What was your first trad lead?

This was a fun trip through my tick list and guidebook notes!  Easy Keyhole 5.3 appears to be the first trad lead.  As I remember it we went midweek after work and I led, my wife followed.   I think there was a roof I had to climb through at the top of the first pitch! 

Fandango on the First Flatiron swapping leads with somebody way more experienced in the Flatirons than I will ever be. It gave me the confidence to head out to explore the area more. Maybe one day I'll achieve my doctorate for the area.

The 2nd pitch of Bookmark at Lover’s Leap. 5.8 with a bit of offwidth that I avoided by face climbing  what felt like 5.10a over a nest of micro nuts that may or may not have held. I should revisit that climb to see what I think now.

The lead was precipitated by Roddy saying in front of our attractive third climber that if I didn’t lead it he would just solo the pitch. Oh, the shame! Typical reasons young dumb dudes stuff, right? The biggest compliment was Roddy saying he was glad he hadn’t tried soloing the pitch when he got to the anchor.

Junior High, at Donner Summit. I must have done it half-a-dozen times, each time with different anchor configurations. Still enjoy that 3 pitch 5-easy.

Unnamed 5.9+ (called Lightning Bolt Crack on MP) at Habitado in Indian Creek. Short and sweet

Molly Ohmwrote:

Unnamed 5.9+ (called Lightning Bolt Crack on MP) at Habitado in Indian Creek. Short and sweet

That’s actually a really fun line!

Emilio Sosawrote:

That’s actually a really fun line!

It was one of my first climbs in the creek, and I knew right away it would be my first lead! Quite fun, I agree with the book that it would be 5 star if it were longer.

Best thread on mp ever.

I was/am a big time gumby.

At the time of this story, I was fresh into climbing and leading 5.8 sport routes. My friends and I all started around the same time, so there was nobody to hang top ropes for us, and if we wanted to climb, we had to lead. I was quite puckered on lead even on routes with modern bolting.

A guy I had met through some friends knew that I thought trad was the pinnacle of climbing. He took me up Wheat Thin at the City of Rocks the first evening of a trip, and I thought it was the shit. The next morning, we get up to go climb, and he asks if I want to do some trad.

Fuck yes. That’s exactly what I want. I can practice placements from the ground, follow and look at placements, maybe do a mock lead, etc. We head over to Window Rock and I’m jazzed up.

He hands me the rack.

Wait, this is not what I thought was happening? He puts me on Drunken Cowboy and I head up. He climbed the neighboring crack, which is close enough to allow him to swing over and check my placements. I headed up with the kitchen sink, and I think he had 3 pieces. He finishes before me and is hanging out at the shared anchor. The last 10 feet is friction slab, and there are not any places for reasonable gear (I wasn’t confident in the gear below my feet, either). I danced around for a while and telepathically begged him to reach down and haul me up, but I ended up pulling the moves and it was fine.

The best mentoring experience I could ask for.

American crack at the fortress wall in the red. Placed my first piece 1 move in the next one 10ft after that.

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/117855126/osg-old-safety-guy

Some random crack my two partners and I found somewhere near the Precipice at Acadia, in 1971. Though our rack consisted mostly of pins back then, I've always been happy that the first piece I placed on lead was clean, specifically a British, wired wedge.

Rivas-Acuña (V+/5.7), El Pájaro. La Pedriza (Spain). Year: 1986.

https://www.esferavertical.com/2022/11/rivas-acuna-el-pajaro-la-pedriza.html?m=1

Abbey Road, Red Rocks, NV....  5.5 or 5.6....  I watched a free soloist go up in 4 minutes... took me 40 minutes...LOL

The Conn Route on Spire 4 in the Cathedral Spires, Black Hills, South Dakota.

https://www.mountainproject.com/v/108814189

Can't remember the name, it was like 10m 5.6 and half the pieces fell out.

Stilgar’s Corner in Jasper, probably? It was so long ago that I’m not actually sure. 

Betty 

Second pitch of The Groove (Lovers Leap CA).
Easy 5th or maybe even 4th class. Got to the top and Squirrel (local guy) was at the top and gave me some casual direction on how to build my first anchor. Thanks Squirrel…!!!