First Aid Experience

Armed with our new etriers, Jumars, and daisy chains, Stacy and I headed to Suicide Rock to try some aid climbing. My experience to that point consisted of jumaring up a rope I had hung from my patio cover. Stacy had never even seen a jumar until we arrived at the rock. Undaunted by our lack of experience, we had decided to try Euphoria, 5.9 A1, which climbs up the left edge of the Sunshine Face and then aids under the Pizzano Pinnacle roof on fixed bolts and pins.

Not wanting to waste our entire day on aid climbing we selected Hesitation, 10a, also on the Sunshine Face, for the "fun" warm up. Hesitation was quite a nice climb. Stacy led the very nice long first pitch, 5.7, which climbs an imposing chimney to a ramp which leads to a bolted belay stance. The exposure is excellent going up that ramp. Having been warned by various people that the second pitch was hard to follow with bolts "all over the face" I had carefully studied the topo and had a copy in my pocket which I pulled out repeatedly to check. The climb apparently gets its name from the fact that it goes strait up for two bolts then (the first ascent team either being intimidated by the blankness above, or spying some juicy knobs off to the right) it makes a sharp right turn to follow some chicken heads and a couple more bolts to the top. The climbing seemed rather easy for 10a and the quality, although pretty good, was not up to the level of Sundance which is just to the left.

We were originally going to try to traverse under the Pizzano overhang from the top of Hesitation to reach the aid bolts on Euphoria but I was freezing and we descended Bye Gully to get my jacket. Vogel, in his usual wisdom, lists the approach to the flake on Euphoria as third class. It is certainly 5.4 in places with a dangerous fall potential, and should be led. The base of the flake was blocked by a large bush which strongly resembled poison oak. There was little alternative but to set the belay in the bush, which after some discussion Stacy convinced me was not really poison oak (no rash appeared later so he was probably correct). Stacy lead up the flake, which was good quality and about 5.7-8, to a belay under the Pizzano overhang. At the point where Euphoria crosses the overhang it is much smaller than at the right hand side where the 12b crack is. Only two bolts and a piton are needed to surmount the roof. Off I led with my new aid gear. It turned out to be significantly harder to walk up those etriers than I had anticipated. Also I had trouble getting the biner with the daisy chain jammed with the other biners.

After considerable dinking around I was finally hanging from the piton at the lip. The view was fantastic hanging over the Sunshine Face with snow covered Tahquitz peak across the Strawberry Valley. Vogel indicates some 5.9 just above the lip, but perhaps he was more anxious than I to jump out of the etriers. I could not figure out how any of the moves could be close to 5.9. Also happily there is an additional piton, not shown in Vogel's guide, about 20 feet above the lip. The climbing above the lip was very easy (probably 5.3) but the exposure and position were fantastic. There are even a few places to put small pieces on the way to the top of the Pinnacle which has a two bolt belay/rap station.

When I got to the top I tied the rope off to the anchor and yelled down to Stacy that he could start jumaring. The plan was for him to aid over the roof then yell up to me to put him on belay and he would free climb the rest of the pitch as I had. After some delay the rope came tight. I relaxed in the sunshine and took in the views not having to belay him through the aid section. I knew cleaning the roof would be difficult since you have to clip your jumar over a piece then sort of lower yourself out from it to get your weight off of it and clean it, or else basically relead the pitch, standing in the etriers to get your weight off the rope. I thus wasn't too surprised when about an hour went by with no call from Stacy. After about another half hour, and now sitting in the shade starting to get cold, I yelled down to Stacy to see what was going on. The wind was blowing and it was difficult to hear but I thought I heard him say he wanted to be on belay. Sure enough shortly some slack appeared in the rope and put it through my ATC and started taking it in. The rope was coming in as fast as I could take it but I didn't think too much of it since the climbing was very easy and I thought Stacy was just moving fast. Shortly I was horrified to see the end of the rope snaking up to me with no Stacy attached. I immediately started screaming down to see if he was ok. Finally I was able to understand that he had down jumared back to the belay under the overhang and had untied from the rope thinking that's what I wanted him to do for some reason. He had been unable to clear the overhang with the jumars.

I was pretty worried at that point. We didn't have enough rope for me to reach him with the rope doubled to allow us to rap the rest of the route. He was either going to have to make it over the lip of the overhang or be rescued. It was already getting late. I was worried that the few people up there that day had probably already descended and that I'd have to go all the way to the parking lot or town to find someone to help. With the rope still tied to the anchor I threw it back down and rapped down to the lip where I secured myself to the rope with the two prussic loops I always carry. Stacy did not look too happy standing at the belay. Fortunately the belay was almost directly below the lip and I was able to get the rope back down to him and he tied in. He had had a lot of trouble cleaning the gear. Now that the rope had been pulled through the gear he quickly gained the lip, having to leave only one quickdraw behind. With me helping pull the rope away from the rock Stacy got the upper jumar over the lip and made it up. We climbed back up with me protected with the prussics (thank God it was not really 5.9). We rapped off the back of the Pinnacle into Bye Gully and made it back down to the parking area a little after dark. Numerous margaritas were definitely called for at that point.