Saturday was spent climbing at Devil's Lake. Franck and I left at about 5AM. With 4.5 hours of sleep and a small bowl of flax cereal to sustain me throughout the day we were off. We hiked up to the west bluff to climb in Cleopatra's Amphitheater. My goal... knock off my first trad climb while on lead.
Franck led the climb first and I followed. Just to get a feeling for it. So once we rappelled down, I geared up, a set of nuts and some small cams. Throughout the climb I placed 5 pieces of protections 2 cams and 3 nuts (I think...) plus used an existing piton (prob from the 60's or 70's). The bottom 3/4 of the climb is easy. With very large area's for feet it made placing gear very easy. The top 1/4 was a bit more exposed. Once on top I clipped in direct (there is bolt on top of the needle) and stood up to enjoy the view. Franck cleaned the climb for me and critiqued each placement.
My second lead of the day was Queen's Throne. Same deal as with the needle, Franck lead the climb first and I followed. I will admit as soon as I got to the top I had some hesitation of leading this climb. Though the climb had good protection it lacked the big ledges that the needle had for feet. So after some thinking and looking out on to the lake we hiked down off the climb. Once at the base I looked back up at the 1"-2" wide crack that goes 50-60 feet in the air......."I'll do it"
So I gear up with just about every single cam we had with us, a full set of nuts and about 10 draws.Racked up. Helmet on. Tied in. Belay on. Climb on. Climbing.
I had never climbed with that much weight on me before, I almost fell backwards on the first move. On the way up I felt very confident, placing a piece of protection every time I had good holds to stand on. Once on top I felt...well...happy, not sure if there was any other way to describe it. Maybe thirsty...but more happy then anything. Besides that...I just sat down to enjoy the view for a minute. I built an anchor and Franck cleaned for me and again critiquing each of my placements. After Franck leading one more climb we hiked back to the car.
2 comments:
Happy is the right word for it. The first real trad lead is some kind of arrival.
My first trad lead was not happy. I got to the top of a 5.8 somewhere in Southern Indiana and thought, "that was really stupid". I only had nuts at the time, a few of them fell out and I suspect many of them were no good. But I didn't fall and went on to learn better and have real and happy trad leads after that. The sense of accomplishment is much different from a sport lead.
Thank cdent,
As long as we keep learning.
And yes, much more so.
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