F.Y.I.
Ali OWNED the slab today... give it up for her!
MacGregor Slab
Climbing the Slab
On the Summit
My mad cooking skills
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Between a Slab and a Hard Place
So today i took Ali up her first real climb in the park. We woke up early this morning and climbed MacGregor Slab near the Fall River Entrance to the park. The approach hike is pretty strenuous but we took our time and after a little shwaking (yes it is a word) we reached the base of the climb. The wonderful thing about the slab is that most of the routes are below a 5.8, so if you get a little off route its not the end of the world. So i picked a dihedral system and we went up. The first pitch i ran almost a whole rope length and went pretty easy. The second pitch went up a 6" crack then led over an arete up a featureless dihedral. It was a very sketchy lead over bad pro, definitely the crux. The final three pitches went fairly smoothly and we scrambled to the top. Now came the fun part. As with most multi-pitch climbs in the park the decent is half the battle. We made multiple rappels off of trees until we could safely scramble down unroped. We had carried everything up with us so all we took we're sandals for the decent which was very steep and long. We spent almost as long trying to get back to the truck as we did climbing. To complicate things further it started to rain, as it does every afternoon. The decent trail faded in and out, and a recent forest fire and downed trees made the trail difficult to follow. We just made it back to the truck as it started pouring. It has been raining since then. We went back to the campsite and rigged a rainfly up under a pine tree and made fajitas and rice for dinner. Now we have relocated to the local coffee shop, staying out of the rain. Apparently there is a small creg within a couple of minutes of our campground that has a few lines, mostly of which are difficult (5.11-5.12) and are bolted, which would be a nice change. All of the climbs we have done yet we trad, build your own anchors type of climbs. We'll see how the weather holds out...
F.Y.I.
Ali OWNED the slab today... give it up for her!
MacGregor Slab
Climbing the Slab
On the Summit
My mad cooking skills
F.Y.I.
Ali OWNED the slab today... give it up for her!
MacGregor Slab
Climbing the Slab
On the Summit
My mad cooking skills
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hi Kids,
Have been really enjoying the day to day updates/pictures. The Tyndall Gorge pictures I can't believe how blue the sky is. I liked Aaron's "Howdy" hat on Monday, picture of Ali "on the edge" picture gave me a heart attack. Stream picture will have to be made a print. Tuesday sounded like a long day but "fun", glad to see Aaron enjoying his cooking. I liked how he said that "Ali owned the slab", proud of ya Ali. I am so happy that all is going well, keep enjoying!!!
Love, Mom-Toni
P.S. As of today (Wednesday) Ali, you have received 3 packages in the mail I am assuming these are your books.
Post a Comment