Mon 8/15 : Climbing & Biking

Most of us were up early, and wanted to get going before the sun started baking the area. Lynn was still asleep, though, and I think that everybody was a little frightened of waking him up. We discussed the plans for awhile while he slept, and decided to go to the ice cream parlor and do some climbing. It would be Georges first climb ever. Since the sun hits that area by noon, I eventually went ahead and got him up. I don't think he was too happy about it.

Once we got all our gear organized, we went straight to the wall. I offered to lead the first route (listed as a 5.7) but Lynn insisted on doing so himself. I did manage to convince him to let me stick clip the first bolt for safety, at least. As it turned out, leading an unfamiliar route, on unfamiliar rock, without having done any lead climbing for a long while was a bit more intimidating than he expected. After a brief foray beyond the first bolt, he decided to anchor himself off and use the stick clip for the second bolt as well, but did not want to carry it up any further and handed it back down. He then climbed to the second bolt, and repeated the attempt to actually lead climb. This was not any more successful than the first attempt, and he was too high for us to pass the stick clip up. We wound up lowering him enough to grab the stick clip, which was attached to his harness for the rest of the route, and used on every bolt.

I then climbed the route on top rope, and agreed that it did not feel like a 5.7, and was probably not the best route for the new climbers. George was next up, but quickly found that the aggressive shoes that he had borrowed from Lynn were too painful, and had to come back down. He switched into my shoes, which were better, but his toe was still hurting from the first pair of shoes, so he came down again. Vince was up next, and gve me the biggest surprise of the day. He ran up the route just as quickly, if not even more quickly than I had done. He's climbed just a little bit before, but still appears to be a natural.

We moved our rope to another route rated as a 5.5, and everybody was able to get to the top on that one. We were planning on doing one more route that Lynn began to set up, but the sun had reached the base of the cliff and everybody down below was anxious to get going.

We came back to the house and decided that the next activity would be mountain biking. We checked out a couple of bike stores in town and wound up renting from Moab Cyclery, as they were closed on Tuesday and therefore offered to let us keep the bikes until Wednesday at no extra charge. As it was still hot, we planned on relaxing until about 6:00, hitting the Bar M Loop trails, and then biking more Monday morning. Bar M was chosen because they had a mix of beginner and advanced trails, so that Lynn and George could go do insane stuff, while the rest of us stayed on the beginner trails and met back at the cars. Even the beginner trail was more difficult than expected, but we all got through safely and had a good time. George and Lynn apparently got a bit lost and wound up on the hardest trail out there (Dead Mans Ridge) instead of the loop they intended to take. When they met up, the trail they described sounded absolutely terrifying, but they both loved it despite having to walk their bikes over a number of obstacles.

The evening was rounded out with dinner at Pasta Jays, one of the few good restaurants that I had found the last time I was in Moab. Tomorrow, George and Lynn are going to try to most mountain biking popular route in Moab (Actually, in the world), the Slickrock trail. The rest of us will be finding something MUCH easier. Hopefully, I can get one of them to write a guest entry on the blog detailing their adventures.