School of Rock
Climb Review
The rock at the top of Donner Pass is all granite. Much like all other granite I’ve climbed, it has awesome texture that makes me feel like I’m sticking to it like glue, but at the same time, my fingers get worn pretty fast.
Bastille 10’ from the parking lot, with the Main - Left wall of School of Rock right behind it.
Surprisingly, there wasn’t much trash (if any) on the climbing routes. There were, however, lots of broken bottles of glass on the trail down from Mount Stephens.
Nursery School Slab Left (5.2; Bastille)—I trad-led this route so that Louie could get practice looking at placement, cleaning gear, and so that I could belay from top (which I hadn’t done before this). Everything went super smoothly (except I could not find good placement for nuts, only cams) and it set us up for a successful day. There were no bolts at the top, so I made a trad anchor with two cams and one sling around a knob—the cams were bomber, but the knob I slung could’ve been better (tighter, found one with deeper groove, etc.).
Nursery School Slab Center (5.2; Bastille)—After climbing down, I wanted Louie to get practice trad-leading, setting anchor, and belaying from top. I would’ve felt more nervous given Louie didn’t have too much experience with any of the three things I just mentioned, but the route was so easy that I almost soloed the first 3/4 of the route before a sticky nut slowed me down and Louie’s belay caught up with the slack in the rope. On a more serious note, I thought it was really good that we practiced these two easy routes as our communication improved and our multi-pitch technique improved. I should’ve inspected Louie’s anchor, but I didn’t as we cleaned up and moved up to the Kindergarten Slab. Also, I think this was my first time following a trad climb and cleaning!
Kindergarten Slab (5.5; School of Rock, Main - Left)—Ok, so, after the Nursery School climbs, we both were feeling good about attempting Kindergarten Slab. The start looked a little too easy, so we found ourselves a spicer start (maybe a 5.7? maybe it’d be lower, but carrying my backpack filled with supplies + a full rack made me think everything was harder). Right after I got over the initial one-move boulder problem, it felt like 4th class terrain to me, before becoming a 5th class ramp. I got to the top of ramp, setup an anchor (3 cams), pulled rope, and belayed Louie. I ended up placing two pieces of gear, the second one I thought wasn’t too good as I traversed right after, which led to rope drag. When Louie arrived, we communicated the game plan for the second pitch and I headed up. Because I was watching out for rope drag, I ended up placing only one piece of protection (one right below a ledge that I didn’t have 100% confidence in; I put an alpine draw, but oh man there was soooo much rope drag the rest of the way). When I got to the top, I created another 3 cam anchor and belayed Louie. When Louie arrived, high-fives were had by all.
What I Learned
I want to learn etiquette about how traffic is supposed to be handled. When climbing Kindergarten Slab, I passed a climber who was right of me (and setting a short anchor station), and I assumed that they were going up Kindergarten Crack. I ended up setting an anchor station about 50’ above them. When we were celebrating the send at the top, we saw the same climber pull up to the left of us. I hope I didn’t accidentally cut in front of these other climbers!
I was super glad that my first multipitch and belay-from-top was with Louie as they are a really strong climber and I knew there was little chance of a real fall. We did practice a fall, and got used to the backward feeling of belaying from top.
My belay-from-top form was okay (I had practiced at home with a hanging backpack) at Nursery School, but by the end of Kindergarten, it almost felt natural.
Because I had used by 3 pieces at the first anchor station and another 3 at the second, I only had 1 piece left over even though I only placed 1 cam as protection on the second pitch. I need to stop using cams as my first go-to and utilize more knobs and nuts.
Sitting here, I can’t believe I only placed one piece of protection for at least 90’ of climbing. I mean there were only 2 real rock climbing sections (and I protected myself on one of them), but still!
Knowing the pain of rope drag, now I get why triple length sling draws exist! I gotta get some!
I carried my usual 40L backpacking bag that I put into service as my rock climbing bag. Instead, I should have carried my 20-40L bag that is more svelte with less things to catch on rock. I didn’t like how bulky it was while climbing with it. I think this was my first time climbing with a backpack!
I didn’t drink water at the first belay station and I should have. It was a hot day w/the sun hitting us directly and I was super thirsty by the time I got to the top. I finished my 750ml bottle and Louie ended up sharing some of their water with me.
I thought Louie and I communicated well, but even though we had over-communicated for the most part, we still had some misunderstanding. For example, at second anchor, because of the rope drag, I was pulling pretty hard. Over the radio, I heard Louie tell me “pull the rope.” So I did. I then heard “pulling the rope.” I guessed that they spoke immediately after pressing the talk button on the walkie-talkie and that what they really meant was “Stop pulling the rope.” So I did. Later, I confirmed that they had really meant what I guessed. We then discussed in the future to only use the commands we knew, which are “slack”, “take”, “on belay”, “belay on”, “climbing”, and “climb on.” Also, because we couldn’t see each other, the walkie-talkies were amazing to have. Besides the example above, we had clear communication while other climbers were struggling (we saw/heard other climbers yelling and calling each other on their cell phones).
Fears Faced
There was a moment on pitch 1, where I looked down and got a little scared, but I pushed through it and did well the rest of the route. I think it was more the result of the route being not too vertical, which meant that there wasn’t much of an exposure.
Friends
Louie was my awesome climbing partner. They learned quick, climbed quick, and quick to laugh, which are wonderful qualities to have in a rock climbing partner.
What Happened?
I have been itching to do some multi-pitch routes for the past few months. I had practiced all that I could at my home and while mock-belaying on the ground with friends. And on this weekend, with Louie being game for trad and multi-pitch (it was their first time with both), we arrived at School of Rock with the idea that we’d try out trad and if everything went well, we’d think about multipitch.
Well, as we climbed Nursery School routes, we got more and more confident with the trad and multipitch skills and decided to head up Kindergarten Slab. And frankly, it was probably the best beginner multipitch route I’ve seen, as there’s no exposure, there are interesting enough small problems surrounded by 4th and 5th class scrambling, which means that the climbing isn’t sustained and easy.
When we topped out, we enjoyed the summit with lots of photos and hiked down to the west of the mountain. On the way down, we discovered a swing with rope that looked pretty darn new. We both rode the swing for a bit, then headed back down to our cars.
I shared a cold can of coke that I had in my fridge with Louie and they shared a yummy homemade bao that looked like a pancake. After washing our hands and resetting, we drove to the next destination.