We had a relaxing weekend, meeting Ann’s parents in Bishop on Friday night, camping at the Pinons, and climbing at Iris Slab on Saturday. I started there by leading Welcome to Iris Slab (5.7), a nice finger crack with a few moves that demand attention. Then we indulged in a few topropes. Get Up, Stand Up (5.7) is another good finger crack, and Exodus (5.9) a fun slab face route. Ann tried a mock lead of sorts on Easy Skankin (5.4), placing pretty good gear on TR. Finally we played on Crazy Baldhead (5.10b), and once again I wondered how slab harder than 10b can be possible to climb? It seemed like right at the limit, but as usual it’s probably just my limit.
3 responses to “Iris Slab”
that’s it? nothing more to say?
ugh, i think you should quit blogging. blech..
i got my new bike on friday and rode for ~5 hours.
i don’t even know how long i rode saturday, prolly 8 hours.
got up early and hit the skatepark on said new bike. nobody there, very sweet.
got about 1 hr of riding in, left and headed up to Kernville.
diesel and i hit 2 sweeeeet sierra chillin’ spots (pools, water slides, etc..).
we got pretty drunk, she took a nap and i did a short river-hike.
beauty.
got pics, i will get them developed tonite.
i hope you have more than ONE pic (OF YOU SITTING AND READING NO LESS) from last weekend. sheesh.
Yes, that IS the only picture taken. If it had been left to me, there would have been none – you probably have never experienced being not in the mood to take pictures but it can happen to others. I like the picture Ann took tho, it’s well composed.
As for more, I could say more, but I was running a little late here. Iris is good quality granite, with no bolted routes. The slab routes we TR’ed would make excellent bolted leads I think, but I guess it has been established as a TR crag. There was a local climbing instructor there with a student who asked us if we had a socket so he could remove a new rap station that had been put in. I had to agree, the walk-off looked really easy – a rap station may be overkill. But I used it anyway after he left. Laaaaaaaaaaaazy.
The crack I led had one spot that was hard to protect, and the other cracks looked a bit harder. I did protect it to my satisfaction, though, entirely with nuts. One was a small nut that Ann had to finesse out very delicately. Anyway, the other trad leads looked a little more nervy, and I was happy to just TR them.
i like taking pictures. heheh