Lyme Disease Rock
Climb Review
The rock feel is basically identical to the other rocks in this area—it’s sandstone and it’s fantastic (once you get used to it).
It requires a .3 mile hike from the free parking lot outside of Indian Rock. The trail is beautiful; Lyme Disease Rock is easy to spot.
Surprisingly, there was no trash and the place was clean.
Vixen (5.8; Lyme Disease Rock)—This is a one move wonder and I’m not even sure it’s a 5.8 (maybe easier for me because of my height). I flashed it, then sent it two more times doing different variations (i.e., center, right, left). It’s a good warm up route to get the muscles loose.
Pigs’ Feat (5.10a; Lyme Disease Rock)—I really enjoyed this route as a TR route. I’m not sure if I would have enjoyed it as a lead, as it was scary in parts. After I sent it, I climbed it again, and felt much better about everything, so maybe I can lead this one in the future. Some other climbers said that if one avoids the left side of the rock at the beginning, it’s a 5.11+ climb—maybe I should try to project that in the future as it’s something that’s outside of my reach at the moment.
Ticks Ripped My Flesh (5.10b; Lyme Disease Rock)—I was very tired at the end of this climb, but when June climbed this route, I just had to try it as it looked so fun and challenging. I gave it my best go, but I just couldn’t get past the second bolt (but then after I gave up, I saw another guy send it by using the arete more than I thought you could). Still, the route is a banger and I hope to come back and send it next time.
What I Learned
The ridge one needs to navigate to get to the anchors.
I found out my arm limit today. On Ticks Ripped My Flesh, as I pulled really hard and my arms were screaming at me that they were going to give up. Like an imaginary, 3... 2... 1...., and I found myself surprised that I was still holding on—I didn’t fall off. So I made another move, and found that hold to be shitty, then I literally ran out of energy on the arms and fell off the route. Still, I don’t think I’ve ever had that feeling of going past my limit. That was pretty cool.
I had my first experience pulling on a sloper successfully. I’ve been climbing a route with this tricky sloper at the gym for the past two weeks, and maybe that’s helped me trust slopers more? For whatever reason, because I couldn’t find a better hold, on Ticks Ripped My Flesh, I got my right hand on this sloper, trusted it and pulled on it to move myself up, and it actually stuck and worked!
I set up my static line on Cosgrove Face, which is a 5.11+ route between Vixen and Pigs’ Feat. This allowed me to jug up and take pictures for both routes. I also got way better at jugging as I really felt much smoother on it than before. It’s still very tiring, so I think I have to keep doing it to build up stamina.
While setting up my static, I decided on using a bunny ears knot (figure 8 with a bite) and was surprised that I remembered how to tie it perfectly, even though I hadn’t tied it in more than a year. Felt pretty smart.
On Pigs’ Feat, the arete part of the climb made me so nervous due to the exposure. I don’t think I’ve climbed many exposed aretes like this outdoors and is something I need to expose myself to more to get over my fear of heights. I mean, I still climbed up, but I definitely kept running out of chalk on my hands.
On Ticks Ripped My Flesh, I set knee bar. I might have set one outdoors before, but it’s just such a cool move to pull off. It helped me rest my arms, so it wasn’t even just for show!
When setting the anchors up time, I definitely felt super nervous due to how narrow the ridge was that I had to traverse to the anchors (especially the anchor for Pigs’ Feat). I did get myself on static, so that at least I wouldn’t take a really, really bad fall. I don’t think I was ever comfortable, but I did do much better after a few minutes of exposing myself to those fears.
I brought cold leftover pizza as a snack and it worked out awesome. I was so hungry that the cold pizza tasted as good as when it was hot!
When I went up to set the anchor for Pigs’ Feat, I walked across the sketchy ridge to get to the static, where I tied in with my gri-gri and walked over to the anchor, to realize that I had forgotten to bring the anchor (I did bring the rope at least). I had to traverse back that shitty/sketchy ridge to get the anchor which Elinor had to bring up. I really need to mentally walk through my exact steps, so that I don’t forget next time. I mean, I had my sling, so I could have set it up that way, but a quad is pretty unbeatable for dependability.
I went climbing two days after donating platelets in back-to-back weeks, and my arms felt uncharacteristically weak. Maybe it was something else (I did climb the night before when my arms didn’t feel very strong), but it’s something I’m going to keep an eye on. I mean, I did read somewhere that it takes up to 72 hrs for a donator to feel “normal” strength after donating blood, but I hadn’t felt this before. But I also have never climbed a day (and a day after) donating platelets two weeks in a row.
Friends
I climbed with Elinor and June. It was my first time meeting June and she turned out to be a motherly character with a penchant for throwing out unexpected swears in the middle of climbing—she called everyone “kiddos” (even though she was the youngest one there) and when encountering a difficult section of the climb, she would swear at the rock. It was a hoot. On a more serious note, I really enjoyed how much pride she took in belaying well and making sure to follow safety procedures. It actually made me pay more attention to safety and I really appreciated that. She was also just fun to climb with.
Elinor was awesome to climb with as usual. Her fearlessness (her leading and attempting to lead routes) didn’t rub off on me (as I stuck to top rope), but her just go for it attitude definitely did. On a day where I felt fatigued, it was the right energy level I needed to be around to have a good crag day—and I had a good crag day. Oh and today was Elinor’s first time seeing the awesomeness that is mussy hooks. One of the best things you can see when you get up to the anchor to clean them, as it means that one doesn’t need to untie and retie rope.
Rocky also came along, but he didn’t end up climbing any official routes, regardless of the cajoling that Elinor attempted. She attempted to climb Vixon with Rocky in his harness, but he did not enjoy it and wanted to go down, so Elinor disconnected him and tried to have him meet her half way. Unfortunately, he wasn’t down for that either, so we’ll have to try to have Rocky climb with Elinor on an easier route. Maybe the 5.4 route at Guadalupe Rock. There was an incident at the crag where a husky got really protective of its food that Rocky was sniffing around and attacked Rocky. Rocky was uninjured though, so I think it was okay, but still, a scary incident, given how much bigger the husky was.
Lastly, I made a crag friend by the name of Geoff. He had his daughter with him and she climbed Vixen with him, while he tried out Pigs’ Feat and Ticks Ripped My Flesh. His daughter did great, though, she did end up getting tired and he left before his friends. I did ask him to swap contact information though, as I’m always on the look out for other parents to go climbing w/so that Kaylee and Annabelle can make crag friends and have more fun climbing.
What Happened?
I originally had plans to get to Tahoe this weekend, but I was tired ragged by the end of the week and cancelled them. I reached out to Elinor on Friday and asked if I could join her and her friends—given that this post exists, she said yes.
I picked Elinor and Rocky up and we drove up to the Indian Rock parking lot, which was surprisingly empty. We were a couple minutes late and June was already waiting for us.
After introductions, we figured out what gear we needed and starting walking towards Lyme Disease Rock. The hike was shorter than I had thought it’d be—in no time, we were already looking at it. I set up the static line on Cosgrove Face, attached my gri-gri to it, and rappelled down.
Elinor led Vixen (with an assist from other climbers who arrived afterwards who had a stick clip) pretty easily. June and I then lapped it multiple times to get warmed up. When then went to Pigs’ Feat, which Elinor attempted to lead (she had climbed this route the previous weekend on TR).
On the route has a tricky start, and Elinor pushed herself to try and try the start with various variations of feet, hands, and body positions. After a bit, she got the beta down and reached the first ledge. From there, she attempted to get to the arete, but the move was just a bit too heady. After multiple attempts, she really went for it, and took a short fall. This was super impressive as I’m not sure if I have ever tried at my limit for such a long duration at my limit. It definitely inspired me to try really hard on the route.
I hiked up to the anchors and set up a TR the old fashioned way, which then June climbed. She found this great fist jam at the start, which allowed her to move up the first tricky section without too much issues. She then kinda cruised up the route without too much difficulty (think she rested once on the rope after the crux?), which just got me excited to climb. I wasn’t paying attention to the climbing (I was really focused on taking pictures), so I struggled to start the route, but once I figured out what to do with my feet, I felt much more comfortable. I wasn’t able to find a fist jam, but did use a hand jam, which I had practiced the night before at the climbing gym. At the first ledge, I kinda whaled myself up to it, then finished the route without too many issues (besides my fear of heights kicking in). June then attempted to lap the route again, but fatigue kicked in which caused her to slip off a hand jam (she couldn’t find the fist jam) and she soon came down after that. I wanted to send the route a bit more gracefully, so sent it a second time, without the beached whale move this time. Elinor then tried to coax Rocky to climb the 4th class part of Vixen to no avail.
I thought we were done, but June wanted to try Ticks Ripped My Flesh, so she went up and fought the good fight before giving up. I did the same thing after her and was glad that she motivated me to give that climb a shot. While I was climbing Ticks Ripped My Flesh, Elinor top roped Pigs’ Feat, which was fun, since I didn’t know she was climbing it, and we ended up meeting in the middle of the route (at the arete).
We were pretty tired, so we cleaned up, packed up, and left to go enjoy a late lunch in Los Gatos.
