• Looking up
    • a
  • climb from the base (see the two climbers)
  • The climb starts under a BIG rock
  • The view from the start

    March 1 sees the closure of the Rockfellow Group for raptor nesting season.  Our plan was to climb Endgame which is 5 pitches of up to 5.10a.  Ryan was to lead and I was the belay slave (this is the normal distribution of effort for our climbing).  

    • Ryan starting up the first pitch (5.10a)

          The climb starts on some slaby stuff (above) and then becomes a face climb (below).  It is 5.10a and a bit unrelenting.  The first pitch is 150'.
                  • Here comes David up to the first belay
                  • David at the first belay with the second rope on his back
                  • Looking up the second pitch (5.8+)

                    The second pitch is easy (5.8+) and 150'.

                    • Looking down from the first belay
                    • The view from the first belay
                    • That 'little' rock at the bottom is what we started under
                    • David at the second belay

                    Then, we got off rout.  The third pitch goes right and then up, we went up and then right.  We climbed the third pitch of Welcome to the Machine, which is 70' and 5.10c/d (not the 130' 5.10a we were expecting!).  Ryan did very well though the crux.

                    • Ryan starting up the third pitch of Welcome to the Machine (5.10c/d)
                      • Ryan at the third belay
                      • Ryan and David at the third belay

                      The fourth pitch of WttM is described as "Continue up the seam/corner following bolts until they run out, then protect in the corner as best you can with cammers to #4 (5.10a 150')."  This is fine, but we did not have any big cams!  Ryan did a great job with nuts and (Simon Carr please note!) a #1 Tricam.  It was long and runout.  He did GREAT.