Roadside Rock
Climb Review
The graywacke sandstone didn’t feel confidence boosting, but it was still better than schist or serpentine rock.
The rock is literally on the side of a road, so there is zero approach to the rock—very convenient.
There was tons of small trash and broken bottles all over the ground next to the rock.
Daddy’s Midlife Crisis (5.8; Roadside Rock)—The route has great holds if you look for it. In the dark, I had trouble finding footholds, but when found, were sticky and quite large. Honestly, this route felt like a 5.6 instead of the 5.8 rating.
What I Learned
This was my first time night climbing. It made the holds harder to find and the foot holds much harder to locate. On the flip side, the air and the rock were cool and the environment felt comfortable. I wish I had more time to climb more routes—I guess I will have to come back on a different night.
I rappelled for the first time in the dark and the experience was pretty cool. I had to go much slower than usual due to my injured ankle, but once I got the hang of it, it felt super similar to rappelling during the day.
I climbed on an injured ankle, but I took it easy and went extra slow to ensure I didn’t hurt my ankle any further.
Friends
I climbed with Elinor and as usual, she was an awesome climbing partner—lots of fun conversations and stoke—can’t ask for much more. :)
What Happened?
Elinor and I are planning on a super cool multipitch for this weekend, so we decided to practice our multipitch skills by going to Roadside Rock. We got there right at sunset, which meant that Elinor got to lead Daddy’s Midlife Crisis at dusk. She then set the anchor and started belaying from top. I then followed and critiqued the anchor and setup (there wasn’t too much to critique, just some minor nits for comfort). I then pretended to “climb” past the anchor to simulate what it would be like to be swinging leads. We felt great about the whole thing and I was turning into a pumpkin, so we then rappelled down and called it a night.
Oh and while we were climbing, there was this boat on the reservoir and we had no idea what they were doing, but I assume it was a scientific vessel of some sort, given that regular water craft aren’t allowed on Guadalupe Reservoir. I thought the boat looked rather cool with all the lights in the total dark of the night.
I rather enjoyed the night climbing at Roadside Rock and I’m planning on coming back to notch a few more routes on this rather accessible rock.