Due to company policy, I had today off. I decided to be productive today and went on a mission with Ashwin to the Fortress to retrieve a stashed crashpad.
9:30AM on the trail to the Fortress, past the "death" slab
As mentioned in my previous posts about the climbing in the Fortress, the climbs are a bit tall, and require a few pads to cover the fall zones. The fortress, along with other areas in the Supes, have crashpad stashes that the community can use when they get to the boulder field. That being said, the majority of the stashed pads are old, and while I'm sure they were useful about 5-10 years ago, they are about as effective as paper is at stopping a bullet when it comes to protecting falls. They now serve their purpose by covering up rocks and for low falls. For the big falls, we needed more resilient pads, so we the Sunday crew (and some other individual crushers) hiked up some newer pads and stashed them there with the old ones for the season. Now that the season is over, it was time to grab our stashed pads and bring them back home for use at the other crags, or at least so they won't get chewed up by the critters up there.
To deviate into a bit of history, Ashwin is one of the first people I met climbing in Phoenix. We met at a grungy, 90's themed rock climbing establishment named the Phoenix Rock Gym (PRG), when I was a bumbling neophyte (still am), and Ashwin was, in my eyes, an experienced climber well-versed in the dark arts of quiet feet, finger strength, and all things crusher. As he was the more experienced of the two of us, I observed a lot of his climbing and tried to implement it into my own style. Eventually, after I returned from Dallas from a rotation program at work, I would begin to start bouldering outdoors in Arizona. Initially starting alone, I would eventually work up the courage to ask others to join me on my trips, and Ashwin was no exception. One of the last places that we would often frequent was Groom Creek, in Prescott AZ.
As a side note, it might not mean too much to more seasoned climbers, but Arizona has a smattering of classic moderate boulder problems in the V6 range. Here are 6 of them:
1) Whiskey Tango Foxtrot @ Superstitions
2) Elephant Tree @ South Mountain
3) Moonstone @ Groom Creek
4) The Rail @ Oak Flat
5) Anorexic Sacrifice @ Priest Draw
6) Evolution @ Oak Flat
In hindsight, having done all of the problems except Evolution, I have no idea if they fit the rating. Really, it's all about the line anyways. Nevertheless, I've heard that doing all 6 of these problems indicated some sort of proficiency, and so I decided that before I ever stopped climbing, I would make sure to finish all of these.
Anyways, Moonstone was the first one that I would attempt, and I would go to Groom Creek with Ashwin for the purpose of trying to finish off Moonstone. The initial neophyte-expert gap became a bit smaller as we were both working the problem.
Look Ma, no pads!
Look Ma, we got the pads!
Ashwin wondering whether he will finish his PhD or whether his PhD will finish him, while my Dragos are on what would be the stashed pad.
By the time I finished Moonstone, Ashwin was pretty much moving out of climbing as interests move on and began focusing on other endeavors such as physical conditioning and his PhD in cybersecurity, while I began focusing on climbing at the draw. Afterwards, we would still meet up every so often and catch up, but our trips to Groom would be pretty much the last time we would climb together.
It's no good dwelling on the past while the feet are in the present, so let's get back to the real topic at hand, the pad rescue mission. Since it had been been a while, a good hike is a nice way to catch up while not climbing. Although it is the middle of April, the Supes get hot, and even though we weren't carrying any crashpads or gear on the way up, the hike took a lot out of us due to sun exposure, not taking into account the snake that we saw burrowing into a rock, which definitely raised temperatures a fair bit. On the upside, flowers are beginning to bloom in the desert, and although desert flora can be some heinous motherf><^&($, at least they look nice.
Flowers blooming
Strangely well-crafted hiking stick
Some 45 minutes later, we were at the Fortress. The mountain project page for this area is a bit sparse, so I hope to update the page at some point in the future by providing more documentation and photos. Here are the boulders I took pictures of:
Mother of Invention Boulder
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Boulder
Double Down (Shark Sandwich) Boulder
Public Enemy Boulder
On the way back, we didn't run into the snake again, so it was a pretty uneventful trip on the way back. With all three members of the party accounted for: Pad, Ashwin, and me, in that order, we had made it in and out in under two hours. Overall, a very successful and good rest day!
Appendix:
Notable lines on each boulder (to my knowledge):
Notable lines on each boulder (to my knowledge):
Mother of Invention Boulder:
- Mother of Invention
- Game Changer
- Mike's Arete
- Collective Consciousness
- Mother of Extension
- Flying Dutchman
- Misadventure of Captain Stabbums
- General Disarray
- Father of Destruction
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Boulder:
- Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
- I am Superman
- Man of Steel
Double Down (Shark Sandwich (?)) Boulder:
- Double Down
Public Enemy Boulder:
- Wonderboy
- Underboy
- Public Enemy
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