The Trough with Tim Sunday Oct 22
Scooped a couple handfuls of macadamia nuts and sprouted pecans, and had 500ml of Nuun, while waiting on the sidewalk for Tim. Macadamia nuts and pecans have relatively high caloric index (around 7 calories per gram), meaning they have more energy for their weight as compared to other foods, like Clif Bars (3.6 calories per gram), or Oatmeal (a very underwhelming 0.7 calories per gram, although many add peanut butter to bolster this). This is breakfast part 1. Fell asleep last night feeling less than stoked, mostly from the small injury to my left bicep on Thursday. There's now KTape on my bicep, and each inner ankle for the small chronic pain in my arches while hiking, to hopefully squeak out a route or two while not setting back recovery too much. Tim is 30 min late. Seems like the morning routine of boulderers tends to be least streamlined. He texts me to say he's brewing coffee. I pass the time sitting on my rope and fighting the urge to eat my chocolate doughnuts now. Trying to deliver the less caloric dense food closer to when we set off. Looking forward to my Chocolate Drumroll Doughnuts, breakfast part 2, which I'll have when Tim gets here. We talk about Kuya Mackie and our stoke for the upcoming Philippino Climb Night.
A couple Korean hikers foray into the Humber Park toilets, seemingly for the first time. One of them runs out. All I can make out is that they couldn't take it. I normally like using that one. I think it's the cleaner one. Charmin flushable wipes.
As we were racking, a couple in a black Tesla parked next to us and assumed that hexes were popular at this crag after seeing my rack. They asked for beta on how to hike up to Fingertrip.
Met JC and Joseph, 2 young pups from Long Beach, at the base of Trough. JC was struggling halfway up pitch 1, while we chatted with Joseph about various things I can't remember. JC got self conscious close to the belay, and yelled down to Joseph asking we wanted to pass. He responded βNah, they're chill man, take your time.β I yelled up βJC, CLIMB AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!β Hehe.
The purpose of this project is to exercise simplicity.
This idea started after coming down from a day climbing with Chris and Andrew. I got stoked while looking at the hexes at Nomad, while Andrew looked for a replacement for the cord he had accidentally left on the rock. I am a fan of the minigame of placing nuts. Way more fun than micro cams. I impulsively bought a set of hexes online on the drive down. Over the next couple days the idea went from climbing the classics at Tahquitz on nuts and hexes, to climbing the classics at Tahquitz as simply as reasonable. The ethos for this little project are :
1) Practice simplicity on the classics of Tahquitz, by bringing the least amount of gear, as
2) Balance simplicity with safety fun. Climbing solo, barefoot, naked, and without chalk would result in the minimal amount of grams, thus being the simplest loadout. But that is probably painful, and less safe than Iβd like. The gear brought must feel safe enough for us to have fun.
3) Carry the same exact gear loadout for every route. It is possible to endlessly improve one
loadout when chasing grams through online shopping and at home tinkering. Iβd like to minimize time and energy and money spent. I want to decide on a loadout, and then bring the same thing each time. Not thinking, and having the comfort of a tried and true loadout is a nice luxury.
It's super fun to think and rethink through the gear I am bringing and break through paradigms as grams are shaved away.
For example, I thought it necessary to bring a locking quickdraw every time I went out. Then I started combining my HollowBlock and 2 locking carabiners to have a little more efficient locking quickdraw. Then I got rid of the locking quickdraw all together, as the descent is a walk off, and in the case of an emergency I can use a sling and carabiner from one of the many alpine draws to form a prussick, third hand, pas, rap extension etc.
I started with 6 alpine draws, made up of 12x Ange S carabiners and 6x PurβAnneau 60cm slings. Then I whittled it down to 4 alpine draws, figuring I could divide the draws in half if need be, and that could be used for 8 placements - 4 slings and carabiner extensions and 4 single carabiners. This turned into 5 half alpine draws, made up of 5 Nineteen carabiners and 5 PurβAnneau 60cm slings, dropping one of the carabiners for each draw, and shaving 10g off each carabiner by going from the Ange S to the Nineteens. This retains the full 22KN strength, and only has the the detriment of being smaller and a notched nose (as compared to the keylock nose of the Anges), which makes it slightly more finicky to unclip while following. I don't really feel these determinants while leading. So the draws went down from 456g for 6x full alpine draws, to 199g, for 5 half alpine draws. Quite happy with this.
Having beta of the pitches and anchors would inform my choices for pro on each pitch, which I could have roughly planned out and prerigged before setting off on each pitch. For example for Trough pitch 1, I girthed a #11 nut to a sling and biner for the start, and have a blue hex and gold hex each girth hitched to their own a sling and biner for the OW / anchor at the top. For Maiden, the belays are mostly trees, and the only strenuous position while placing pro is the start, so I just need to pre rig a thin #4 nut for the start and figure out the rest as I go. For Fingertip, the corner before it cuts left to the traverse has a strenuous position to place pro in. I also know I'll probably place a cluster of nuts and then run the traverse out to the belay, since itβs easier that way. So Iβll pre rig a handful of small and medium nuts to have that ready.
Went from a Petzl Sitta harness to a Blue Ice Harness. Went from 25β of Sterling PowerCord for the anchor to equalize pieces and sling trees, to a 180cm PurβAnneau sling, to a 120cm sling, to using the rope to equalize and sling trees, then back to a 180cm sling, as itβs not fun to make anchors with rope drag and and swap ends if block leading. Went from 2x Smd lockers and a Reverso, to 1x Photon locker and a Reverso, clipping the eye directly to the masterpoint behind my clove so I can escape the belay while block leading or in case of an emergency. Went from a 172g chalk bag to 5-8g of chalk in 2 of my pockets, so it can be accessed from either side. Went from 3x frozen 500ml water bottles, to 1x 500ml bottle of Nuun for every 2 routes. Went from approach shoes, to my lighter running shoes, and then eventually leaving the approach shoes at Lunch Rock and scrambling down the friction descent barefoot. Bare feet on cool, featured granite is actually pretty enjoyable. Went from taking a phone with me, to memorizing beta and leaving the 284g urge to take selfies while belaying in the car.
All in all, my rack (with hexes) went from 2339g to 1776g. Climbing weight went from 3430g to 1931g. The process of whittling was fun. Going from the confusing tangle of gear, extra metal and rubber jangling around and rubbing against the rock, to feeling free in the air, having a streamlined, pure climb - is also quite enjoyable. Maybe this is what TSA Pre feels like.
I racked up when Joseph got up to the first belay. My rack for this project is as follows :
Blue Ice Addax Harness 152g
PurβAnneau 180cm + Photon Carabiner 101g
DMM Torque Nuts #1 - 4 + Brass Offsets #1 - 6 + Offset Nuts #7 - 11 + Ange S Carabiner 613g
5x Nineteen Carabiner + PurβAnneau 60cm 199g
La Sportiva TC Pros 40, with Kevlar Replacement Laces (1.5 Sizes Down) 578g
Friction Labs Chalk (Half Handfull In Each Pocket) 10g
The clothes for each climb will be slightly different depending on the weather. I broke the weather down to 3 systems, agnostic of wind and sunlight. As it gets colder, I add the layers to the warmer systems. It is coldest in the morning, especially when on the North or Northwest routes, before the sun hits the wall. By the afternoon, the sun has warmed up the wall, but the wind normally picks up as well. Initially I tried a handful of outings wearing outfits from the next system up designed for warmer weather. But I got tired of shivering at belays, while waiting for slower climbers. So I moved everything one bracket down, trading around 100g for an increase of enjoyment. If it isn't windy, or if the climb was in the sun I could comfortably get away with going one system up. My clothing systems for this project is a follows :
Arcteryx Motus Undies 55g
Patagonia Pro Strider Shorts 5β 91g
+ Outdoor Research Echo Hoodie 108g
+ Patagonia Capilene Thermal Weight Base Layer Bottoms 133g
Put in a Jesus #11 nut, and then set off on pitch 1. Felt solid on the perfect hands, taking my time on each move while my right shoulder scraped up the cold white granite corner. The prerigged blue and gold hexes jangled on my left side, racked away from the wall, with the super 8 camera sliding around next to them. It's amazing how hard and cold granite feels. After strolling up to the offwidth, I hiked up my feet close, and slotted an armbar with my right arm, right shoulder up against the cold wall opposing the pressure of my palm. Unlocked my lower jam and pulled a butterfly so I could move up and slot my right foot in the low angle off width. The belay was made of a gold and blue hex. After pulling Tim up, we reflaked so the stack would let me lead again, and I set off. I went across the top of the mini traverse, which felt much easier than the last time I was here, on shrooms. JC was still belaying at his anchor in the alcove only 10ft above our anchor, so I climbed around on the finger cracks underneath him and walked across the cat walk a couple times. This also felt easier than last time.
After moseing in place for 10 minutes or so, I climbed up to see what was keeping JC. Slotted a blue #11 nut a couple feet besides him and moved over to the small alcove he was on. He was struggling with getting a #1 cam out of the anchor he had made. We both tried finagling it out, utilizing nut tools, slings, spit. 3 lobes were moving, and in 48 hours it would definitely be gone. I decided to move on after about 10 minutes, not announcing my departure. His focused silence gave tacit approval of my continuance. The nut off to the side kept my rope from hosing JC as I enjoyed the stroll above. After a couple minutes of climbing, I heard him yell βClimbing!β Oh, he got it out. I pulled over to the side and started building a belay while waiting for him to pass. βI don't want to talk about itβ was his response as he passed by. The red cam was still there. Tim didn't try getting it out, and soon we were both standing on the pretty nice impromptu anchor made of a green hex and a slung egg sized chockstone half the size of a refrigerator. I thought I remembered that the exposed traverse took a red hex, so I decided to not use it on the anchor. A couple words about how fun the last pitch was and then I was off again, with the traverse and tree ahead of me. A fun little dance took me to the exposed traverse. I got my left foot in on a chockstone and my right foot smeared around the corner of the slab. Couldn't figure out the placement of the red hex I thought I placed last time. I looked for my green hex, and after asking Tim remembered that I had very thoughtfully used it on the belay. Slotted a nut high instead, blocking the fingerlock jug. There were lines of faintly rusted pin scars on the finger crack below the nut, and I thought of the years of old school strollers pulling the same move back in the day. This time though it didn't seem that bad. Laybacked the crack after traversing and met up again with JC.
We chatted about life for a bit while I belayed Tim and he belayed Joseph. After another happy reunion, I asked Tim if he wanted to simul solo the last pitch. He declined. I boogied up with the rope as a tagline, and caught up with JC in the last couple meters. Went off route on the slab besides the crack and we raced to the tree. I slinged and lowered myself from the tree, briefly considering extending the belay so we could hear each other, as it was starting to get difficult to communicate. Decided I wanted to sit down instead, and belayed facing the view with the belay behind me. Joseph and JC decided to stick around for us so we can all go to the Friction Decent together. What a lovely day. After Tim arrived at the top out tree, I kind of pushed him to transition faster, as he was fumbling a bit. We all walked down the Friction Decent together. For lunch we had raspberries, Midnight Moon, fig preserves, 500ml of Nuun, and Nancys Fancy Ice Cream.
baratheonpilled
stormborns
janainaart
annaxmalina
yousharknotpass
2087
discoholicmusic
dededos
