A new climbing partner of mine, Hallam Payne from South Africa, was up for some action, so we hit Grotto Canyon for a handful of trad and bolted routes between about 5.5 and 10a. I was pretty delighted with finding a sweet little trad corner graded 5.7. In the UK this would probably have been a Severe, but grading on crags where bolts and natural co-mingle seems to flatter the real climber in K Country.
Another find was the Grotto Slab area -40 m high friction slabs whose bolting makes Welsh slate look like the Nanny State. There's 10 m between bolts on the 'classics'. I hate slabs and found that even a 5 m run-out was enough to reduce me to gibbering. Still, the location is both convenient and spectacular, and far enough up the canyon to be clear from inane grockle chatter.
Footnote: The next weekend, Dave and I walked halfway to the start of the route on Ha Ling in the pouring rain. Then we turned around and desended.
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