Mallside slabs and Honey NoGo

Sore muscles.  Shredded skin.  Struggling to stay awake until 9 o'clock.  It was a good weekend!

Saturday, after our plans to do so fell through last weekend, Indy finally showed me around the Hunt Valley Rocks, along with Penny and a few other friends.  Literally located next to McCormick Road at the edge of the Hunt Valley Towne Center, what these slabs lack in height and atmosphere they more than make for in texture. Composed of some form of quartzite, further east and way more folded and banded than I've ever seen, they offer the best pure friction climbing I've seen in the state.

                                                                                Photo- Mark 'Indy' Kochte

We only set up in a couple spots, but every route I did was fantastic.  I started off on the Grey Face, thoroughly enjoying myself on Avoid the Temptation, which follows a beautiful slab up through a couple undercling pinches, with a good left arete available for those who don't quite trust their smearing skills yet.  The arete was also really fun as a layback called Daylight Dancer on the vertical face to the left.

Alex starting up Daylight Dancer     Photo- Mark 'Indy' Kochte

Penny approaching high step #1    Photo- Mark 'Indy' Kochte

High step and mantle    Photo- Mark 'Indy' Kochte

The slab on the right of the Grey Face called to me as soon as I saw it, and according to Indy it hadn't been done yet, which explained the number of holds that snapped on my first few attempts. The bottom is almost entirely blank, but several sharp crystals come quickly within reach for hands.  Once I finally found a few that could support my weight, it was easy enough to work through underclings and side pulls and then straight up the right arete.  In absence of any other known ascents, I decided to call it Banks of McCormick as a tribute the first ascentionist of Silver Spot, and in keeping with the history of that climb have decided that 5.10 is as good a rating as any for this one.

Banks of McCormick     Photo- Mark 'Indy' Kochte

Sunday's climbing was entirely different.  Bryan and I started off the day at Gunpowder, where I hoped to climb the slightly contrived but fun looking Honey GoGo.  Didn't happen.  I tried to start it three times, but quickly realized that I wasn't nearly warmed up enough.

Meanwhile, Bryan was playing on the flake over on the right side of the boulder, and I decided to join him for a couple minutes before we abandoned Gunpowder for our backup plan of Rocks.  Somehow two hours passed, and Bryan and I found more and more ridiculous sequences to exhaust ourselves with.

Bryan on... another random move

It was actually very freeing to forgot what we knew about the problems on the boulder and just climb.    With all the options of holds, I almost felt like we were on a nearly horizontal system board, and from a training standpoint I'm sure it was just as good for us since we so rarely get to climb on such step terrain.  Here's my favorite sequence from our session.

Still wanting to make a stop at Rocks before we were entirely exhausted, we headed on down the road.  Once there, we didn't do as much as I'd anticipated, starting off on the Right Cross problem and never really getting any further.  Again I walked away without finishing it, again because I figured out what to do after I was too tired to do it.  At least this time I was smart and wrote a note in my phone about the foot beta for next time.  Now all I have to do is remember it's in there!

Tomorrow was supposed to be the start of our trip to Chattanooga, but it seems the rain has decided otherwise.  I'm sure we'll find plenty of other local fun to get into.

Carderock multipitch?

St. Patrick's Day, and I'm home because of snow.  Again.  At least it'll be a good chance to catch up on a few things, and after getting out to climb for the past two days I suppose I'm okay with a day inside.  Especially one that includes second breakfast.

Saturday we went out to Levitation with a huge crew and turned the Jam boulder into a gym for a while, then spent some time with silly dynos and long reaches in the upper section before walking down river to another great little boulder that I hadn't been to yet.

Yesterday, Emily and Bryan and I went down to join Chris and Nicole for what I thought would be a laid back day of toproping.  And it was at first, as Bryan and I dropped a rope on Spider Walk and Silver Spot while the others got on Meenehan's Staircase.

                                 Silver Spot           Photo: Chris Irwin

For Bryan's first time there, I was glad that he really got the full Carderock experience... technical slabs, slippery crystals, and old regulars walking by every few minutes to offer "encouragement."  They were out in force yesterday too, attempting to catalogue Carderock's countless eliminate boulder problems, which until now have largely been confined to the area's oral history.  Bryan also set and climbed on his first toprope when we moved over to work on Sterling's Crack and Evan's Bolt Ladder.

The real highlight for me was following Chris on the "classic" Chris Wex Don Traverse, first done in the 1940s, and no doubt originally involving pitons and hardware store ropes.  Just to clarify for those unfamiliar with Carderock, this is a toprope area.  The cliffs are usually 30-40 feet tall, bolting is not allowed, and the regulars swear that the gear placements are all questionable enough to make leading a downright irresponsible act.  In fact, most of them won't hesitate to loudly question your judgement as they free solo past you.

Let others say what they will, but when this guy thinks something is a good idea, who am I to doubt him?

                                                               Photo: Emily Close

This isn't the first time I've belayed Chris when he's decided to lead something there, and apparently this route has been on his mind for a while.  As soon as he asked if I had brought any whiskey, I knew it would be a fun route.  There was no whiskey to be had, but fortunately I was able to borrow women's helmet from a nearby party.

                                                                                            Photo: Emily Close

With the vague directions of "climb part way up Garbage Chute and then go 400 feet right," we were soon immersed in the freedom of multipitch in one of the last places I would ever expect.  Even though none of the climbing was hard, there was some ugly fall potential and I give Chris a lot of respect for going through with it. It was also interesting to do something where following felt almost as sketchy as leading, especially since the beginning of the second pitch was downclimbing a ramp over the river, though actually getting to climb over the river was both beautiful and one of the most peaceful experiences I've had there.

                                                            Photo: Emily Close

                                                             Photo: Emily Close

                                                                                           Photo: Emily Close

                                                                                           Photo: Emily Close

                                                                                           Photo: Emily Close

                                                             Photo: Emily Close

                                                             Photo: Emily Close

                                                        Photo: Nicole Martino

Thinking of climbs like this being done over 70 years ago only increased my already considerable respect for the early generations of climbers who developed the area.  Carderock is a place I love and appreciate more with every visit, and I would absolutely encourage anyone to get out and explore some of the old forgotten lines at this or any other old local area.  Hard new climbing has its place, but the feeling of continuing someone else's history always seems more satisfying to me in the end.

Cheers to all on this snowy day, and an extra toast to all of those old school badasses who paved the way.

Beating the weather… again

If there's been a running theme to this winter, it might be "get out there while we can."  This weekend was never really sunny for long, and the highs barely broke into the mid forties, but with more snow on the way tonight it seemed crazy not to make the most of it.

Today, despite waking up tired from whatever my body has been fighting off, I made it out for a few hours at Northwest Branch before the rain rolled in.  Initially planning to walk down and join a few others on Curtain Call, I ran into Adam at the Crack Line boulder and ended up climbing with him instead.  After an extended warmup on Crack Line (which still takes me several tries to finish every time), we got on River Dyno, The Fin, and Crimps for a bit before crossing the river so he could see what the south bank had to offer.  The rain was coming down hard before we could get on Crimptastic or The Business, but he knocked off Secret Garden in just a few tries.

Yesterday was a toprope day at Carderock, which I'm loving more and more every time I climb there.  It's not just the technical climbing on terrible holds, but also the history behind so many of the climbs.  More about that some other time though.

I had a few things in mind to climb yesterday, and thought that The Rack Direct would be a good warmup. Nothing like a little overconfidence on a Saturday afternoon!  Although that didn't go well for me, Chris made it look easy.

After not climbing for another hour, I decided to try my luck on Evan's Bolt Ladder, which locals apparently take pride in as the toprope climb that made Sharma fall.  What a great route!  Unlike many of the routes at Carderock, this one covers a relatively wide face, meaning there are several possible ways to climb it instead of one accepted sequence.  What worked best for me was following a line of underclings up the left of the face, then traversing right at the overhangs until the "holds" reappeared.

                                                                 Photo: Chris Irwin

It's interesting to me that Carderock regulars consider this to be the second hardest climb there, with Silver Spot being harder.  To me, this is way more of a challenge.  Yes, the top of Silver Spot is hard, but only for a few moves and the crux sequence comes after a good rest stance.  Evan's Bolt Ladder felt like crux after crux after crux, though admittedly it was much more physical than I'm used to and I've never done a climb that involved so many long moves off underclings.  In any case, I'm looking forward to getting back and finishing it up, as well as checking out more of the classics that I haven't yet gotten a chance to try.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this snow won't stay around long!