Weekend Report 4/26-4/27 2014

John and Paul came up to the house on Friday night so we could get an early start Saturday morning. Which would have worked, except we had a lot to catch up on and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning doing so. Somehow we managed to leave my place shortly after nine, and pulled into the South Shore parking lot at the Lake just before ten. Justin was already there waiting for us, and Matthew, Brittany and Katie had already started walking down the railroad tracks toward Horse Rampart. John, Paul, Justin and I quickly followed suit.


By the time we arrived Matthew was already racking up to lead The Horse (5.4) and planned to setup a TR on it. The rest of us spent a few moments catching our breath (some of us more than others) before heading to the top to drop TRs on essentially every available route. I dropped a line on Plethora (5.10d/5.11a), John dropped Via Apia (5.7), Paul dropped a line that covered Lechery (5.8) and Debauchery (5.8), while Justin dropped another line for Roger's Roof (5.8) and Woger's Woof Wightside (5.11c).

My climbing for the day consisted of a TR of Roger's Roof, a pair of TR sessions on Plethora, a halfhearted TR attempt on Woger's Woof Wightside, a lead (retro-flash) of Via Apia, a lead of Roger's Roof, and an onsight lead of Mother Smucker's Jam (5.8). Roger's Roof was everything I remember it being, a relative breeze on TR, but heady on lead. I cannot recall if I have ever been on Via Apia before, but I must have been at some point. Plethora and Woger's Woof Wightside felt hard, and I only put a serious effort into the former. Plethora will go with a little more effort, but has a painful (at least for me) hold near the top that will limit the number of goes on any given day for a while - the bottom is a blast though. Mother Smucker's Jam gets a lot of hype in some circles, but I did not think it was that great. Most of its short stature was thin hands for me and sharp - still I was glad to manage the onsight. Roger's Roof still holds the title for having the best handjam at the lake (at least according to me). All-in-all it was a good day out at the Lake, and I think everyone had a good time.

Mother Smucker's Jam (5.8) - OSL 04/26/14 - Photo by John Knoernschild

And yes I am still working on a report from the Joshua Tree trip. It will hopefully be out later tonight or tomorrow morning, I am now trying to make it worth the wait!