Oct 12, 2020
The plan for today's session was to send Ben Smith's impressive Mentonia V10 at the Dover Warmup area.
The session did not go according to plan. I could make excuses - but that line is just fucking hard. Like an evening at the Dome Night Club, after and all hope was lost on my beautiful objective, I took home the consolation price - Chris Richardson's Bearhave V7. Sometimes you have to slay a few dragons before you get to the princess. Bearhave is a bit contrived (you can just dyno and skip the crux), but if you commit to doing it in the spirit of the orignal, it's almost not a turd.
I finished the session with the rest of the lines at the warm-up area. Behave V6 was as gross as I remember. Who decided to start this thing on the lower block? It would be a real rock climb without that nonsense.
The Bear V4 was as good as I remember and restored my faith in rock climbing.
In another demonstration that grades are not to be taken seriously, Jugular Traverse V2 was much harder than The Bear V4. No wonder I avoided doing this line for so long. The remaining 14 lines are not noteworthy. I finished them all to get video for the topo, and then passed out from exhaustion. Warm-up area my ass. I'm not sure who would still be able to climb after "warming up" with a full circuit in this area.