Shrinking Ball Disease | chossclimbers.com

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Shirley starting up the amazingly beautiful 5.10a splitter that is Sex Party.

Having looked up at the Shrinking Ball Disease (5.11a) route the weekend prior, Shirley & I once again (4 for 4!!) found ourselves at the Sunshine Wall on a fine and sunny Saturday morning. A quick warm-up on Party In Your Pants and soon enough I was quivering on the opening moves of the money route. An OK hybrid Alien cam and a shitty offset and it was time to get going. Fortunately the difficulties eased shortly above the (useless) bolt 25 feet up (but I clipped it – twice in fact!). From there onwards it was a series of thinnish moves separated by most excellent stems. We rounded out the day with Shirley’s lead of the gorgeous Sex Party (5.10a) route on the Middle East Wall.

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Shirley topping out on pitch 2 of Thin Fingers.

As the sun was shining brightly, we moved to Index for Sunday’s cragging. Unfortunately the 9am arrival proved too late for our plans and after a fun bs-session with some climbers, we were talked into trying Thin Fingers (5.11a) route. Oh my goodness – that first pitch should’ve been a lesson for me. Shirley led it in style and it was thin indeed even on top rope. Pitch two started out with some A0 (yes I tried in vain…) and a touch of resting on the rope at the hard upper lieback. Brilliant route though and it was fun to run into some Seattle climbers at the base whose Vantage beta we’ve been relying on for some time now…

Pics

Vantage

The classic Party In Your Pants (5.8) after a few years away…still a fun route (March 2013).

Leading the Shrinking Ball Disease (5.11a). An OK green-yellow hybrid Alien and a bullshit RP and protect the crux starting moves of the route. If you envision yourself plugging tiny TCU’s into the crack below the bolt, think again…As a reference the guy on the left is on Party In Your Pants (5.8; March 2013).

Shrinking Ball Disease at the bolt – from here on it’s a series of thin moves separated by generous rest stems. The bolt is not really necessary but it got clipped of course. Also, apparently the disease has a 24-hour incubation period as I found out the next day on Thin Fingers in Index…pardon the camel toe shot (March 2013).

Shirley starting up the Shrinking Ball Disease route (March 2013).

Shirley almost out of the hard climbing on Shrinking Ball Disease (March 2013).

Shrinking Ball Disease rack (+ a single #3 Camalot for the easy top out). Next time I lead it (in the next life…or the one after that), I’ll bring a couple of the smaller end Lowe Balls (March 2013).

Shirley starting up the splitter Sex Party (5.10a) route on the Middle East Wall. As splitter as basalt gets…OK, I guess Trout Creek is more splitter but this is pretty effing splitter…you dig? Splitter weather also.

Shirley starting up the amazingly beautiful 5.10a crack that is Sex Party – our second time up it over the years and it was just as good. Blondie is clearly caught up in the excitement (March 2013).

More Sex Party action…wait that didn’t come out right (March 2013).

Shirley cruising the beautiful Sex Party on the Middle East Wall in Vantage (March 2013).

Index

Lower Town Wall at Index. On the right in this section is the classic Thin Fingers (5.11a) line (July 2013).

Unknown climber leading Godzilla (5.9) at Index. The quintessential Index image in my mind: sun-lit, clean, low-land granite cragging with some snow-capped Cascade Peaks in the background and of course the rail road tracks shining through (March 2013).

Shirley styling the surprisingly hard (5.10a) first pitch of Thin Fingers – real climbers do the whole thing in one pitch but for wankers like us this was still plenty hard (March 2013).

Following Shirley’s lead of pitch 1 of Thin Fingers…supposedly 5.10a but f… me – I had to work hard and on top rope no less! Index has a way of recalibrating our expectations (March 2013).

The fun part of Thin Fingers – this was followed by a bit of …ahhhhhem.. rest on a rope and a final series of liebacks and finger cracks (March 2013).

Shirley on pitch 2 of Thin Fingers…some call it just Thin Fingers (March 2013).

Shirley topping out on pitch 2 of Thin Fingers (5.11a…or as we call it 5.10 A0). The black finger nail polish helps you crush.

The Lower Town Wall at Index…and Shirley and Blondie playing chicken with the freight train (March 2013).

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