AMTL part II: June 11, 2007

I woke up in the middle of the night to find myself sleeping in a puddle. I never should have bragged to Joe about how I use my Camelbak drinking bladder as a pillow and have never had a problem with it leaking. At least it is hot and dry out so my sleeping bag will dry out by tomorrow night.

Once morning really arrives I have time for a second cup of coffee before we drive out to Castle Rock - an impressive rock formation visible from the road into Leavenworth. After dodging poison oak on the approach hike, Joseph leads up the first pitch of Midway Direct (a climb Mike and I have work to avoid calling "Midwest Direct").

Joseph belays me up last, so I spend my spare moments tossing pebbles at a bold chipmonk, hoping to condition it in 15 minutes to leave our packs and food alone while we're up on the rock. Wondering if my pack will have a rodent-sized hole when we return, I finally leave the ground and join the others.

The second pitch is mine to lead and I'm glad to be back on the sharp end after yesterday's falls so I can rebuild my confidence. The climb went well (it was a 5.6 and didn't involve much crack technique). From the belay anchor at the top of the second pitch I got to watch everyone else climb up.

The last pitch was also mine and Joseph followed me close by on a second rope. Once on top we built some anchors quickly and belayed up Mike and Joe. From the top we had an easy trail to return to our thankfully un-chewed packs.

We crept around the corner into some disappearing shade and talked more about anchors and again took Joe and Mike through the rescue scenario, including practicing how to transition from hauling up a climber, to lowering them and back again to a haul. Today was also the hottest so far and I hid in the shade as much as possible but definitely didn't feel a surplus of energy.

Practice was over and we moved back into the sun. Joseph had me lead up the first pitch of Saber (5.5 - but with some weird traverses). The heat was definitely sapping my concentration and some of the rocks were verging on too hot to grab! I kept moving up by reminding myself that I could rest on the second pitch, since the plan was for Mike to lead it.

Once we were all gathered on the large belay ledge, Mike backed out of the lead since he too was baked by the sun and heat. I took the rack back and tried to psych myself up for the climb but about 15 feet up I found myself mentally stuck at a relatively easy move. Joseph climbed up and talked me through it, but I never got into any kind of rhythm for the rest of the pitch. Moving slow I finally topped out and took forever to construct a descent anchor and belay Mike up.

The beer back at Eightmile was most welcome today and I feel asleep glad that we were headed to the glaciers on Mount Baker tomorrow.