Honestly I was a little intimdated at first. I heard that Rifle was filled with strange sequences, hidden holds, and long routes. Three things that make onsights and quick redpoints virtually impossible.
-Day one of Labor Day weekend was spent getting to know the place and checking out what the canyon had to offer. Warming up was a constant battle. If you can't warm up on 12a you are pretty much stuck with the rest of the whords of people trying to warm up on one of a handful of 10+ or 11-. Got psyched on a bunch of stuff to try and project. There is so much to do! Got on my project of the trip and sussed it out. After falling a little and getting a full "spray down" on Cardinal Sin I decided to wait for the next day.
-Day two was a slow start after staying up late around the fire with the Boulder crew. Ate way too much breakfast burrito. Psyched on Cardinal. Got on it pretty quick but as usual climbed too fast, forgot the sequence and fell off. After a little rest and watching someone else do it I got back on it. Through the first section I got to the tenuous "rest" at the midway undercling. Psyched up and ready for the meat of the route, I went. Fired through the next couple of moves. Stayed on the higher clipping holds like I talked about for an easier clip and then fired the crux. With energy to spare I got to the next rest before the anchors. Heart racing pretty fast now I did not want to fall here. Send to the chains and I was done. Ironically, not overly excited, no move felt gripper or hard. I felt light and fast through the whole thing. I wish all my sends felt like this. After that I went to a cave across the road to hang out with some peeps. Saw a woman deck from 25 feet and shatter her back. I think that she will be alright, but definitely scary to think that what we do can sometimes be very dangerous.
-Day three, time for a new project. Went to another climb same grade as Cardinal but got terrible flash pump and struggled just to finish. Lots of hangs. I guess after two days of hard climbing you cant expect to do anything on day three. But next trip Fire Arms is going to get a burn when I am fresher. Tried Poly-Nater also, should have sent first go but forgot that Flashing at Rifle is impossible. Time to go back to Boulder and rest for a few days before the next big trip.
Overall, a great first trip and great training ground for the fall Yosemite Trip. Now if I can just work on endurance...
whitney says:
So, Rifle seems like a site for the more experienced climbers. Is there anything up there for the less intense and/or, I guess to be totally blunt, not as good climbers? Would it be a complete waste of time for someone who can't climb 5.12 to go up there?
Brett Merlin says:
Whitney,
From what I could gather during my first trip, the majority of the climbs fall in the 5.12 range. There are a handful of 5.10s and 5.11s. It would not be a complete waste of time, but you would probably climb all of the 5.11 and under stuff in one or two days. These climbs are also warm ups for a lot of the uber-strong project climbers so there is a ton of traffic on these routes in the morning. It is a cool canyon to check out but there are literally like 5 climbs that are 5.10. Hope this helps.
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