Anyone care to tell me about Costanoan?

[Gavin]

Yeah, good points Mud, Munge, and Cobble... Dos Equis would likely be a bit much for beginning leaders.

A co-worker of mine - relatively new to leading - found the route a bit more spicy at the top than he had expected. For kicks I followed the climb while wearing standard walking shoes with absolutely no grip or sticky tread... Definitely turned that 5.8 into something a bit more challenging when I couldn't reliably use half the footholds!

[CruxLuv]

Finally, finally, finally!!  Costanoan was every bit as fun as I expected!

Aaron, his wife, Bob, his son and I were up there yesterday.  Great company, amazing weather, gnarly approach, (mostly) solid rock and a condor sighting to boot!

Someone was nice enough to set up a register, but I suspect it won't weather the winter.

Swung leads w/ Bob with his son in the middle.  Got to lead pitches 2 and 4 which felt really good.  Looking forward to going back to lead the whole thing for my hubby.

Hopefully pics to follow.  For once, I wasn't the shutter bug.

Damn...Monday again, huh?? 

[JC w KC redux]

Swung leads w/ Bob with his son in the middle.  Got to lead pitches 2 and 4 which felt really good. 

Nice job Crux!
If you go back and lead the whole thing, you can link p2 and 3 to avoid the semi-hanging belay.
You'll get some rope drag but it's manageable.

[CruxLuv]

Ah ha.  Yeah - my calves are in knots today from belaying them up and past me from that station.  Yowie!

And we found that my 70 meter rope was enough to rap off the first pitch.

[JC w KC redux]

Ah ha.  Yeah - my calves are in knots today from belaying them up and past me from that station.  Yowie!

And we found that my 70 meter rope was enough to rap off the first pitch.

That's what gave me the giant blister on the end of my big toe.
Definitely worth putting your shoes on your haul loop to change out at extended belays.
I figured a 70m would be perfect since the rappel is 15 feet too long for a 60m.

Is my quicklink still on the first bolt?

[CruxLuv]

Funny - we were wondering about that!  Yup - still there and I'm betting it's been used more than once.