Cathedral Linkup!

Last week, Kevin Mahoney and I did a whole bunch of stuff at Cathedral. One of the things we did was a linkup of Just Laughing (trad M6) and The Unicorn (WI 5). We also swung leads on Repentance (WI 5). So I called up Dunbar this week and suggested we try to repeat the linkup ourselves. Now, it’s one thing to follow a guide up something hard and thrash around, and quite another to be on the sharp end yourself. Neither Dunbar nor I had led anything quite so hard, nor quite so long before, but we got psyched to try it.

I started up Just Laughing, a 30 m granite crack which goes up to a roof at around 9:30. It was scary, pumpy, and fun. I placed a ton of gear on it—a double set of cams! I ended up hanging on the gear a few times, but I eventually pulled it off. I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen. I really thought I could whip off at some spots. It’s funny, because Kevin told me last weekend that he thought the climbing was “really secure,” and today I felt my feet skate and torques spin. I suppose that’s the difference between a gumby like me, and expert like him. For me, the climb was about big moves between a few hooks, and a lot of torques (where you put your pick in and twist with constant opposing pressure). For Dunbar, it seemed to involve a lot of having one hand out and one tool out. I tried to tell him that fingers were for picking your nose, but I guess my advice didn’t take. I can’t complain too much though, because he did it cleanly! It was impressive.

Dunbar went up a short mixed pitch, and then led up The Unicorn, which was steep and pumpy. I’m glad I didn’t lead that pitch because I was pretty tired. In fact, after we walked off, it was about 2:30 pm, and I was about ready to call it a day. But we walked over the Repentance “just to check it out.” There was a party there just doing the first pitch, so we decided to re-rack and go for it. I led up to the first belay station and continued up the crux to link up the first and second pitches. The crux was scary as all hell! It had the snowy appearance and soft feel that ice gets when it gets baked. I was scared enough to get a stubby in the column (an iffy proposition, at least if the column breaks) and clip a screamer to a V-thread that somebody else had put in. But then I looked at the V-thread, and I saw there was a nice white horizontal fracture line under it! Not psyched, and pumped silly, I shook out, and tried to get my breathing and pounding heart under control. I punched it past the crux, and sighed heavily in relief when I got a nice #2 camalot in.

The rest of the climb was way harder than last week’s lead. There were super good hooks last week that felt secure. This week, it felt like I was hooking on saucers, because the hooks had expanded from the warm temperatures in the valley this week. I felt myself panting and smelled the sharpness of burned rock (from tools and crampons on rock). Scared, but committed, I fought really hard and made it to the belay. I don’t think I’ve dug that deep before on a climb. I brought Dunbar up and he cruised past me to the third pitch. He sent the chockstone! The top of the climb is a wide chimney with an infamous chockstone in it. I managed to do the chockstone, too, surprisingly enough. I had been having trouble making the wide stem (I’m only 5’7”, gimme a break!) so this was the first time I actually did it properly.

Anyways, it was around 6:15 pm when we topped out, and night had fallen. We hiked down the road under a gleaming half moon and sparkling starlight. As we passed the slabs at the North End, the ice caught the moonlight just right, and there was a marvelous glow. We were both totally wiped, but we had made it! That was probably one of the most incredible days of climbing I’ve ever had. We were both at our limits, and we both needed each other to pull it off. That’s a good feeling. It’s been a damn good winter.