A couple of years after I started climbing I went to Lover’s Leap with my friend Mike. He had learned to climb with stoppers and hexes mostly because the club he was in didn’t have many cams. I didn’t have a very good rack so we climbed on his gear. It turns out that two sets of stoppers is a good beginning to a Lover’s Leap rack. At least for the moderate classics we climbed; Bears Reach, Corrugation Corner, The Groove and the Farce. Soon after that he stopped climbing and started road bike racing. Well, five or six years later he started climbing at the gym again so last fall we went to Sugarloaf where I led all the pitches of Scheister 5.7. This is a great climb with a classic chimney in the first pitch. It was actually one of the first true chimneys he’d climbed. Shortly after he was in Yosemite with some visiting family and he went climbing with the YMS. His guide was supertaco’s own Jobee. She must be a great guide because he came back breathing fire and ready to roll! And he was ready to start leading again. Since he was tearing it up at the gym and I prefer to climb longer routes I suggested we do the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral. It would be longest climb he’d ever done but I’d done it before and was sure we’d cruise it. I had two vague notions; one was to free the bolt ladder and the other was to climb the original chimney route. On 10/18/07 we did the route.

Here’s a pictures of the first pitch.
Instead of going right around the tree as the topo shows I went straight up toward the 5.8 rooflette on P2. That’s the way I’d done it before. It’s not hard. P1 and P2 easily link with a 60 meter.

Here’s a picture of P3 from the belay after Mike lead it.
This is a fun pitch and Mike cruised it.

Here’s a picture of P4 looking up the lieback.
Mike linked P3 and P4. My first time on the route I took one of my few leader falls on this lieback. I looked up from the ledge at the start of the lieback and saw a jug about 25 feet up. So I put in a piece as high as I could and then fired for the jug. Well, the jug was not a jug. Now I was looking at a 30 footer or I could go higher where there appeared to be a good hand jamb. Instead I started down liebacking and finally popped about eight feet above the ledge. I landed safely on my feet. The ledge is about 18 inches square. Ha ha! Sometimes you get lucky. My partner was wondering why the rope suddenly coiled at his feet. Mike didn’t have any trouble with this. I started freeing the bolt ladder on the next pitch until I got to a part where you make a thin high step when I abandoned my plan. My excuse was that I had on my old shoes with the worn out edges. Or maybe I had the wrong hairstyle that day. Probably because I had wimped out on the ladder the 5,9 roof seemed a lot harder than I remember.

Here’s a picture of Mike coming up to the belay on P5.
You can see the offending old shoes in the pic. I better get them resoled because I’m not sure I can use that excuse again. Mike now led over into the chimney of the original route. He looked up the 5.7 chimney and remembering that he’d really only done one chimney before, on Scheister, he declined the honor and returned to the belay. So we abandoned my 2nd vague notion and I lead the standard traverse pitch.

Here’s a picture of me following P7.
We were getting to the rhythm of the thing now

Here’s a picture of Mike following P8.

Here’s a picture of him leaving the belay on P9.
When I got to the belay it was kind of a mess. It was safe but all over the place. I hassled him just a little about it. I remember the first climb I did with my friend Bob, Arrowhead Arête, I lead pitch two. When he came up to the belay, he took one look and said, “This is a cluster”. Only he didn’t say it that nicely. These days my belays are pretty clean. A little hassling goes a long way.

Here’s a picture looking down P10 above the 5.8 section.

Both times I climbed this route this was my favorite part. Not so much the actual moves, though they are good fun, but more just the way I was feeling. Both times I was just starting to get tired so I wasn’t thinking so much, just climbing, making a move, putting in a piece, letting it happen. That’s the best.
I kept going and belayed most of the way up P11. The descent was dry this time so we were pretty quickly back at the car. A really good day.

I took the winter off after this climb. No bike riding or climbing at the gym. I was trying to let my ankle heal because it wasn’t recovering from the surgery I’d had in May. I started up slowly in February. The ankle wasn’t better but I sure wasn’t going to lose a climbing season waiting for a miracle healing. Besides I already had big plans for the summer!
Mike and I hooked up again April 21st. Our plan was to climb some of the Five Open Books. We started with Commitment.

Here’s a picture looking up from the 5.8 start.
This first 10 feet was the crux of the route for me because I’m particularly bad at thin hands. It is a great pitch.

Here’s a picture of Mike leading P2.
You can see the crux roof above.

Here’s a picture of me after the 5.9 roof.
I found this boulder problem to be the easiest 5.9 I’ve encountered in the valley. I was spouting off at one of the Wide Wood Sessions about finding the easiest 5.9 in the valley and both Ed and Jay told me, “When it’s wet it’s one of the nastiest slime fests around”! I hate being wrong all the time! The 5.8 above is fun too. Fearing the rumors of loose rock at the top out I belayed in the trees and it was fine.
Next we moved over to The Surprise.

Here’s a picture of P1.
Mike was looking around to make sure he was on route when he half pulled out a block about the size of a small microwave. I was trying to figure how to get out of the way while keeping him on belay when he managed to push it back! Whew!
The traversing second pitch is really funky. A sketchy bolt, slung flakes, I enjoyed it. The last move down and around into the corner was a bit iffy just because of the rope drag and that I wanted to be above the traverse to give some sort of a good belay for Mike following. I back cleaned quite a bit after I got high enough.

Here’s a picture looking down P3.
Mike was still a little frazzled by the incident with the block so I lead this pitch. This is a sustained, at times thin, very cool pitch. A mix up we had combining our racks meant that we didn’t have gear in the 5/8” to 3/4” range. Unfortunately, I needed just that size to protect the bulge before the anchor. I ended up climbing out and around to the right. It was runout but easier.

Here’s a picture looking up the 10a P4.
I was getting tired by then, which did not bode well for all my big plans for summer. We rapped. Still, it was a good day in the sun.
I went to the doctor a few days later. They had finally figured out that my ankle problem was actually a back/nerve problem, Spondylolisthesis. Here’s a picture I got off the net.

The drawing on the left shows what the back is supposed to look. The picture on the right looks like my X-ray.
I was in the Docs office looking at the X-ray and thinking, “Dude, you’re broken”! And then in amazement and horror I realized, “Dude, you broke your back to get out of leading P4 of The Surprise”! Now that’s wimpitude.
Zander