Day 11 - Wednesday June 20 - A Crazier Night

I met Blake at the trailhead of Fergusen Canyon tonight at 5:24 (I was running about 4 minutes late). We went on up and Crazy was not far behind us. I wanted to climb the 5.8 and 5.9 on Cathedral Wall, but there was a family climbing it so we did the old fallback, Extreme Unction. Blake had to leave early and he wanted to try to tackle it again. He set up the rope with the guidance of the dude he met just chilling at the top of the climb, our new freeclimbing friend, Josh (I just don't know how anyone could free climb - I mean, does he expect us to take care of him when he falls, or what?). I then climbed it and then Blake gave it a shot while I helped Crazy get the hang of belaying. He did some belaying last night, but it is one of those things that you just need to do a bunch before you really start to get the hang of it. Blake made it easily over the upside down staircase but did not have enough strength left in him to make it all the way up and over the roof. He came down and then made his way down canyon to get to the wedding he was already late for - at least he has his priorities in line. Crazy gave it a shot, but struggled to get past the staircase. He was really hoping to get past this part knowing that it took Jer nearly ten separate days on the same climb to finally figure it out. He didn't quite get it, but he does have a few more attempts to remain ahead of Jer. At the time he decided to call this one quits, there was a whole group of Relief Society ladies hiking up and they thought they would have a seat to watch me climb it. I did so in order to clean the gear we had left at the top. I am sure those ladies where so impressed. We then went around the corner to the route that if you follow the bolts it is like a 5.11 or something like that, but I led it in the trad crack to the left that is a 5.7 and just reached over to clip in. This was done with a whole new audience of a youth group consisting of about 20-30 kids. What a night. I then had Crazy climb it (which he did with ease) and I walked him through how to clip in to the mountain and clean the gear. This was exciting for him seeing that he just learned how to tie the appropriate knots yesterday and I was now making him do it without anyone looking over his shoulder. He did great and we both lived to tell the tale. It was a beautiful evening up the canyon, and I look forward to doing it again.