Last Saturday I wanted to take my girlfriend Joyce up the Nutcracker. I had taken her up After Six a couple of weeks before that so she wanted to try a 5.8 route to see how she liked it.

I'd led Nutcracker pitches 1, 3 and 5 about a month before and I loved it so figured she would too. Climbed it pretty well, in my opinion, or so I thought.

Well, when we got there around 9:30am there were already two parties on it. We sat back and watched the first girl struggle on the first move and take forever on the first pitch. Then the next party started up and the guy went reasonably fast. His girlfriend went up and slipped and fell on the tree banging her knee. Ouch I thought. That had to hurt a little. Poor girl was wearing a heavy backpack.

Finally, I got antsy and said, screw it, I'm going. I remember thinking I wouldn't even place pro until the tree but then I didn't want to be too cocky and so I placed pro right before the first step up high. I was moving along, not too fast and not too slow. I placed a tricky, insecure nut in a little notch above the tree just to hold me.

Then I moved into the lieback. It felt familiar, but the rock was pretty slick. But I kept moving up, placing gear and felt confident. I got to about 7 feet below the corner where it turns right into the 1st belay ledge. I placed my yellow master cam #4 in the crack and took a quick breath. Then I just moved up, placed my right hand over the edge, then my left hand...then POP! I was flying backwards, sliding down the wall on my left side. Then I wasn't stopping..."take, Take, TAKE!!!" I yelled. Finally, I stopped. I looked up and I was below my 3rd piece. These guys over on C.S. Concerto yelled out, "man, are you alright?" I said, yea, I'm ok.

Wow, i fell pretty far, I thought. I tried to move my left arm and it made this nasty, crunchy sound and right away I knew I had dislocated it. First I was pissed. How the f'k did I do that? I just slid 20 feet, how am I gonna dislocate my shoulder on a f'n 5.8 move??

I moved it once more, it was definitely dislocated. Instinctively I grabbed my left hand, raised it in front of me and pulled it outwards. "POP." It slipped back in. I moved it a bit, and it felt solidly in place again. I looked down and Joyce and yelled, "what happened, babe?" She was stunned, too.

So I swung back over to the corner, climbed back up to the last piece and then paused. "Babe, watch me!" I pulled it the move again and then leaned on the wall for a moment and caught my breath. The girl in front of me asked, "did you fall??" Yea, and I dislocated my shoulder...AGAIN.

When I got to the 2nd belay ledge and brought Joyce up, we just hung out because the first two parties were still on the third and fourth pitch.

I was a little shaken up but I didn't think I needed to get down. I was a little hesitant on the 3rd pitch lieback moves and Joyce yelled, "are you ok?" a few times. I guess just a bit gun shy after that whipper...my first big whipper. But I got up the damn thing and I finished it.

I wasn't sure how I was going to pull the mantle, but I did it, with a backpack, because Joyce was tired. When I summitted, the guys who had seen the fall were up there too. They asked if I was ok, I said yea, but I dislocated my shoulder. Oh shit! Do you need a doctor or something? No, I said. I popped it back in, I feel alright. They said, wow, dislocated your shoulder and still finished the climb.

"Thanks, I guess I didn't have much choice."

The real pain set in once I got down to the parking lot. We had planned on climbing on Sunday also, but I figured it would hurt worse the next day and I'd rather sleep in comfort. I was right. It hurt like hell.

I went to the doctor Monday and he xrayed it. No fractures, no torn ligaments. He says the capsule is probably stretched and the arm needs to stay demobilized for at least 4 weeks. Just in time for JTree? I hope.

I am not doing surgery, even though the doctor suggested it. But I guess after my first dislocation, I kept my rotator cuff strong because the doctor couldn't believe it wasn't worse.

Any suggestions on speeding the recovery of this thing?

---------------
Oh, while we're on the subject of Nutcracker, there were two parties simulclimbing this route.

The first one came up as we were hanging on the big ledge before the start of the 3rd pitch. He asked if he could pass us, and having just waited for 2 very slow parties to go and also peeling and nearly killing myself, I said, "i'd rather not." I hope you understand. He got all pissy, and then when his girlfriend came up he said, "these people...won't let us pass..." Then he said, "no, I'm sorry, i'm going man...we'll be done with this climb in like 2 minutes."

Well, excuse me. You are speed simulclimbing the Nutcracker! Training for El Cap or something? You are a bad ass, man! Then the next pair came up and they had finished in about an hour, they passed Joyce while she was belaying me on the mantle.

Ok, I was just a little bitter due to the fact, but seriously. It's Nutcracker.

Anyway, I was also really proud of Joyce. She's 5'0" tall and she pulled the mantle. I was impressed.

I don't have pics of this ascent, but I do have pics of my first ascent I can post if anyone's interested, but I'm sure you've all seen this route a million times.

Again, any ideas on how to speed the recovery and how to tighten up the capsule of the joint would be appreciated.