Rocking Out

The face pretty much sums it up.

I went climbing outside with my friend, Read. We picked a face we liked which appeared to have little ice, and I watched mesmerized as he pulled nuts, cams, and quickdraws of every color from his pack.

Then the guy who's famous for saying "it's not an adventure till something goes wrong" realized he forgot his harness so I offered mine. He looked at my pink Petzl and said he didn't think his "thunder thighs" would fit through the leg loops...however, they did so need I say more about mine?

He ended up rigging this belaying system for me were he tied a rope around a tree and hooked a carabener and belay device on it and tied it around my waist. As it turned out, there was lots of ice and his hands were getting cold and cut up, go figure, so at about 25 feet I let him off the hook. So no rock climbing for me, day 1.

Retrieving his nut required that he hike up the back side to the top of the cliff and repel down. He set up an anchor which failed SRENE (Solid, Redundant, Equalized, No Extension) which we learned from guide Keith, but we were working with what we had.

Picture my trepidation as my friend repelled himself over the edge of the cliff as SRENE played over and over again in my head. "Are you there yet?!" I called about every 5 seconds. When he finally responded, "Off belay," my heart rate slowed and I got my frozen fingers into motion breaking down the anchor.

We ended up going to the rock gym for some bouldering, which turned out to be a bit more successful, aside from my hands getting rubbed raw.

Day 2, we headed to Providence for some bouldering. We were only good for a few routes, because fingers were sore from the night before. It was still good practice.