An Afternoon at North Table Mountain

Too much to blog! Not enough time!

Our first weekend back in town surely had to be spent climbing. Doug and Liz called us, and after some debating, we decided to head up to the Ironclads. Then, an hour later, I walked the dog and noticed that the mountains were enshrouded in clouds. So, we all decided to head south to North Table Mountain.

There’s a few pictures in the Gallery. Not many, though. I wasn’t in a very photographic mood, I suppose.

Mark started out the morning leading (according to Doug, because I suck with the guidebook) Chunky Monkey (5.10a) with one of his shoes and one of Doug’s. Mark made the climb look really easy, but the rest of us had a rough time on it.

Doug led up Honey I Shrunk the Hemmorrhoids (5.7) for his warmup. We were all shocked later to find out this was a 5.7. Seems like it had some very hard parts to it. It’s hard to imagine an “outdoor gym” like NTM would have so many sandbags, but if you’re not used to the rock, the routes can seem much harder than their grades.

At the end of the day, Mark hung topropes on an Unnamed 5.9 with a big roof and an Unnamed 5.10 that followed a long, sharp arrete. It was enough climbing to wear us all out, and several good routes. I’m looking forward to the new guidebook coming out, so we can spend more time really exploring the cliffline.

Also, as we moved the ropes over to the two TRs, a fellow and his friend arrived at the base of the cliff and helped us figure out what climbs we were on. We enjoyed hanging out with them as we finished up our routes, and I found out later that this was Curtis of knick-knack.com. It’s fun to meet another climbing photographer/blogger – even if you don’t find out about it until later!