After what felt like an eternity of rain and no guiding work I had the great pleasure of climbing with Art & Carol, two close friends of a regular client and friend of mine, John Deangelis. You can see photos of John and I ice climbing earlier in this blog.

Expecting a busy cliff given the holiday weekend and break in the weather we started by driving up the auto road so a quick hike down to Upper Refuse would get us warmed up…

Since Art and Carol are out lead climbing on their own we started discussing the finer points of belay management, protecting the second considerations, etc.

After topping out we made our way to the bottom of the cliff and hiked up to Thin Air. There were a couple parties on the 2nd pitch so we decided to eat a quick lunch and then start up.

After this we realized the party on the pitch above was a party of 4. We decided not to get stuck behind them and Art and Carol both took a quick TR on the 5.8r climb, Thinner, directly below the anchor here. After rappelling we made our way to the North End of the cliff for a run on the 5.7, Kiddy Crack.

It was a great day with perfect temps, dry rock (for the most part), and great company. I knew when meeting you guys last winter that we would climb well together and I thank John for the solid recommendation. You are both a pleasure to climb and to grab a pint with! Hope to see you again soon!