Unusual Summer

 I think the phrase is 'home insecurity'. We put our house on the market in May 2024 and it sold much faster than we anticipated. I moved onto my boat and lived there for the summer. I did have access to write anything on this blog until now.

My boat is located in CBS and Jan (climbing partner) lives near the university. Despite finding the face previously mentioned, we decided to work further on Marine Slabs this summer as I could pick up Jan on my way.

We have done a fair bit of trail development and cleaned a couple of faces (you would notice if you frequent the area). I had two sets of top bolts placed for further development and we finally started using them. We also continued to work right-wards opening what should be more good moderate ground.

Marine Slabs

Current top anchors highlighted.
Blue is top of Dirty Old Men
Yellow is top of Big Bro

Dirty Old Men 5.8

(Sport 9Meters, 4 bolts plus anchor, FA J. Peterknecht &  N. O'Regan)

This route starts immediately to the right of Stumped. Use the eroded 'crack' on the left to gain the first bolt. Work to the right aiming for a large crescent shaped feature with the second bolt just above it. Use a longer draw to minimize rope drag. Continue working right to a large flake and then up to the anchors. Jan and I had been doing a lot of cleaning on adjacent projects before doing this FA. We kept brushing dirt onto one another as we climbed resulting in the route name.

Big Bro 5.5

(Trad 10Meters, 2 top bolts, FA N O'Regan)

There is a large wide flake to the right of Dirty Old Men. The bottom third has lots of potential placements. The middle third is spicy if you do not have big gear. The flakes spread out making your average rack useless. At the top of the flake there is a nice solid spruce tree with a 'handle bar' root perfect for natural protection, then it is a scramble to the top. 

This FA actually occurred in the summer of 2018. I had bought a 'Big Bro' specifically for this climb and once in the middle section, I could not get it to 'set' properly. I cursed that piece of gear and haven't used it since.