Jun 13, 2009

Mt. Charleston, Maximal Shredding

Objective: Performance

Routes Sent: Just Another Warm-up, 9, onsight (really fun, it has actual holds)
Unknown, 11a, redpoint (easy variation of a previous sent 11b, i onsighted the "11a" section)
Heating up the Hood, 11c, onsight (proud send, didn't feel too hard)

Total Points: 17

Routes Tried: Short Dog, 12a, 3 or 5 tries (I completely suck at redpointing)

Photo Evidence:
Phil not at Owl Tor

I'm weak.
I kneebar everything (even before the 2nd bolt).

Enjoying the 2 finger pockets

Elijah climbing strong between the widely-spaced holds

Notes: Since I have started my 2 week road trip, I'm in the pinball machine of life. I was car camping in the desert, right off the I-15, when a couple of buddies (Elijah and Phil) invited me to join them at the Wynn in Las Vegas!!! Screw dirt bagging, it is time for Gimlets.

Later that night, I woke up and misread the clock. I thought it read 7:30 a.m, in reality it was 1:30 a.m. After I woke up a sound asleep Elijah, he gently corrected my error. Strike 1 for shredding. After a world-class omelet at the Wynn, we decided on world class climbing at Mt. Charleston. While driving up to 8,000 ft, my car over-heated. Strike 2. When we got to crag, I got confused and started up the wrong warm-up. Strike 3. I was maximally shredding at this point.

I settled down and onsighted "Heating up the Hood." It felt easy except for a short section with really SLICK limestone feet. I moved over to my project, "Short Dog", which should have been quick and easy redpoint. It was not happening with my current level of shredding. At the lowest point, I forget the location of critical hand holds.

One of biggest lessons I have learned from this blog is "You get better at what you do." For the last 6 months, I have focused onsighting. I can climb very close to my personal limit while onsighting. However, that doesn't translate directly to redpointing. I have onsight plans for the rest of summer (including a Birthday Challenge). In the fall, I'm going to settle down and work on my redpoint skills.