Roadside Rock

Climb Review

Hands That Go Bump in the Night (5.10b; Roadside Rock)—I led this route and it ended up being the hardest lead of my short climbing career. I tried to on-sight this route, and while the first two bolts came easy, I ended up falling three times on the crux of the climb. The feet are so tiny and shitty that it ended up being a psychological climb for me rather than a technical one. When I topped out, it felt great! I want to go back and try leading this one cleanly.

What Happened?

 

Cassie and I had some big climbing plans for the weekend, so we wanted to get some last-minute practice. We headed over to Roadside Rock and instead of hitting the same old easy routes, I thought it’d be fun to try something new for a change.

My lead climb went as well as I expected since this was an on-sight attempt. And while I’m not quite good enough to on-sight a 5.10b, I was close; close enough where I want to try on sighting a 5.9 or a 5.10a.

When I fell on the route, I found out how attentive Cassie had gotten as a belayer—there was one fall where I was high enough above the bolt (and the bolt wasn’t too far off the ground) where if she hadn’t been paying attention, I would have decked. Instead, she caught me with room to spare. Also, while writing this, I realized that this was my first outdoor fall! In the moment, I felt fine, but watching the GoPro footage afterward it was a bit terrifying.

Once I got to the top of the route, belayed Cassie from top as she tried her hand on this route. She got stuck on the crux for about 10-15 minutes and since darkness was falling, I ended up lowering her down so that I could rappel down. I hit the ground just as it was getting difficult to see much without headlights. We drove back feeling more confident about our leading and lead-belaying abilities.