Day 12 - Saturday June 23 - Crazy Train

We woke up a little earlier this morning so we could climb before it got unbearably hot. Stacy, Bowie, Samwise, and I met Crazy at the trailhead of Ferguson Canyon at 7:15. I wanted to go back up there to climb on Cathedral Wall where I have never climbed before because of people always being on it. I figured this early on a Saturday morning we would have a good shot. I was right. We went ahead and began to set up for these climbs. I prepared to lead one of the climbs, but the first bolt was like 15 feet above ground and upside down on a roof. I just could not figure out how I was supposed to get to this without any protection below me. So we just toproped it. Looking back, it would have been way easy to lead the harder climb right next to that one since it had 4 bolts instead of 3. Crazy climbed first. He got stuck on a spot with few hand holds and had to come down to rest his arms. Stacy then climbed it and got stuck as well. I then climbed it and did so with ease (you know that whole "if you want to look skinny hang out with fat people" thing? Yeah, I kinda did that today with beginner climbers). Stacy followed and succeeded as well. She then had to go to a wedding shower so she took the dogs with her. Crazy gave it another shot and had no problems. It was one of those times where you just didn't find the right hold and when you do you kind of feel like an idiot that you didn't make it. I then climbed the 5.9 crack to the side of this and it was a lot of fun. It is a pretty wide crack, but there are a lot of moves that require strategic body positioning. Then Crazy gave the crack a shot and didn't quite make it. I began up the crack again only to find that the rope was stuck to I just got it out of the crack and I climbed halfway up the crack then the rest of the way up the face to get to the bolts and clean the gear. By this time there were several people waiting for our spot. I don't really like to climb when people are waiting for my climb. Why can't they just deal with the fact that we are climbing it and go somewhere else? That's what we always do. Oh, well. We were done anyway. I really struggled up that last time - my arms just did not want to pull me up any longer. We had a good time today. The crack was fun. We climbed some new routes. Yeah!