Massive Vertigo, Dos

Aaron looking a bit cold

Saturday came and the forecast called for clouds in the morning and sun in the afternoon so we'd planned on going up a little later in the day and catching good temps and sun. Gabe and Aaron made their way up and were gonna meet us at Beautiful Soup and then maybe go to Massive Vertigo.

We'll get the ugly out of the way early.

I sucked on Beautiful Soup and stopped trying it after about 5 goes. I need to go back with more psyche, that's for sure. I dunno what was happening but I was fumbling around and forgetting my beta and just being a tool in general. Big thanks to Katie for being the level headed one.

I had one good go but I want to go back with more pads and spotters. Who's in?? I want a session on that bad boy!!

Second, the weatherman can suck it. He can suck it long and hard. All the sun that abounded in the morning turned into this on the drive up:


Anyways, after my pitiful series of attempts at Beautiful Soup I walked away for a bit and swore that I heard someone yelling my name from one of the wooded talus fields to the South. I kept on hearing these muffled sounds and then Katie got a phone call from Aaron. He confirmed that he was trying to find us with Gabe in tow and promptly yelled again for me with the phone against his mouth. With Katie partially deaf now I was on my own to direct them my way.

Somehow Aaron went up not one, but at least two talus fields too early for Alpine Club. I didn't even know that two other fields existed!! Either way, they finally made it to us and Aaron made a weak attempt to warm up before we departed for Massive Vertigo.

With a totally jacked pad setup that consisted of our pads, already folded up and loaded for the hike, lined up under the V3 to the left of Alpine Club. Jacked.

Katie looking very unimpressed with the landing zone

I scurried up to the topout to make sure I caught his almost guaranteed tumble down the talus field behind him on camera. Sadly, he did not hold up his end of the bargain and after a couple of false starts he topped out in good fashion.

Surprised and happy, like a puppy!

Finally hitting the good holds at the lip

BRRR?!?!?

After Aaron came down we picked up our pads and left for Massive Vertigo. A nice, quick hike up the talus and we laid down the pads. I started things out and came agonizingly close to sticking the crux move yet again. I had a couple of good attempts and my heel stuck better than it had in the past. I feel like one more good session and I'll have it.

Gabe hopped on next and very quickly realized that the sharp crimps weren't ideal to warm up on. He gave it a few good goes and got the first moves fairly fast. Sadly that got him to the crux and when he figured out that it was a heel hook crux I think a little bit of him died inside. Heel hooks are not where Gabe is at his finest. They're his Kryptonite, if you will. After a couple goes he stepped aside with a confused and sad look on his face. Nervous Nacho was not happy.

Go Nervous Nacho, go!!

Aaron got on next and started working the crux with me. Aaron had all of his stuff stolen from his car earlier in the week and he was in less than ideal shoes but got fairly close anyways.

After the three of us messed around Katie finally took her hand warmers out of her shoes and set to work. On her first go she made the point of telling us how easy the first move was and that we're all "Sally's" for making it look hard. Touche'.

She'd been amped to try it since watching me flail on it last weekend and had no real trouble with any of the intro moves. She's gonna have to figure something out for the bigger move but is definitely excited to get back on it. It'll be a good project for her.

Toasty shoes

On the first move

Figuring out the crux move

One thing I noticed though was the amount of dry fires people had on this problem. I was the only one to not have my hand just explode off of the problem. I thought it was pretty funny.

She's on.....and...

BOOM!!!  She's off!!

Katie didn't think it was funny.

The other entertaining part of the day was seeing just how tall Aaron seems when he stands next to Katie. Check it out.

Tall bastard

With a quick change in the weather our day ended as rain started coming down rather hard and temps dropped about 10 degrees in 5 minutes. We slipped our way down the talus and made our way back to the cars.

I'll leave you with a shot of Nervous Nacho, devastated after he found out that there was a heel hook on Massive Vertigo.