ABS comp and adventures on Cataract Corner

The problem with weather is that it's highly inconsiderate of which days you have off. If the sky picks one day of the week to snow, why should it pick Saturday? Why not Tuesday? It seems I have much more vested interest in Saturday being sunny than it does. With a forecast of 70% chance of snow in Yosemite this weekend, I abandoned my Valley plans and ended up on plastic instead.

Fortunately this turned out to be less sad than it first sounds, as there was a really fun comp going on at the gym. I've never competed in a "real" comp before, and I surprised myself with how excited I got about it. That excitement waned a bit when I saw the hordes of climbers packing the bouldering area till their was barely breathing room, but the event was still a blast. I was disappointed in not sending a couple problems that I felt I should have, but I also got two that I felt pretty proud of myself about. One of those came on my very last attempt of the night, which was a great note to end on. However, if I hadn't been doggedly trying this problem till the last allowable minute, there still would've been hamburger buns left over at the bbq outside. As it was, I just had the patty and cheese, which hit the spot after five hours of ingesting little but chalk dust. Incidentally, a burger patty with cheese and nothing else is called a Flying Dutchman, which you can order from In N Out's not-so-secret menu. If you have never been to an In N Out, I am so very, very sorry.

With sunny skies returned on Sunday, I had to get outside despite a total lack of fingertip skin or forearm freshness. Mike Kerzhner and I teamed up with a cool Brit named Simon and spent a fantastic day at Pinnacles (some people consider this an oxymoron; I don't!). We warmed up on the excellent 11's of P.o.D. and Foreplay, then headed to Cataract Corner, the area's classic 12b. Kerzhner had tried it once before, and it was something I'd eyed in the past but never gotten on. The route has a bit of everything: balance and core-intensive moves, small and sharp holds on less than vertical face, arete slapping, a short overhung section, moves that are hard-to-read in that funky Pinnacles way, and a huge runout at the top where the climbing eases to 5.9 and later to 5.7. Mike took one fall on his first go and floated through it on his second, while I also gave it two tries and got it in two sections but didn't get the redpoint. Next time, though! The park didn't feel too crowded despite its being an absurdly beautiful day, and while I spent the weekend on plastic and petrified mud instead of granite, I had a great one. Hope you all did, too.