Getting Well Underway

Yesterday's sun came with it a window of opportunity to get into soon-to-be-closed areas of Cochrane lane. I joined an entourage from the club for the day. It's excellent to see so many new climbers getting to Welsford, and making their mark. 

Props go to Magda, who is welcome to climb with me anytime. Finding a second is not always easy who will dig away at stuck gear for 10 minutes, while climbing in sneakers due to forgotten rock shoes, all while strapped with a bolt gun, hammer, and kit. Once reaching the anchor she has happy to chalk it up to 'good training'. Excellent! As it was, we installed a rap station on top of Ejaculator (one of the nicer moderate cracks), to replace the small and rapidly declining tree. It's now bomber. Right afterwards Pete B. jumped on it and found it to be a great pitch for someone just starting to place gear. 

Aaron D jumped on RockStar and I think found it to be an engaging pitch. It's full-value, and will test all of the techniques you have. Magda dispatched it in sneakers of course. 

Liam P. and me both intend to lead Waterfall Layback in the near future, so we went check it out. Finding the bottom running wet we felt justified in top-roping it for the day. I find it goes clean fairly easily if you've got your wits about you but leading it will probably be a shit-show. I gave the upper half a scrub as I went and removed a decent coat of lichen. When the bottom dries... I figure it'll be good to go.  

That is until Aaron strolls around the corner and decides it's good right now... soaking wet and all. By the time I scramble to the top to get into position for a clear shot at the crux he's already getting into the business. Fast work! He cruises it with excellent form as a corner crack, finding jams for most of the way through the layback section, and teaching me a lesson in the process. Well done! 

A sequence through the crux: 

Magda and I climbed a few other classics to finish the day, chasing the sun and warm rock as long as we could. I ended up missing my BBQ at my father-in-law's house. Guess I was caught up in it.

Hope my reader's seasons are well underway. Cheers.