First outdoor climbing of the summer

Well, summer isn't quite here in Seattle, but that didn't stop us from enjoying a beautiful weekend. Katie and I went out to Exit 38 with Peter, Aaron, Maika, Jared, and Emily for some outdoor rock climbing. Obviously, Katie can't climb right now (nearly 30 weeks pregnant), but she came along to enjoy the hike and watch the rest of us climb. The weather really cooperated nicely. Some of the lower, less exposed rocks were still pretty wet, but we hiked to the Interstate Park area (at "The Far Side") and found some dry climbs.

While I'm am now leading in the gym, I don't yet feel confident enough leading to do it outside, so Aaron and Peter set the ropes and the rest of us top roped. I did get to do some exciting new things, though. I'd been practicing cleaning up anchors (that is, when you transfer the rope at the top to the fixed bolts so that you can take the anchor down), but on this trip I got to do it for real outside. I cleaned four routes, almost every route that I climbed. It's a pretty crazy feeling to be dangling way up there, untying the rope, and getting everything all set up. Since I didn't lead, I didn't get to set up any anchors, but hopefully I will next time. Also, Aaron took me up my first multi-pitch route, which was pretty awesome. I followed both pitches, but it was a great experience, and a great route. The route was super exposed, so you just looked out into emptiness for much of the climb. It made for a very exciting climb.

Here's a summary of the climbs from today:

• Eating Rocks (5.6) to Insomniac (5.8), multi-pitch, awesome 5.8
• Space Face (5.10c)
• EB-1 (5.9), very wet at the bottom, made it kinda nasty
• EB-2 (5.8), good cool down with one weird move