90+ degrees and we were against the rock. The exposure is east facing and then north facing so we as bad off as the two climbers roasting on the Nose across from us. They were moving slow, understandably. We only carried three quarts of water and that was adequate -- if you don't mind obsessing about every kind of liquid all day. We could have easily downed triple the water, but of course didn't want to carry it.

The climb doesn't have much fixed pro and doesn't look like it sees much traffic (judging from the numerous spider webs we saw.) This isn't due to the climbing which is mostly pretty nice. Some bushes, some dirt, certainly nothing like El Cap, but nice. We both agreed that while the 5.9 pitches were challenging, it was the difficulty of the 5.8 pitches that impressed us.

The next pitch as mine also and it started out with some slick 5.9 liebacking and then into a wide, strenuous 5.8 crack. At the top of the pitch you must make a very dicey finger tip traverse right to the belay. Definitely not 5.8.

Lou led the fifth pitch -- our second and final 5.9 pitch. It was quite steep and strenuous. We both grabbed a couple pieces of pro for handholds. We were tired and knew there was a long way to go and were trying to conserve energy. Plus, of course, it was too hard. I led up the next 5.7 pitch past a number of bushes growing out of the crack to a tree belay. Lou then led up a runout, delicate 5.8 smear pitch to a big ledge. We took a break here to drink and eat some. It was a little before 11 a.m.

The next pitch was mine and involved a nasty offwidth crack. It didn't look too bad until I got up there and found everything to be flared and no footholds. I got up it by laybacking the crack, but that meant 20 feet of dicey, runout climbing.

Lou led the 9th pitch which was suppose to be 5.5 face climbing. It seemed more like 5.7, but it was very loose and scary. The pitch ends on a small stance with a single ring angle piton for an anchor. We now had a choice: do an improbable traverse into a nasty looking "5.6" chimney or traverse the other direction and circle back. I chose the latter. This was scary also even though the climbing was only 5.6 because I didn't want to protect it because of rope drag problems. The climbing wasn't too bad, but it did overhang for ten feet and, although the holds were huge, some were loose and fall would have been catastrophic. Thankful the pitch ended on a nice ledge.

Now we were into the "4th class" climbing. I led the 11th pitch and found it to be 5.7. It ended at a steep face about 30 feet high. Lou started up the moss covered rock and immediately looked shaky. He assumed it would be easy and didn't place a piece right off the belay. It quickly got serious and when I saw his leg shaking I told him to come down. He concurred and started to downclimb. About six feet above me he peeled! I have only one anchor in and it wasn't that good. I know this is wrong and am usually very careful, but this was suppose to be 4th class and we weren't going to fall... Luckily he landed right in my lap! I wrapped my arms around him so that he wouldn't fall off the ledge and test my anchor before collapsing back in pain. My butt sure hurt, but otherwise we were both okay. Lou commented that the landing was rather comfortable and recommended that I always catch his falls that way. I wouldn't let him continue and I found an easier way up to the left, but it was unprotected 5.6 friction climbing. Not hard, but certainly not 4th class.

It was now 2 p.m. and we scrambled up the remaining 250 feet to the Kat Walk descent and were back at the car by 3:30 p.m. We were very thirsty and tired, but satisfied with the climb. All of the pitches are very long. This route deserves more traffic.

We cruised home with a short stop to talk with the cop that pulled us over. Seems he got a report from some jerk on a car phone that a red Saab was going quite fast down the canyon.

He wrote me a ticket for my smashed windshield and we continued on...