I left work at lunch yesterday because of illness. I went home, slept for 3 hours. Today I’m feeling a bit better.

Let’s do some more weekend wrap up.

Climbing at Whitestone!

Whitestone Cliff is a small little crag just north of Waterbury. The climbing there is short (60 feet max height), but it’s isolated and the scenery is amazing. There’s about a 5 or 6 minute hike into the woods to reach the crag. The rock is Gniess and it’s got a bunch of fun surfaces and cracks.

Tony, Paulette, and I started out on a few slab 5.5’s. I lead one (tony cleaned), and then we set up an anchor on another. After the practice runs, we headed over to Dreadlock. Dreadlock is a 5.8 G (’G’ means good protection). The climb starts off on a comfortable crack that’s about the width of two fingers. I started using a lot of cams earlier on, which made me a little nervous as I was afraid I’d run out later on… but the climb was pretty straightforward so I wasn’t too concerned.

Near the top, there were a series of BIG moves which were very exciting. But the gear was plentiful so danger was minimal.

I got the top, cheered heartily and then belayed for Tony and Paulette. Paulette cleaned the route for me and then Tony finished off.

The whole trip was only about 3 hours long, but it was great to get out to a new crag and get some more trad experience.

This is going to be an amazing summer for climbing.