GroupWBench

Tom, Jack, and I spent a long day climbing at Shortoff on Saturday. We started the day on Straight and Narrow – a three pitch 5.10 with the top two pitches both having stretches of 5.10a climbing.  The climb runs straight up a vertical crack all the way up to the overhanging bit way up at the top. Here is a picture the climb. You can just see Jack part way up the first pitch. Notice the dead tree sticking out of the crack – you will see it again from above in one of the other pictures.

Here is a shot looking down from the first belay. You can just see Tom below the dead tree that sticks out of the crack part way up the pitch.

The camera was put away for the tough climbing on the next two pitches. Tom did a great job of leading the next two pitches. They were tricky
for a the people following, but very scary and bold for the guy on the sharp end. Once I got to the top, I broke out the camera for a couple of quick shots. Here is what the top looks like looking across from the top belay.

There is a nice view out to Lake James from the top of the cliff. The dead trees there near Tom and also way down below in the lower right corner are where the big forest fire ran a couple of years back. There is lot's of charcoal out there.

We somehow found the energy to scramble back down the long gully to the base of the cliff and zip up Little Corner a fun little 5.6 that Tom and Jack had not climbed before. Here is a fire down at Tom coming up the first pitch.

The long hike out finished us off. We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the car. It was a fun day, though. Everyone was safe and sound at the end. The only injury was when Tom broke off a football sized chunk of rock when we were scrambling over the short cliff pieces to get to the trail after topping out on straight and narrow. He scratched up his shin and almost slipped back down to our ledge just after I took this picture.