Learning to Crawl 

Ouch!!! I'm not sure if I should cringe from stupidity or blush with embarrasment. Ordinarily when putting up a line I make it a cardinal policy to remain on my jumars until I am completely off the pitch. On Learning to Crawl (Alan's name by right of rescue), I had finished placing all of the bolts but the first. For some reason, I was working out the first clip bouldering around the base. I had tested the rock for integrity and resistance to a downward pull, and in bouldering the move pulled a large block horizontally. Needless to say, as the block pulled, I pitched over backwards and jammed my foot between a small rock and the wall. This set up a rotating spin around the ankle, which sprained badly immediately. It swelled instantly to basketball size. I got my shirt off and tied it up as well as possible, abandoned the gear, and began the hobble back down. By the time I reached the base, I had fully sprained the other ankle. Thinking both were broken, I drove into the emergency room whereupon both ankles were X-rayed and casted. Having left all of my gear on the hill, I called Alan...who responded by humping around the hill in the dark, rapping down to the line, collecting all of my gear, and humping both loads back to the car. Not, however, before Anna (ABS) who had trucked me from the emergency room to the crag an hour so after Alan's departure, managed to give us both a scare by hiking up to the crag. This was before the trail was put in, and Alan I both figured her to pitch off the 3rd class ledge into the river, which she did not. Any lesson here? Nothing intelligent on my part, however, when things go wrong it is surprising how wrong they can go and how quickly. We may be climbing close to home, but we are still in the mountains and they still demand respect. I did not think I was being careless, but I was tired, and I paid little attention to the base and the potential consequences of a fall. It is amusing now because the consequences were not great, but all too often the outcome of our carelessness is far more serious.

I thought this was a great sport route worthy of two stars, thanks for putting it up Richard....

Bryson - yeah,the pitch turned out okay. Now you can even jump off before the first bolt and not bust up your ankles!!

Better than a single star route IMHO. Fun.

I like this line a lot.

Must be the legacy of Richard's adventure, but I found the climbing on the first two clips made me think the hardest (not saying much). Loved the roof feature. Fun route.

This was the first route we did on the wall today. It was a great warmup, well laid out, intuitive, fun, and scenic. A nice preview of other stuff in the area. Now that I read Richard's story of setting it, it's even better.