Journeys: The Red - Day 3

It rained on Wednesday night. It rained so much, in fact, that Steve was worried that we were about to be rained out of climbing for the rest of the trip. Fortunately for us, the rain let up on Wednesday night, and although the ground was soaking on Thursday morning, the rock was dry enough to climb.

Dry rock was a good thing. Thursday was trad day.

We packed up camp and drove into The Gorge to find Fortress Wall. Fortress wall was nothing but classic trad routes and Steve was eager to break out his rad trad rack.

Trad gear, Brah.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

The first route that we tackled was (possibly) Calypso III (5.5, trad, 60 feet). Steve lead the route, placing all of the gear, and I took seconds, cleaning all of the trad gear off of the face. The route was fun, a forearm sized crack that opened up at the top for an easy finish.

A blurry Chuck Bolte on Calypso III (5.5, trad, 60 feet).
Photograph by Steve Garrett.

Next we moved over to the classic American Crack (5.4, trad, 60 feet) where Steve led once again and I took seconds. The route turned out to be really enjoyable with a bunch of crack and some face holds to pave the way to an exciting finishing move that left your feet flapping in the breeze. We rappelled down and moved down the road to the next face.

Steve makes exciting moves on American Crack (5.4, trad, 60 feet).
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

On our way to Phantasia Wall, the rain picked up again. At first, Steve thought the day was done, but I managed to talk him into hiking up to the wall to check the condition of the wall. Our destination was Lord Of The Flies (5.8, 40 feet). The intensity of the rain increased and Steve recommended that we leave, but I begged to stay and he finally let me get on the rock. I squeezed out a sloppy lead of the route, falling frequently, but somehow scrambling to the top.

Overall, the trip was great. This one will go down in my history book as the trip that got me officially "hooked" on climbing.

Man's best Poonaner.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.