Demons Driven Back

Last week was a blur with my friend Marc in town for his B-day gala week long its my birthday bitches fiesta celebration. Of course this takes place mostly at my house. The Monday night BBQ was definitely ramped up a notch or two from the previous week and included wrestling, slack lining, and a late night showing of Grandmas Boy. I do have a video of the wrastling but promised not to show it. Sorry.

Thursday seemed much more subdued, the actual Birthday day, with just Marc, Clint and I and a bottle of Jamieson. Oh lord, frickin wrestling again. This time I was suckered into getting involved in the fun. A bruised eyebrow, broken pinky toe and many scrapes and bruises later we had had enough. Actually a pretty fun evening, stupid injuries aside. We waved goodbye to uncle Little Marc and went back to our 'normal' lives as he returned to whence he came.

Ten Sleep here we come; climbing gear-check, camper-check, kids and wife-check and we're off. First up a better camp site that is closer to the river and is shady until late morning, perfect for sleeping in. Next up, check out new Charlie routes in Antarctica. Then on to the Proj and finally a leisurely day at the Circus Wall.

The new Charlie routes were woefully underestimated by mine self. They looked short and even though I couldn't even count all the bolts, I grabbed every draw I had brought. CK's bolts are usually close and plentiful which is nice. These things were long and involved, very tricky down low and rather continuous which belied the 10 and 10- written in chalk at the base. 13 clips later I was clipping the chains. Damn! Quite the warm-ups. Meg TR'd both and after some initial griping bucked up and finished each.

On to the project. On the way over to the climb I asked the girls to think of a name for the new climb should I finish it today. Much hooha was bantered about but nothing struck me exactly what I was looking for. Meg laughed and said you should call it Papa Knows Best. That was it, and as I pondered the name while shoeing up I relaxed a bit. I pulled on climbing strong through the bottom boulder problem and executed the new move beta I worked out last week on the next section. I took a well needed break to slow my breathing, then punched it through the next crimpy part and was too psyched to stop at the big undercling, so I blitzed through the tiny pockets crux nearly pitching off the small pinchy hold and before I knew it I was clipping the anchor. Wow! Glad to do it quick today and be done with it. Grade wise I'm not so sure. 12+ seems like the right ball park, though I would like some input from Alli, Kevin and Jeff.

Day two brings more sleeping in. How frickin cool to be camping and not have the sun roast you out of your nest. Also more river play with the kiddos and a scorching hot hike up to Circus Wall. Meg was hot for Circus in the Wind 11b and I had no firm plans other than to rope gun for her and entertain kids. We ran into Marky D. who was with Mikey from Thermop and his two young kids. I wandered up to the new Hitchhikers Guide Wall and was able to convince the crew to stomp up to try these short and cool looking routes. Kitty Improbability Drive 10+ was a super climb which felt more on par with White Buffalo 11b another short fantastic CK route. After everyone ran on that one the boys had to go so Meg and our crew strolled back down to the Ice Plant/Ravens Wall areas. Meg lead the steepest route there and though complaining about her head climbed strong between the bolts, conquering fear demons is no easy task. I realized Fun Stripe .11d was right behind us and with Megs urging I decided to give it a whack. For the 7th pitch of the day I still felt pretty strong and was able to onsight it, barely clinging to the multitude of tiny pockets on the steep section down low.

Once again a lack of media this time due to forgetting my cameras. Apologies.