Public Enemy

With Katie still out of town in Bishop and Red Rocks I made a couple of solo trips to the lake this weekend. Both days were hot and smarmy and reminded me what it's like at the lake in Summer. In short, nothing of note happened. I know that Brian went up on Saturday, when I was too worked to make any reasonable effort other than chalking up the Smooth Roof Project. His day at Monolith sounded wet, hot, sweaty and unsuccessful.

Much like my Sunday was.

I started out on Public Enemy which I hadn't actually tried. Remo has reminded me a handful of times now that I should get on it at some point and so I hopped up the easy approach to check it out.

Two things.

1 - The roof is much steeper than it looks in pictures.

2 - It is also much closer to the ground than it looks in pictures. Runnells, this may not be your favorite line in the park.

Sadly it also bakes in the morning sun, just like Storm Troopers. I tried my best to get up there early but it didn't matter. I couldn't really figure out what my right hand was supposed to start on so instead I just tried the second half of the line. I was pleasantly surprised the the shoulder move out to the far left crimp wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be but the toe hook move is tricky!

After awhile I got lazy/bored and just started jumping from the right arete and the good left hand crimp just below it all the way out to the juggy left hand arete. Every time I'd get my left hand on the arete and then for some reason I'd put my feet on the pad. It was close enough that I could feel that it'd go in better temps and anyone that can jump at all could definitely do it.

Not sure if it effects difficulty as I haven't spent much time on the problem but it'll skip two moves if it goes like that. Should be interesting. The move is super fun and feels huge until you get used to the momentum.

After a sufficient amount of failing I moved on and brushed up the Crimp Toehook project. At first I was really excited. The line seemed cool, the lip hold was really cool and the undercling was kind of great. Then I pulled on and felt how sharp the left hand was and promptly packed up all my things and left, sweating profusely on my way down the talus.

Here are a couple pics of the smooth operator roof project and the crimp toe hook project.