The previous day had been a rest day and was spent at the Internet Café, gear shop and supermarket. I went back to Supercrack Buttress with Dennis, Tom and Kevin who were all on the Splitter Camp. I was fired up to do Supercrack, it had been the picture which had inspired me to cross the Atlantic, it had felt solid on top rope, and there was no excuse not to climb it. The initial section felt awkward, the layback more complex, and the contorted position from which the crucial cam can be placed seemed more unsteady. Regardless, I was soon standing on the rock pedestal staring up at the apparently endless crack cleaving the face in two. One thing to note about Indian Creek cracks is not to look up. The higher you climb the further away the ground looks and, whilst it might not sound intuitive, this is quite relieving. When you look up, the top of the route looks exactly the same distance as when you were standing on terra firma relaxed. I couldn’t resist looking up, I wanted to see the crack in all its perfect glory. Every jam with either hands or feet felt secure. I had complete faith in the gear that I was placing (yellow camalots to the roof, blue camalots above). I fell into a routine – place gear at chest height, climb until the gear was below my feet, make two more moves, place gear at chest height. With this routine I felt confident and started to count 4 and then 6 moves after my feet had passed the gear before I placed the next piece. This felt completely safe as I had absolute trust in every cup of my hands and twist of my feet, and unless I ran out of steam I couldn’t see how I could possibly fall off. On reaching the anchor the adrenaline of the climbing was replaced by a wave of lactic acid. I clipped myself to it and fell exhausted on the rope, with the satisfaction of a job well done. I’d climbed the line that I had stared at in magazines, and dreamed of climbing; it had also, dare I say it, felt fairly easy. When I got to the ground the joy remained but I was enveloped in a feeling of tiredness. I’d climbed the route in Indian Creek that I had most wanted to, I’d done it in a style which I was proud of, and I’d proved to myself that I was able to repeat what I’d learned when it really counted. Supercrack deserves its name and more, WorthcrossingtheAtlanticforcrack would be an equally fitting name.
Without resting properly and with overconfidence that I was a 5.10 climber I jumped on to The Incredible Handcrack too soon. I’m not sure what convinced me that I could climb this, I’d only just scraped through on top rope and I knew that I was suited to the long endurance climbs like Supercrack but not the overhanging lines like Incredible. Initially it went well and I had climbed the overhanging section and had my feet a metre past the last cam. I was on the crux, climbing overhanging cracks is hard but the hardest part is the transition from overhang back to the vertical. Again my feet popped and this time my hands couldn’t hold me. I fell but thanks to Dennis’s excellent belaying not far. I lowered to the ground, rested more and then went for it, I managed to pull through the crux, but whereas every point of contact with the rock had felt secure in Supercrack, in Incredible I felt like I was adhering to the rock by a delicate combination of sufficient friction and luck. The top eases off and despite there being many points which one can rest the calmness and composure that had been there on Supercrack was replaced with uncertainty yet determination.
I knew that Incredible had been an ambitious plan and after resting I thought that I should try something else, something new. This saw me at the bottom of 3 a.m. crack. 5.10. It was more of the same but a little more varied (tight hands, into perfect hands, into wide hands). The confidence that I’d had on Supercrack wasn’t there. I felt I put in a good effort but had to rest on the rope twice. At the end I was shattered, on top of the physical strains of crack climbing I’d found the merciless sun delapitating. It was time to call it a day, collect my thoughts and re-evaluate my targets.
Saturday, 6 October 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Fantastic Tony, well done!
Nice one!
Post a Comment