I met with a local on the first morning in Zion and we cragged at the base of Cerebrus for the day, and that afternoon I met the potential partner for the wall. I met Cameron that afternoon in the pullout after cragging, and we chatted for a few. Not knowing anything of each other I spent the next day hanging with him and Greg, his buddy from who knows where. They seemed to be great company and climbed many of the same routes as I had the previous day, so I hung out and licked my wounds/hands. Man, does my crack tecnique suck. See below and you'll know what I mean.
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Greg was a strong leader, and Cameron said he was a 5.8 climber. After watching both, I think they may be being humble, or what's the word, sandbaggers? Greg.
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Cameron was strong on this little 10 something.
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Cave crack was such a classic line that it had to get climbed while in the area.
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With everyone getting comfortable with each other we set out for camp for the evening, and decided to maybe give the Left Mary a go. Greg had a hand/finger injury so he was going to stay behind, but was so dang gracious to haul a buttload of gear and water to the base for us. What a guy, and thanks Greg. We booted up and Cameron strung up the first pitch as soon as he arrived. I was just arriving at the base and he was at the first fixed pin.
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The route was an open book, with lots of beautiful rock nearby. Standing at the base was really the first look I had of the route, and it definately met my expectations.
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The next morning we hauled in some more water, and decided to seige it rather than fix and blast, which turned out to be a good call on our part. We were to unfamiliar with each other, the route, and had no experience with each others rythms. My aid has been mostly solo, and his as a team. Kinks needed to get worked out. So we fixed to three the afternoon before the blast, and got a little of the bugs out. Looking at pitch two got me all in a wad, man what a beautiful nuttable crack. God I love this stuff. Looking up before.
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And down it after. Beautifulllllllllll.
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And the view to the south wasn't too bad either.
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And the shadows got real long very early in the afternoon, so no watch is needed to know when dark is coming. This is the local outdoor concert hall, about an hour off the base.
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The theatre across the valley turns about 20 different shades of red during each sunset, and here is just one of those.
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So we rapped down and had a late lunch, and spent a nice cool night at the base near the Middle Mary.
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The crack opened up a flare some here and there, and offered a lot of variety for a while.
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With a little altitude coming on, the views got better. Looking down should give you an idea of the weather we were forced to endure. Pretty stellar for January.
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This was supposed to be my pitch, and I weaseled my way out of it. I am not sorry in the least either. It is indeed the first piece he was able to leave, directly overhead of the belay, and also a pretty opened up 5" Camalot at that. It fell out on top of me while I jugged up to get it. The one and only 6 we had with us was at the belay. I do remember vividly about 5 minutes after this a comment along the lines of I'm almost going to puke now.
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If I do this one again, I think a third #5 and a second #6 would be on my rack, just to be sure to not fall on the belayer. And by the way, we did have a blade that was fixed pull on (I think P3) us. It was loosely fixed and when weighted pulled some, and a hasty nut was thrown in to prevent it from pulling. Instead, the quick nut was not good, and the resulting fall pulled the blade. Cameron went right through this spot again without its use, without hooks, so it can remain clean without it. We had no hammer with us, as it was a clean ascent we were doing, and if the gear pulled, we would deal with it without the hammer.
Any whoooo, I got going so slow on the next OW that I stopped and built an early anchor on the flat 5 foot wide ledge and we spent a relaxing evening there. I was pretty tired, and it was getting chilly so I kicked back and took a few photos to share. Me upon arival a building a huge pile of crap in the corner that was to be my pillow.
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This is the view I had to endure during the waking hours. My phones camera leaves a little to be desired, but it is the photo I got and I will share.
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After a nice breakfast of canned peaches I finished the OW free and Cameron finished the exit pitch in short order.
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We hurried the last several cruiser pitches to the raps, and I took a short trip to the summit for a photo. Top of the world for today.
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And it was off to the raps at the gulley. This was the second or third I think.
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And even the Middle Mary has some pretty great looking stone. Taken whild waiting my turn to rap.
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This was the view to the SW when on the ridge.
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And this little valley sits to the NE and N and my guess gets only a couple visits any year.
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Once the gulley gets growing up in summer I'd be willing to bet that some new words are added to every sailors vocabulary. Man what a forest of sharp, thorny, tough plants. And not an inch of level ground either.
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That is the Three Marys and the route is on the left one. The right side has an open book that is about 2/3 rds of the height and is the shadow. That basically is the line, and is worth all the work invested. My opinion is the rack needs beefed up a tad on the big end, and I wouldn't have brought so much of my small gear along, as I only used a piece or two here and there.
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It would be easily done by fix and blast, but the short days of winter, and our unfamiliarity with each other and climbing habits, I felt we made the right decision to seige it, and I am not sorry. I am too old to get in a big ole hurry, while I am enjoying myself on vacation, not holding anyone up. I hope some of you will enjoy this TR as much as I did the route. It is a fine line, and thank you Ron for recommending it to us.
Bob
