Lead Climbing

After a year and a half of climbing, I finally took the opportunity to lead. Up to this point, I have top-roped everything I have climbed. Top-roping is when the rope is already attached to the anchors at the top of the climb, and both ends of the rope are at the ground. The climber ties in to one end, and the belayer has the other end. When top-roping any fall that you take is only as far as the amount of slack that your belayer allows you to have. When lead climbing, the climber takes the rope with him to the top, clipping in to protection points along the way. When a lead climber falls, he falls twice the distance between him and the last place he clipped in. Leading a route can often be a lot more difficult than top-roping the same route. Some of that difficulty comes from the games that your mind plays on you, knowing that there is no protection above you.

Rik and I went to Prison Camp. It seems that anytime it is just the two of us, that is where we end up. It is close to the bottom of Mt. Lemmon, has an easy approach, and there are a lot of climbs in all abilities. We started the day on the route Cell Block 6. Rik led it first and set up a top-rope. I top-roped it once to get a feel for the climb. When I came down, I left all of the quickdraws in the bolts. Then I led the climb, not having to worry about clipping the quickdraw to the bolt. I only had to worry about clipping the rope into the quickdraw. On the way down, I cleaned the quickdraws from the bolts. Then, I led it for a second time, having to clip the quickdraw to the bolt and the rope into the quickdraw.

It was a great rush. I thought that I would be more nervous than I actually was. It is a relatively easy climb (5.6) and has a lot of good holds and ledges for feet. It is where a lot of people first lead climb.

Here I am tying into the rope to get ready to lead this climb.


I am half way up the route. Notice the good ledge that I have to stand on? This was a great place to stand on my own and have my belayer free up his hands to get a picture.




This is the full route Cell Block 6.


After leading Cell Block 6 twice we went around the corner to lead two other routes. This is Solitary (5.7). Rik led it and I watched him. He cleaned it all on his way down, except for the first bolt. We left the rope through the quickdraw on the first bolt.


Then I did Machine Gun (5.7).


Here I am at the anchors of Machine Gun.


I had such a great time that day. After leading those three routes we stuck around and I top-roped four others. I came home that day with one of those grins that just wouldn't stop.