It's important to have bad weekends, so you've got a comparison point for the good ones. An ultra short trip summary about my just-over-with July 12 - 14 from an email I sent to a friend:
"We were 600 feet up the starting gully on the 5.7 route on the Thumb, in the South Fork Big Pine Creek area (southern Palisades). Alternating sections of class 2, 3 and 4. Just starting up a class 4 section, he dislodged a boulder and tumbled with it 15 feet. I was 30 feet away and just around a corner, but it sounded bad. Really bad. At first he thought his leg was broken. But it was just a horrible hole/laceration. Cuts everywhere, with a bad hole in the shin too. I thought his right hand finger was nearly severed, but the blood made it look worse than it was. Anyway, we're out, he's on the mend. Fuckin' stuff makes me wonder about back country routes, but what are you going to do, stop climbing? People (like me in '99) also get creamed right near the road. Just glad I had a good first aid kit, it came in very handy. He never could have rapped down or walked out without the Vicodin. And I had the right stuff to staunch blood flow too.
Talked to him today. They capped the broken tooth, and it's likely to live. He's sore as can be, but more Vicodin is taking the edge off. The chest vent is still in, but he feels like the lung is doing better (it helps that he's back in Santa Rosa, at 300 feet elevation - the lung is more likely to expand more quickly). Broken ribs make him moan every time he moves. He thinks he'll be fine in a few weeks. Very lucky. Actually bad luck it happened at all, good luck we could get ourselves out (although sooo slowly)."
Yeah, I'm pretty certain next weekend will be great, no matter what I do.
