Index Climbing with Nathan

Published on 2005-7-31 by Michael Stanton

Index climbing, July 31, 2005

Nathan Wilfert and I got up early for a climb of Davis-Holland. We carried full packs with aid gear up to the wall, because we might try and get a few pitches of City Park in. Despite the cool air of early morning we were soaked in sweat on arrival at the upper wall. No matter! Nathan belayed me for the 5.9 crack pitch that Theron and I had aided a few weeks before. It was a nice pitch, some liebacking and jamming. Nathan came up, disparaging his crack climbing skills and vowing to come to Index more! The next pitch was 5.10a, and went up a clean corner that demanded a particular medium-small cam size over and over again. I got pumped out on at least one occasion fumbling for gear that usually was slightly wrong for the crack. At one point I executed a pumpy lieback for 15 feet then nearly wore myself out for good hanging from a hand jam and trying to plug in some gear. At a ledge 5 feet above I got my first real rest in a long time! The pitch stayed interesting all the way to the hanging belay station. Whew!

Nathan came up finding it similarly taxing. We pretty much decided to do one more pitch then rappel rather than continue up "Lovin' Arms" which has even harder pitches. Still, the start of pitch 3 above us looked really intimidating. Basically, you have to undercling a massive roof right above the belay (somehow getting some pro in) and then turn the roof with a lieback for a decent stance above. I did this with some trepedation. Then to avoid hellish rope drag later Nathan lowered me to below the roof so I could clean the cam I'd shoved up inside (it was pretty dirty and chossy in there, though a #3 Camelot seemed to hold well enough). I reclimbed, then traversed a wall left to gain a corner. Easier climbing led me up to a cavelet that I was reluctant to abandon! I placed a good nut and a "decent" cam in the roof of the cave then liebacked and stemmed my way up to an intimidating face. At first, I didn't see any gear placement on the face and carefully downclimbed back to the cave. "Maybe you want to lead this face Nathan with your hard sport climbing capabilities!" I enjoined. But he encouraged me to try once more. I remembered that chucK had said a #5 HB Offset was the ticket to protect this section, and happily I had one! So I racked it close and tried again. Sure enough in a tiny flare I fit the little brass nut securely. "Whew a bomber piece!" I said. Here I lost my chance for a free ascent because as I passed the nut I couldn't resist...pulling on it. 5.10c Index faces apparently scare me a little bit! Another move or two and I was above the face and placing a nut in a small pocket that appeared excavated by eager fingers. I continued on rapidly easing terrain to the belay station which has a fantastic position high above the town.

Nathan followed the pitch great, falling once on the face before getting it free. Holy cow, what a great set of pitches this was! we looked above to the 5.10b first pitch of "Lovin Arms", and it looked tough but do-able. We'll come back for it later, that will be an amazing future day!

Two rappels on the awesomely steep Sport Wall got us down to the ground. We decided to pack up and keep free climbing on the Lower Town Wall as I still felt pretty good to lead some 5.9 or so pitches. Nathan led the first pitch of GM (5.8), and I led pitch 2 (5.9), placing the three largest cams we had (A #3 Camelot, a slightly smaller purple Metolius 4 cam, and a #2 Camelot shoved in somewhat blindly). At the belay station, the late morning sun was baking us. I headed off for pitch 3 of GM, a 5.9 wide-crack/offwidth pitch I'd never climbed before. It was awkward and draining, especially in the broiling sun. When I reached the ledge that marks the top of "Heart of the Country Pitch Two" I placed the #3 Camelot and keep motoring up the wide crack. But the crack widened and continued a good ways above me without the possibility of protection because I had no gear large enough. I tried to fiddle the 4 Cam in (too small), and realized I'd hit the ledge if I fell. So I downclimbed to the ledge, burning a lot of strength in 10 feet or so. It was likely easier to power on, but once a decision is made you have to stick with it. I brought Nathan up from the ledge belay. "This pitch sucks!" was his verdict, probably influenced by the heat of the day! I then top-roped Heart of the Country Pitch 2 (5.10b), a fantastic hand crack with a few moves of fist jamming that I'd completely forgotten about. I climbed it quickly but felt tired and glad I wasn't leading it today. We got to the ground as quickly as possible and repaired to the Index General Store for water and root beer. Whew!

I'd never had such a long time to spend at Index. we had two more hours, so I thought to show Nathan something about aid climbing. Soon he was belaying me on an aid lead of "Iron Horse" (C2), where I was annoyed to be in the baking sun (while my belayer happily got to stay in the shade!). I had my hook ready for the "hook move" required at a bulge. But Nathan had a very small TCU which fit in a flare I'd never used before. Viola, no hook move required and the route is downgraded to C1! By the time I approached the belay I was so hot that I was eager to finish the pitch and get back to the shady ground. It must have taken an hour, I cursed myself for being slow.

On the ground Nathan set up Jumars to clean the route, but the awkwardness of the new experience combined with our need to be in town by 4 pm convinced him that he should practice elsewhere first. Due to various shinanigans and complications it was hard to get him the 10 feet needed back to the ground. So I jumared up somewhat annoyed because I couldn't clean a nut that I'd placed. Drat! The belay station seemed really complicated, but finally I had all the slings and aiders attached to myself and rappelled to the ground so we could zoom away home.

Definitely the hardest and hottest Index day I've experienced yet! Thanks Nathan for the fun trip!