First Day at Ragged 2008

Well, today was my first day out at Ragged mountain. I met up with Jeff (Dr. Feel Good) and Ben (General Benson) at the Starbucks. The weather was perfect, sunny and in the low 70's with a lite breeze.
It's been all winter since I've done any climbing and needless to say I was a little anxious to lead and since know one seemed to object. Let's see... I took the sharp end first on "Wet Wall." I've yet to do this route the right way. I keep finishing it off on the "knight Move" crack, this time was no different. Ben and Jeff followed with no problem.
"So what do ya"ll want to do next?"(silence) How about "Wish Bone?" They looked stoked to do the route but neither of them was in the mood to lead it either. So I took the lead again. This route is always a little skecthy in the beginning with the crux so close to the ground. Its not until I sling the chock about 20 feet up that I start to relax and start to actually climb the route. The rest of the route I felt strong and confident about every move I made. Like every route I complete on lead, the moment that I throw my hand over the final hold that lets me know you've done it, that feeling of accomplishment, power and relief all overcome me at once. "It's going to be a dam good day." I just wish Ben shared my enthusiasm. It seems that the crux had him grunting and cursing like a trucker, but he powered through it and managed to reach the thank god hold right after the small roof. Jeff on the other hand was tyring to set some sort of speed record and raced up the route like a ladder.

After the grueling 5.6 Jeff wanted to show Ben and I up a little so he chose the "Tower Crack" as his lead. "Wow!" That was an amazing off width crack. I gave Jeff a lot of credit for leading that route. The route was only about 30 feet but it was a very sustained 5.7 with some great moves. That route is defiantly going on my tick list of routes do lead.

Next up, a Ragged favorite, "Broadway." This route always seems to get done every time I visit Ragged. My technique and strength felt good, but I was very disappointed in some of my placements. The most important was the #1 power cam I placed under a flake in the crater. The main reason was because the next couple of moves were the crux, which makes for a heady climb. (translation: heady - scared shitless)

After finishing up on Broadway Jeff and I headed off to find the "May Block." Now I'd only been there once before and it was about two years ago so apparently my memory was not as good as I thought. Of course, if you ask any one of my family members they'd say I can't remember what I did yesterday. We ended up hiking for two hours with a 40lb pack and were way off. By the time we found it we had walked by it twice and were too tired to climb it. So we decided to mark the area better with some stone piles in hopes that next time it would be easier to find.

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better day or better guys to share it with. I'm hoping we can climb a lot more together this and future seasons.