EL RITO
Posted by Erik Frey Mon, 07 Jul 2003 05:22:00 GMT
wow!
i almost died again this weekend. i guess i would say i’m shaken, but mostly i’m excited, and exhausted. chris and i went to el rito, camped at the base of the canyon for the night, and spent all of the next day climbing.
one of the things i like about chris is he’s a real lover of fine foods. i wouldn’t normally do this, but we packed in an ice chest to our camp spot. between camping equipment, 60 meters of climbing rope, climbing gear, and three gallons of water, i was hauling more than 50 pounds, along with this goofy big old ice chest that had fresh trout and a bottle of new zealand white wine. on our little gas camping stoves we cooked up trout with fresh lime, pad thai, and pan-seared brocolli. neither of us had brought a wine bottle opener, so i grabbed a tent stake and did the unspeakable. but we served dinner, sat down in the twilight with our aluminum plates piled with food, and our aluminum cups filled with wine, and it was exquisite. just one of those moments where you really appreciate life. we sat around for a while chatting and finishing the wine, and as the sun set the bats came out and would buzz past our ears looking for the mosquitos that were probably looking for us.
the next day we got up before dawn, stowed the camping gear, packed up the climbing equipment, and took off for the el rito walls. it’s pretty awe inspiring stuff. the walls are on the sides of massive free-standing boulders, each one the size of an apartment complex. the rock is volcanic with big pits and granite rocks peppering the layout. pretty ideal for climbing.
top-rope anchors exist on a lot of the routes, but unless you’re crazy there’s no real way to set them except for leading (anchoring your rope into the wall as you go up). lead climbing is still a scary prospect for me, and understandably so, because you’re unprotected from one clip to the next, and if the only thing that’s going to stop you from falling is a good ten feet below you, that means you’re going to fall 20 feet before the rope even begins to catch you.
there was another group there, and they were being really cool about letting us use their top-rope setups. i top-roped a 5.10c called ‘the woody’ and it’s by far the highest i’ve EVER been on a climb. from bottom to the top bolt was more than five stories, exposed on wind-swept rock, and from the top, chris looked about the size of my thumb belaying me from below. it’s hard not to get a little freaked out then. all these things start going through your head – is my harness on right? is that bolt going to hold in the rock? what if chris just lets go? in any case, i finished the climb after a few pretty cool big moves (and a little knee shaking, admittedly), and chris brought the earth back to my feet.
after a while, i was feeling pretty good and wanted to try some lead climbing of my own. it’s really harder, and more dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, but i’d found this route called ‘blackball’ that was only 40 feet high, and only had three clips, and it was a 5’10b, which i figured i had a good shot at. honestly this is where the story gets stupid, and i think one of the things i learned today was that outdoor climbing is not a time for fucking around. i had a lot of cues telling me i shouldn’t have tried to balls-out the climb the way i did:
- the wind had picked up and the sky was getting dark.
- i’d NEVER done lead climbing outside the climbing gym before today.
- i can barely lead-climb a 5’10 that i’m familiar with, let alone alone one at el rito
- and it was my FIRST TIME there
- so i knew NOTHING about the route
- chris has done a lot of top-rope belaying, but had NEVER belayed lead climbing.
honestly, the one that should have worried me most was chris’ lack of lead-belaying experience. but it didn’t.
so i got ready. chalked up, got my quickdraws. hell i even spent time instructing chris on the differences between belaying lead and top-rope, so he’d know what to do. when we were all done, i started up, clipped into the first bolt just fine, checked to see that chris was doing ok, and moved on. the second clip was a little harder to get to, with a couple of technical holds and some loose feet. i pulled up, found some good footing, and clipped in.
i should have known by the third clip not to go any further. it was a bitch to get to, my arms were getting pretty tired, and as it was i barely got that quickdraw on. i was probably about thirty feet up now, and if i leaned back, i could see i only had one more clip to go. only another ten feet. and i thought i even saw a decent approach to it. so i went for it.
holy shit.
i’ve never been so scared. i was exposed on this overhang, with crap holds, the last clip WAY below me, and i could feel my arms going fast. i finally found a good crack that i could fit both hands into, reached with all my strength and opposed on it, and got eye level to the last clip. i was there. i was FUCKING there. i could have touched it.
and my arms gave.
i didn’t even see it coming! i didn’t know this, but i guess i’m christian because as soon as my fingers slipped out, i yelled “OH JESUS!” and started falling backwards. i fell past the first clip and thought “ok, this is where the rope should catch me…”, and i kept falling, past the second clip, past the motherfucking third clip, down and down and down and down…
the story chris told me is that the rope was tangled around his foot and he was looking down trying to sort it out when i fell. he heard me yell “OH JESUS” and this is where things went bad. he looked up and saw me coming down and totally freaked. instead of locking the line down on his belay device, the poor guy reached UP to the rope that was flying up (as i was flying down) and grabbed it with his bare hands. i was about three feet away from the ground when the rope finally stopped me. i must have fallen close to four stories.
chris left a lot of blood on my rope. i guess it’s officially broken in. and chris’ hands have officially been broken in. he’s missing a good chunk of pinky on his right hand. but we taped it up and by the time we pulled into espanola for enchiladas and margaritas, he was in much better spirits.
i think i’ve learned something from the experience. as much as i’d say it was humbling, it was also pretty fucking exciting, and i’ll be doing more outdoor lead climbing in the future, for sure. just a little more carefully.
