After a short hike in early Saturday morning we were there and began cleaning and climbing the granite boulder. The first climb most of us did was The 10th Plague which had been first done two weekends earlier by Nic when he, Eric, and myself went up.
This V2 problem is one of the best and funnest lines I've ever done and everyone seemed to agree. I added a variation to the problem that starts on the arete to the right of it and finishes on the top of The 10th Plague. My first First Ascent even if it is a variation. I named it "Pharoah's Regret" to stay with the plague theme.
After climbing The 10th Plague, attention quickly shifted to the arete about 20 feet to the left of it. After a bit of work, the V4ish problem was done - named "Kelly Clarkson (Anna Nicole Smith)". Don't ask why it was named that - I don't know. Ask Nic.
The next problem was the amazing "The Sycamore". The Sycamore is a 27 foot or so slab arete around the corner and across the face from The 10th Plague. Very tall with perfect holds and just good enough feet all the way up.
We had a large number of pads and stacked them all at the bottom, but fortunately nobody fell from the top. It is a truly amazing line. Technically not too difficult - V2 or so I suppose - but very heady. Nice job Nic putting it up first.
Later in the day, work began on a crimpy line a few feet to the left of The 10th Plague. It involves a nice rail to start on and up to two improbably small crimp edges that you must match on. Then pull your feet up and make a big move to a good rail which will get you within a few easy moves of the top. Everyone worked it for quite awhile and Jim ended up getting it first. A few minutes later, Chris H got the second ascent in very impressive style. He definitely had to dig deep to send it. "Dragon Fruit" - as it was named - is probably a solid V8.
Also done by Jim was a line that started on the far left side of the Project Wall (just right of the split) that went up off of 2 crimpers through a sidepull rail and traversed right to an obvious jug. He didn't top it out since the top hasn't been cleaned yet but it is still a really cool line. Unfortunately a key foot hold broke at the start in subsequent attempts so new beta will need to be figured out for the yet-to-be-done repeat.
Work also continued on The Project. A beautiful line coming out of the cave part of the boulder onto sloping crimpers. Some progress was made but much remains. This problem will easily be in the double digits of difficulty..
