An early start assured us that we were the first party at Wind Tower, however the morning wind and only-just-now-getting-sun rock had be glad I’d stuffed a hand warmer into my chalk bag and that I hadn’t picked a climb harder than 5.6 to start on.
Calypso, our route for the morning, has a reputation as being slick, insecure and awkward, especially for the easy grade. It has held a spot on my to-do list for a couple years but usually has a line at its base. Between the reputation (a few fatal leader falls have occurred) and the temperatures, I placed a lot more pro than I might normally for the grade. At least the sun was out and I was pretty warmed up by the time I reached the anchor bolts. Planning for a few pitches, we were carrying some water, snacks and extra layers. The added weight of a pack probably didn’t help Pete as he tried to work out the starting moves to gain the dihedral.
Still, he was climbing fairly well given the nature of the pitch and he tackled the roof moves just fine.
It was the slick layback moves above the roof that sent him for a short fall before he regrouped and worked through the sequence.
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As he finished up the moves another group showed up at the base to climb the route. They watched what we were going to do next and since Pete was a little unnerved at the small-ish belay stance we decided to skip any extra pitches on this formation and rappel back down.
Hiking to the formation next door, we reached Whale’s Tail as a couple groups converged on the west side of that formation. A group was finishing up with a climb of West Crack and the two other new groups were looking at that line and West Dihedral. That left Clementine, a 5.5, for Pete and I.
Everyone was being friendly and accommodating, so it wasn’t hard to support 3 parties at once at the same set of anchors. Pete found Clementine much more to his liking and began to get his rock climbing head back.
Once we rappelled back to the large ledge at the base of all 3 climbs, we found West Crack (5.2) open, so up that I ran.
Pete cruised the pitch and was already feeling much better about the day.
Only one small error marred our time on Whales Tail, while pulling the rappel rope an end got stuck in West Crack and I had to re-lead the climb on the other end to free the rope. Not too much of a chore really, since the climb is a lot of fun for the easy grade, something I’d almost be willing to solo.
West Dihedral was the last of the three climbs and now open so I led up to the very familiar anchor cable then watched Pete follow the pitch.
One of the other parties was also leading up West Crack, so I decided to take photos of someone other than Pete.
Gotta dig the pink helmet!
After finishing West Dihedral, we rappelled for the final time and headed off to the parking lot. There I was hoping to repack and hike up to West Ridge and meet Jenn and Jeremy for a few more routes, but both had to bail. Hope you two feel better soon! Still, I was well satisfied with the day, having climbed 5 pitches, one a first lead for me (Clementine) and one entirely new (Calypso). I also can’t complain about climbing in a t-shirt by the end of the day, just as spring arrives.
