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Yours truly following pitch 5 of Sour Mash.
Next day we climbed the classic
Sour Mash (5.10a, swapping leads with Shirley)…I thought it was a hard route. We finished off the Red Rocks climbing on
Birdland (5.7+) the following day. Kinda blah except for the last pitch. I had a hard time with my lead head for some reason on that trip but fortunately Shirley was more than willing to step up to the plate and take us up stuff.
Photos
Sour Mash
Leading pitch 1 of Sour Mash on Black Velvet Wall (Nov. 2007).
Shirley leading through a 5.8 roof on pitch 2 of Sour Mash (Nov. 2007).
Following the traversing pitch 2 of Sour Mash. View from below is below…see where I’m going with this (Nov. 2007).
Yours truly (red) following Shirley (black, at hanging belay) up pitch 2 of Sour Mash on Black Velvet Wall. Next 2-3 pitches of route are vaguely visible in this shot as well as they cut back left and above the huge arch/roof in the photo. Rap line takes you down over the arch. Other perspectives on roughly same instant in time can be seen here and here. Black Tower (right side of which forms the chimney pitches of Epinephrine) is above and slightly right of us (Nov. 2007).
Shirley belaying atop P2 of Sour Mash. For view looking the opposite way, see here. View from afar is here (Nov. 2007).
Leading the third pitch of Sour Mash. Pitches 3 & 4 were the easier ones of the route (and of course I grabbed them for my leads:)
One of the easier pitches of Sour Mash, pitch 4 (our P3). Black Velvet Canyon is below (Nov. 2007).
Shirley leading pitch 5 of Sour Mash – a very nice, pure trad 5.9 pitch on a varnished face (Nov. 2007).
Unknown climbers atop the Ivory Tower on Epinephrine as seen from Sour Mash next door (Nov. 2007).
Yours truly following pitch 5 of Sour Mash. A GREAT pitch IMHO – mostly face climbing with thin cracks for protection! Black Velvet Canyon is below.
Shirley starting up pitch 6 of Sour Mash (Nov. 2007).
Shirley following one of the harder pitches of Sour Mash (P6, our fifth). Black Velvet Canyon is below (Nov. 2007).
Shirley starting up the 7th and final pitch of Sour Mash (Nov. 2007).
Yours truly following the last pitch of Sour Mash on Black Velvet Wall. BV Canyon is down below. I’m somewhere on the 10- slick slab portion…glad I didn’t have to lead this one (Nov. 2007).
Shirley and Blondie hiking out from the Black Velvet Canyon (Nov. 2007).
Birdland
Birdland (5.7+) route climbs the central buttress in the photo.
Shirley leading pitch 1 of Birdland.
Starting the lead of pitch 2 of Birdland (I think).
Shirley leading the nice third pitch of Birdland (5.7+) on/near Brass Wall in Pine Creek Canyon (Nov. 2007).
Shirley at a belay high on Birdland.
Following pitch 5 of Birdland (5.7). This is a great 20 feet but the rest of the route is forgettable (not bad, just not very interesting; November 2007).
The girls at the base of Birdland after our climb.
Blondie sleeping while on guard duty at base of Birdland in Red Rocks (Nov. 2007).
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