1. Joe and I went to The Frog on Friday. Among other climbs, I hoped to get on Tuff. Tuff has intimidated me since I first walked under it in 1986. Talking about warmups, Joe said he'd lead Tuff as our warmup. "OK," I said with a little bit of admiration and wonder (I mean, I never thought he was crazy, did I miss something?). Reassured by the replacement bolts, Joe went for it. Tuff has some moves. He climbed carefully and well, clear up to the stance before the crux. He barely hesitated there, clipped the old bolt, made the crux moves (we didn't know these were the crux moves until after). Clipped the replacement, next bolt, held on, clipped the fixed pin two feet higher (in a slot of some sort). Steep section here, he moves higher. Just before the big knobs, a chance to breathe coming, off he comes. And the pin holds! Short fall, with stretch and me stepping forward slightly, maybe 6 or 7 feet. But the fixed pin held. I've never seen a fall onto a fixed pin at Pinns.
He finished the lead quickly. All in all, even with the fall it was, in my always humble opinion, a brilliant, aggressive lead. It was my first Pinns climb of the season, surely a good excuse for me hanging at two or three spots when I followed.
And the pin held!
2. Saturday I was in position to drill a bolt. It was warmer than I expected. I was on lead, so I had on climbing shoes. The bolt took 25 maybe 30 minutes to drill. The usual: hot, dirty, uncomfortable. By the time I finished I was ready for water and a break. I lowered off. The heel on my left foot hurt, so I took off the shoe. Dam if I didn't have a blister. Bigger than a quarter, very red and puffy. From 30 minutes in the sun. I guess the thin black rubber, combined with no ventilation and the heat was enough to cook my foot. I never would have believed it. Spent yesterday on a fixed rope and belaying. In approach shoes, since there was no way I could get my climbing shoe on.
