Finding Lines.
Lines. With a L. It doesn’t happen every day. And sometimes, you only realise afterwards that what you have in your hands is something.
Yesterday I set up for climbing the double crack It seems impossible that no one had put his hands in it before, as we are in Rocklands, and you can see the line from the camping. It is in the middle of the bouldering area, and it is striking. A beginning that passes very close to a strange pile of solidified shit, then a first crack guiding you out of the roof, a ledge, and a second crack. 15m in total. I thought it would be easy.
Well it wasn’t that easy. I tried onsight, fought 6minutes to progress 2 meters, nearly got out of the roof…and failed. I am no crack specialist. Surely an Indian Creek climber would hike in that route, but I struggled, and that made things fun.
It took me 2 more tries, and painful wrist jams to finally fight my way up the first crack. 2 tries, and a lot of grunting. Crack climbing is another word for pain. Why would you inflict yourself such pain? I don’t know. There is something quite simple though, in the game: “stick your hand, keep it closed, forget the pain, and continue”. I liked this day. A piece of pretty rock, overhanging with two cracks in it, becomes an entity, a route. Good day.
