Climbing - Back to The Wood

Kellan and I met up with my climbing partner, Tim, weekend before last to try out a couple more routes on the Grocery Store Walls. It was a warm Sunday, and we had the whole crag to ourselves, only seeing a couple hikers all day. We were there at about 10:30 and stayed until dusk.

This was Kellan's first time climbing here, so we started out on Peaches and Scream for a little warm up. Tim was nice enough to give Kellan some tips to get him comfortable with top rope belaying me. I have to admit, I was nervous, but the kid did a great job and was very attentive all day, no matter who was climbing. He really seems to enjoy the sport and it's great we can share the experience together,

Kellan finishing out Peaches and Scream

Tim approaching the layback on Peaches

Satisfied with our warm-up and Kellan belaying we moved left to a cool overhang called Hot Fudge. This is a pretty challenging, sustained 5.8 climb and it took us each a couple tries to nail it. I even managed to get my self turned upside-down on the pendulum swing after a fall under the roof.

I was the first to send it, so Tim and Kellan's pride came calling and they both hit it on their next go.

Kellan turning the corner on Hot Fudge.
The route traverses the whole undercling crack at the far left.

After the turn, there's still some tough spots to deal with.

Tim and I gave a half hearted attempt on the variation, with is a short face climb in the 5.10b range. But it proved too tough for us, so we set our sights slightly lower on Carmel Corner and then hit Blood Pudding, down the crag a bit.

Blood Pudding is a tricky 5.9+ with an interesting crux. Mountain Project has it straight up the middle, or to an overhanging right variation. Tim and Kellan both got shut out on those, but I found a couple crimpers on the left side, that made for an interesting side step to get back on the middle line. Kellan assaulted it again and made it, after a long time trying. Tim decided to pass on another attempt.

Kellan on the left side crux.

We moved down a little more to some routes on the Banana Spire. Tim sent one, not sure which. Kellan and I gave a couple attempts, but our finger tips were too wasted after fighting Blood Pudding. Kellan put in a much harder effort than me, but we were spent.

Tim anchoring into the chains on the Banana Spire

The following Saturday, Kellan and I, decided to head back and check out some of the boulder problems. I found this helpful little blog on the area and printed out some stuff to check out.

We hit the ones near the Grocery Store Walls, as that's the area we were familiar with. We messed around on the south block, but it proved too tough for us, so we wandered down to the south and checked out some out some of the other walls. Finding easier problems and make up a few of our own.

Kellan on a little problem near  Cave Wall

Then we scrambled up to the top of the canyon and thought we'd maybe hit the Grocery Store boulders again, but some guys we saw briefly when we were leaving there earlier were set up and were not too friendly when I tried to chat with them, which is unfortunate, because I thought we might be able to pick up some tips from them.

So we wandered across the road to the other side and found a few other not too established looking problems to goof around on, until our fingers were sufficiently shredded. The rock at The Wood is very hard on the hands and fingers. It's a conglomerate type of rock down there, that's almost like concrete with other rocks embedded in it, so it feels like 40 grit sandpaper with glass glued to it after a while.

With me pooping out on at least 3 problems that Kellan was able to do, I've come to realize he's a much better boulderer than me and will probably be climbing much harder than me in no time.