Sunday, May 29, 2011

Candy Gone Retro

Kim, Bob and I went to Main Face tonight with the intention of fixing Candy. I figure I would climb the crack until I got to the first bolt and then finish Candy. Then I would lower off and pop in a bolt or two. Easy...Not Quite.
I brought mostly bigger gear remembering that it was a fairly wide crack. To my surprise, the crack is actually very narrow in the back. I happen to have my Black Diamond 00 C3 but I couldn't get it to sit. My second problem was that a lot of water was seeping down the crack and I couldn't get good feet. I just could not feel safe getting off the ground.
I ended up putting the C3 and another cam down low so I could lean out underneath the ledge. I put a bolt in over my head just above the ledge.
I clipped into the bolt and started climbing. I put another 2 pieces in the wet crack until I could get the first original bolt clipped. After looking at it, you could definitely still have a ground fall if you fell before that next bolt. I put a second between the two. Their approximate position is where the 2 black dots are. The red dots are roughly where the old bolts are.
We walked around the rest of Main Face to see the damage of the previous winter storms. It was remarkable. There is a lot of work that needs to be done. The biggest issue is that the ramp probably won't last too many more years. We will need another form of access. Just as a note, Kim (brown jacket) is standing below a route. There is a small horizontal crack just above the roof. That used to be the start hold, I would grab it standing on the ground. That is now about 10 feet above Kim's head. There has been a lot of erosion. Anyhow, Candy is ready to go again.

PS...DO you see an evil little kid in the rock from this picture. Find his head shoulders and waist. Cool!

1 comment:

Trevor Harris said...

No, I don't see it. Ah, I'm so bad at these things. Where is it?