Ledgelife

Little si Update:

This past weekend was another great cragging weekend with some good sends.  Saturday was a tad warm, but as the afternoon moved along the wall actually got some nice shade and cooler temps prevailed.  Jesse Warren, local crusher turned honorary Canadian and now back in the PNW polished off Enigma (5.13d) first try of the day after previously being on it a mere three times.  After receiving some stellar beta from my friend Nick I made amazing progress on my project Vanilla Ice (5.13a) going from completely stumped to one hanging it, but it wasn't meant to be and the closest I got was two moves from the top.  Nick came close on Black Ice falling at the very top, and Jimmy made great progress on Vanilla Ice as well.  Newcomer Jon sent Technorigine in very good form and with the quickness. 

There is now new hardware on Enigma, and a once previously forgotten route Sweet Tooth(5.12b) is now equipped with hardware as well and is seeing some serious traffic.  Some random perma-draws have shown up on Psychowussy and Rainy Day and have been the cause of some consternation.  I understand the draws on Rainy Day, even though there are only two, they are both located at the two cruxes of the route.  The ones on Psychowussy are a little more confusing seeing as how there is really no need to equip Pyschowussy with permadraws.  But in any even they are up and someone spent the money and thought it was worth it. 

Sunday was a bit cooler but not by much, however the wall remained nice and chilled again as the afternoon grew on and we found ourselves donning puffy jackets and head gear.  Some major ascents went down on Sunday with Nick polishing off Black Ice(5.13b), super proud!  And another casual ascent by Jon, who redpointed Californicator(5.12d) but just kept on going for the link up Californication(5.13a) and made it look downright easy.  Congrats to both Jon and Nick for taking down two of Little Si’s finest 5.13’s.  I was unable to join the sending spree but made even more minute progress on Vanilla Ice falling on (literally) the last hard move.  Oh well, sometimes that’s just how the game goes.  I’m excited to get back on it with my new beta and the knowledge that I can definitely climb this rig.  Kevin sent Bust the Move on his beta burn of Vanilla Ice, doing all the moves quickly and looking rather solid. 

The wall continues to be dry with just very small spots of seepage on particular routes.  Whore of Babylon for instance has a wet undercling, the incut crimp sidepull on blackice is seeping a bit with little to no consequence, and other than that I haven’t heard of any other wet or seeping holds.    

The forecast looks a little grizzly for this week with the majority of precipitation occurring on Tuesday (calling for a half inch of rain) and Wednesday (calling for a third of an inch), but after that a chance of precipitation lingers on both Thursday and Friday but it doesn’t look like it will cause too much of a concern.  Saturday and Sunday both look cloudy with hints of sun here and there but the good news, barring the chance that the oncoming rain will dampen some routes, is the fact that the temps will drop back down into the sixties and thus open another good friction window.  We will just have to wait and see.