Not completely due to mechanical advantage, but rather a combination of factors in order of importance:
1. Importance of granite as a reliable medium for placing gear. I know, right!
2. Increased crowding and parking on the weekends. A couple sour experiences with permitting for said parking.
3. Raptor closures on those areas that I have a current interest in, it is minimizing available weekends.
4. Winter with snow is amazing to me now! A rebirth of the celebration of winter. Helps that I have a warm bed in winter now.
5. Lack of a regular climbing partner with availability at least partially interested in training and getting on sport stuff outside. I don't solo at Pinns, but do in the Sierra.
6. Growing length of the Sierra climbing season (actually this one probably sits higher, but I don't want to reformat my numbering)
7. Relative ease of finding volcanic rock, if I want it, in the same area as the granite rock is easy. Some beauty volcanic lines are begging to be climbed on 108 and finding reliable partners for such types of adventures is near impossible, or requires a lot of cleaning effort to make them worthwhile.
I sometimes find myself completely blown away that SPH hasn't become a regular destination for the thousands that otherwise head to Pinnacles or Yosemite each weekend. There has been a minor uptick on holiday weekends, summer weekends, and most of those are a bunch of central valley folks.
Regardless, I am committed to a couple Pinns weekends this season. Hopefully Nelkins is still amenable to working on the project. Brad has committed to another effort that at least sets the stage for a return to a potential project, but it is probably too terrifying to really bother with. And I would like to lead the Ridge Rock line Mucci and I TR'd. I'm sure there's other things that I've looked at for those days when the snow isn't deep enough for sleds.
