JG - 5.4

Very wet on and chilly to start but dried out and got sunburned at the top. My 12 year took the lead the whole way and we did it in three pitches. Our crux was the last 15 feet. He did amazing at placing gear and pushing thru as I whined even with the rope ahead of me. We rapped off Squeeze with a 70m and had feet to spare to the bottom. Quite a walk and down climb to those that tree with rings and slings but we belayed to it and it was an amazingly nice day.

The bottom half of this climb is really fun. It looks harder than a 4+ but the holds are there, even with the chimney being a bit wet. The top half was ok, with a little loose rock, but we may have went off route. After building a gear anchor to bring Jerod up, we scrambled to the rim to find a tree to rap down from. We left a cordellette and 2 biners behind, but I wouldn't recommend rapping there because of all the brush we had to deal with to get down. Take the booty and find another place to rap from, perhaps from the class 4 ramp.

We did this in one pitch so communication was pretty much non-existant with the proximity to rt 80 and late afternoon rush hour traffic. Be sure to have a plan with your partner, be it radio or tug signals.

Actually a bit harder than the 5.4 rating, especially the third pitch. The only draw back is I-80. Bring personal radios, or your mobile, I had good signal there.