Saturday, October 28, 2006 A Divine Day Our day was divine. Just divine. The leaves are (or were) at their peak. I grew up with fall foliage and for many, many years it filled me with dread. It meant the start of school (which I've always hated), short days, cold and all that. Now, it means the same thing, except, of course, for the school. We're in that interstitial period between sentience and formal education with The Bean and it's good. We can live vicariously though her freedom. Her days are structured, but not as much as they will be when she's fed in to the maw of the Education Establishment. Paul Graham wrote that schools are basically run like prisons and in both cases the inmates run the show. However, I digress. The foliage is summers swan song. One last beautiful ballad before the old bird up and dies. The season goes tits up but gives one last glimpse of cleavage so you'll know what you're missing during the enforced athletic celibacy of winter. Sigh. We started on V3. (Wanted to do Erect Direction to CCK, but Wilson had called dibs in the lot and I didn't feel right nabbing it from him.) It was available, which is rare. After gearing up, stacking the ropes and preparing to climb we realized why. It was soaking. I'd noticed the dripping from the roof as we approached, but didn't notice the sheen further down. Susan had opted for P1 (I wanted P3, the 5.8 topper to Pleh) and she did it despite the moist conditions. Slow, but in style. Kudos to her. Pitch two is 120 feet of 5.2; easy but nice. A very good pitch for a beginner as the route is easy to follow (crack and corner system), it takes good gear and and anchor is straightforward to build once on the GT. The climbing isn't bad either. Pitch three was my quarry. My prey. My bitch. It's a short, but intense, 40 or so feet. The Grey Dick says to start to the right of a right leaning arch, but Irina had already followed ("Oh boy" was all she said when I mentioned it) and she said they started right below the widest part of the roof. The arch looks nice, but on the licheny side. First time out I'll go with the beta. The roof is big; maybe 4 feet in depth and bisected by a flaring crack, although it took good gear. Slotted a hand, walked the feet up the wall and a full-finger deep blue Camalot wide horizontal reveals itself. Jam the cam, climb back down for a rest, then off. Look right, then left, spot the feet, step up (very, very high) and crank. Grab the next jug and it's over. Wonderful moves, but no more then 5.7, in my book. Irina and Susan, being quite a bit less than 6 feet in stature, had a different opinion. Irina hung and, I think, pulled on the gear and Susan took forever and eventually needed some tension. Sweet stuff! Worth a repeat. After a full 200 foot double rope rap to the ground we ate and marched north. Past Arrow. I've eaten everything on that menu so the delicacies, however succulent, no longer whet my appetite. I knew Silhouette would be open; it always is. The tricky route finding, sustained climbing (7+) and the PG gear don't make for being the popular kid in class. I won't bore with the details other than to say that each piece of protection is special, because you don't get many. It's the Nouvelle Cuisine of climbs (small portions, long meal). That's it. It was sunset when we hit the ground. Dinner at Biggies BBQ (6th time for me), then home. Sunday I spent most of the day and evening with The Bean as Wife had to work. Again, divine.