The weekend, part 2

So, we arrived around 11:00 so had plenty of time, hopefully, to do some climbing. The forecast was for scattered showers. Ex-b had been talking about how he would work up to 10b's hopefully by the end of the weekend, but smartly wanted to start on a 7. He climbed high 10's out west, but it had also been a year since he placed gear.

So, we got on Limelight, a classic 7 that I believe I had never done. The first pitch is 5, so I did that. And holy crap, I felt so inadequate what with his talk and what I was facing. But I did not succumb to self induced pressure and took the time I needed, which is always the best way forward. Thing is, you can just as easily (ok, maybe not quite as easily) make a mistake on an easy climb and fall and get hurt. In fact, often it's more likely you get hurt since there are generally more ledges. The thing was, there was hardly any gear and it wandered. So, I had to search carefully. And it wasn't a gimme 5. Again, thinking.

So I belay up ex-b and he looks at me and says 'if that's a 5 I don't know if I'll be doing anything harder than a 7!' and so I felt a little better. Of course he said it was fine for me to take the time I needed, which is the best answer. So, I belayed him up the 7 pitch. As he's climbing, I look to the left and there's a wall of rain coming our way. I didn't say anything and just hoped it would wait to arrive. Thankfully just as he put me on belay it started to rain some. So, I started climbing in the rain. It stopped though and I followed a not at all easy 7. Part of the problem is that these climbs have been climbed so much they've started to get a little slick, which adds to the adventure. He did a great job.

And in the distance we saw the shower that had thankfully skirted around us. It was obviously pouring rain, in a very very localized area. So beautiful.

We decided to take a chance and go find a climb we could do one pitch on if we needed to. Ex-b started up and was halfway up the pitch when it really started to rain. It's hard to look up and belay when raindrops are falling in your eyes, and it's doubly hard to climb when the rock is wet. And we heard thunder. Someone had just rappelled down next to him and offered their rope, so he decided to bail, taking out the gear as he went down. And we left for the day at 5:30, which was fine because we were mentally a little tired (me, in part because I had gotten up at 4 am to start driving).

Turns out the campground, 10 miles away, had gotten 3 thunderstorms that afternoon (!) so we were indeed lucky. There was a river down the road and the field was a swamp, but we set up our tents. Unfortunately for ex-b one of the groups was up until 5 am, and thus so was he. I was so tired, I would wake up for a minute, then put the pillow back over my head, and go back to sleep. All the people in the field looked at each other the next morning, sleepy/bleary, and many people complained so Bill yelled and screamed at them during the day and it was quiet Sat night.

Huh, this took a lot longer to explain... guess my weekend will last three days here...