Oct 2, 2020
Sea spray and fog are constant struggles in coastal climbing areas. The whole island was dripping wet this morning. Not to be discouraged, I set to work. An hour later... it was still aweful. Alex Megos says: "there are no bad conditions, there is only weakness." That's fucking stupid. But I was there, and it wasn't getting any better, so fuck it. Send goes. It's a turd anyway. The topout was too tall to dry, so wet holds with a pump will add some spice. I showed the video to a friend who doesn't climb and got the perfect response: "I'm not a climber, but the hardest thing about that climb looks like keeping your feet off the ground. I can't imagine looking at that piece of rock and thinking a good way to climb it is move left and go up the corner. It's not very inspiring." Pretty much sums it up. Another friend was less diplomatic:
If you set this in the gym, you'd be fired from the route setting team. Basically a series of hangboards side-by-side. Appearently, if you're a hobbit, there is a rose move in there somewhere. I've had more nuanced gripper sessions. It's SUPER soft at the proposed original grade, so sadly, it's pretty popular. For perspective - all the holds in the climb are part of individual of V3/4 climbs (see below). How do you go from V4 linkups to proposing V9? Straight arithmetic? However, if you want to see your FAs repeated, it's always a good policy to bump the grade by 3. They'll get traffic not matter how gross. Meanwhile, the most beautiful climbs in NS go 20 years between repeats... may as well get mad at the sun for setting.
The lower graded climbs in the area proved to be substantially more enjoyable. They are all variations on a theme and totally worth doing. Short Man's Dyno V4 featured decent moves on crimps to a fun topout.
White Rabbit V4 was a fun little dyno to the lip, followed by a cool mantle to a casual topout.
Your Worst Enemy V3 was probably the trickiest topout where the ledge is the smallest.
Air Force One V1 was pleasant face climbing that depended completely on choosing the proper feet.
Finally, Iceberg V1 was the least inspiring climb in the area (other than Community Service), but I thought it was a cute dog cameo.