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nutjob
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 20, 2010 - 07:41pm PT
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On the eve of a free weekend, I began trawling the lurid
taco waters for a ditch partner. The fish were nibbling,
with intimations of pick-a-partner at the Reed's pull-out.
I remained firm and waited for a commitment. Years ago I
got myself in over my head on territory I wasn't ready for,
going to the valley without a partner. On this day I decided
to honor the lessons learned.
But I was sick. Sick of not climbing.
And I was saved by The Nurse.
She was eastbound, I was ready, the wide was calling. Woodfords seemed right.
The Nurse took care of our prescriptions, a stack of topos bundled with care.
After several "oooh! look at that!" car-stopping diversions, we settled on The Fortress area:
Parking is conveniently across the street near the campground:
Without delay we saddled up:
But first the Nurse diagnosed my critical lack of wide hardware and treated the condition:
We slogged up the sandy hill, two steps forward and one slide back, aiming for these tasty treats:
Some other denizens tempted us to start with a 5.8/9 lieback that the Nurse took care of:
'Twas a fine afternoon and we were both enjoying a great spot:
WE saw some dudes on this interesting 5.10b with a cool pod down low, and that brought out the wide mojo:
Just around the corner to the right we found a perfect trio of wide cracks and chimneys. Truly wonderful stuff, and not a one of them in the guide! Well don't pay it no never mind. It looks like 5-dot-fun to me.
You can't tell by looking at it, but I recall quite clearly hanging out in this position, swinging the rack around to try it a different side in, feeling like my face was pointing mostly toward the ground in this rest phase before the commitment:
The beginning was clearly the crux for me. There's probably a prettier way to do it, but it's a good thing that my thrutching between the last pictures and this next one didn't make it to film or pixels:
It felt like the most technical wide crack I've done, with some horizontal body-English rotating back down to matching tip-toes on face to cheat past a tough section, then back into the beast for more grunting but easier ground. All in all a character-building and pride creating effort for me. Another shot of the beast:
Before I can get too full of myself, the Nurse just shimmies up all casually and chimney-like; at least she was sweet to demure with comments like "maybe it's a body size thing" or something like that. Even so, I was stoked, no real blood was spilled, and we were both sufficiently satisfied to call it a good day and get back for a little campfire.
ROUND TWO
The next day, we lose the proper trail and have ourselves a little adventure on the way up:
It's a glorious morning, but little warning bells start to sound.
Looking down into the east-side desert getting some weather from the south:
Looking up-valley over the course of a few minutes:
But we were in pleasant moods, patient, and willing to see what would happen.
It was the right move! Here's that trio of wide cracks:
It sure was exciting for a few minutes as the Nurse attempted to extricate a cam that I drove hopelessly out of range while trying to clean it the day before:
Note the melting snow streaking down the face :)
For the rest of the day, little cells blew past us with brief blizzards that had us laughing out loud, and then the skies would clear up like this:
Here's looking straight up another yummy crack that we'll save for another day:
We opted instead for another fun one that seemed more practical in light of the snow flurries:
(Edit: This is called "5.6 Crack" but you'll have quite an adventure at the finish if you can't lead a few grades higher than that)
This picture perfectly captures our mood for the day. All smiles!
(Edit: At this point she had rocks stuck in her eye that required an ophthalmologist to remove, thanks to my floundering in the bombay flare above her the day before! What a trooper!)
The spirit of Brutus was smiling down on us, giving us just enough adventure to keep a twinkle in our eye and a spring in our step for the hike back down
Thanks Em!
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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May 20, 2010 - 07:48pm PT
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Whooop!
NIce!
Solid trip.
Mucci
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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May 20, 2010 - 07:49pm PT
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That's quality right there!!!! Gold!
That first dihedral looks really, really sweet! And it's good to see a smile on Em's face.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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May 20, 2010 - 08:45pm PT
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Looks like fun!
Gotta check it out.
Z
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cragnshag
Social climber
san joser
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May 20, 2010 - 08:54pm PT
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nice pics!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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May 20, 2010 - 09:24pm PT
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are they charging fees at the campground?
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Nohea
Trad climber
Sunny Aiea,Hi
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May 20, 2010 - 10:24pm PT
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That is awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Aloha,
will
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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May 20, 2010 - 11:28pm PT
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Another beautifully written and amusing TR.
Great to see you guy and doll out there doing it.
Snow?
Bring it on!!
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Roxy
Trad climber
CA Central Coast
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May 20, 2010 - 11:33pm PT
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That's a great day out, thanks for sharing!
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enjoimx
Trad climber
SLO Cal
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May 21, 2010 - 01:01am PT
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Wow very cool...just starting up a crack thats not in a guidebook...what a concept ;)
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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May 21, 2010 - 01:05am PT
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That still looks cool, Footloose.
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msiddens
Trad climber
Mountain View
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May 21, 2010 - 01:22am PT
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nutjob- COOL TR. Lets get back out!
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
sorry, just posting out loud.
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May 21, 2010 - 01:45am PT
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oh mang, nutjob, nicely done!
Paging Nurse Ratchet, Paging Nurse Ratchet!
WOOT!
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LuckyPink
climber
the last bivy
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May 21, 2010 - 02:03am PT
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em somehow makes the wide look fun!
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karodrinker
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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May 21, 2010 - 02:12am PT
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Looks great out there. What a fun tr.
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Daphne
Trad climber
Mill Valley, CA
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May 21, 2010 - 02:48am PT
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thanks for sharing your excellent adventure with us!
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seth kovar
climber
Bay Area
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May 22, 2010 - 09:29pm PT
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bump-ba-da-bump-bump
good stuff, looks like you had a blast...
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BurnRockBurn
climber
South of Black Rock City (CC,NV)
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May 22, 2010 - 09:42pm PT
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Glad you guys enjoyed the Woodfords Wide!!!! The trail up is a bitch if you miss the main one........ great trip report.
Shawn
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sasha Cohen
Trad climber
South Lake Tahoe CA
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May 22, 2010 - 11:06pm PT
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nutlob, I'm glad you had fun up there. You come on up in the summer there's plenty of wide stuff up there.;) sasha
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