For the first time since school started back up – other than the trip to Arkansas – I finally got outside to paw on some real rock. Not that grappling plastic and getting gawked at by gumbies when you take a sick nasty winger off the arch isn’t satiating; but sometimes its good to get outside so you can appreciate just how great it is inside. Despite the much longer approaches, and infinitely more difficult route finding (haven’t the guys at Seneca heard of colored tape?) we managed to remain entertained.
Andre and I got stuck in some traffic, so we didn’t pull into the parking lot until after five, not giving us a whole lot of time to cram in some climbing. Undeterred, we grabbed a rope, some draws, and our headlamps and dashed up to The Cave. Seneca is pretty old school, and has a fairly stout traditional ethic, but The Cave hosts a few harder sport climbs that have been bolted in recent years. We each gave a few runs on a short 5.12a to get warm, then turned to The Threat 5.12b. Although sport climbing isn’t usually the reason folks head to Seneca, if you’re going that direction I would highly recommend that guy, molto bene.
The next few days we cragged around, mostly on gear although we nabbed a few bolted and mixed lines. Some of the notables were:
Spinnaker 5.10c – botled arete, beautiful line and exposure, but *#$%ing hard for a 10c.
The Changling 5.11c – pretty good, crux is bolted and gear above the crux is thin for a little spice.
Malevolence 5.10c – the first half of this trad line is overhung and it gave me a good run. Little did we know that our buddy Hunt, who cleaned my gear after my lead, was the first ascensionist!
Muscle Beach 5.11a – often linked together into 1 long pitch, we split it up into the original 3 pitches since were trying to warm up on it and climbing with a pack. Wild finish over a roof, awesome!
Cottonmouth 5.10a to Venom 5.10b – super classic! Venom was also FA’d by Hunt.
Sidewinder 5.11a – two short pitches that are each fantastic! The first has a cool lip encounter and the second is a balancy seam up the face. Probably my favorite line in Seneca thus far.
For some reason my head was off this weekend; I was climbing slow and uncertain. If you’ve ever seen me climb, this is not my style. I don’t know what’s up. Maybe since I had a good summer and climbed well in the comp, I need some time to step back and recharge the mental batteries. Perhaps I’ll take advantage of all that debt I’m accumulating and start actually studying the law…
taking you straight to Whiskey Wednesday.” (Every Wednesday at the Sundowner in Boulder $3 gets you a whiskey shot and a glass of PBR.) The night ended predictably at Round Midnight, with our owning the dance floor; literally, there was no one else on it but us. Also predictably, it fell to me to pilot us home to Golden.