Climbing in February

From one terribly founded sport to another this weekend, the weather cooperated long enough for Sean, Mark, Kate, Liz and myself to make a day down at the Golden Cliffs of North Table Mountain, above the wonderful town of Golden on Saturday.

Leaving early enough to procure a parking spot and some space at the bottom of some of the more popular moderate routes was only the beginning of a lovely day.  (to read Sean and Kate'sversions of the day, follow their names..) It has been a few months since we have been on a rope out-of-doors, and the first lead of the day for myself (Wholly Holey, 5.8) certainly reminded me of that.  The crux being a roof at the second bolt was pretty fun, but by the end i was really overgripping and making life harder on myself than it really was.  Mark led Pack O' Bobs (5.7)next door, and also thought his first serving for the day was a little stiffer than advertised in the guidebook.  Everyone took a lap on both, though, as we eased our digits into helping us move upwards... and not downwards.

Right next door was another pair of 8's, so we jumped on them when they were vacated and did our best to improve from the first two.  My second lead, Windy Days,  was a shorter, less thoughtful route, but i did feel better at the end about my general confidence.  The top was an odd roof anchor, though, that was set just above the lip so you couldn't really set the anchor without completely climbing over it, so i settled for a long reach from the side and felt silly the entire time.  Mark zoomed up Pee on Dee, which everyone took a turn on as well and agreed it was varied but straightforward enough to be the favorite for the day.  

As the sun waned, we remembered that it was indeed still February, and we packed up and headed for the cars around 2:30.  On the way home, we couldn't help but stop and snoop the closing Circuit City in Thornton, and ended up procuring a new camera for documentation of our adventures. (a Canon PowerShot G10.  Glee!)  This is only fitting, as we brought a camera on this days adventures, but took nary a shot - all of the pictures above were gratuitously stolen from Sean and Kate.  (speaking of, check out Kate's awesome Gallery over here).  All in all, it was a fantastic day and got us all excited about the coming springtime climbing to be had in only a few weeks....