Mike, Roanne, and myself left Vancouver around 7:00 on Friday night, and rolled into Penticton at around 12:45 am. We drove to the free camping on the hill up Carmi Road, set up our tents and sort of went to sleep. It was pretty cold and none of us had very warm sleeping bags. Mike spent a good part of the night walking around to try and get warm. None of us slept more than a few hours, but that didn't stop us from being psyched to climb at 8:00 when the sun started warming things up (maybe witht he exception of Roanne). We headed to the parking area for the climbing to eat breakfast in the sun. We thought it was strange that there had still been no sign of Gary and the Minivan group of climbers, but we would later learn that they had not been able to get through the border.
So we headed up the stairs, planning on going to 'Claim it all Wall', but 'the Fortress' looked so enticing in the sun that we decided to do 'Plum Line', a 35 meter classic 5.9. It was super fun, and we then headed to 'The Plague', a recommeded 5.10d on the same wall. It wasn't as long, but still really fun. Here is a picture of Mike on it.
We then moved on, planning to head to 'Claim it all Wall' while stopping on the way to look at 'Wings of Desire', a classic 5.11b that has been on Mike's tick list ever since it showed up on his Climbing desk top calender. We stopped to look, and it looked so good that we decided to do it. Mike went first, and got the onsight, which was quite an accompishment since the climb is stinking long (40 m), overhung, and totally sustained. Next Cam got the flash, which would likely not have been possible had the draws not been already hung by Mike. Here are some pictures of Mike on the route, the second one gives some idea of the length of the route.
Next we all did 'Logans Run', a fun 5.10b on the same wall, with some really cool bright green lichen. Here is a picture of Roanne on the lower section of the route, there was a really fun steep section at the end:
By now it was getting late, so we decided to start hiking out and check out 'the Wave' on the way out, which had some good harder routes we had been thinking about trying. There were a bunch of people there, but the climb we had been considering, a 5.12a called 'Not Fade Away' was free, so we each gave it a burn to try and work the moves in hopes of coming back for the send the next day. We then hiked out, and drove back into town. We had decided to split a motel rather than suffer another sleepless night in thin sleeping bags, so we got a room at the Hansel and Gretal motel, had a chinese food buffet to provide fuel for the next day, and went to bed at around 10.
The next day we were hiking in by 9:30, and went to 'Red Tail Wall' to warm up. We did a 5.10a and a 5.10b that were both pretty fun, but not fun enough to make me remember their names. We then headed to 'the Wave' to get back on 'Not Fade Away'. The route was super fun, it went up a short vertical section to a roof, then traversed along the roof with heel hooks and other foot trickery, then blasts up a short headwall on good but small crimps (crux). Mike and Cam each had 2 tries on it, but the best we could do was a 'one-hang-redpoint'. In other words, noboody sent. But here are some cool pictures of the route:
Above left: The last clip before heading into the steep traverse
Above right: Fighting the pump!
Above left: A cool hand foot match was very helpful
Above right: The last clip before launching up the headwall
Above left: The final clip before the anchors
Above right: Setting up for the crux moves
After those attempts, we all did a fun 5.11a on the same wall called 'I'm not too sure' (that was really the name). We then headed to 'the Euphorium', where we tried a super fun steep 5.11c called '14 shutouts'. Noone had enough juice left to send it, but it was fun nonetheless, and definitely one to come back to. By this time it was getting late, so we hiked back to the car, and drove back to Seattle, getting in at a respectable 11:30 pm. All in all a good trip.