I guess I'm the first one to go questing this year! I went with Elaine who posts occasionally for two days on the West Side. We got in somewhat later than I do sometimes yesterday morning and headed for The Stronghold! I've done the hike in to the Flumes/Balconies area a few times, so it was just a matter of getting out past that and finding our way to Crowley Towers. I missed one obvious turn-off, but quickly found our way back onto the main trail, and headed past If We Bolt It They Will Come. More hiking took us into site of the Towers, as well as two condors occupying the top of Tower Three.
We hit the split between Point Five and Tower One, and paused to poke around a bit, before figuring out we needed to backtrack a dozen meters and head down slope. Having gotten down to about The Joy of Hooking, we could see another party, which was somewhat surprising. When we got down to them, we discovered they had finished Great Minds (5.10a) and Second Opinion (5.10c), and were off to Scaling The Ramparts (2-pitch, 5.11a). We followed from left to right, and found all three routes very good, when Second Opinion being my favorite. I found the movement through the second crux near the top especially engaging.
We spent the night in Soledad, and headed back to the park in the morning. This time, I had my eye on Lava Falls (2-pitch, 5.9). We hiked back in, found the climber's trail opposite Upper Toog's, marched past Smiling Simian, and were deposited at the base. Looking up at this thing, it's both very cool and somewhat intimidating. From the ground, I can see three bolts before the water chute eases up to a slabbier angle for a bit. Figuring I can at least manage that, and be pretty safe, I rack up and head out with Elaine on belay. Well, it wasn't an onsight, folks. I took a few times. And got to the crux and bailed. So, if anybody wants a ratty biner, it's all yours. But the climbing's fantastic, and it was mental not physical issues keeping me from at least getting to the top of that first long pitch. So now I have a goal.
Elaine was uninterested in following after me, and decided to give Full Circle (3-pitch, 5.10d) a try instead, up to the right on the same face. She found some of the rock quality suspect, also bailing. Having spend some significant time between our two aborted attempts, we looked for some low hanging fruit in our general vicinity, and ended the day on Walk the Plank (5.6) and Overboard (5.7) on Chockstone Dome near the entrance to the Balconies Caves. They're both short routes on a feature dominated by the Balconies and Machete Ridge, but it was nice to end the day doing something chill. I thought the traverse on Walk the Plank was especially nice.
Anyway, there are photos of some of the mud coming, but it's bedtime now, so feel free to liven up the place with your responses, and I'll post photos tomorrow.
