Seneca Rocks 8/16/97

Friday 8/15/97 After work Matt Johns and I left for Seneca Rocks. We planned on a weekend of climbing some new routes for us. The weather forcast looked grim, it was supposed to rain all weekend. We decided to be optimistic and go regardless. On the way down we stopped at Tuckers (Timberline Ski Resort) for some dinner and beers. While we were waiting for our meals, the local black bears showed up. Having stopped to eat here several times and not seen the bears, I was rather excited. It was really cool, the bear came right up to the glass window. We watched him for about 5min. till he went around the corner to the dumpster for his dinner, and we went back to the table to do a little grubbing ourselves. After feasting on some good food, we hit the road for the short drive to Seneca Rocks. We got into town around 10:00, set up the tent and settled in for the night thinking it was going to rain by morning. We awoke at sun up 6:30A.M. and the sky was only slightly cloudy. We had some oatmeal and coffee for breakfast and made tracks for the parking lot to rack up. We were the second car in the parking lot that morning. We assembled a rack from a combination of each of our racks and took off over the bridge and up to the south west face. We decided to do Pleasant Overhangs 5.7 for our first route of the weekend. Neither Matt or I had done this route before, we weren't sure what to expect, but we have both done several 5.7's at Seneca without any problems. Matt took off on lead first, He chose to do the first pitch of Thais Direct (5.7) as opposed to the actual first pitch of Pleasant O. He made quick work of this pitch and found it to be a good warm up to get the blood flowing. I followed and cleaned the first pitch enjoying it as much as Matt. After arriving at the first belay, I collected gear from Matt and took off for the massive roof pitch. I found the first couple of moves interesting and had to think for a second about how to start across. After the initial two moves or so the climbing got much easier. I travered under the roof clipping pitons of the old aid routes in the roof. The cliimbing was easy until I got to the left end of the roof. I believe that you are to belay at the fixed gear just low of the roof's corner. In the guide book it said somthing to the effect that you are to finish the pitch around the corner at an airy and miniscule stance. The last couple moves around the corner and up through the overhang were rather commiting. I pulled around to a good hidden hold and set up an anchor consisting of two camalots and a Lowe tricam. Matt cleaned came across the roof to the belay I had set up and "hung out" to enjoy the view for a few moments. We switched gear again and Matt led the third pitch up to the summit. All in all I found Pleasant Overhangs to be one of the best 5.7's I've done at Seneca. The climbing is moderate and all three pitches are of very good quality.

After hitting the summit we decided to head down to Traffic Jam 5.7 to do that climb and rappel down. When we got there we found several gents getting ready to do the route. One seemed to be a veteran climber of Seneca's walls and the other was a French fellow that didn't have much climbing experience. The local guy asked the French guy if he wanted to "go first" this time. And the Frenchmen said sure. He proceeded to rack up and take off on the route. He stemmed across the Traffic Jam to the back wall as high up as he could go. He then started to place gear. It was at this moment I realized this guy has never led a route before. He had no idea how to put pro in the rock. He just leisurely set the stoppers and hexes in the rock. Each time he moved above a piece it pulled out and slid down the rope. I had an extreme sense of fear for this guy. He didn't realize he was very close to hurting himself badly or possibly even killing himself. At the halfway point he was stumped on how to progress and decided he was getting pumped and downclimbed to safety. As soon as he was down, Matt and I darted for the shuts out on the face to get ourselves out of dangers way. I waited while Matt went down. The other guy started up Traffic Jam and seemed to be rather comfortable on this route. So I was a little relieved and rappeled down.

One at the bottom the question was what to climb since we bagged Traffic Jam due to traffic. We decided to check out Triple S. We walked over and saw that there was a line waiting to get on and we bagged that idea also. On our way over to get our packs at the bottom of Pleasant Overhangs we saw that Prune 5.7 was free of climbers, so we decided to jump on that. I led the first pitch 5.5 in a speedy fashion, set up a belay and Matt followed. Mat got to the belay ledge and took over the gear and started up the second pitch. We found this pitch to be much harder than the first. The crux was near the top where the face holds run out and you have to climb the crack. I seconded this pitch and we headed over to the rapell down the Traffic Jam rappel again. Once on the ground we gathered up our gear and went decided it was too hot to stay on the south west face and headed down to the southern pillar. Once at the southern pillar, I decided to give Block Party (5.8) a go. I looked over the overhanging route, racked up tied in and took off. The first several moves were strenuous, but after that it went rather smooth. I got to the shuts at the shuts at rapped down and pulled my gear on the way. We decided to go back down and call it a day.

Sunday 8/17/97 We awoke to the sound of raindrops on the tent. By 7:00 it had stopped raining and we decided to head to Valley View for breakfast. After filling our guts with grub, we went to the parking lot and racked up and started up to the rocks. We decided we didn't want to wait in line later for Triple S (5.8+) so thats the first stop we made. It was Matts turn to lead, so he racked up while I set up a belay anchor and flaked the rope. Matt started up the route placing lots of protection. There were several pitons to clip on the way up. He cruised right up without any problems. The climbing was continuous 5.8, but not as hard as everyone makes it out to be. It was one of the best 5.8's that I've done at Seneca, very excellent for its grade. After I cleaned the pitch and got to the ledge where Matt was belaying from, I just kept climbing up to Windy Corner and set up a belay and brought Matt up. We just hung out in windy corner for a few minutes enjoying the view. It was turning out to be a very hot and humid day, we decided we better get climbing , so I took off on lead up Windy Corner (5.4) to summit ledge. I belayed Matt up to the ledge and we went over to Traffic Jam (5.7). This is a climb that I've wanted to do for a while, but every time I went to get on it, somebody elese was on it or there were people waiting to rappel. Finally I had my chance, no one around. I racked up while Matt set up the belay. In a few minutes we were ready and I began climbing. I've heard the bottom is the crux of the climb, so I was climbing with caution waiting for a hard move or two. I made the first several moves with no problem. I was jamming in the part where the finger crack turns into a hand crack, with my right hand low and my left hand up high. I realized I need to chalk up, but didn't want to pause in the crux section. I decided to pull up on my left hand. In doing it slipped out of the crack sending me down towards the ground. All of a sudden, I just stopped. My right hand ring finger still in the crack. OUCH!!! It had stopped me. As well as my back against the wall behind me. I was ticked off. First off all that I fell and secondly that I hurt my finger. I got right back into the crack and finished the climb. I set up the belay and brought Matt up. We rapped down traffic jam rappel and decided to call it a day. We went downt to the parking area and had what tasted to be the best beer I've ever drank. We did some excellent routes, but I wont be climbing for at least 2 weeks. After my finger heals, I want to get back to Seneca. I have my sights set on Marshall's Madness (5.9) on the face of a thousand pitons. If you read this story and have any beta for me I'd appreciate it.

Tim