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baja_java
Oct 5, 2005, 3:53 PM
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Registered: Oct 8, 2003
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I personally have no complaints about The Man. In fact, The Man and I get along just fine. I absolutely do not take my day job for granted. Hell lot cushier than CalTran labor under the hot sun, for one. Nor of living in South Bay of LA, in the SoCal that's supposed to drive you seething mad with its smog and 'tude and embitter you til you're waving an exasperated hand at complete strangers on the north bound 405. Okay, I do that anyway, but only because there're just too many people who just don't know how to effing drive!
So yeah, according to the prevalent attitude, we're supposed to be chained to our desks til the five o'clock ticktock, supposedly vegetating away til we get out of work with bags under our eyes and suffer through bumper-to-bumper traffic til we can drag our sorry pinstriped behinds back to our matchbox apartments to heat up leftovers for dinner before crawling into bed to wake up tomorrow and repeat the same exact routine of humdrum all over again. But hey, yesterday afternoon at 3:45, by the miracle of flex hours, I met up with Rachel at the pullout next to Tick Rock, with Sheila and Tina to join us at around 5. No, we didn't ditch work, nor claimed debilitating sickness. Took a little of gettin' our act together, that's all. Triumph of the human spirit, if you really want to be all melodramatic about it. Raging against the machines, us four restless souls, true testament to the resilience of our very healthy loathing to never ever want to be dull, God effing forbid.
Tick Rock is a gray big lump of fine grained standstone that's actually hard and textured more like granite. Imagine that, Yosemite granite right here in the Pacific Palisades! Okay okay, not quite that, but cool looking rock. I've heard good and bad things about this spot, but one look at the faceted "granite" faces and I was instantly liking the rock. Something about smooth, broad, fractured faces, hard with exposed character.
Thought the couple routes we climbed were very fun, with surprising exposure. I racked red and gold Camalots because the guidebook had said the 5.8 ORIGINAL ROUTE takes gear. Turned out that, on the dihedral face right of the crack, there's a line of bolts within arm's reach that runs parallel with the crack to the top. There're actually two unlisted routes right of ORIGINAL ROUTE, the left of the two with new bolts and the right one with older bolts that look stamped slightly curved. Anyone know the names and ratings of these?
Rachel toproped the ORIGINAL ROUTE and cleaned the draws, leaving one for a directional, and was getting lowered off when Sheila and Tina showed, the two topping out on the arduous two minutes hike up from the road. Now only a thin band of sunshine lingered along the crest of the opposite hilltops. Tina and Sheila toproped the ORIGINAL ROUTE while I jumped on the FLYING GUILLOTINE, a .10c that looked fun and hard at the start. Pulled past the start fine, but took a hang on the easier traverse sequence to join HOLY CRAP, the .9 to the right, because I wanted to see if Rachel's taking skills are up to par, not because I totally missed the big undercling right there in front of my crotch. I pretended to sound all frustrated too, to see if Rachel would easily lose faith in a new partner. I didn't see her roll her eyes or shake her head, but she might've when I rolled my eyes and shook my head at that big undercling jug. Rest of the way up was straightforward, though pumpy. On the final undercling traverse right, before that same crack widens and straightens up toward the anchors, a green 0.75 Camalot would've been useful, what the guidebook meant by 1 to 1.5" probably. I rolled my eyes again and ran it out to the closed shuts, with red Camalots jangling on the gear loop. Good feet on the traverse actually. Very okay to run that out. Rachel lowered me, and she left as soon as she got out of belay. Hot date? Hot sex? Lukewarm pilate? We were left wondering.
Tina tied in next and gave the FLYING GUILLOTINE start a valiant try, then swung over to HOLY CRAP, cranking her way up til the crux pull-up that "looked too hard." On another afternoon with more daylight, Sheila would've kept Tina on til she pulled the move, as I would too. So Sheila lowered Tina. Just then we saw something streaked across the top of the buttress. Maybe a bird, or a bat, Sheila and I thought. Pretty cool to see. Sheila tied in and stemmed way wide and reached way high and worked her way up HOLY CRAP:
http://www.rockclimbing.com/...p.cgi?Detailed=62258
We saw another bird or bat fly right into the top of the buttress, and then another, and then a few more. By the time Sheila got to the undercling traverse crack, there was now a hopping party of noisy bats inside the other wide end of the crack, all telling each other what a dreadful mind-numbing day they all had at the office, I'm sure, and groaning about the heavy traffic on the flight home. I remember asking Tina if bats aren't rabid and Tina saying not to say that too loud. I did hand Sheila her long sleeve to put on before she went up. The capilene felt just like that Under Armor stuff. She was wearing armor. There, nothing to worry about. Then this big hawk came circling above Sheila, ready to feast on the bats like every other night probably, and now finding an even bigger dinner with blonde feathers in a glow-in-the-dark white capilene top. Birds have sharp eyes. The hawk saw. No doubt. Just a matter of how to carry off a 5'10 blonde and not sprain a talon. While the hawk tried to figure that out, while i thought about lowering off Sheila and go fetch the headlamp for my first night climb, Sheila managed to get to the anchors using the outer lip of the crack and whatever face holds, and then proceeded to clip into anchors and pull up slack and tie off the rope bight and untie and thread through and re-tie. I'm still impressed by her composure, for keeping it all together when judgement could easily go. Okay, there was a cry of, "This is so freakin' scary!" Maybe three or four, or ten, but hell, I was impressed, and proud. And then Sheila called for tension, unclipped, and I lowered her back down. The big hawk could only watch the big dinner disappear into the growing darkness below.
We talked and laughed and packed up and laughed and fumbled our way down the short but steep trail back to our cars. The afternoon and evening traffic aren't bad at all, if you know where to drive. Took forty minutes to get up to Tick Rock from El Segundo, and about an hour on the way back down to South Redondo, longer only because of couple wrecks, both on south bound 405. I swear people don't know how to drive.
And for midweek climbing, Santa Barbara is nice too, and beautiful, thanks to a very cool mountain girl who's wearing little speckles of purple this week.
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oldrnotboldr
Oct 5, 2005, 8:12 PM
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Registered: May 23, 2005
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Nice story, shows what can be what one puts their mind to the task!
Reminds of a tr climb I did once where I reached into a crack and grabbed onto a bat. When the thing flapped and squeaked, I pulled my arm back and swung out away from the rock. Scared the crap outta me. I don't think I'd care much about climbing with those rascals buzzing around me at night.
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dirty_she
Oct 5, 2005, 8:41 PM
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Registered: Nov 10, 2004
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Tina and I had a big 'ole laugh when we saw that the name of the climb was "Holy Crap".
Nice recap Sean! I'm sure I'll be having some crazy bat nightmares for a while.
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jdouble
Oct 5, 2005, 9:04 PM
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Registered: Jun 15, 2004
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Great stuff guys, glad you enjoyed Tic!
Your question regarding the routes are a bit tough to answer as what is printed in the guide book (L. Anderson), the way the climbs were originally bolted, and the most direct lines seem to be all different. I guess with so many bolts, and all the variations possible, confusion was bound to happen. I have seen at least 5 variations on the same routes.........
One thing to mention is that there are some new routes on a seperate block up and left from the central area. Follow the faint trail, starting from the left they go at 11a, 12b, 12a. (I think!) Also, there are two routes to the right of the central area which are listed in the guide.
You guys probably met swallows/sparrows, not bats, on their way home for the night in the flake on Flying Guiloteen. Easily confused, and all scary when your little fingers are in cracks! Are you sure they were bats? There is a pair of red tail hawks living/nesting on the other side of the canyon directly accross from Tic. Look for the white stain on the wall and you can see the nest. I saw at least one chick this year! They patrol the area pretty much everyday at dusk.
Hope to see you guys out there one day!
Jay
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baja_java
Oct 5, 2005, 10:54 PM
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Registered: Oct 8, 2003
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thanks, jay. we'll check out the lines you mentioned too. thought good routes there. a nice midweek spot
the swallows/sparrows/bats flew too zigzag to be birds, we'd thought. sheila'd know better whether they were chirping or screeching inside that wide crack. from down below i thought they screeched. and the hawk was just this big swooping dark figure, not enough light to catch whatever telltale colors
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jdouble
Oct 5, 2005, 11:52 PM
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Registered: Jun 15, 2004
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Yea, I would be interested if they were bats as I tend to treat birds and bats differently.........
By the way, Perro De La Guerra (the left route in the central area) is easily toproped/accessed from Flying Guo. IMHO it is the best route in the area and one of the best 5.12's around!
I live in the Palisades so if you guys are heading over, shoot me a PM. My GF and I always ready for 'corporate humdrum aleviation'.
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