Yuko has a week off (8/31-->9/8)...time for some climbing!
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First we headed to Smith Rock.
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Here's Mt. Hood on the way down.
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High on the "to-do list": work the moves on Chain Reaction (5.12c)!
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After Chain Reaction, the left hand looks OK...
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But maybe I was a little too aggressive on pinching the arete with the right hand...
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Not to mention the toe I split open during the approach. Oh well, what's one more injury?<BR>
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Speaking of which: later that day we jumped on Ring of Fire (5.11d). The crux has some sharp crimpers.
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After I got through the crux and hit a nice hand-jam rest, my finger was bleeding too much
to continue so I had to lower off and turn things over to Yuko.<BR>
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Then she fell at the start, and her belay device (hanging from the back of her harness)
was shoved into my knee! Maybe I should have been a bit more attentive while belaying.<BR>
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The next day we worked on the first pitch of Heinous Cling, which is a SWEET 5.12a face climb.
(the second and final pitch is a run-out 5.12c, with 40 foot fall potential on sustained 5.11 moves
going to the anchors--so pitch #1 was more than enough for us!)
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Getting to the anchors turned into an embarrassing fiasco of stick-clipping, and I couldn't even link
the moves at the crux. Yuko, however, TR'ed the whole thing with only 2 falls--climbing every move.
Pretty cool!<BR>
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At the end of the week we met up with Jeff & Merrick for some sport climbing at Little Si. Yuko flashed
Aborigine, a 5.11b, and also 'almost' onsighted Rainy Day Women, a 5.11d. Here she's peeking out over a
big rest ledge, after onsighting the 11c lower section of RDW.
(think there's enough bolts before the ledge? I bet you could clip all three from the same stance!!)<BR>
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We also saw a pretty awesome rainbow. It was far awesomer than can be seen in the photo. Oh well, guess
you just had to be there.<BR>
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