First Time

Climb hard - play hard - live hard. But be safe.

Went climbing in Yosemite this past weekend.  Great weather.  Arrived
2am Fri nite.  Stayed at Camp 4.  Went with Tina, and a Spanish couple
new to our outdoor club - Pablo & Olga.  (Little did I know it,
but Pablo & Olga would become such good friends that they
would travel from Spain to my wedding three years later,
and Pablo would be one of my groomsmen!)

Had a lazy morning on Sat and showed Tina basic climbing safety such as
tying into anchors, different knots, impromptu rappel devices, etc.  By
noon, we decided to go climb since that is why we were there.

I set up a double rope top rope on Lena's Lieback (5.9), Swan Slab, and
had a great
100ft+ climb.  Tina went first and made it up about halfway before
having a mini-epic b/c she:

1)  didn't trust my anchor, even though I rappelled down to test it.  
As
I told her, "I rappelled down it so that if the anchor went, only I
would die." This didn't seem to console her.  Wonder why.

2)  hadn't climbed long routes outdoors for over a year.  She'd only
done local climbs at Craigmont.  When you are up 50+ft and the guy
belaying you is yelling up encouragement by combining "rappelling" and
"dying" in the same sentence, your confidence isn't really built upon.

Well, she made it up.  We caught a lot of Yosemite tourist's attention
as I was yelling up to her to tell her where the next move was.  She
repeatedly yelled back, "Fuck OFF!"  This seemed to get a lot of people
interested in what we were doing.

One Japanese tourist stood next to me.  We made eye contact.  He looked
at me.  Looked at Tina.  Looked at me.  Tina yelled, "Fuck OFF!"  He
looked at her.  Then looked at me.  Then shook his head and frowned.  I
nodded my head up and down and smiled.  He chuckled then walked away.  
I
guess there is a universal language out there.

Then Tina didn't want to come down.  She was afraid that the rope
wouldn't hold as I lowered her.  I yelled up, "That's cool.  Stay up
there as long as you need.  But remember, I gotta get back by dark".  

"Fuck OFF!", she yelled.  Guess I should be more understanding
sometimes.

Finally, she got the courage to trust my anchor, and I lowered her 
down.
She is so used to the relative safer feeling she gets from climbing
indoors that she really freaked once she was outdoors.  Maybe I should
have gone up first.

I followed Tina and kept reminding myself not to cuss on the way up.
"Don't want to turn into Eric14," I thought.  

There was a nice crux move about 80ft up.  Problem was it was above it
was only a smooth face with no holds.  I had to stem wide and do a lot
of weird stuff to get up & over, but finally did it.  Tina, who ended 
up
skipping the crux move, yelled up to me, "Fuck OFF!".  I nodded up and
down to her and smiled.  I'm sure the Japanese tourist was somewhere 
out
there chuckling.

Made it back down with out a hitch and retrieved my anchors.

I then set up another top rope on a short 9 crack with a 10 beginning
move. Tina cussed and attracted more tourists.  I cussed and scared 
them
all away.

Tuan, Mike, & Suzanne met up with us for dinner that night.  Scott &
Grace were already halfway into cooking dinner when they arrived.  Tuan
brought this nice Pine Mountain wood chip log for our fire, and we sat
around it telling stories and planning the next day.  The moon was 2/3
full and lit up the walls.  Nothing like Yosemite in moonlight.  Of
course, Pablo & Olga retired early to "go to sleep".  I guess Yosemite
in moonlight can be pretty romantic.

On Sunday morning, Tina complained that I snored all night.  "Must have
been the wine," I responded, "Besides, you farted all night long, so
touch�". Camping with friends.  Gotta love it.

We had breakfast with everyone then Tina and I joined Tuan's group to
climb the Glacier Point Apron.  I was glad Tuan was with us, since this
was going to be my first lead outdoors.  If anything really went wrong,
he could hopefully swing over and help us out.

We got to the Apron and it was in the high 60s reaching 70.  Definitely
shorts weather.  The sun was really beating down on us.  I decided to
even out my tan and climbed with out a shirt.  Tina did the same, but
then decided that if she fell, she could really scrape herself up, so
she put her shirt back on.  Wise decision.  I stayed stupid without my
shirt.

Everyone recommended that I do the Grack, center route for my first
lead. It's a nice 5.6 inclined slab that let's you use your feet so you
can fumble around setting pro's.  To start, we did a 4th class climb up
40 ft.  Then we had to traverse right.  I "lead" this traverse.  I set 
a
pro and tested it for a downward or right/down fall.  It held well.  
The
traverse was pretty scary and I started to get sewing machine leg.  

"Breath deep" I reminded myself.

I made it over in one piece and Tina was relieved.  I set up some
anchors so I could belay her over, then I pulled in the rope attached 
to
her.  When I did this, the pro I set while traversing over popped out.
Tina said, "Fuck!" I said, "Whoops!"  

Rookie move #1.

So, Tina was pretty nervous traversing across and cussed me out the
entire way.  I was starting to get sick of it.  I then realized that 
she
had no experience doing a multi-pitch climb.  I had decent experience
following people, but never leading.  Luckily, I showed her basic 
knots,
how to set up a rappel system if she dropped her belay device, how to
tie-in and off before and after reaching a belay point, etc. the day
before.

The blind were leading the blind.

After debating with Tina awhile and trying to keep her spirits up and
give her faith in my climbing ability, I headed up the Grack.  I was
paranoid as hell and set a pro about every 3-4 feet.  Problem was I ran
out of pro really quick.

Rookie move #2.

By the time I got to the second belay point, my pro's were pretty run
out. But, that was OK b/c the climb was pretty easy & I felt I wouldn't
fall.  I set up anchors & belayed Tina up.  She stopped cussing by then
and concentrated on climbing and cleaning the route.

I showed her how to anchor in and how she should always make sure she
was either on belay or tied in to an anchor.  I then proceeded to take
myself off anchor to get ready for leading the next pitch.  I then
realized that I wasn't on belay.

Really dumb Rookie move #3.

Yes.  I could have killed myself out of stupidity.  The only saving
grace was that I didn't kill myself and the route was forgiving enough
for people like me.

Tuan was about 50ft to my right leading a run out 5.9.  He could only
set about 2 pros per pitch.  Crazy.

I led the next pitch.    Tuan rapped down to where I was and took
pictures of me.  Finally, a climbing shot that isn't of someone's rear
end.  He told me that if I felt comfortable with my climbing, then I
didn't need to place so many pros.  So, I took his advice and spaced
pros more economically and only when I felt I needed them.   Climbing
became a lot faster.

By this time, the sun had gone behind the wall & I was in the shadow
freezing my butt off.  So much for my tan.

Rookie Move #4.

Tuan was good enough to lend me his T-shirt then he rapped down.  I
finished the final pitch without incident.  Tina made it up and we
checked out the great view.  I was so cold by then that my left hand 
was
becoming numb.  Tina had to pee really bad.  I was hungry.  So,  we
rapped down as quickly and safely as possible.  When we reached bottom,
we gave each other high fives and a sweaty hug.

We were alive.

I was really glad I didn't kill anybody.

I looked at my watch.  It was 4:20 pm.  We had started climbing at
10:50am. Wow.  Over 5 hours to do 3 pitches then rap down.  No wonder 
we
had to pee.

We hiked back to our car then did the tourist visit to the
Mountaineering Shop.  I wanted to get a T-shirt like the one that Tuan
had lent me, but they didn't have any (It was a Hard Rock Yosemite 
shirt
listing all the classic climbs - The Grack was the first one on the
list).  Tina & I searched from store to store trying to find some cool
T-shirts to commemorate the fact that we survived our first free climb.

I had to settle for a 25th anniversary limited edition " Go Climb A
Rock" shirt.  I paid an extra $5 to have a stupid "limited edition"
number on the back of my shirt.  #16789 I think.  Out of 10 million is
my guess.  Wow. Made me feel special.

But now, whenever I wear it, I'll always remember my first time.

To continue the rock climbing series . . . -Click Here-

To continue onto the Matterhorn Peak series. . . -Click Here-

To continue onto the mountaineering series. . . -Click Here-

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