Memorial Day Weekend

Although we have to work weekends we got Monday off as a holiday. We met up with Sarah and two of her friends, Amy and CJ, and went camping near Calistoga/Napa. Sarah had been in the area before and found a great rock climbing spot in the Robert Louis Stevenson's National Park. It was a perfect day for climbing. A bit overcast and cool. We had the Wall all to ourselves. Roby and CJ set up the top rope and the rest of us headed down to climb. We had some good hand holds at the start but halfway up you had to use some perfectly placed cracks for arm bar and fist jams. Once you got to a certain location, you either had to be at least 5'7" to reach the next grab or try and smear your climbing shoes and scamper up the wall. CJ and Sarah went first but both were denied. Amy went next and took a bit of a different route and also had a bit of height on her side. She was the first to reach the top. Roby went next and he was not going to be topped by a girl. He scampered up the first section with ease. After some route analysis he got his feet positioned correctly and reached up grabbing the final hand hold to successfully summit.
I was the final climber and had a great climb until I reached the point of no return. I got my feet perfectly jammed in the crevice and stretched with all my might. My hand reached the hold but just did not have enough to firmly lock myself in to pull myself up to the final pitch. I tried several times but my back and triceps gave out. I guess I need to do some more yoga to lengthen my upper torso. I will conquer the mountain before the summer is over.


The sun was about to set so we packed up the gear and headed back to the campsite, cooked up some dinner and called it a night. It was so great being back in our tent. I did not realize how much I missed it.