King's Canyon Again
With the road open Shay, Josh, Konstantine and I returned to King's Canyon to retrieve our gear stash, but also to snag some more of the low hanging FA fruit. An ominous weather forecast had a couple of us doubting whether we should go, but then Konstantine called us on our shit. Are we not men? No, we are Pullharder!
We arrived late Friday night and crashed in the campground. On Saturday morning we retrieved our gear and headed up to North Dome to scope some new lines. Unfortunately a lot of stuff was still wet, but we eventually settled upon an area in the middle of North Dome. Shay and Konstantine climbed two new 2-pitch crack routes which they named after their girlfriends, Persian Kitty (5.8) and Lizzy Pop (5.8). Josh and I climbed two new 1 pitch crack routes. The first one was quite wet, slimy and somewhat miserable, but would be good once it dried out. Josh named it "Good Oil" (5.9) after the famous Stamatiou olive oil. Adjacent to Good Oil, Josh cleaned out a nice finger and hand crack which required one bolt at the start. This one went at about 5.10b and was named "Hot Wine" after the ubiquitous Konstantine concoction, which we also enjoyed while crashing at Phil's house that night.
Sunday we went and checked out the 5.12+ tips splitter we had spotted/tried on our previous trip. Josh gave it a good go but ended up bailing. The obvious implication is that this climb is quite difficult! I dug out a nice finger crack which I named "Wish You Were Here" and goes at 5.9. It required one bolt. You can climb this route to set up a TR on the 5.12+ tips splitter project. Meanwhile, Shay and Josh went back to the Foolproof Plan area and finished bolting "Greek Salad" ground up. It goes at about 5.10b/c and has 7 bolts.
