Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board The Moose on the sharp end ! (lotsa pics)

This TR has nothing to do with Mt. Whitney or even the Sierra, but it does concern our favorite Moose so I hope you will forgive the intrusion.

Laura headed home to the bay area for Christmas, and I had a nice dinner at her folks' place. The next day we went climbing at Pinnacles National Monument, a couple of hours south in the Gabilan Range. It was cool and cloudy, and the forecast called for rain later.

We had a brief discussion of anchors and clipping, then set out from the westside visitor center.



We stopped at The Big Bad West (5.5) and I handed Laura some quickdraws. Up she went !





Woohoo ! Laura's first sport lead !

The next climb to the right is called Passion Play (5.7) which I led.





Hey, is that a little blue sky peeking out of the clouds ?



It was a nice stroll over to the Destiny Wall. Laura racked up below Corona (5.6) and led it like a champ -



I hadn't actually climbed it before, so we pulled the rope and I gave it a go.



Fun stuff. The 5.8 to the left (Dos Equis aka Destiny) is a nice lead, but today we headed over to Chockstone Dome to sample some of its wares.



There is a nice 5.3 on the far side -



But I felt pretty sure Laura would get a bigger kick out of Walk The Plank (5.6), which has a nice airy traverse.

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2711/4220756419_4082f915a5.jpg[/img]

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4221518656_3816d8339a.jpg[/img]

The above photos don't really convey the feeling of exposure and the dropoff below. Anyway, she did great !

I wanted to lead something else but it began to drizzle and we headed back to the TOF.

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2716/4220757599_d2260c948e.jpg[/img]

Time for some wine tasting

[img]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/4220758305_51efa43786.jpg[/img]

I'm so proud of Laura. Next up -- gear leads !

WoHoo! Moose’s 1st sharp end. Congrats. That Pinnacle rock looks like a ”cheese grater ” and gives another dimension to the “sharp end”

Nice, Moose and rhyang. Congrats on your 1st sharp end, Miss Moose. AWESOME!

FANTASTIC! Smashing those limits once again.

Laura - you're amazing!! Thanks for posting the pics, rhyang - they're great!

Laura,
Why did you not mention this last night? It's about time! Well done, now we just gotta get you to whip.

Daniel, oops... Maybe I'll try smearing the greasy granite on Moro first...

Thanks, gang. It was a great day on the rock. Hope to try some more this weekend in the Hills...

It's not fun rock to be falling on, that's for sure !

Here's a shot someone else took of Walk The Plank that better illustrates the exposure -

Nice! Just a scant couple years ago it was Hiker Laura working her way up the trails in So Cal. Then it was Moose Tracks in the eastside pushing up class 2, 3 and 4. A few climbs in the Alabama Hills and JTree led to seconding climbs in Yosmite. Now it's ice climbing and the first leads.
Man has this been fun to watch from afar! Congrats to you Laura!

Yeesh, Robbie. That does put it in perspective. Good thing I wasn't thinking about that when I was up there!

Scott, thanks so much. And the ride doesn't stop there. 2010 is gonna be big. Really big...

Good goin' Laura! The Pinnacles were my winter playground when it was too cold to climb in the Valley.

If you even need an interesting rappel, for practice, there is a 200+ foot overhanging free-rappel at the Pinnacles...a confidence builder.

Bob: I'll have to look that one up next time I'm home... which could be NEXT Christmas...