Pinnacles

June 11, 2006

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Stanley and Patrick drove over from Santa Cruz and I drove down from San Francisco in order to do some camping and climbing at Pinnacles. We met up on Saturday night and ate Indian food, drank Fat Tires and told stories. We got up the next morning to find it fogged in, so we took our time with coffee and oatmeal and headed up to the top lot around 10am. It was sunny and warm when we got there and it turned out to be a lovely, mild day at Pinnacles.

We started off at Discovery Wall. I conquered a long-standing fear and led up Wet Kiss (5.9). I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of me when I finished that climb. (No more visions of ground falls and broken ankles when I think of a wet kiss.) Patrick followed up and then Stanley re-led it. We swung our rope around to do (Big Pucker 10.d). We all struggled and flailed and achieved various degrees of success. I must make a mental note that this is a difficult climb. I'm not sure why I think it's easy.

We picked up our stuff and moved over to the Monolith. After sneaking past a rattler and trying desperately to avoid the poison oak, we got on Direct Route (5.6). This is a lovely climb, but it is seriously run-out. The first bolt is a good 20 feet off the ledge but if you fall, you'll plummet about 45 feet to the ground. Luckily, the holds are generous and numerous and, if you can keep yourself from remembering that Pinnacles rock is notorious for breaking off, then you'll be just fine.

We debated whether or not to do one more climb, but decided to leave the rest for next time. We slowly made our way back out and, after the requisite beers in the parking lot, we headed our separate ways.

Patrick, Leslie, Stanley