We woke up to snow this morning. Not a lot, it wasn't sticking to the ground, but it was snowing. And it was COLD. Thank goodness for the Cougar's heater.
We lolly-gagged a bit waiting for it to heat up. Happily the wind had stopped and we were anxious to get out and climb. But not in freezing weather.
After a while, we opted to head up to the Optimator Wall. Though it would go into the shade a bit after noon, that was okay. We needed to get on the road early in the afternoon anyway.
We hiked up to the wall. The sun was nice, though it was cold (and just got colder as the day progressed). It snowed off and on while climbing as well.
We started on a climb that is not in the book. Dave had done it years before and noted in his guidebook that it was a 5.11-. He also noted it was a 'hands to fingers with double cracks'. It looked fun and so we hopped on it. Dave flew up it as usual. I went next. The crux part was that difficult finger size - my fingers wiggled in the crack but it wasn't big enough to do a finger lock. Mostly all I could do in the crux section was thrutch and fall. I thought this portion was a difficult as the 5.12 we did a couple of days ago personally.
Next, we did a couple of climbs to the right of us. The first, a climb called Neat (5.10, 110') is described in the guidebook as "Technical thin start to splitter hands." Everyone dispensed with this climb pretty handily. Even I got to the top though it was primarily a crack made for big boy hands. The backs of my bony, skinny girl hands are still bruised today from this climb.
To the right of Neat is a climb called Hayduke Lives! (5.10+, 120'). This climb has much of the same big hand size so I just did the lower thinner section and bailed. I suggested I could sit on the ground and bash the back of my hands with a rock to accomplish the same as climbing it would have (heh heh).
Finally, we capped the trip off with a climb to the left of Charlie's Pillar that doesn't appear to be in the guide book. It was short, awkward and funky. Not the best climb at the Creek for sure.
After that, we hiked down the trail and headed to the campsite. Dave and I hitched up and headed out. Though the weather was very marginal for the trip, it was still a blast. It was great seeing friends and super fun spending the maiden voyage of the Cougar at Indian Creek.
Next up: Cochise Arizona! The whole family (people, cat and birds) will go on this one!
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