nrg (4/27-30) - part the first

Wherein Bruce and Connors did venture forth and explore the Bridge Buttress and Bubba City...

66 West.
81 South.
64 West.
19 South. No, wait...North.

The Comfort Inn will do just fine. We're here and too tired to care.

Morning dawns an hour later than I thought and we stumble down to a surprisingly large continental breakfast. We stuff ourselves silly and decide that today's best bet will probably be Junkyard Wall - it offers Bruce's motivator, New Yosemite, and some other moderates including New River Gunks.

New River Gunks is at Junkyard? I coulda sworn it was at the Bridge Buttress. While it's been like nine years, I have a fairly vivid memory of being under the bridge. Ah well, Junkyard it is.

How do we get there?
I seem to remember it being this way.
Or perhaps not.
What does the map say?
No, you're right. It's not terribly helpful.
Perhaps... no, those are definitely no parking signs.
Damned if I know.
Perhaps now would be a good time to pretend like I've never been here either.
Why?
Because my memory is clearly not worth a shit.

Foiled by inobvious parking and possble trespassing issues we default to the Bridge Buttress. It has some moderates as well. Something to cut our teeth on, why right here in the guidebook there's a 5.6, Gunky Heaven....

And suddenly the clouds part and everything makes sense. That was the route I'd done before. My memory suddenly [somewhat] vindicated, I decide to take another run on up.

I mince up and down below the first roof for not too long before boldly (har, har) commiting to a series of very easy moves. The middle of the route goes easily and I'm soon below the second roof where I eye some rap webbing from some previous soul who couldn't or wouldn't move on. Unfortunately, because I've done this route before, I know it can be done and thus have no excuse to rap.

I go up and down, according to Bruce, "like a 1000 times," before commiting to some thin DFU moves to the top. The only thing that gets me up is the fact that I've done it before. Bruce, of course, waltzes up in a matter of minutes.

It's Bruce's turn now, and while Up to Disneyland (5.7) is in the range, it seems a little committing and the top inobvious. But Out to Lunch (5.8) while harder, offers what seems to be perfect hands and is thus the obvious choice for Bruce. An awkward start is followed by some tough jamming before a decent rest and the crux.

Bruce isn't wild about the pro but needs to get moving before he burns out. As he launches for the thank-god hold his feet cut out before latching on. And the climbing just doesn't let up. What looked to be 4th class from below, while ledgy, still has some difficult moves.

He finishes up fairly easily and I get brutalized by the crack coming up .
A proud lead to be sure.

My turn again and the corner of Barefoot Alley (5.8) looks good.

Things go swimmingly until the roof where the left exit seems hard, and is, moreover, plugged with gear, while the right, seemingly easier, leads nowhere. I eventually pull right and step back left and am now faced with a whole lotta nothing - inobvious moves and no gear.

Why does this always happen to me?
Screw pride and screw this.
Those thin trees offer at least something.

I sling 'em and move on up - glad to be on top. Bruce manages to pull through the roof in proper fashion and we head back down.

While the Bridge Buttress certainly offers more moderates, we decide to round off the day with a new locale in the form of Bubba City.

A lengthier drive than walk (apparently 82 is now one-way and we have to go all the way down to the river, back up the other side, and back across the bridge) brings us to, of all things, a 4-star 5.7 - Daisy Cutter. With accolades like that, how can we not climb it? It's Bruce's turn on point...

Hmm, interesting.
That was thin.
A chimney on a sport climb?

Well that sorta sucked.
4 stars my ass.
What the fuck do I do here?
And why the fuck is it bolted like that?
4 stars my ass.
Watch me.
That sucked.
Worst.
5.7.
Ever.

Bruce was less than enthralled. I'd planned on releading it, but after watching Bruce decided to go up on TR and offer a perhaps less-biased view of the climb. I mean it does have four stars after all.

Nope, it sucked alright.

With day dwindling and the fact that we still need to decide on our campsite, we decide to fit one more climb in at the nearby Beer Wall. We eventually settle on Near Beer (5.6) which offers, despite it's 1 star rating, substantially better climbing than Daisy Cutter. Bruce leads again (by this time I was fairly lethargic and falling into one of my "states") and I quickly follow.

The day done, we decide to camp at the low-key Mountain State campground, get some forgotten niceties (pillow, towel) from K-Mart, grab some mexican grub, and await the arrival of Porter and Ben.

Beers are downed by all below a starry night.