Rumney Day 3

Day 3 was a very good day. We went up to Jimmy Cliff which was about a 45 minute hike up Rattlesnake Mountain. The hike was really cool because we passed 2 really cool faces; Darth Vadar and the famous Waimea. Waimea is described as the Crown Jewel of Rumney with more 3 star routes than any other at Rumney. It holds the hardest route in the North-East, Jaws 2 going at 5.15a. It also has 7 5.14's and 23 5.13's among its 47 routes starting at 5.10d. The picture can not do it justice, it was freakin awesome. Just look at all the fixed draws and how they hang from the wall. So cool.

Once we got to Jimmy Cliff, we went straight to 'Clip a Dee Doo Dah', a classic *** 5.3 2pitch sport climb that almost goes to the top of the mountain. Bob had read about this climb weeks before we ever left for Rumney and wanted to do it. I felt the same way, it had to be done. It was a very cool climb, all slab and well bolted. There were enough features to make the climb easy but for a slab novice, it was no give away. I took this picture of Bob while I was climbing the 2nd pitch. He is at the belay anchor. The walk down was quite easy and from there we went to the next area of Jimmy Cliff.
It was Bob's turn to do some lead. He led 3 climbs being a 5.5, 5.6 and a 5.7. One was particularly heady but Bob took his time and worked through it. I followed him on it and was quite surprised about how quirky the route was. Bob's lead head was really starting to come around.
Myself, I want to try a couple things that might have been a bit over my head. I got to the bottom of a 5.10b that followed and arete to a set of anchors. It was slightly overhanging with a traverse. I finished it with a bit of hangdogging but I knew I could get it clean just not on this trip. The anchors I finished on were directly over a 5.10c. I TR'd that route. I had to sit back 3 times but knew that with a little work I could get that one too. This answered one of the questions I had before going to Rumney...Could I really climb in the hard 10/ easy 11 range. The answer was yes and that made me a pretty happy guy.