It's a deal. Heavy Mettle sound like an off width? Tell me moreā¦
Heavy Mettle is a three star (out of three), 70 foot long, 5.10a offwidth. A superb route. It's located in the South Fork canyon, one of the prettiest parts of the SPH, with some of the best rock.
I led its first ascent with the following gear: yellow Alien (in a side crack down low), #5 Camalot, #6 Camalot, #5 Camalot, #4.5 Camalot and #6 Camalot.
It was physically tough, although it has one rest point two thirds of the way up. Joel followed me. Without any real offwidth experience, he hung on the rope every eight inches. He made it up though, and then almost puked. I looked at him and started laughing. And I thought: "that's a lot of heavy metal." As I thought though about his persistence in following the thing, I decided to change the spelling to "mettle."
I believe the that rigid stem Friends are now referred to as "Inflexible Friends."
Around our house we call them "wall decorations."
