Plans to go bouldering with Jenn fell through (get well soon!) so I decided on a solo day up at nearby North Table Mountain to work on some aid climbing skills. At 9:30 I was the first car in the lot and hiked up to the cliffs. After initially setting a top rope over Lemons, Limes and Tangerines I quickly decided the overhanging nature of the start of the route wasn’t a good place to practice beginner aid skills. I moved the rope to Left Slab and setup my Petzl Mini-Traxion on one of the two tied of ends of the rope as a self-belay.
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Getting out my etriers I scrambled up and clipped into the first bolt then found myself mostly high stepping to reach the subsequent bolts and reached the anchors over 6 and a half minutes later. On my second lap I put the watch away and added a #1 Master Cam in a crack and a #4 micro nut to break up the long reaches. Only one clip now required high stepping. 5 more laps and I was feeling a little bit smoother with the process.
A group of three showed up below and offered that I join them to make it more efficient for them. I did a couple more laps and timed my last one at about 3.5 minutes. Not too bad for adding two more clips and having the etriers setup in the “wrong” pattern for that ascent. After cleaning the anchors and rapping down I joined Cory and his friends then got a belay to lead Left Slab (5.8). Cory then led it and I took a lap on Lemons, Limes and Tangerines (5.8). Cory and I would switch off leads for the next several climbs, the second climber getting pre-placed draws on the routes. We stuck with all sport routes: This Ain’t Naturita Pilgrim (5.9, where I took a longish lead fall from the 3rd bolt), Deck Chairs on the Titanic (5.9+, which I was too pumped to finish) and Pack O’ Bobs (5.7, which I hung several times on).
Arms completely shot, I at least hoped I’d be able to open a bottle of beer when I got home.
