October 11th - 12th
I wish I could say we climbed thousands of glorious feet, but the climbing we did do was better than the alternative, i.e., another weekend in the tropics!
My friend Peter and I leave Tampa at 6pm, and enjoy a delicious meal at McDonald's somewhere in North Florida. We arrive in Chattanooga at 3am the next morning and crash for a couple of hours before heading up to the rock. We were even able to find the Landing Zone camping area without making any wrong turns, in the dark, after 10 hours of driving. Amazing. Peter claims that the fog made us slow down enough to read the street signs, although how he knew this I don't know, as he was navigating by staring out of the side window at the edge of the road.
Friday morning we sleep in until 9am, then do time-honored McDonald's breakfast and head for Sunset South. The entire cliff is empty, and the parking lot is devoid of cars. This pleases me. We spend a lot of time trying to identify routes from the guidebook (the pictures are worthless) before finding Anteater 5.6 ***. It's an offwidth in a dihedral but the book doesn't mention w--i--d--e pro so I figure there must be other pieces. Wrong. After 20 feet of whimpering, and with no relief in sight for another 10 feet, I bail. Defeat by 5.6: an inauspicious beginning to the weekend. Peter has a look and confirms my opinion. Not recommended, although the top might be nice.
We walk further down the cliff and find Jugmania 5.7 *. This route follows dinner plates up a steep, rounded arete. I find genuine pro on this route and am much happier. The protection is still funky. There's horizontals, pockets, some discontinuous vertical cracks, and threads. Nothing really obvious, but protectable features just sort of appear when you need them. Anyway, the crux is pumpy with a overhanging move past a fist-sized horizontal. Very cool. The rest of the climb is a jug-haul, as promised. My cousins Perry and Susan and friend Jesse from West Palm Beach show up and most everybody takes a ride. We top rope the rap route, which turns out to be Afternoon Walk 5.11a **. The bottom is fun face climbing, maybe 5.8. Everyone bails before the crux. Peter has a look at the route next door (Afternoon Delight 5.7 **) and gets spooked by the protection. One of those "If I protect it, I can't climb it" things. I feel his pain.
We head further down the cliff in search of Blond Ambition 5.7 ***. Hmmm, this must be it. I rack up and take off. The climbing is nice, but seems contrived since I can move left to avoid a hard move. A move back right and I continue up. 40 feet up, the route steepens, and an awkward hand and finger crack appears. Damn, this is hard! Ethical infractions follow. Then someone below calls up "Uh, Mike, I think that's Second Sun (5.9 ***)." Well, that explains things. I traverse 10 feet right and finish on the last 20 feet of Blonde Ambition. We're losing daylight now. Peter cleans most of my pro off Second Sun and lowers after completely blowing all the fuses in his brain. He even says he remembered to breath... didn't do any good. I lower on top rope to get a piece off of Blonde Ambition and then rap. We bolt for the car and arrive at the gate 20 minutes after the 7:30 closing time. Dinner is at Cancun, a surprisingly good Mexican restaurant near downtown.
Back at camp, most of the group has already arrived and set up. We say hello to old friends (Marney from Sarasota, Leslie and Barry from Bradenton) and greet the new ones (Louis from Gainesville, Danielle and Shane from Sarasota, and Cheryl and Christie from Ocala) before turning in.
Saturday, we get a late start from camp and do the gourmet McDonald's thing again. My plan for today is to actually climb Blonde Ambition. There are other routes in the nearby area to keep everyone busy. Blonde Ambition turns out to be very nice. Steep with committing moves between good holds, and decent pro. The Force must have been with me yesterday; I'm amazed that I had led the top of this route unprotected.
Meantime, Louis is down the cliff finishing Airbrush 5.6 *. This climb starts up a narrowing groove. Lots of slimy green moss here. But it improves: a fun lieback move leads to a hand crack. A whole bunch of time gets sucked up setting up top ropes on Blonde Ambition and Airbrush, and combined with the late start, it's now late afternoon. I feel bad about setting up ropes on these climbs but there are lots of other large groups in the area doing the same thing so at least I'm not the lone offender. The rule in the south seems to be "If you can top rope it, do it!" At least here you have to point someone up the rock first as there don't seem to be any paths.
Louis takes a try at Jugular Vein 5.7 * on the same face as Blonde Ambition. Shane finishes after Louis chooses discretion over valor. Everyone is yo-yoing up and down Airbrush which has a funky little lieback crux with "Thank God" jams as you finish it. Good position, too. There's a fair bit of yo-yoing on Blonde Ambition, and Peter cleans again. His opinion involves a fair number of expletives but ends up with "Good lead, good route." By the time we get everything torn down it's late, and we make another beeline for the gate. Dinner again at Cancun. We stop at the surreal Bi-Lo on the way back to camp and spend 9 hours in line waiting to pay for $3 in groceries. (Okay, it was more like 15 minutes, but the time/benefit ratio was ridiculously high.)
Sunday: late start and breakfast again at McDonald's. The West Palm Beach and Ocala contingents depart in the morning. Drivers drop off climbers on top then drive down the hill and park in the Access Fund lot. The hike up to the rock is not too steep, but long, and general consensus deems it a pain in the ass. While we're walking Peter leads One-Ten 5.6 ** on the north side of the cliff. Another fun climb with steep cruxes. Shane does Jungle Gym 5.8 *, a steep, awkward jam crack in a dihedral.
Sam, Fran and Sarah show up after attending a family reunion in Alabama. Sam jumps on The Grand Cave, gets to a piece, then jumps back off. Louis, Fran, Marney et al. bop up One-Ten. Then it's a high speed slog through the trees to the cars taking only 3 minutes less than the approach. Mildly irritating! Peter manages to annoy Sarah, who returns the favor at dinner that night at, you guessed it, McDonald's. Early Monday morning we're back in the tropics.
Consensus: A pretty good crag, but the rock takes a bit of getting used to.
* * *
Wayne Busch
Gainesville, Florida
E-Mail: Wayneb4737@aol.com
URL:
http://members.aol.com/rummy4737/guesrep1.htm
Michael Soo's Report from Sunset
Updated -- October 18th, 1997
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