I recruited John Bolte, one of the local hard boys from The Edge.
I started my Mud-corruption of the 16 year-old John by taking him on his first West Pinns route.
It's funny how in the ten years since Stevi D the roles have changed... now I'm the leader.
It was 80 degrees in the parking lot at 9AM.
Ahhh Yess, the Resurrection Wall. I was initially drawn to it as training for a future installment of Mittens and I's Mega Linkups. And later realized one my heros, Rupert Kammerlander, did the FA. For scale Im the little yellow spec.
I'll skip the first 60 feet as much has been written here about the stuff that covers the rock.
Lets get to the business...
The Star Drivin' Belay.
Me giving a YOSAR approved rope management lesson.
John is sporting a Mull-Hawk, apparently its a substitute for a helmet. His dad Mike approved, but rest assured John wont forget his helmet again.
Entering the business of deciphering the first 11A crux.
You can't see the bolts, mentally they didn't really exist.
Mike Bolte is excellent at photographing birds. His lenses really come in handy for shooting climbing too.
The second 11A crux at the end of pitch 2
Proper technique for shooting photos while belaying.
And then I freed The Boot..... whoops wrong trip report.
John loves runouts, mostly to impress the girls, but I think he's trying to impress me too. So I sent him up to link 3 and 4, which turned out to be a bad idea with a 60m rope.
Headwall glory
John offroute on some incredible rock at the top just before he belayed me off the dead manzanita bush, to avoid simulclimbing. We agreed in advance that this was a no fall operation. Trust was paramount.
Typical large Resurrection Wall knob, kind of like the Monolith with a lot more lichen.
A Rupert Kammerlander Special on the spectacular final 5.7 traverse. We're not going to replace that baby.
Everything seemed a lot prettier and excruciatingly vibrant when we reached the summit. Kind of like when John Muir summited Mt Ritter. or maybe it was just the scorching sun. Either way we ate some M&M's and I proceeded to stumble down to the base, way more worked than after climbing The Nose. It turns out that Pinnacles is the real deal and can invoke pain and pleasure as well as any other local.
Not far off the trail a beautiful wall awaits, a sure experience in Licheneering that will cleanse you soul.
