The second big adventure

So, yes, I'm still working on stories from the climbing trip. Someday they will end...

The second big adventure actually happened before the first one. Saturday we hiked up to a relatively remote area because the park was really crowded with climbers (damn them all - how dare they use the park when WE wanted to?). We found some nice bolted climbs, and I saw a nice crack I wanted to do, which was NOT listed in the book, so even more exciting.

So, after doing the bolted climb and seeing the crack from the top, I thought I could do it. And that it was not crumbly in the crack, so the gear would hold. See, the thing was that because not many people go to this area, there's crappy rock that has not yet been knocked off.

I loaded up on gear, and started up the climb. There was a thin crack that angled up left to a small ledge with big rocks in it, and it continued angling up left with a palm in it, and then straight up. Luckily there were some big rocks with good holds that I could get up and stand on (after one foothold broke off) so I could lean over and get a piece in (specifically a green alien).

Then I had to somehow get my body over left to follow the crack. I tried down low, but couldn't do it, and then went up a little higher to where there was a low angle. I stood on the low angle, but was scared to move without holding onto something, in part because the rock was a little crumbly, and there were no good handholds. I tried various things, sometimes over and over.

Finally I decided to make a move. I leaned over and grabbed one of the rocks that was on the ledge. It moved. I screamed. I fell.

Everyone said it looked like I fell in slow motion. And I probably did. If the rock movement hadn't freaked me out, I might have kept my balance and stayed up. But, alas, that was not the case. I fell and my friend D caught me, hard, because I was so close to the ground. That was not the end. When I fell, one of my larger cams (#2 to be exact) went through the carabiner of the draw, and I was essentially trapped in that biner.

Someone started videotaping at that moment. So there is video of two people helping me to get out of the gear sling so that I could be lowered to the ground with the rope. It was very very odd. Below is a photo of what it looked like.



So, after staring at it for a moment, I got the gear down, put my shit and myself back together and got back on the climb, albeit from a different direction. I was able to pull the loose rocks off the climb, and continue. About halfway up, I realized my foot hurt. Soon I realized I had broken a toe (or at least jammed it reallly reallly well). Below is the toe.



I did finish the climb, and since it wasn't in the book, some thought I should name it. But I'm sure it's been climbed before, alas... I also climbed the next day and the next, because I found out only certain directions made me gasp in pain, and smearing/climbing wasn't one of them. So that's why my toe now has a buddy, and is taped together with it.