Saturday, August 21, 2010

Proper Soul 5.14a(R/x)

Friday I sacked up and lead Proper Soul clean on tradition gear. It was by far the hardest traditional climb I have ever attempted. Before this, 5.12a was my hardest traditional lead. A week ago I had rapped down Proper Soul and dialed in all the gear placements. However, this was the first time i had placed any of them on lead. I placed two number one Camalots in the first 25 feet. From here things start getting a little more sporty. The run out to the next gear placement is about 20 feet up and 10 feet to the left with the difficulty increasing with every move. The placement is from a flaring hand jam undercling that one can easily slip out of with no warning. I squeezed and focused all my energy into that hand jam. If i blew it i was well aware that my belayer would have a hard time keeping of the deck. After setting the #1 camalot i slapped my way into the crux dihedral where i placed a sketchy C3 and a HB brass nut to protect the finial hard moves exiting the dihedral. The next half of the climb i placed three trucker camalots; a .3bd, a 0 C3, and a .5bd to protect the finial crux.


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