Vantage Climbing with Theron and Carlos

Published on 2005-4-17 by Michael Stanton

Vantage Climbing, April 17, 2005

Theron, Carlos and I drove to Vantage for a great day of climbing in the sun. First, Theron led "Twin Cracks" (5.8) (aka "Party in your Pants"), with Carlos and I following 20 feet apart on the double ropes. Carlos did great on his first crack climb. It was also Theron's first 5.8 crack lead. Next I led "George and Martha" (5.10a), a deservedly popular hand crack that starts out very steep and then gets wide at the top. I had to stop and rest on my second piece of gear, being somewhat timid and needing a rest. That is definitely a favorite climb! Theron and Carlos followed, with Carlos complaining somewhat about weariness but amazingly dogging his way up.

Now it was time for "Tangled up in Blue" (5.9), a climb that I really enjoy but for some reason find harder than the nearby 5.10a cracks. I made the opening moves and got tired after placing my second piece (a theme for the day I guess), so lowered down and then climbed back up to finish. Someone placed bolts before the final exciting moves of this climb. I just went past them for the traditional top-out. (There is a thread on cc.com about it here) When Carlos followed he said "You are trying to kill me" and "I am dying, Michael." He also thought this was the hardest climb of the set.

We rappelled back to the ground and wondered what to do next as the crowds had arrived. Finally we talked our way onto a top rope of "Air Guitar" (5.10a), where I climbed up, finding the final moves harder than I remembered. I threaded our own rope through so Carlos and Theron could top rope it. Carlos, now an old hand at crack climbing had no trouble, and Theron christened it his favorite crack climb.

Now I led "Crossing the Threshold" (5.8) a great old favorite. I think of it as a little harder than "Twin Cracks", a good next climb to do in a progression. Theron found it easy and plans to lead it next time, and Carlos liked it a lot too.

We moved over to "Seven Virgins and Mule" (5.7), a great chimney climb that Theron led, taking pride in placing only 4 pieces of gear. We had a laugh when he boasted of his nut placing prowess only to hear that one of them pulled out. But then again he was able to clean a nut that I got stuck at a belay and couldn't retrieve. So he keeps the award "Crafty with Nuts and Natural Pro." :-). This climb was really fun, we laughed a lot, although by now the clouds were in and the wind had picked up. Theron shivered at his belay stance.

Back at the rap station, I wanted to top-rope "Steel Grill" (5.9). I rappelled on one strand of one of our 9 mm ropes which was fixed, then Theron belayed me back to the rim on that rope. He was creeped out at the thought of rappelling on a single strand of 9 mm rope, and got me kind of scared too, until I remembered I'd done it many times. It is true, you have to be creative about adding some friction to the system. In my case, I held the rope in my left hand, wrapping it around my buttocks in a lewd fashion.

But all joking aside, I really enjoyed "Steel Grill." The avatar "CatBirdSeat" described this climb on cc.com as having "like, 8 cruxes" and I had to agree. Or maybe 3 cruxes, but 8 different types of climbing or moves. It starts with a great thin hand crack, on which you have to lean to the left to climb successfully. Then there is some straightforward hand-jamming and use of nice incut handholds. Higher, bulges start to occur, usually with a bomber hand-jam on top of each bulge. Eventually, a crux bulge appears where the crack is too wide to jam, and you must make do with a crimper hold for the right hand, and a chalk (or guano) covered hold for the left, while one foot presses on a vertical wall and the other floats for balance. Reaching that nice hand jam above the bulge was a great feeling as it was hard-won. Next you are climbing an off-width where at one point I got a decent rest by flexing my massive bicep (or "gun" as I like to say) to hold me in. There is still more, now you have to make a series of finger locks on a vertical wall and just paste your feet on bumps. This was hard! But there is still no resting, just an insecure jam for the left hand while the right hand tries to grope for the back edge of a column, sometimes successfully. At the top you'll emerge satisfied at being so creatively worked over!

Anyway, and that was just a top rope. You can bet I'll wax on for pages more when I lead it, I just need to get a 4-inch cam somehow.

But my friends had sacrificed for me, they were ashen-faced on the windy mesa top. We quickly rapped and then Theron led "Chossmaster" (5.7), a fun climb and our only bolted climb of the day. We wore our packs so we could just walk back to the car without having to descend again. The sun was painting the cliffs across the valley, and we enjoyed this last climb very much.

Thanks for a great day Carlos and Theron!