Owens River Gorge

[lizolas]

Owens River Gorge - 10 Leads in a Weekend

December 14-17, 2017

At the end of November, I signed up for a Meetup trip to the Owens River Gorge. At the time, there were 5 or 6 people signed up, and I assumed that about a week before the trip, half a dozen more would join if no other, more appealing events popped up. What actually happened was that gradually it dwindled down to the organizer, me, and one other woman. About a week before the trip the organizer emailed us, and she responded to him indicating that she didn’t want to go because it was too close to Christmas. He and I were still excited to go, and to be honest, I was actually more excited then, because that meant less time just sitting around and more time climbing. 7-8 hours is a long time to drive for the typical Meetup experience of maybe lead one easy thing, toprope a couple things, and spend the rest of the time talking and eating snacks. I was somewhat apprehensive about having to spend all day climbing with no rests, but that turned out to not be a problem. We didn’t start as early as I was expecting, and we finished fairly early due to the narrow window of sun in the Gorge providing comfortable climbing temperatures.

Starting up Breaking Wind, right before belaying really required two hands

Kovin had wanted to leave Tuesday or Wednesday night, but I said I didn’t think I could do that much vacation time, so instead I just took Friday off and we left Thursday night. I think that was a good amount of time anyway. My finger skin would not have liked another day or two climbing. I left Thursday after work, arriving to pick him up in Pleasanton at 7:45 pm. We didn’t get to Bishop until after 3 am, and it was almost 4 before we finally picked a dirt road to park on and sleep in the car for the night. With no set wake-up time, we got up around 10 and eventually made our way to the Gorge to start climbing at noon. The weather was great - just a bit warm but not hot, with sun on the Warm Up Wall where we started climbing.

The view of the Sierras from our parking spot the first night

Before the trip, I’d made a list of some climbs I wanted to try from Mountain Project. Thinking 5.8 was the upper limit of my ability, I’d written down a handful of 5.6-5.8 climbs. Being the very suggestible person I am, though, when Kovin started warming up on Babushka (5.8), I did it after him rather than switching to a 5.6. It went great. There were a few strenuous moves, but nothing tricky or too uncertain. Then we moved to the adjacent String of Pearls, also 5.8, which was slightly less huge obvious jugs, but still well within my ability. I was somewhat surprised. Kovin led Humbly, Mumbly, Jumbly, a 5.10b that I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to lead, with the crux around the 1st and 2nd bolts. He set up an anchor and I toproped it. I initially made it through the crux, then fell repeatedly 2 moves later because I was too pumped from inefficiently muscling through it.

Looking toward the entrance to the Gorge from the base of the Warm Up Wall

We moved across the river to Social Platform, where Kovin tried a 5.11b with only one fall. Based more on proximity than anything nice the guidebook said (well, “5 bolts” was kind of nice), I decided to try Nirvana (5.10a). After two attempts where I fell off on the second move, I finally mastered the undercling and sent it. My first outdoor 5.10a, not picked for being soft or easy or “a good introduction to the grade.” Then Kovin tried his 11b again and sent it, also an improvement of several grades over anything he’d led outside before.

Nirvana follows the barely-visible chalk marks a few feet to the left of the crack

Back to the Warm Up Wall for a final climb of the day, where I was convinced to try Welcome to the Gorge (5.9). I onsighted it after a bit of uncertainty at the beginning, although it wasn’t quite as exciting as the first of its grade, much like doing my first 13er wasn’t as exciting after having already done my first 14er. We efficiently headed back over to Social Platform (well, all things considered it is pretty efficient to only have to travel 5 minutes between crags) where Kovin tried a 5.11b/c route with two falls and one hang. By then the sun had not only disappeared from sight but the sky was getting dark, so we headed out. I can’t decide which is worse, the descent into the gorge, or the ascent at the end of the day. On the descent you feel like you’re going to fall on your face the whole time, but on the ascent you spend the whole time dying and wondering why you think you can climb mountains if you can’t even do this.

Kovin said he had a buddy who lived in the area that we could stay with, so we drove over to Chalfant Valley for the remaining two nights rather than sleeping in the car again. This meant staying up much later than we probably would have with no TV, and on Saturday we didn’t get started climbing until 10:30, due to a combination of a late wake-up and trying to wait out the worst of the wind and cold temperature.

We spent the whole day at the Great Wall of China, where I was sandbagged into starting up Manchurian Candidate (“It’s your turn to lead first!”), a newer 5.11a not in the 9th edition of the guidebook. I got up the easier part to the headwall crux before deciding there was nothing near me that could pretend to be 5.8 and bailing. We then located the actual China Doll route about 50 feet to the left and did that, although the line we took was maybe a bit to the left as opposed to the topo’s indication that the bolt line curves right. That felt more like 5.8+, and was completely fine as a warmup, which I would not have expected to say. We continued our warmup with 2 more 5.9s, Heart of the Sun and Child of Light. Both are only 3 stars on Mountain Project, but 5 and 4 stars, respectively, in the guidebook. Heart of the Sun went a bit more easily, with sustained harder moves but no one crux move that I noticed. Child of Light had a difficult start for me, but after 4 or 5 attempts of varying heartedness, I surprised myself by pulling up with a good enough foothold to get the necessary high foot and stand up on it. Toward the top, it got tricky for several moves, and very pumpy. Partly due to a desire to push myself and partly due to how far I was above the last bolts, I made myself either keep moving up to better rest positions, or downclimb to the last rest position if I wasn’t sure of my next moves. In the gym I’m usually pretty content to go one move at a time, knowing that almost any fall (besides maybe failing to clip the 2nd bolt) will be good, and the last bolt will never be too far below me. Here I often had the last bolt several feet below me, with the next still out of reach, and small ledges to hit on the way down if I fell. I had to practice thinking at least a few moves in advance to where I’d next be able to clip and/or rest to avoid getting too tired to hold on.

Kovin onsighted (well, one small foot slip at the beginning, after which he restarted and sent it) an 11b next to Manchurian Candidate and retrieved my bail biner on the way down. The sun slipped permanently out of sight over the western wall of the gorge. With every intention of moving on to mid-10s and taking some real falls, I belayed Kovin again on a 5.11b/c linkup that the guidebook said could be done on one rope, since he wanted to try it before it got too cold. Despite having a 70m rope, he was still about 20 feet from the top when we reached the middle mark of the rope. The retrieved bail biner went right back on the wall. It’s possible that massively extending the draws at the part where he traversed left might have helped, or possibly he didn’t clip the intended route. At that point it was too cold for me to feel like trying any 10s to push myself. We considered going by the Warm Up Wall so I could do something on the way out, but decided we’d be back tomorrow, and were both kind of done climbing for the day.

The one mildly unfortunate thing about the LADWP ownership of the land is that the majestic views of the Sierras are interrupted by power lines and enormous pipes up here.

Sunday morning, once again intending an early start so we could get as much climbing in as possible before leaving at 1, we woke up at 7 but waited around at the house until 8:15 trying to avoid frozen fingers again. The advantage of the concentrated climbing in the Gorge is that you can get in climbs almost as rapidly there as you can in the gym. In just 4 hours, I led 3 climbs and toproped one, and Kovin led 4, which is about the speed that projecting with Salman goes anyway. We started on High Seas, a 5.7 with good enough holds that still feels just slightly more disconcerting than one would expect a 5.7 to feel. This is not just my beginner opinion, as Kovin seemed at least as disconcerted at the beginning as I did. I’d really wanted to do Breaking Wind, another 5.7, next, but a pair of climbers had just gotten on it.

“What’s this one?” “It’s a 5.9. I dunno if I want to try it.” “I think you want to try it.” I did, in fact, want to try it. It was great after I stopped using really stupid beta for the first 2-3 moves. In one spot at the top, I had the feeling I was going to get unbalanced and fall - I’m not sure if I was slightly left of the intended clipping stance or just slightly higher or lower than the intended stance - but managed to hold onto the small crimp with one hand and clip anyway. I think all that “this hold is all you’ve got, so learn to clip off of it” gym training is paying off. Climb 11c in the gym to train for 5.9 outside. Next it was time for another try toproping the 10b from Friday. I’m not sure if I would have tried leading it if the crux were higher off the ground, but I definitely didn’t want to try leading it with an almost certain groundfall from anywhere around the crux sequence. It took me a while longer to figure out that sequence than it had the previous time, but once I got it, I managed to do the route efficiently enough to send it relatively easily. There was a move toward the top that involved a long reach to the right where I would definitely not have felt comfortable leading, but there also might be better beta that I missed. It was just a toprope send, but that counts for something, right?

The other climbers were still on Breaking Wind, and I kind of liked the idea of leading 10 climbs, none of which were 5.6, so that eliminated Clip Jr. as a possibility, and the two 5.8s and two 5.9s I’d already led. We packed up and headed to Social Platform so Kovin could try the 11c he’d started on Friday. While all his harder sends that weekend were impressive from someone who hadn’t led harder than 5.10c outside before, that one was definitely the most impressive. The first 11b had only had one foot-slip fall, which was easily fixed on the next attempt. The onsighted 11b is described on MP as having no single move that’s actually 11b, it’s just sustained high 10/low 11. Having made only one attempt on the 11b/c before, he’d figured out the beta well enough to climb efficiently and send it while making it look pretty effortless from the ground aside from one clip from a lockoff around a bulge.

View up the Gorge from the base of Social Platform

For the final climb of the weekend, we returned to a now-deserted Warm Up Wall where I led Breaking Wind. I wholeheartedly agree with MP’s assessment that all the clipping stances are solid - many could be no-hands rests - and it would be a great first lead. We were right on schedule as we left at 1:10 to hike back to the car. After a quick stop in Bishop for food and gas, we headed home at 2:30, stopping in Gardnerville for dinner at 5. I dropped Kovin off in Antioch at 9, and was home by 10:30, a pretty reasonable time considering all the climbing we got in that day.

This was the only climbing picture I got all weekend, because I decided I needed one of my 10th lead, and up to the first bolt wasn’t really climbing I needed to be belayed on.


Spine found near the car on the first morning

Lessons Learned

• Not a damn thing (aside from climbing technique)
• I can hold onto a lot “worse” holds than I think, and the “just stay below it” beta works astoundingly more often than I think it will.
• “If you can’t find the next hand hold, move your feet higher” is also good beta like 90% of the time.
• I should probably revise the climbing goals I set for this year if I want them to be something I have to actively pursue.

Saturday evening sunset