more Indian Creek action

I had now spent longer at Indian Creek than I had intended, but was reluctant to leave as the climbing and the company was so good. I headed out with Kevin and climbed a couple of routes on the smaller Blue Gramma cliff. This seemed a little different from what I had done previously, as things were either a little wider or a little narrower. We had met (Jim Donini) a veteran of Indian Creek climbing the night before. He had explained that the grades at the creek were a little meaningless and could be seperated into more logical demarkations such as "anatomically incorrect". A good example of this can be seen at http://www.bigupproductions.com/bigUpSite2/parallelojams2.html
I haven't been climbing finger stacks or ringlocks, but the person who sends (climbs) this is the one whose fingers best fit the crack. As the cracks in Indian Creek are often the same size for their entire duration, what matters most is if it is a good size for you. If the crack works for you, it'll seem easy, if it doesn't it'll be a struggle. For this reason the grades are only crudely defined. I've been climbing 5.10. Usually this is subdivided into a,b,c and d. But here most of the routes have just been plain 5.10. On Blue Gramma we were planning to climb some of the wider stuff. I have small, delicate, girlish hands and the wide stuff was going to be a challenge.

Blue Gramma cliffs

Gearing up for some wider stuff. Not a yellow camalot in sight. For me yellow is "perfect hands", red is "tight hands". I can climb reds where some struggle (e.g. Kevin - I hope you don't mind). Although I loved Supercrack that was tight blues and for me nice "cupped hands". I'm gearing up for a wider blue crack which I found to be shakey "cupped hands" but too tight for "fists". Kevin cruised this, I like to think because he has larger hands, Toby would have loved every moment of it. I was unsteady but managed to complete the Unnamed route 5.10.

Kevin at the base of two routes. We climbed both Dawn of an Age 5.10b (left) and the unnamed (right). Dawn of an Age was problematic as the crack became awkwardly wide and you had to layback on rounded edges. Laybacking is a funny buisness because when you do it, it's virtually impossible to place gear. You also have to layback quickly as it's strenous. It's also more demanding in Indian Creek (compared with Finland or Norway) because the friction for the feet is worse meaning that more force is necessary on your arms. This is also my least favourite, elbow-injury inducing move. Also when you're laybacking the most challenging thing is to stop laybacking (this is invariably done above your protection as it's almost impossible to place whilst laybacking). Anyway for me this was the crux of the route, and it was with relief that the angle eased, and I could get the weight onto my feet to place a cam.

We then climbed a fantastic unnamed 5.10. The guide book description read "tight hands to off width". The guide book description didn't lie. I thrashed my way up, but it was a really good summary of almost everything that was Indian Creek. I placed every camalot from number 1 to number 6. The photo shows Kevin in front of the crack (which is tight #1s at this stage). He's holding a #6 which shows how wide the crack got. I was pretty solid from sizes 1 until 4, then things got really hard and Kevin had to hold me on the rope several times as I puzzled the, what then seemed intractable, wide wide moves. Eventually I topped, with all the style of a sumo wrestler performing ballet. I had bled over the route and Kevin's larger cams. I felt truely beaten up, but I was laughing as I lowered down. I doubt I'll ever place all the camalots from 1 to 6 on a single pitch again (not least because I don't own a #5 or a #6).

Kevin not seeming to mind his bloody big cam. I refer to the presence of my blood on the hardware, but bloody as a adjectivoral modifier works just as well.