Since I've become officially tired of this MN winter business after knowing the fun of the west, I decided to head there last weekend. I spent three days hanging out and climbing with friends Edward Doerr and David Konerza, whom some of you know. It's been a while since I've gotten to climb outside three days in a row. Makes me smile, for sure. The first day we headed up Mt. Diablo for some of it's somewhat crumbly but good enough sandstone. Lead an easy two pitch 5.8 (or 5.9 depending on guide book, either way not hard) sport route called the Cave Route, apparently a Bay Area classic. Good times. You lead the first pitch up a face of flakey sandstone with a mixture of scary old homemade bold hangers (which did appear mostly safe, but weird), and newer bolts added by people who followed after the sixties :) . The pitch then ends in a cave, where a second pitch takes you up through a hole in the ceiling, which turns out to be the ground above and behind the main rock wall, so you pop out looking like you came out of some deep underground location. Odd, and fun. But one thing did make the second pitch the most disgusting climbing I've ever experienced. Like many caves, this one was absolutely full of bird crap. We had to do the second pitch, or leave gear as a rappel anchor to return down the first, so I mustered up the gusto to climb through the most animal feces I've ever rolled around in. Gross. Wonderful climb except for that stuff. It's actually still rated four stars, which is very high in fun factor, so that tells you the climbing is worth the poo-fest.
Second day climbing was done at Indian Joe Caves, at twilight so not much got done, but it was a good time nonetheless. Top roped an easy warm up, then did an unmarked climb on top rope that was possibly a highball boulder problem. Good face climbing on basalt; didn't get to stay long enough because the park closed at sundown (just made it out past frowny rangers; sorry boys, the bar will still be there a half hour later.)
Day three brought us into San Francisco, and the most urban climbing experience I've had to date. We went by GPS to a chirt wall called the Beaver Street Wall, cuz, well, it's on Beaver Street and it is a wall. It's in the middle of a very dense SF neighborhood, near the Haight Ashbury area. It was home to an excellent stiff 5.9 crack route, with lots of glassy
friction moves to make for confusing moves. Climb of the weekend. Only thing we really felt pumped on, which means we need to go harder next time. (Next time might be Saturday if I get antsy and go out again.) Enjoy the pix...
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