Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Knowlton-Barone aka Friday the 13th


On Friday, March 13 2009 on a cold cold day, Dave, Jon and I walked to the far end of the 'Linez to try a line I had discovered a few months earlier during a hike with my son.  A dead vertical crack to the left of a huge block, it looked to take good gear.
It starts out inside of the left facing flake and proceeds straight up past 3 horizontals to a block.  While the picture doesn't show it, the huge block to the right actually overhangs the lower section by about 20 inches, so getting into the opening and then standing up was for me, an exercise in thrutch!  Then, go straight up, jamming (hands, or stacked fists/arm bars if small hands) or laybacking on the sloped sides of the crack while jamming feet. Final moves to the top are committing.  Then, easy walk-off to climber's left to base.
Dave and Jon graciously gave me the first crack (sorry!) at it and here I am on the top of the lower flake.  After jamming a leg and hip into the horizontal opening I was able to finally reach up left and get in a cam above the open box in the bottom of the crack.

Standing up, however, was another thing and after spending 10 minutes trying to maneuver while blowing on my frozen fingers to try to keep some feeling in them, I bailed off to give Dave a shot.
Dave moved up to my former high spot and after a bit of manipulation, stood and started the dead vertical crack.  Jamming feet with a combination of gaston, layback and jamming hands he moved up and then "Rock!" The chockstone you can see in the beta pic came tumbling down!!  Just another reminder to check all holds and pro in the 'Linez carefully!!
He moved up another few feet, placed a cam and then committed to the thin final moves and up.  Proud lead, Dave!  Here's a pic of the toprope.   Dave gave it a 5.8+ or 5.9 PG.  Super line!



1 comment:

  1. Not to mention the tunnel with hemp rope we found behind the climb ... Sometime later, we returned and Dave sent me down 25 ft into a wicked dirty crawlspace... No treasure though!

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