| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2007-04-27 16:13:38 UTC-0400 |
| Description | Polly Anikeeva Eric Gilbertson Zach LaBry Woody Hoburg Thin Air & Pine Tree Eliminate, Cathedral Ledge, NH April 22, 2007 Summary: Got a party of 4 up Thin Air without it becoming a cluster-f***!! Success! Eric and Zach had never done a multipitch climb, and Zach had never climbed outside period. These guys ran up Thin Air like nobody's business. Seriously, I was leading with Zach following, and he followed every pitch faster than I led it. Pretty darn good for first time climbing outside! Our strategy for getting four people up with two ropes was: I led, Zach followed and unclipped, then Polly led clipping my gear, and Eric followed her. No problem on Thin Air with nice spacious belay ledges! Poor Polly had to improvise in a few places where my gear was a little too high for her, but she handled it well. We topped out on Thin Air and the guys were feeling good, so we decided to do Pine Tree Eliminate. It's supposed to be a hard 5.8, which is probably true (Henry Barber probably rated it after climbing it in leather mocassins with a rope tied around his waist :) ), but I think it's mainly just more vertical than most 5.8's. Definitely really fun. We finish up the climbing and my keys are missing. Earlier in the day, I had left my rope in the car, and Polly ran down to grab it. So I'm feeling dumb for forghetting a rope, and of course Polly is feeling terrible because she was the last one with the keys. We have no idea where they are, so we begin a search of all the approach trails, the parking lot, the message board, and under the car. NO luck. OK, maybe Polly locked them in the car. So we break into the car with sticks. Cool, now we're in the car, but still no keys. Eric has a test at 9:30 AM the next morning, and we're SOL in North Conway. We call some of Zach's hotwiring expert friends, but that fails too. Finally in desperation Polly asks everyone to check every nook and cranny on every piece of clothing they own. Jokingly I check in my camelback, and find the keys stuffed in with the H20 bladder. Turns out Polly put the keys in my camelback when she returned from getting the rope. Happy to have a car, we go get some submarines and drive home. (Eric proceeds to get a 100 on his controls test the next morning, so no worries for getting home late.) |