Yesterday was sooo beautiful! It was our last nice day before a horrendous tropical storm was to come destroy all our snow, flood all our towns and turn to ice and be slippery and cold for the rest of the week. Oh joy--lovin' winter. So, Rich and I headed for our little mini-cliff in Sedona. There was one other party there-unusual since we usually have it to ourselves. Champ made his first, slightly aided, free crossing of the river. Okay, Rich gave him a little tension, but the bugger did it!
Rich belayed me as I sprayed 7 bolts (THANKS TO FIXE HARDWARE!) in my new route. I top-roped it once and loved it. I did a move I couldn't do at the start last week, even tho a big hold fell off (it is Sedona after all). I tried to lead it, but a foothold broke while I had my finger in a lock at the crux and the finger tried to stay in the hold. Since I haven't been climbing as much this winter my hands are softer than normal and I got a big ole' bloody flapper. Blood spraying everywhere I aided thru the top crux and climbed to the anchors. I'm afraid a well placed tree limb could ruin one's day if they fell near the crux so I guess I should talk to the tree and ask it to grow in a different direction (towards the sun--dah!).
So we went over to a route Rich bolted last Tuesday and a huge loose block fell off it. Rich sent right away. It took me two tries. He called it "Crawdaddy". I thought that was a little weird until he explained that when a crawdad pinches your pinky with it's claws it feels just like that right hand hold at the crux. Oh.
Caught some great views of Sedona from up there. It was cloudy and the lighting was perfect. Got to climb in a sports bra and capri's rolled up to the knees. I even felt too hot a couple times.
When we got to the car we put on our long pants and down jackets--readying ourselves for Flagstaff and winter again...snow falling again. Guess I better just suck it up and buy a pair of skis!
