I climbed with Sheri's manager, Tally, this weekend. Sheri
had been telling me aboutTally for a long time and that we should climb
together. Tally being a 5.12 climber, I didn't think we'd be a good match, but
we met at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday and it was cold. Tally's friend Mary joined us
and we headed off to Eldorado Springs Canyon. We hiked up to the Bulge Wall
since it was in the son. Tally led Backtalk, 5.10c, and it was impossible to
tell where the crux was while watching him climb. He is very modest and came
down saying that he thought it was a hard climb. Tally placed a piece low and
then only clipped the two bolts and one pin. I always put in a piece between
the two pins because the runout is twenty feet or more and the climbing
difficult.
I managed to scrape my way up the route without coming off.
Mary fell off a couple of times but more due to going the wrong way than
finding the moves undoable. In the meantime two other climbers showed up and
starting climbing Blackwalk - the route we wanted to do next. Hence, we had to
climb something else. Tally led the climb just left of Blackwalk called Back in
Black. This route is not in the Rossiter guide and I had never heard of it.
Tally says it is rated 11d. There are many bolts on this 120 foot route but
Tally's feet were well above the last bolt when he was able to clip the next
bolt. Tally had trouble at the first bolt were the second hardest move of the
climb is. Tally says this move is 5.11b and after awhile Tally did a small dyno
and moved upwards. Tally moved smoothly to the last bolt and then, right at the
start of the 11d section, fell off and said he was wasted. He engineered an
alternate path out to the right and then back left to the belay. After hauling
up a second rope and setting up a toprope, Tally rapped off. My turn.
I tied in and moved up forty feet of 5.7/8 ground to the
start of the difficulties. Here I had to surmount the first crux and I found it
HARD! I fell off 5 or 6 times and tried all sorts of alternatives before
pulling on the draw to get up higher. I must have fallen off twenty times
before I arrived at the last bolt and elected to be lowered down rather than
try moves even harder than the ones I was falling off below. I was gone. Mary
confirmed the difficulties while following, though she fell off only 10 times
or so. This route is brutal! It is very sustained with most holds being
extremely bad. The angle is slightly less than vertical, but there is only one
rest on this route and it is way up there. I could not lead this route even
using aid. Supposedly, up to where I fell off, the climbing is only 11b. That
seems underrated to me. I'd love Hardly and Eric Winkelman to give this route a
shot and see what they think. The route appears ugly, but the climbing is
great, difficult, and tricky. Flashing this route would be a major achievement.
I'd love to work more on this route but I am years away from climbing it clean.
Finally, I tried to lead Blackwalk (10c) - which I've led
twice before. I climbed up to the crux and fell off four times before giving
up. Tally cruised it and I fell off four more times on TR before lowering off
completely dejected and humiliated. My elbow was screaming in pain and my right
arm was nearly useless. It seems like I've taken a giant step backwards. I've
got to get my elbow fixed. Then I've got to start getting stronger...
Sunday I was supposed to climb with Eric and Trashy, but
that was out with the current state of my elbow. We ended up doing a 4.5 hour
hike around the Flatirons and up South Boulder and Bear Peak. We talked about
Eric's friend Alex Lowe and about our ambitious plans for the year to come.
Plans dependent on me getting to be a lot better climber. I need lots of work.