5.13 Eh?

On Saturday I climbed Crawling From the Wreckage my second ever 5.13 rated route, my first in North America. It all began last Friday, I caught a ride up to Exit 38 with Micah, Nick, Erica and Greg. We hiked up to Bob's Area where we warmed up on a couple of 10's at Lost Resort. Micah really wanted to check out the 13a there that we had seen a couple of years ago. It was a lot different than I had remembered, a lot steeper and harder looking. Its 20 degrees overhanging the whole way, very featured but it looks like all the holds are sloping the wrong way. Once we were warmed up I volunteered to go first and put up the draws. The start is really nice, the first three clips are technical 5.10+ climbing to a good rest below the third clip. Then from there you bust straight into the crux, which is a V4 deadpoint move to a small three finger crimp, except that on my first go I had no idea how to do the move, it wasn't until later that I figured out a sequence that worked there. From there you make a series of big moves off of small but positive holds, its really fun climbing. Then you get to a point where you have to use two bad opposing pinches to slap up to a big sloper, that is probably the redpoint crux, then from the sloper you have to make a hard clip and then its a series of crimpy moves up to a victory jug, which is still really hard when your pumped. I managed to put up all the draws and get to the chains on my first go which was a good mental barrier to overcome so quickly. Micah took his turn and we exchanged beta, refining our sequence. Nick then showed up from warming up with Erica down below, and he hopped on. He loved it as well, making good progress using our beta. We were all feeling pretty worked by then so figured we better move on and try some easier stuff. I decided to toprope it one last time, to take out the bottom draws and replace some so that we had leaver draws for the next time we got on it. I surprised myself by getting it clean on toprope, which was definitely a confidence booster. We moved on up the hill to some other crags, but Micah and I vowed to come back to work on this route more. Up at Slumbersome Ridge we did a handful of other routes which were good fun, we had the whole crag to ourselves. Erica had the idea to bring a stove and food up to make a curry which at first I thought was pretty crazy, but it was really nice eating some good food and some wine before the walk down.

Micah on the technical start of Crawling from the Wreckage

Mmm dinner!

The next day Micah and I were really tired, but we knew we had to go back up there and strike while the iron was hot. Laura came along too and the three of us made the long hike up again. The day got off to a good start with Laura redpointing her project at Amazonia on the way up, an 11a that she looked really smooth on. When we eventually made it up to the climb I was absolutely exhausted, I wasn't even sure if I would get on the climb. But after a bit of a rest and some food, we warmed up on some other climbs then went for it. I had been going over the beta in my head the whole walk up so I knew I had the sequence dialed. I got up to the rest at the 3rd clip took a shake, looked up at the moves ahead and went for it. The next few moves went by so quickly and before I knew it I was on the sloper making the crux clip, just a few more moves to go, I wasn't even feeling that pumped. I got up to the victory jug, but I didn't celebrate yet, I wanted to make sure I clipped the chains first, and I did! Project sent! It was more of a relief to have it sent first go of the day, as I knew I probably couldn't match that attempt again on that day, its short but really intense. Micah was shocked that I did it so quickly, and part of me felt that I had let him down in a way by not working on it longer with him, but I was really glad to have it done. Micah gave it a few goes with long rests in between, but he was having trouble keeping the pump at bay going into the crux. We tried a couple other climbs at Peannacle during his rests, and Laura managed an onsight of a 10d there! This was her hardest onsight in over a year, so understandably she was really pleased. Micah didn't manage the send on that day, but he has the sequence down, so it is only a matter of time now.

You'll get it soon Micah!