I'm still dating Jake which means ...I'm still rock climbing every other weekend. Woo Hoo! We went climbing Friday and Saturday and had a fantastic time. Friday I was super jittery and nervous for some reason which has never happened before. We hiked around in the morning before doing two routes up this rock which helped settle me down. The first was a sport route along the lines you see the other guy's rope and the second was trad. Hmmm...with the picture this small I'm not sure you can see the rope...or the guy. There's people on top too which you can hardly even see either. 
I ended up leaving a nut on the rock and tore up my hands getting out a cam on the second one. I hated the second one and was grouchy as can be when I got to the top, but I did get to the top. I think because of this I got lowered to the bottom while Jake went and rappelled himself down the other side. That was fine with me. Once again, Jake is rapelling in this picture but I don't think you can see him cause he's so small. 
There he is...zoomed in.
After that Jake did a more difficult route as the sun set on another nearby rock. It was a pretty cool one called Scream Cheese since the rock had lots of little holes. The names of the routes always make me laugh. We had a really pretty hike back to the car along a little creek with some really cool views where we took some nice pictures. Some were artsy... 
...and some were a little on the cheesy side. 
The only water at the place was a hand pump from a well which I thought was pretty cool. (so months after I made this post Jake read it and told me I should change this part to say that the water pump was NOT the only place to get water. There was a faucet by the bathrooms...though we didn't know it was there till we were actually in the car leaving. The whole time we thought there was only the pump...so I think we're both right.)
No animals got our lunches either...
Saturday we went back to the same area and did 3 climbs on a different rock. I only did the first one but my nerves were back to normal and I enjoyed it at least. It was good thing I wasn't all jittery again because Jake took his first fall with me as his belayer. It was my first catch too and it all went smoothly. No one got hurt and it was nice to have that out of the way so I know what to expect and he can trust me a little more on the ropes. After that we headed up to another nearby area for some higher climbs. It was really late in the afternoon so we picked out a nice and easy 5.7 climb we would be able to go up pretty fast but that was still really long and high. It was so much fun! It was 5 pitches, but we did it in 4 since some were short, and we got up just above 400 feet. There were birds flying below us and we saw an old raptor nest near the top. The views were awesome and you could hear cows mooing from way far away and it was really calming. It got me singing Christmas songs about cattle lowing... This time we brought the camera along for the climb and took some really fun shots along the way.
This is the rock we climbed. This face is called red rib. We climbed up just to the right of the rib part. It's a lot bigger than it looks in the picture. There were a few people climbing when I took this picture and you can't even see them. In the next picture down Jake's on top of the little bump to the right of the rib and I'm below him at the base of that short vertical section. It can give a little perspective on the height. 
Looking down 400ft, getting ready for the rapells...
...another nice hike back to the car and then home. What a great weekend!
I ended up leaving a nut on the rock and tore up my hands getting out a cam on the second one. I hated the second one and was grouchy as can be when I got to the top, but I did get to the top. I think because of this I got lowered to the bottom while Jake went and rappelled himself down the other side. That was fine with me. Once again, Jake is rapelling in this picture but I don't think you can see him cause he's so small. There he is...zoomed in.After that Jake did a more difficult route as the sun set on another nearby rock. It was a pretty cool one called Scream Cheese since the rock had lots of little holes. The names of the routes always make me laugh. We had a really pretty hike back to the car along a little creek with some really cool views where we took some nice pictures. Some were artsy... ...and some were a little on the cheesy side. The only water at the place was a hand pump from a well which I thought was pretty cool. (so months after I made this post Jake read it and told me I should change this part to say that the water pump was NOT the only place to get water. There was a faucet by the bathrooms...though we didn't know it was there till we were actually in the car leaving. The whole time we thought there was only the pump...so I think we're both right.) No animals got our lunches either...Saturday we went back to the same area and did 3 climbs on a different rock. I only did the first one but my nerves were back to normal and I enjoyed it at least. It was good thing I wasn't all jittery again because Jake took his first fall with me as his belayer. It was my first catch too and it all went smoothly. No one got hurt and it was nice to have that out of the way so I know what to expect and he can trust me a little more on the ropes. After that we headed up to another nearby area for some higher climbs. It was really late in the afternoon so we picked out a nice and easy 5.7 climb we would be able to go up pretty fast but that was still really long and high. It was so much fun! It was 5 pitches, but we did it in 4 since some were short, and we got up just above 400 feet. There were birds flying below us and we saw an old raptor nest near the top. The views were awesome and you could hear cows mooing from way far away and it was really calming. It got me singing Christmas songs about cattle lowing... This time we brought the camera along for the climb and took some really fun shots along the way.
This is the rock we climbed. This face is called red rib. We climbed up just to the right of the rib part. It's a lot bigger than it looks in the picture. There were a few people climbing when I took this picture and you can't even see them. In the next picture down Jake's on top of the little bump to the right of the rib and I'm below him at the base of that short vertical section. It can give a little perspective on the height. This is about 300 feet up. I think it's my favorite shot because we're both in it and reasonably sized. 
I don't know what is crooked my glasses, my helmet, or both. I lost my spare glasses so I've had to climb in these and it makes me nervous. They don't stay on so well. 
The views were fantastic from the top. This is at the end of the climb looking out towards the cows...
The views were fantastic from the top. This is at the end of the climb looking out towards the cows......another nice hike back to the car and then home. What a great weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment