Buena Vista Project: Day 1

Andre and I trucked up the trail with her two pooches (Bahini and Schatzi) to start cleaning the project and, hopefully, climb a little. I set a top-rope then rapped in with some scrub brushes. The rock quality ranged from excellent, Skofield Park quality, to choss. The crux moves are all on pretty good rock, however. Speaking of crux moves, Andre and I attempted the bottom ten feet of the route, and quickly found that we were in way, way over our heads. The route is all there, but strangely NOT there at the same time. Leading this route is going to be like pulling a 40 foot V9. Or something like that.

So far, here's the breakdown from what I can see on rappell:

-- first ten feet start waaay steep on pockets and huecos.
-- Several desperate slaps, then you gain a "ledge" of awkward gastons. Probably clip here.
-- Enter the real crux. Burl thyself into a rad undercling, set up feet, then throw (huck, hurl, chuck...?) for a sloping crimp.
-- Begin a back-muscle race against exhaustion as you deadpoint sloping crimps to pull the huge bulge, and top out.

All in all, it looks like 35 or 40 feet of climbing. Good stuff, indeed.