Far Out Son of Lung...

Seismic

“Oh my gosh, he looks like Bruce Springsteen.”

Sure enough, our loud-mouthed, ego-driven entertainment had donned a white button down shirt to compliment his red bandana just before tying in for his next climb. Ever moved was joined by a chorus of instructions for his belayer, standing some distance below and answering only with what must have been extremely curtailed enthusiasm.

We weren’t very interested in watching Bruce climb, but his attire was certainly worth a brief glimpse when you needed a good laugh. This and we didn’t feel like watching him deck, due either to his own gross overabundance of confidence or the supreme negligence of his belayer.

Standing at the bottom of Seismic Wall for the first time I look up at a series of routes on the far right face. I am terrible at reading real rock, but I can tell that all of the routes look like they’ll be a lot of fun. Slabby with big jugs, a few ledges and plenty of options for footwork will make these an excellent means of getting back into the swing of outdoor climbing. The last few months of indoor training have been paying off and despite what the purist might say, the benefits of gym climbing are numerous when you live in a city that affords a climber with no natural cliffs.

Rock Gal leads the first few routes and sets up top rope anchors so that I can ascend and clean the routes. My confidence soars and before long I’m contemplating my first outdoor lead. Then Bruce arrives, complete with requests for pictures and a phone call to “Mark and tell him to bring his video camera!”

We break for lunch.

Upon returning from Thundercloud for a tasty, air conditioned lunch we approach the wall with a desire to enjoy the afternoon and explore some new climbs. It doesn’t take long for me to warm back up and attempt a new climb on lead. We clip the first bolt from the ground and I carefully make my ascent. I have planned a few moves but by and large this is going to be nothing more than a learning experience about what can work. The ascent goes well, if a little slick, until I make my way off the first ledge. I know what I want to grab, but I’m having a lot of trouble getting there. Standing on a pair of slippery nubbins I reach for, and actually grab, my intended target. Upon so doing I realize that I had not planned much to happen after this and found myself slipping off, tumbling downward as my feet hit but rope slack sends we reeling backward. My belayer, Rock Gal had done nothing wrong in anticipating my sticking the move and paying out slack, I simply slipped and the angle at which I fell was awkward enough to make things look quite silly. It was my first lead fall, but to me it was more of a lead stumble twirl and fall on your ass.

After getting up, laughing and thinking about what had happened, I set to work at making myself stick. My second try rang true and the little horn I’d been reaching for was suddenly much easier to reach. Not only that, but the desperate grasp for the adjoining sloper shelf probably looked quite intentional from the ground.
My first complete lead came on Sunday, my final climb before leaving Seismic in peace for the weekend. Over Easy was a 5.9 that started slabby and finished with a little roof and some hard to reach anchors. The movement felt natural and I was able to confidently ascend the rock face without any hiccups. The roof section provides a good bit of fun as it becomes necessary to try a little drop knee or cross over for a nicely shaped horn above and to the left of a rather large gob of limestone.

posted by GreSam @ 20:43