"The Leader Must Not Fall"
It turns out that Patagonia has a lifetime guarantee on their products, so when I showed them my aged fleece that was ripping at the seam, they replaced it. My mother who hates adventures bought it for me for Christmas and I'm inherently suspicious of gear that I haven't researched myself, but my Rainier guide told me to "definitely" bring it and I spent most of our time on the mountain in that and a thin shell jacket (with two layers of shirts underneath). Turns out it's their warmest fleece and I was horrified when I heard the price. The new version only comes in fugly colors, but it's even more windproof than the old one, so please don't laugh when you see me in Muppet blue, bc I am warm.
Sat was supposed to be my day to get stuff done at home, so I made a list, bought food for the week at Fairway, and came home to cook a week's worth of chili and do laundry. I was out of chili powder and am trying to avoid buying new spices (bc they won't fit in the rack), BUT I discovered the recipe calls for 1/4c of chili powder, which is the exact amount created by Julie Sahni's recipe in her spice cookbook.
I had ancho chili, but not pasilla chili. The Intarwebs seemed to think the best substitute for pasilla chili is... ancho, which seemed like it would make the chili powder very one dimensional :( The only other chilis I had in the house were cayenne and chipotle, so I used the latter. I had a teensy bit of Penzey's chili powder, which smelled much sweeter, even though it only contains ancho, cumin, garlic, and oregano. I wonder why. I also didn't have celery seeds, so I tossed in a tsp? of dill weed instead.
I probably shouldn't've been so generous with the red pepper flakes and cayenne in the turkey chili recipe itself, bc the result is so hot, even after an hour on the stove, that I need to eat it with rice. oops. and awesome
As the chili was just about finished, I got a call from LBro, asking where I was. Turns out he'd joined my sister for an appt at the energy worker's - and they'd be in my apt in 15 mins. ARGH! Apparently he'd made chili the night before: when I called my mum to ask how long she cooks hers for, she told me he bought a box of chili mix, brought it home -- and was outraged to discover that he had to go back to the store to buy meat. HAHAHA. And then he called her back to ask what "brown the meat" meant and was indignant that he had to brown all of it. Needless to say, he was trying to impress a girl with his favoritest dish in the world, tacos. Which didn't stop him from coming into my apt and demanding I make him tacos. I had old taco shells, so they took the spinach and tomatoes and avocado I bought for lunch this week, grated my buffalo parmiggiano, and ate it all up. Then Lbro said he was tired, flopped in my bed, and asked me to wake him at 6:30. *sighs*
I did laundry and entertained my sister. He wouldn't shoo at 6:30 - actually, he wouldn't even leave my bedroom so I could dress for dinner - and then he complained about my outfit saying, "You just need a spear and you'd be ready to hunt zebras" and "Can't you wear a nice dress? I know you have nice dresses, I bought you one, wear that." I tried to explain it wasn't a cocktail party, so I didn't need to wear Betsey Johnson, but he wouldn't leave until I dug out an old purchase from Gilt, so yeah. And then he and my sister argued about what shoes I wore and then my sister wanted to do my eye makeup and that, my dear, is why I was half an hour late for drinks. Sorry. Best line was when my sister wouldn't let me use my fave new Kate Spade bag and insisted I find a little clutch, saying, "It's a woman's job to freeze to death so she can look nice" and "Your bag should be large enough to carry your phones, your ID so you can drink, and cab fare for tmw morning." *snigger*
Sun I finally got my day of lead climbing with JBeau and it was a wonderful way to end the season. The night before, he told me to bring all my stuff, so I took the cams I bought at the beginning of the summer, as well as the stuff I bought in WV. I'd never used my cams, bc I could just use my guide/mentor's -- and I didn't have 'biners to put them on my harness. Oops. But on the way to the cliffs, we stopped at the local gear shop, which gave me a 15% discount bc I was out with a guide, so I bought a set of Black Diamond Neutrinos, the bestest non-locking carabiners ever. I've been researching them forever, of course. They are light and small and come in pretty colors -- they're actually made to color code to my large cams :o) I have long slings I bought when I first joined the climbing club, so I bought some matching blue 'biners to turn those into alpine draws and suddenly I have most of a rack. HURRAH! And did I mention everything is so color-coded and pretty and matches my harness?
While in WV, I paid entirely too much money for a set of a particular device called a tri-cam. They are wonderful in the Gunks, bc they are ideal for horizontal cracks in heavily featured rock, but most of the leaders with whom I've been climbing don't carry them. I adore them bc they are cheap, light, and semi-active. And, not to spoil my story, but I got to use them repeatedly on Sunday. YAAY!!!
As an aside to me, JBeau puts 6 'biners per loop: going from right to left, he puts nuts and small cams (including the 0.5 C4) on loop 1; large cams on loop 2; longer draws, nut tool, and prussiks on loop 3; and quick draws and tri-cams on loop 4. It seems to distribute the weight well. He apparently only uses a gear sling on off-widths. If I were really anal organized, there'd be a picture here. Also, have I mentioned how pretty my alpine draws are? although NRod likes my tri-cams even better, possibly bc of the pink one.
I have to say, carrying all that crap is heavy: this is the first time since May that my bag felt too heavy at the Gunks. Possibly bc I was carrying my own gear as well as a rope. durr.
JBeau asked me what my goals are, and I have to confess, it took me most of the morning to pull together individual parts of my answer. At first I said I want to lead in the Gunks, but then I remember my WV trip and said I'd like to be able to sport lead 5.8 next May (which our day's climbing wouldn't help much). Later on, I commented I want to be able to check other leaders' work, a la cordelia's remarks this summer. He asked if I plan to go out with NRod, with whom he is friends, and I pointed out that I still need someone who can give me beta, which she cannot since she doesn't lead at all.
JBeau had me build a 4-piece anchor on the ground, mostly to keep me out of his hair while he dealt with politics and setting up our first climb. It's been a while, but it was easy-peasy and he approved of my pieces. Then he had me mock-lead Horseman, a 5.5 G ***. I climbed it with him earlier this summer and it's a pretty easy climb, but I wanted to treat it like a lead, so I was very careful not to fall. Unfortunately, as I was going to place a nut, I managed to drop all the other ones in my hand. ARGH!!! This is a huge no-no in climbing: if you drop a cam, you have to retire that $70-120 piece, bc you don't know if the spring mechanism is still good. It was only a little height (20 feet?) and JBeau retrieved them all and nuts are just a single passive piece, so they're good to use, but this is the first time I've EVER dropped pro and did I mention this was their first ever climb??? ARGH. JBeau wryly commented, "This is why I separated your nuts to two different 'biners." *sighs*
The rest of the climb was fine, but I was flustered when I got to the top. I built a fine, 4-piece anchor - and then rigged the second's belay improperly, such that if he'd fallen, it wouldn't've held. JBeau was (rightly) pissed when he saw it and honestly, if it'd been me, I wouldn't've let me set up any belays for the rest of the day. Fortunately, JBeau is more easy-going than that.
Next he put me on Ken's Crack, for my third time this season. This time, I did it as a mock lead. Ken's Crack is rated G, bc, well, it follows a crack system, but it's also a 7, and not an easy one, so I fell multiple times. JBeau commented that a few of my pieces would've popped out had I actually been on lead, resulting in falling on a large block and a likely spine injury. I already knew I wasn't ready to lead 7s, so ppfffft. However, it was helpful in that I learned how to do a Hail Mary nut placement (reach up, slot the nut, clip it, then climb up and see how well you did as you shakily climb past) and really, it's better to see how awful things can be when climbing with an experienced pro. It was super-unfun and super good for me.
Finally, he put me on a true-lead on Betty, a 5.3 PG *. He told me the PG was bc of one missing piton, where I could use my largest blue cam instead. The climbing was only challenging bc I knew if I fell, I'd be falling on a newbie leader's pieces. I ran out of large cams and ended up doing a novel placement near the end, where I used a nut as a chock, slipping it into a fissure where the directions of pull would keep it from popping out, but not pulling it tight like you generally do with a nut. My anchor and belay setup were good and JBeau seriously told me how I could've fixed the situation on Horseman without freaking out my second. In some ways, I think I count it as my first real lead, in that it was a 70' pitch, so I was getting barely any beta.
Overall, he gave me a B+ for the day, saying that 90% of my placements would hold a leader fall; hopefully when I take a leader fall, it'll be on one of the good ones. In general, JBeau told me my cams could be placed 20% tighter and my nuts need to be placed more firmly. Throughout Ken's Crack, he kept saying things like, "NRod could belay you through this, if you told her to hold you tight on this section..." which seemed weird bc zomg I'm not ready to climb with a non-leader! I told him that I've been assuming all along I'd need a half dozen days of pure, supervised leads and so far he and I have done 2. (I did one last year with Eric the useless of EMS and one in May with SR the Exum wunderkind. To round out my climbing count for the season, I did a day of top roping with Igor the Insane's group; a private climbing day and a 3-person climbing day with JBeau; 2+ days climbing with GMac (including 2 easy-peasy pitches of leading); and a day with GSkelator. 11.5 days in one season, not including, ahem, my summer vacation.
Sat was supposed to be my day to get stuff done at home, so I made a list, bought food for the week at Fairway, and came home to cook a week's worth of chili and do laundry. I was out of chili powder and am trying to avoid buying new spices (bc they won't fit in the rack), BUT I discovered the recipe calls for 1/4c of chili powder, which is the exact amount created by Julie Sahni's recipe in her spice cookbook.
I had ancho chili, but not pasilla chili. The Intarwebs seemed to think the best substitute for pasilla chili is... ancho, which seemed like it would make the chili powder very one dimensional :( The only other chilis I had in the house were cayenne and chipotle, so I used the latter. I had a teensy bit of Penzey's chili powder, which smelled much sweeter, even though it only contains ancho, cumin, garlic, and oregano. I wonder why. I also didn't have celery seeds, so I tossed in a tsp? of dill weed instead.
I probably shouldn't've been so generous with the red pepper flakes and cayenne in the turkey chili recipe itself, bc the result is so hot, even after an hour on the stove, that I need to eat it with rice. oops. and awesome
As the chili was just about finished, I got a call from LBro, asking where I was. Turns out he'd joined my sister for an appt at the energy worker's - and they'd be in my apt in 15 mins. ARGH! Apparently he'd made chili the night before: when I called my mum to ask how long she cooks hers for, she told me he bought a box of chili mix, brought it home -- and was outraged to discover that he had to go back to the store to buy meat. HAHAHA. And then he called her back to ask what "brown the meat" meant and was indignant that he had to brown all of it. Needless to say, he was trying to impress a girl with his favoritest dish in the world, tacos. Which didn't stop him from coming into my apt and demanding I make him tacos. I had old taco shells, so they took the spinach and tomatoes and avocado I bought for lunch this week, grated my buffalo parmiggiano, and ate it all up. Then Lbro said he was tired, flopped in my bed, and asked me to wake him at 6:30. *sighs*
I did laundry and entertained my sister. He wouldn't shoo at 6:30 - actually, he wouldn't even leave my bedroom so I could dress for dinner - and then he complained about my outfit saying, "You just need a spear and you'd be ready to hunt zebras" and "Can't you wear a nice dress? I know you have nice dresses, I bought you one, wear that." I tried to explain it wasn't a cocktail party, so I didn't need to wear Betsey Johnson, but he wouldn't leave until I dug out an old purchase from Gilt, so yeah. And then he and my sister argued about what shoes I wore and then my sister wanted to do my eye makeup and that, my dear, is why I was half an hour late for drinks. Sorry. Best line was when my sister wouldn't let me use my fave new Kate Spade bag and insisted I find a little clutch, saying, "It's a woman's job to freeze to death so she can look nice" and "Your bag should be large enough to carry your phones, your ID so you can drink, and cab fare for tmw morning." *snigger*
Sun I finally got my day of lead climbing with JBeau and it was a wonderful way to end the season. The night before, he told me to bring all my stuff, so I took the cams I bought at the beginning of the summer, as well as the stuff I bought in WV. I'd never used my cams, bc I could just use my guide/mentor's -- and I didn't have 'biners to put them on my harness. Oops. But on the way to the cliffs, we stopped at the local gear shop, which gave me a 15% discount bc I was out with a guide, so I bought a set of Black Diamond Neutrinos, the bestest non-locking carabiners ever. I've been researching them forever, of course. They are light and small and come in pretty colors -- they're actually made to color code to my large cams :o) I have long slings I bought when I first joined the climbing club, so I bought some matching blue 'biners to turn those into alpine draws and suddenly I have most of a rack. HURRAH! And did I mention everything is so color-coded and pretty and matches my harness?
While in WV, I paid entirely too much money for a set of a particular device called a tri-cam. They are wonderful in the Gunks, bc they are ideal for horizontal cracks in heavily featured rock, but most of the leaders with whom I've been climbing don't carry them. I adore them bc they are cheap, light, and semi-active. And, not to spoil my story, but I got to use them repeatedly on Sunday. YAAY!!!
As an aside to me, JBeau puts 6 'biners per loop: going from right to left, he puts nuts and small cams (including the 0.5 C4) on loop 1; large cams on loop 2; longer draws, nut tool, and prussiks on loop 3; and quick draws and tri-cams on loop 4. It seems to distribute the weight well. He apparently only uses a gear sling on off-widths. If I were really anal organized, there'd be a picture here. Also, have I mentioned how pretty my alpine draws are? although NRod likes my tri-cams even better, possibly bc of the pink one.
I have to say, carrying all that crap is heavy: this is the first time since May that my bag felt too heavy at the Gunks. Possibly bc I was carrying my own gear as well as a rope. durr.
JBeau asked me what my goals are, and I have to confess, it took me most of the morning to pull together individual parts of my answer. At first I said I want to lead in the Gunks, but then I remember my WV trip and said I'd like to be able to sport lead 5.8 next May (which our day's climbing wouldn't help much). Later on, I commented I want to be able to check other leaders' work, a la cordelia's remarks this summer. He asked if I plan to go out with NRod, with whom he is friends, and I pointed out that I still need someone who can give me beta, which she cannot since she doesn't lead at all.
JBeau had me build a 4-piece anchor on the ground, mostly to keep me out of his hair while he dealt with politics and setting up our first climb. It's been a while, but it was easy-peasy and he approved of my pieces. Then he had me mock-lead Horseman, a 5.5 G ***. I climbed it with him earlier this summer and it's a pretty easy climb, but I wanted to treat it like a lead, so I was very careful not to fall. Unfortunately, as I was going to place a nut, I managed to drop all the other ones in my hand. ARGH!!! This is a huge no-no in climbing: if you drop a cam, you have to retire that $70-120 piece, bc you don't know if the spring mechanism is still good. It was only a little height (20 feet?) and JBeau retrieved them all and nuts are just a single passive piece, so they're good to use, but this is the first time I've EVER dropped pro and did I mention this was their first ever climb??? ARGH. JBeau wryly commented, "This is why I separated your nuts to two different 'biners." *sighs*
The rest of the climb was fine, but I was flustered when I got to the top. I built a fine, 4-piece anchor - and then rigged the second's belay improperly, such that if he'd fallen, it wouldn't've held. JBeau was (rightly) pissed when he saw it and honestly, if it'd been me, I wouldn't've let me set up any belays for the rest of the day. Fortunately, JBeau is more easy-going than that.
Next he put me on Ken's Crack, for my third time this season. This time, I did it as a mock lead. Ken's Crack is rated G, bc, well, it follows a crack system, but it's also a 7, and not an easy one, so I fell multiple times. JBeau commented that a few of my pieces would've popped out had I actually been on lead, resulting in falling on a large block and a likely spine injury. I already knew I wasn't ready to lead 7s, so ppfffft. However, it was helpful in that I learned how to do a Hail Mary nut placement (reach up, slot the nut, clip it, then climb up and see how well you did as you shakily climb past) and really, it's better to see how awful things can be when climbing with an experienced pro. It was super-unfun and super good for me.
Finally, he put me on a true-lead on Betty, a 5.3 PG *. He told me the PG was bc of one missing piton, where I could use my largest blue cam instead. The climbing was only challenging bc I knew if I fell, I'd be falling on a newbie leader's pieces. I ran out of large cams and ended up doing a novel placement near the end, where I used a nut as a chock, slipping it into a fissure where the directions of pull would keep it from popping out, but not pulling it tight like you generally do with a nut. My anchor and belay setup were good and JBeau seriously told me how I could've fixed the situation on Horseman without freaking out my second. In some ways, I think I count it as my first real lead, in that it was a 70' pitch, so I was getting barely any beta.
Overall, he gave me a B+ for the day, saying that 90% of my placements would hold a leader fall; hopefully when I take a leader fall, it'll be on one of the good ones. In general, JBeau told me my cams could be placed 20% tighter and my nuts need to be placed more firmly. Throughout Ken's Crack, he kept saying things like, "NRod could belay you through this, if you told her to hold you tight on this section..." which seemed weird bc zomg I'm not ready to climb with a non-leader! I told him that I've been assuming all along I'd need a half dozen days of pure, supervised leads and so far he and I have done 2. (I did one last year with Eric the useless of EMS and one in May with SR the Exum wunderkind. To round out my climbing count for the season, I did a day of top roping with Igor the Insane's group; a private climbing day and a 3-person climbing day with JBeau; 2+ days climbing with GMac (including 2 easy-peasy pitches of leading); and a day with GSkelator. 11.5 days in one season, not including, ahem, my summer vacation.