WAGG Day 11 - Goes 31-34

05/02/15 (weight 179.2, AMRHR 56)

After last Friday's encouraging progress, I couldn't wait to get back up to Necedah for another go (or four) at Whiskey.

After three lead goes and a TR go at the end of the day, I wasn't able to match my effort from last Friday, but I was pretty happy with my ability to make the first few clips repeatedly on the lead goes. On lead the route will break down into the following three cruxes for me:

Crux 1:
Between bolts three and four lies the hardest single move of the route, and that is getting a hand (for me it's the right, but some folks go left) into the upper crack system while reaching from the soapdish (some folks reach up left hand from the garbage Gaston in the right crack, but that's too bunchy for me). This crux is well protected and not scary at all, just hard, and if the climbing below hasn't been executed flawlessly (at least for me, for now) this move is all but impossible.

Crux 2:
The climbing between bolts four and five is out of line with the bolts, and at its most awkward when my feet are a foot above bolt four and my body is in a jacked, almost horizontal, position. Taking the fall in control results in a pretty gnarly swing, that feels like it would be really ugly with my feet jacked way up high above the rope. Getting over this will be best accomplished by taking the whip a few times, and getting the move dialed.

Crux 3:
From the fifth bolt to the top the climbing is straightforward, but sustained and pumpy. Getting through this last crux section will be a matter of doing it, and everything below it, just right so that I have enough gas left in the tank to link these moves. Endurance training will help significantly here.

I guess I learned a lot on Saturday, up until then I had vague notions of how the route would break down, and what I needed to do to get it done - now I feel more prepared. Whiskey is still a ways off, but it feels closer every time I get on it these days.