Little Rock City, The Wave

I want to start off our trip report by giving praise to Montlake Golf Course and all of their staff. I can't say enough good about them and the fact that they allow climbers on their golf course. It's pretty amazing, and somewhat mindblowing, that they allow any access at all. We found ourselves continually saying that to each other. For those of you who aren't familiar with they system, here's the quick run down. There is a cap of 35 people and 20 cars per day. Registration starts at 5 AM and everything is on a first come first serve basis. I personally love it and Katie and I had no problems at all getting registered each day.


One of the problems that I wanted to get back on, and one that was on Katie's list to try, was the Wave. The Wave comes in at about V6 and climbs a prominent "Crashing Wave" type of arete. A couple of slaps up the arete and a somewhat delicate smear lead to a thought provoking match and rock over onto a slab. The climbing is absolutely classic and should be on anyone's short list for climbs to do at LRC.



I was somewhat surprised how quickly I was able to do it again. I was planning on climbing up the arete a few moves and then dropping off, mainly just to get some pictures. The entire thing felt surprisingly good and flowed really well. When I got to the match everything felt bigger and better than I had remembered. I topped out with a smile and walked off the back side.

Katie gave it some really good goes on her first day when she had her own little version of the plague. When we finally made it back three days later she had no tips at all and was ready to bleed. A couple of goes sliding her hand up coarse sandstone was enough to call it quits for the day. I'm sure when we come back fresh again she'll send it in short order.