Gary decided to come down to Golden this time and we figured we could find a bit of shade on the south side of North Table Mountain (Golden Cliffs). A warm hike up from the parking lot took us to the popular Brown Cloud Crags, where there was only one other group. Gary offered me the first lead and I decided on the route Axis of Weasels (5.7).
 |
After cleaning the route we both top roped the neighboring sport climb, Brown Cloud Arete (5.10a). I’ll admit to having trouble with the starting moves.
 |
By now the rock around Killian’s Dead (5.6) was in the shade so Gary took the rack for his first trad lead in a couple months.
 |
I decided I should lead the next route to the right, John Adams’ Adams Apple (5.7) and found a perfect tricam placement at the start to protect the opening moves. Excellent hand jams higher up had me enjoying this pitch more than the more “classic” Killian’s Dead.
 |
I convinced Gary to take another lead and pushed him towards Thick Crust (5.7) – it’s actually more fun than it looks, I assured him (pigeon crap was decorating some of the holds). Gary powered through, cleaning out some cobwebs in his lead head and reached the top to belay me up. The sun was starting to set and I’d had a pretty full few days so we didn’t try to cram in another climb.
 |
