SUMMARY HAIKU
Pick Your Poison FAB!
Finally finished Pre Skool!
Feisty Walk to School!
Pick Your Poison FAB!
Finally finished Pre Skool!
Feisty Walk to School!
The Climbs
Pick Your Poison
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Climb: Pick Your Poison (Trad) (5.7+)(2 pitches - 200 ft, you have to do the 1st pitch of Pre Skool - see Day 26: Graduate Cliff/and/or Graduate Cliff, Day 46 for Pre Skool details/stories)
Wall: Graduate Cliff Rope: We used a 70m for two long raps and one short rap to avoid the 5th class down-climbing. Good Lead for a New Trad Climber? Pick Your Poison, yes, it's pretty easy and mostly protectable. The end might be a little un-nerving for a new lead. (P1 of Pre Skool, no.) Conclusion WTF? What the FUN! In order to get to Pick Your Poison you have to climb the first pitch of Pre Skool. The first pitch of Pre Skool is a good climb, but the roof is for real - it's not a typical 5.7 bypass or juggy with steps (hence the + rating in the climb.) It also helps to be tall to reach key holds. I (Stef) have done this roof three times now, hoping it will get easier each time and it doesn't (I am 5'5"). Rick has done it twice now and he does not believe the roof is a 5.7 - which is probably why the FAs call Pre Skool a 5.7+ - the roof is not 5.7 but the rest of the climb is.
When you near the top of Pre Skool pitch 1, you will see a big pine tree to your left. Angle up across black petina rock to the pine tree (you can also do a straight traverse level with the pine tree, but angling up is easier. Start the traverse low on featured, protectable dark petina, then angle up on easy but unprotectable petina.) Pick Your Poison starts from this pine tree.. Pick Your Poison has mostly good rock and is straight-forward climbing for the first 75%. A good chunk in the middle of the climb is basically walking up a gully inside a really cool cleft. Then the chimney narrows and you have to stem and go up into a cavern. This section is where you have to look closely for pro and plan your slings for your exit choice. There are three options for the exit: (1) Climber's right, which is what I (Stef) took, is like a stemming through tunnel (see photo below of Rick coming through the tunnel.) (2) The middle, direct exit out (you may have to go inside the cavern to place a piece and then backtrack out onto the main chimney wall, but I'm not sure. I didn't scope this one out too carefully. There may be pro on the face somewhere. (3) The birth canal is a quite small hole that looks like you'd have to take off backpacks to squeeze through. It looked like there were lots of rock and sand in this option. |
Rick, on the first pitch of Pre Skool, reaching up over the roof to find a hold. The best hold can be found by someone 6 feet or taller - and it's still scrappy.
Stef at the base of "Pick Your Poison." I started a little left because of the big pine tree.
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I built an anchor and belayed from the end of the tunnel. The bolted anchors are out near the edge of a large flat boulder - too far and too angled to belay from.
I loved this climb!
I loved this climb!
Rick following on the "right-hand" exit (lead climbers right as you come up the chimney) for "Pick Your Poison." Behind him where the sun is shining would be the middle exit. Behind him on the right side of the photo is the "birth canal" exit.
Finishing Pitch 2 of Pre Skool
If you have been following our climbs, you may recall that on Day 46, a friend, Tony Ferrar and I climbed Pre-Skool and bailed about 30 feet from the top - the rock and pro seemed way too sketchy for either of us to feel comfortable leading it. Since then I have been wondering if bailing was the right choice.
Since Pick Your Poison and Pre Skool Share the same bolted anchors at the top, Rick and I decided to top-rope pitch 2 of Pre Skool. Rick top-roped the entire pitch (since he hadn't done it yet) and I top-roped the last 30 feet. Boy am I glad I did not lead that last part! It was terrible and there is maybe one tiny-gear spot I might trust - but not really because the rock is so soft and it was a pretty small crack. There is no question in my mind that Tony and I made the right choice (and Rick concurs.)
With that said, I'd strongly recommend NOT (What the Forget About It!) doing the second pitch of Pre Skool and doing Pick Your Poison instead - as you read above, Pick Your Poison is a blast.
(TIP: Walkie Talkies will be really helpful if you do the 3-pitch climbing. If the second has trouble on the Pre Skool roof, you all can communicate. And, you likely will not be able to hear commands on Pick Your Poison.)
Since Pick Your Poison and Pre Skool Share the same bolted anchors at the top, Rick and I decided to top-rope pitch 2 of Pre Skool. Rick top-roped the entire pitch (since he hadn't done it yet) and I top-roped the last 30 feet. Boy am I glad I did not lead that last part! It was terrible and there is maybe one tiny-gear spot I might trust - but not really because the rock is so soft and it was a pretty small crack. There is no question in my mind that Tony and I made the right choice (and Rick concurs.)
With that said, I'd strongly recommend NOT (What the Forget About It!) doing the second pitch of Pre Skool and doing Pick Your Poison instead - as you read above, Pick Your Poison is a blast.
(TIP: Walkie Talkies will be really helpful if you do the 3-pitch climbing. If the second has trouble on the Pre Skool roof, you all can communicate. And, you likely will not be able to hear commands on Pick Your Poison.)
Walk to School
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Climb: Walk to School (Trad) (5.7)(1 pitch - 100')
Wall: Graduate Cliff Rope: We used a 70m Good Lead for a New Trad Climber? Probably not. The protection is ok, but the climb is feisty and heady. Conclusion WTF? What the FEISTY! This is another example of a climb that looks cruiser from the ground, but isn't. There are several bulgy, awkward undulations to contend with. Fortunately the protection is good.
Mountain Project talks about different anchor options for this climb. Someone commented that there is an anchor further up past the traverse option. We cannot comment on this, as we did not go that way. The Handren guidebook shows the anchor to be a threaded hole a short ways in on the traverse, this is no longer there. Once you start traversing you are committed to using the bolted anchors atop The Graduate (see photo of Stef on the traverse.). The first half of the traverse is on a decent sized ledge, but there is some soft rock, no initial pro, and some bulges in your face. Protection is available in a bit, though. The small ledge eventually ends and then the traverse is on knobs with so-so rock (good enough, but not so good that you relax.) You can place a piece right before heading out onto the face, then once on the face sling a horn if you want extra security.
Starting the traverse on Walk to School.
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Stef leading Walk to School
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Climb Stats to Date
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DATE OF CLIMB: October 4 & 9, 2020
WALLS HIT: 2 (Footloose entry on Ragged Edges wall is on a different page) NUMBER OF 5.7 CLIMBS TODAY: 3.5 (includes Footloose and half of the second pitch of Pre Skool) NUMBER OF 5.7 PITCHES TODAY: 4.5 (includes Footloose and half of the second pitch of Pre Skool) NUMBER OF FALLS: 0 NUMBER OF TAKES: 0 5.7 VERTICAL FEET CLIMBED TODAY: 400' DIRTY UNDERWEAR ENCOUNTERED TODAY: 0 |
TOTAL CLIMBS SO FAR: 138
TOTAL PITCHES SO FAR: 182 TOTAL 5.7 VERTICAL FEET ON THE TOUR SO FAR: 15,795' NUMBER OF CLIMBS REMAINING: 100 (out of 237) VERTICAL FEET REMAINING: 34,952' FALLS SO FAR:
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