Castle Rock State Park—Waterfall Cliff
Thanks to Elinor for this picture (and the last four pictures on the blog).
Climb Review
I climbed here less than a month ago.
The Falls (5.10c; Waterfall Cliff)—I tried the difficult start again and kept falling short about a dozen times, until everything just clicked and I got past the crux! For me, the sequence was two hands on the side pull, high left foot (as high as possible with grip), then a press down with my right hand to push my body to the right, then a high left foot, then shift the weight to the left foot, then stand and reach for the jug with hands. The rest of the climb felt a bit easier, since I had done it a few weeks ago, though it was still fun to do again. I’m pretty stoked as Mountain Project puts this at a 5.10c, but Bay Area Rock guide book calls it a 5.11!
What I Learned
I didn’t belay from top all the way, but I did go through all the motions as Elinor was trying to start the route (Layback Corner) before taking a break. I feel very confident about belaying from top and can’t wait to do it for reals next time.
I self-lowered using a Gri-Gri on Layback Corner (after setting the anchor) and it was good. Feeding the line didn’t feel as smooth as it was my first time, but I’m sure I’ll get better over time.
There were multiple times the rope was tangled—Elinor and I both learned the importance of flaking the rope and managing it better to save time, which could be very important on a multi-pitch route.
For some reason, unlike last time, there were no mosquitos. Maybe it was because it was a little windy? Or the sunrise is earlier, so they had left by the time we got there? Either way, it was great!
Friends
I climbed with Elinor on this day and she was a great climbing partner. It was her idea to go to the waterfall cliff and it worked out so well. I got to send The Falls (a route I had dreamt of sending after failing to send the more difficult start a month ago) then learned belaying-from-top from the best belay station for it (Layback Corner). I was super stoked for her, as she also climbed The Falls (which was her longest climb to date) and Layback Corner (which was her first layback climb ever).
What Happened?
Elinor is one of the few people I found that is as stoked about climbing multi-pitches as I am. And given that we’re both green and need lots of practice, we decided to meet up on our day off and climb together. We got to Castle Rock State Park and decided to use the day off to our advantage by heading to the Waterfall Cliff since the parking lot was so devoid of cars (and climbers).
We got to the observation point and setup the same anchor I had setup a few weeks ago. From there, we both rappelled, then started climbing. Elinor looked at the more difficult start, but soon found herself at the 5.8 start—she knew that she would burn herself out with attempting the more difficult start and she needed to save her energy for a possibly long day of climbing. She had some troubles along the way with the 5.8 start, but nothing that held her up for too long (she did take off her jacket half way up the wall, which I had never seen before). Soon enough, she was at the anchor enjoying the view. After she came down, I tied in and started trying out the difficult start.
I first tried to dyno the thing, but found it to feel really weird. Because I’m mostly jumping off of my right foot that is almost vertical, I found my self lacking vertical leaping power and so, kept coming up short. After about a dozen tries, I finally got past the crux and kinda cruised to the top once I got readjusted to the smeary, thin-hold experience of sandstone at Castle Rock (so not very cruisy, but start-and-stoppy). After I got to the top and started cleaning the anchor, I finally felt this elation at having sent this route and gave myself a few moments to just enjoy myself.
Afterwards, I headed over to Layback Corner (which I mistook for Charlie Solo) and setup the anchor. I feel like I took forever in setting up for a belay-from-top, as I got tripped up with extra carabiners that I didn’t need (thinking that I was being extra safe). To ensure safety, I watched the video that I had saved from youtube and made sure that the setup was as solid as could be.
Elinor and I then tested the gri-gri a few times before she attempted Layback Corner. She had some trouble with the start, so I self-lowered myself and tried to give her beta from when I had sent this last year. Before I could give her the beta, however, she noticed that we were wearing the same REI sun hoodie of… the same color! We then found out that we both owned three of these hoodies, with two of them the same color. We are such REI dorks.
Ok, back to the climb. It turns out that she had never learned how to do a layback, so it was really cool showing her which holds I would trust and how to place the feet. Soon, she was on her way to the top (she did take a little tumble half way up, but shook it off). I was going to send it next, but realized that it was time to go. She rappelled down, we cleaned up, and we hiked back up to the car.
It was an excellent day at the crags with me sending my project and learning many new skills! I think Elinor had a great time too, with sending her personal bests in multiple climbing categories. Pretty awesome for a day where I thought I’d be too tired to climb anything! And when we had our late lunch (to-go food from Whole Foods), we were wearing our matching shirt, which I didn’t even realize until we were checking out. Fantastic day full of fun surprises for sure.
