Project NIAD

I woke up this morning and asked Colin what we should go climb today. He jokingly said that nose, and then I said ok let's do it. We both laughed.. then got our rack together to go climb. Our plan was to get as high as we could, and then come back down when we got too tired.. our if the forecasted rain came in. No the weather didn't look good at all before we even started, but whatever, we were both psyched to start working on our project. Colin and I want to climb the nose in a day.

We got to sickle ledge (4 pitches up) at least twice as fast as we had done it the first time. We were both definitely more confident and efficient. It's cool to see how much I have progressed from when I climbed el cap a few months ago. We decided that it would be a good idea not to go any further because the storm that had been holding out finally looked like it was coming for us. Another party had fixed there ropes down to the ground from there, so it was really easy to rap down. I had to pass a knot, and I had never done that before, so I yelled up to Colin and asked him how to do it. He had to send me down a sling to tie a prussic, but then said to leave it because he didn't have any more. Hmmmm I thought to myself.. that's weird, I thought he was supposed to carry the rack.. He forgot it on the ledge, so he had to jug back up and get it. Oops. After getting on the ground I dealt with the tourist's questions, and then we headed to curry village for warmth and food.

Photos by Toni S