A Good Few Days

A quick glance at the calendar shows the Fall Equinox occurred on September 22, heralding in the autumn season.  Autumn, the time that all rock climbers eagerly await, bringing cool temperatures, low humidity, and hopefully big sends.  The weather apparently lost its calendar as the high on Sunday was 88 with a maximum humidity of 86%.  Maybe it's just being ready for the good weather but conditions lately haven't felt as bad as the numbers may have looked.  I've  managed to climb outside 3 days lately with some pretty good results. 

Theresa and I spent a nice weekend outside, climbing at a newer area that's not fully ready to be publicized near Chattanooga.  On Saturday I managed to climb a project that's probably about 13a and very, very good.  It was my goal of the trip and was psyched to get it done.  Stephen had bolted it last year and very graciously opened it up to the public.  His routes are almost universally good, he's got a great eye for quality and does a conscientious job equipping them.  Later in the day I also did an existing 12d, with the crux at the very end climbing on technical New River-ish stone.  This route was bolted by my friend Dave who originally showed my the area and is another of the classic routes at the crag.

A boring photo showing some of the wall

Another boring photo

We camped that night with the girls, enjoying sitting by the campfire, eating fajitas, and listening to football on the radio.  In the morning we had a very adult breakfast of Fruity Pebbles (with bananas!) and then packed up camp.  We headed back to the same crag and had another great, if less successful day.  I bit the bullet and went up a very dirty route, getting filthy but figuring out all the moves on another of the big routes on the main wall.  We capped the weekend off with a nice dinner at The Terminal Brewhouse in Chattanooga.  The Terminal has good food and brews good beer and is easy to get to if you're traveling through on I-24.