Pre Valetine's Day Massacre

As I mentioned in the previous post, on Friday Jason completed his first v10 and followed it up with a 7 and an 8. Most likely his best outing to date. Earlier that day, I traveled to Area 74 by my lonesome to see if I could do anything new or just get a workout since Jeremy was donating plasma. As it turned ou I had a pretty good day myself. I put up two new moderates on the shortest part of the main wall and a fairly difficult climb across the road next to Jeremy's Messy Bear. I then proceeded to finally complete From Darkness Comes Light v10. This was probably my proudest moment of the day as I have worked it for quite some time over several years, and have fallen on the last move about a dozen too many times.


Messy Bear v8 starts on the low slope on the left side of the picture and moves up the faint crack and then right for a move to topout. High Maintenance v10 start on a pinch to the right of the tree in the picture and traverses left into the feature that is heavily chalked. The problem has quality movement, but is unfortunately north-facing. It is almost always wet, sandy, or dirty in general, but the rock cleans well. The grade may change with more ascents and depending on its evolving condition. If you find yourself running out of problems, wanting to topout, or wanting to clean something to warm-up, this climb is an excellent choice.

Dreams and Realities v6 begins on a right facing sidepull and a left hand crimp just to the left of the rock in the bottom right of the picture. It makes one move left and then backwards to the right facing jug before topping out left of the tree.




Self service begins 15 feet to the left of Dreams and Realities and as around a v7. It begins right hand in the heavily chalked slot and left hand on a crimp. It makes one large move to a jug straight out and then finishes straight over the lip. Both of these moderates previously had chalk on some of the holds, so I am probably not the first to do them. However, they are not in the guide book, so this is what I am calling them. Both are nice problems for their difficulty.

Scott Fitzgerald on From Darkness Comes Light v10 in the fall of '07 courtesy of Matt Hagler.