Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Shuteye with Sue

The original plan for the weekend was to climb the Obelisk with Sue, but instead we ended up doing some fun cragging in Shuteye. 

First up was Wingfeather, a super-classic 4 pitch, 750 foot 5.8 up a granite buttress on Gray Eagle. i had climbed in years ago, but didn't really remember much except that it was a great climb! My memory was accurate. its an excellent moderate excursion with a but of route finding to throw in some spice. 

Looking up at the first pitch of Wingfeather
Sue and I swapped leads on this, with her getting the adventure/route finding crux, and me getting the technical crux. Sue did great, and is certainly a strong capable rock climber .

Sue is psyched to climb
Sue following pitch 1
The first pitch is a long (60 meter) crack that leads to some chicken heads. Pitch 2 heads straight up the buttress and is mostly protected my a mixture of gear and slinging chicken heads. Its easy to get lost up there...

Sue launches up onto a sea of chickenheads
The technical crux on P3 is a short reachy face which then leads to easy chickenhead pulling. Good times

Sue following P3
We didn't set any speed records, but certainly enjoyed ourselves on this quiet classic. We topped out on the buttress and found the rap line back to the ground. 

All smiles on the top of Wingfeather
Heading down after a great day on the rock

On day two Teresa joined us, and we headed over to High Eagle for some high quality sport climbing!

Teresa on the approach
We went to the main wall and sampled a variety of 5 star routes, from 5.10a - 5.11a. I didn't send a thing, and bailed off the 5.11, but it was all good fun! Defiantly my rock climbing has been suffering with all the preparations for the Himalaya. Sue did a nice bold lead up a steep 5.10a.

Quality sport climbing. Me on lead
Teresa gets ready to pull the roof
Sue crushing it on lead
Penny came along as well, but mostly napped.

Penny
The best route on the wall was a super fun 5.10c called Sweaty Betty. It was full value, 30 meters long, a spicy runout 5.8 section and a pumpy crux. Super good. 

Sue working Sweaty Betty
The sun dipped behind the ridge, and the temps dropped, so we packed it up and headed home. It was great to have Sue visit for a weekend of climbing....I love Shuteye...

Heading home
Goodbye Shuteye.... see you next Spring

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