After last weekend’s mental shitshow, I was happy that Scott agreed to join me this weekend to go back and try again on the same tower. So, as with last time, we loaded into the car and drove south after work on Friday. Saturday found me hiking up the same trail I hiked up last weekend, but when I got to the base of the route I felt the default confidence that I was missing last time. The first pitch went down in probably a third of the time, and nothing felt sketchy. Scott cleaned, and I set off into the terrain that my brain wouldn’t let me check out last weekend.
The temperature dropped, clouds moved in, and the wind started howling, but the climbing was pretty chill, and we topped out before the weather fully crapped out. Rappelling from the summit was probably the most eventful part of the entire climb. The winds were at a pretty constant 40mph or so, with gusts well beyond. To keep the ropes from wrapping around the whole tower, we filled the second’s pack with cams and tied it to the end of the ropes before lowering them, but they still swung out to the side like a kite. After waiting for a relative lull in the wind, I started down, but I got caught out in a big gust about half way down the 55-meter free-handing rappel and ended up on the impromptu rope swing out over the abyss.
It rained off and on all afternoon, and by midnight it was a full-on downpour, so Sunday found me headed home a little bummed on the lack of climbing but happy to have gotten my head straight.
