20100613

Sport Climbing in the Gorge

2010 06 11.  Watched my friend Shadow - an uber-strong climber, finish his project Aurora (5.13a).  About an hour later Vic showed up, interested in checking it out as well, and Shadow was able to climb it clean a second time!  He made it look smooth.

My achievements were much, much less remarkable.  I hung on an 11b and a 10b, but alzheimer on-sighted* a 5.7 and two 5.8s!  Still, by the end of the day my forearms were twitching from the strain - making this a great day.

Photo:  Shadow shows Vic how its done on his repeat clean ascent of Aurora, 5.13a, Owen River Gorge.

*alzheimer on-sight:  also called a "senility on-sight", refers to making an ascent of a route previously climbed but without recollection.  In this case, I climbed the 5.7 and one of the 5.8's back in 1996 - according to my notes.