climbergirl blog

On Thursday night, we left Inyokern around 8pm. The drive up to the Needles wasn’t bad, we listened to music on my shuffle and Walter was wide awake giving me directions. We got to the pullout around 10pm and quickly got to sorting gear for the next day. With the packs all set for the next morning, I ate a snack, braided my hair, and got my outfit all set for the early morning wake-up at 4:40am.

I was super excited about the climb the next day, so I read a little to calm my nerves. It was on the warm side in the camper, so Walter elected to sleep outside on the ground (with a camp pad)-traditional California climber methodology! I was a little nervous about him being out there because we had seen a skunk hauling roadkill off for dinner about half a mile from where we were!

I heard the croaking of my cell phone at 4:40am, and decided to sleep in until 5:15. By that time, it was already light outside, and there was a light smattering of clouds across the sky. We hoped for the best weatherwise, and went about eating breakfast. I am not a huge fan of eating before 9am, but for climbing I will do just about anything! I downed 16 oz of OJ, and packed the rest of the mornings feast in my bag. We left Charlie (my pickup) at nearly 6am.

The hike up (well rehersed by now) went fine. We both noticed how muggy it was-like good ole Kentuck. We only made one wrong turn, but it only cost us 5 minutes or so. Minor inconvenience, but no drama. We got to the climb around 7am, and I had my morning feast. A hardboiled egg, a fruitstick, and some string cheese.

Walter started up the first pitch around 7:30am. Like a cannon he fired up the route! If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he was running on a full nights sleep-not a measly 5 hours!

I was happy to see him plugging away-but suddenly a very large bee approached me. It was an aggressive bee, I could feel the wings flapping as it flew around me. I tried not to move or provoke it, but I had to belay Walter! Nervewracking. About when I took the second picture above, the bee flew away, only to come back with a buddy! The two of them flew at my face and darted around my helmet. I was hoping the rest of the hive was not going to join them.

I have had a hive attack me before, in Alaska. Yellowjackets are quite aggressive, and after that experience, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. For days following the event, my entire face was swollen, I couldn’t see or breath through my nose from all the stings!

When Walter said, “Belay On”, I was stoked cause I could finally leave the bees. But, they followed me up the entire pitch! It’s like they wanted to see if Walter’s placements were okay or not! It took me close to 45 minutes to clean that friggin pitch as a result. The bees were lurking in a bad way.

I reached the first belay (picture above left) and the bees hung out for a little bit. I was scared of those bees, and I wanted to get a move on and get out of there. The bees hung around until I pulled the crux (center picture above), and then they took off. I guess they were wondering how to do the move!!! Anyways, the second pitch after the crux (5.8), goes at easy 5.6 and ends in an alcove before the chimney pitch.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get any shots of the chimney. We went up the chimney, as before Walter had done the face. The chimney had some fun moves, but it was mossy inside, so it was a challenge keeping the shoes dried. If it was earlier in the year, I definitely would rather take the face route-because the chimney is probably even wetter! Anyways, Walter did a great job protecting the chimney moves and the pitch went really quick.

It was my turn to lead, and it was the moment I had been waiting for. A beautiful finger crack, lieback with delicate little edges for feet. The stuff of legends, and rightfully the best pitch of the route!

We had taken a standard rack, plus a set and a half of Aliens, a few HBs, and a number 4 BD Camelot. On this pitch, I used 10 cams, and 2 nuts. Lots of pro for the first 150 feet, but not much for the last 50 feet as the route backs off, and then there is 20 foot of runout 5.6 liebacking.

Incidently, while I was doing the runout, I was about 4 feet from the anchor and my left foot slid out from under me. I thought I was a gonner and just about lost it-I was whimpering and screaming obsenities. Walter talked me through it and if it weren’t for him, I don’t know what would have happened. In any case, I got up to the belay ledge and set an anchor and then let the adrenaline rush run it’s course. WOOO-HOOOO!

Whatever mental strength I had got me through that 4th pitch would not have been sufficient to get me through what I feel is equally as cruxy…THE 5th PITCH!!! It is 200 feet of 5.7-5.8 slab climbing with only 3 usefull bolts.

There is a 4th bolt, added later to “help out”. But, it requires about 20 feet of diagonal traversing over tricky territory, and by the time you reach that bolt, the climbing eases off considerably. The follower could take a tremendous whipper, and we neither of us understand the logic of that bolt placement.

The way Walter went seems vastly superior. 10 feet left of the third bolt, to an area with a plethora of little undulations and pockmarked slab, then about 50 feet up to the ledge. There was a crux move about 5 feet before getting to the ledge, and that was a challenge for me, but he never voiced any concern-to my amazement.

The 4th pitch has a twin! The 6th pitch has an equally challenging finger crack, but not as long as it’s sister. It is a beauty of a crack, eats up those small cams, and after about 70 feet, it’s eases off.

There are two ways to go at the split. To the left is pretty easy 5.5 ish and to the right is probably 5.6 or 5.7 (?). I was so happy to be at the top, the climb was fantastic. By the time Walter met me up at the top, it had been about 5.5 hours on the route. Pretty decent time considering it was my first time up the route and Walter’s first time with some of those pitches!

It took us a bit of searching to locate the Rap Rings. They did such a great job of painting them, that neither of us saw them! Walter walked a half a ropelength out, looking for them and spotted them on the way back. The rings are about 20 feet from where I was belaying. Anyways, it took awhile for us to rap down (5 raps!). We got back to our packs around 3pm.

An ant colony had decided to set up shop in my backpack. I spent the next 30 minutes shaking those guys loose, de-racking, and eating an apple. We made it back to Charlie around 4pm, Walter downed some cold ones and I had a Reed’s Ginger Brew and some more OJ. We discussed possibilities for day 2.

It was still very muggy out, and the sweat was covering me. I needed a towl to dry off! I was pretty exausted and decided it would be best to just go home-Walter had buggered his knee on the descent, and I didn’t want to risk serious injury by going out the very next day. Not to mention I was really tired, and not sure my calves could handle another long slabby climb without a rest day. So, we decided to go to McNally’s for dinner and then head home.

If you are up in the Needles vacinity and get a chance, go to McNally’s. It’s a steak/burger place, but they have chicken & fish too. The food is served in a ridiculous amount. And, baked potatoe comes with all the fixins fresh on the side! Anyways, next time we go, we’ll split a dinner between the two of us.

The last 1.5 hours drive home went fine, I suffered through a pretty gnarly inner thigh cramp so Walter drove for a bit. Then I drove the final leg over Walkers Pass. Walter was out of it by that time, and when I dropped him off at his house around 9pm, he looked like he was ready to hit the hay any moment. I felt the same way!

What a great adventure, a whole body, mind, and soul climbing effort. Can’t wait to get back up to the Needles!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 30th, 2006 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Mountaineering, Rock Climbing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.