Ring Mountain
Climb Review
I’ve climbed here before and my review is the same as the last time.
Split Rock Slot (5.4; Split Rock)—I had down-climbed this route solo the last time I was here and so I told myself that I could solo this up as going up is almost always easier than going down. With having climbed earlier in the day, I was able to muster courage and make it up without too much difficulty.
North Face Center (5.6; Split Rock)—I climbed this route that I missed the last time I was here. I found the climb (top roped) to be pretty easy with lots of great hand holds almost the entire way. My shoes weren’t dirty yet, so I trusted both my hands and my feet.
Black Streak (5.6; Split Rock)—I then wanted to solo one more thing, so I found this route that I hadn’t done before and climbed it. About 3/4 of the way up, I must have taken a 2 minute mental break as I calmed myself down to just focus on the climb and not have my fears take over. With that little explosion of fear out of the way, I finished the climb without much drama and felt awesome at the top.
North Face (5.9; Split Rock)—This was my last climb of the day and I wanted to do something harder. This route was definitely harder with feet that kept slipping and hand holds that finally were not jugs. This was the most fun route of the day for me as it required big committing moves (that were a little dynamic) but where I was always able to find a good hold afterwards. I ended up loading my right ankle fully two more times on this climb and it felt the best it had all day. It didn’t complain during or after the climb! Progress!
What I Learned
Last time, I felt that I could have doubled up the anchor protection, so I did that this time by threading the 30 ft accessory cord through two drilled holes instead of just one. It worked well, and the anchor felt bomber.
After months now of not trusting my right ankle, I think I gained a bit of that back today. I just need to keep climbing carefully and hopefully in a few more months, I’ll be back to the climber I was before my injury.
Thanks to Rai for the first picture in the above gallery
Fears Faced
Soloing is always a struggle for me and today wasn’t the exception. I don’t think I used the “it’s just a highball boulder” trick to calm myself down today as with the ankle injury, I hadn’t been bouldering for a while. Instead, I just focused on being present, worrying about the immediate holds that I was on and were searching for, and trusting in my climbing skills.
Friends
I climbed this with David and Rai, who were focused on leading routes. I initially thought it was a bit crazy to lead as the cracks seemed shallow, but they were able to place good gear and climb in a safe manner. There was one route (North Face Right Crack) where at the crux, Rai struggled a little bit to find non-slippery footing, but no one fell and all was well.
What Happened?
Thanks to David for this picture
After a delightful lunch at Amy’s Drive Thru, we hurried over to Split Rock to get a few climbs in. With me refusing to lead, I found myself a little bored and while David and Rai were doing their thing, I found myself soloing a few routes and getting in some top rope off of the routes that David and Rai were climbing.
We had a good time, but with the sun setting, we climbed until it got dark (with David climbing the last route with a head lamp and Rai busting out a camp light to help) and making sure we didn’t leave anything with our iPhone flashlights.
We made it back to the car right as it got pretty dark and drove back to Berkeley with a little bit of traffic but with lots of jokes and laughs. It was a good way to finish a fun day with new friends.