First Summer On Lead, Fun, and a Lesson Learned the Hard Way

Other than recent trips to the local bouldering spot this year, a friend and I have also managed to get to the mountains to try out sport climbing. Getting outside on lead was something that I had thought about quite often during the cold snowy months while climbing inside, I felt confident in my abilities and could not wait to see what real rock and the sharp end had to offer. After a year and a half of solid growth in my climbing, as well as what I had learned from my climbing mentors and friends, I felt I was ready to take what I had learned from my time on the plastic, outside. Not even a year ago I would sit and watch in awe of what they could do on the wall, now I was keeping up, I felt good.  I had read up and did my homework on the logistics of sport climbing as well as probed other experienced members of the climbing community for knowledge. With the work being done I felt I could make it up some routes safely and with confidence. The catalyst of the jump into sport climbing was my good friend Julian, he is a talented climber with great knowledge of the sport. He works at the local climbing gym and has things pretty dialled. Although he had never taken the sharp end outside either, he did have years of experience inside. This was enough for me, we needed to make the move to real rock, so we did.

Our chance came after a weekend of bouldering with my lovely wife Kate in Jasper National Park, We met up with Julian and his wife on their way back from a trip to the West Coast. Julian and I both decided that Juno Wall would be a good place to get in our first lead try. Juno is a south facing crag north of the Jasper townsite with great sun exposure, an optimal early season climbing spot. After a long approach, we found ourselves under the crag. Right away we realized we had come to the right place. All the routes were bolted up really good, a good safe start to our sport climbing careers. Since it was our first go, we opted for a nice easy 5.8 route called Bleeding Heart Show. We worked out the process, the gear we needed, and an exit strategy, and for the first time it didn't seem like such a bad thing if a piece of gear needed to left behind. Julian took the lead and on sighted it! I strapped up right after and flashed the 5.8. I have to say it felt great to get the first notch in the belt!

The scramble approach to Juno Wall in Jasper

Julian on "Bleeding Heart Show 5.8"

Me Cleaning the Route

We headed home with our first in the bag and I could not wait until the next time. I was so pumped to get back, I found myself scouting out the next trips routes and made a list. Things were getting exciting, summer was here and I wanted to send everything!

We finally made it back for the may long weekend and chose to hit up Lost Boys,  one of Jaspers most popular sport climbing spots. Again we looked for a nice and easy warm up, although it was crazy busy, we managed to find another nice 5.8 to warm up on. Feeling confident in myself I took the lead, readied my draws, and tied in. A quick on-sight was made! The rock was amazing and although the bolts were spread a little further apart than at Juno I felt confident throughout my on-sight attempt. Julian then quickly shot up the route and cleaned things up. Not too bad, we thought, we got this. 

My On-sight of "Social Foreplay 5.8"

Now that two 5.8's were on-sighted we both felt it was time try something a little more difficult. We found an route unfortunately named Satans Hairy Semen a super fun looking 5.10a, with a cool roof. Again I readied myself for the climb and started up. I found the route reachy but the holds were all pretty massive, I pulled the roof no problem and before I knew it, another onsight! I was pretty excited, and did not even feel pumped! I wanted more. Julian unfortunately got a hand cramp and had to call it a red point attempt, but still a send. He is a skilled climber and I know without a doubt he was worthy of the Flash. 

My On-sight of "Satans Hairy Semen 5.10a"

Julian on the Route.

After the 10a, I decided to try a 5.11a-b line that was bolted on the opposite side of the arete we had just climbed, called Boonie on the Nose, I  gave it the best go I could, for the end of the day, but I got pumped and could not pull the roof. I felt the moves were all there, but I had just pumped myself trying the wrong sequence, I am excited to get back on the this one. 

Giving 110% on Boonie on the Nose 5.11 a-b

After my failed attempt on the route the Saturday was over and considered a great success, we would be back Monday but things would go in a drastically different direction.

After a rest day sunday that included a nice hike of The Valley of The Five Lakes, as well as a dip in the Miette Hot springs, we were back at Lost Boys Monday morning. we were excited to try to push the limits of previous days and really come into our own, as we began to gain more confidence on lead. The crag was pretty empty but the two routes that we had planned on jumping on were taken. I quickly decided to try my luck at a 5.10b called Saturday Night Special, ignorant to the logistics of the route I gave my fingers a stretch and took the lead. I soon realized that I had underestimated the route I was on. The first bolt was pretty high but I felt I could boulder up to it, my first mistake was that I did not know that the crux was just before the run out second bolt. The sequence of mistakes that I would make in the next 3 minutes would humble me and in the end force me to take a step back from my ambitions. As I said before, the first mistake I made was running it out to my second clip without knowing I was dealing with the crux moves, some little and pumpy sloped cracks. My second mistake, was that I underestimated how much rope I had out, the third mistake was not clipping, I had the chance and I gave up, I should have clipped. Mistake four was not letting my belayer know I had given up, if Julian would have known, he could have taken up enough slack to avoid what was about to happen next. So, you can tell by know that this went terribly wrong. By compounding all of these easily avoidable errors I set my self up for a bad fall. From 25 feet up, on a run out route, with way to much rope out, and no communication to my belayer, I took a bad ground fall. Before I could even realize my mistake I was waking up from the haze. I landed hard, hit my back on a large protruding rock, and smashed my head on another rock. Thank goodness I was wearing a helmet, the one thing I did right. I walked away with some bruised internal organs, a nasty cut on the back of me head, and some other cuts and bruises. One thing is for sure, I will take this series of mistakes as a lesson learned the hard way. I also find it ironic that in my last post I had stated that I vowed to become an advocate for new climbers, and hardly a week later I am writing this post. So here goes, this is what I learned, in no particular order. 

1. Always wear a helmet, it saved my life.

2. Know what your getting yourself into when you jump on a route, where's the crux, should you  

    stick clip it, is the rock cold and damp, that sort of thing. 

3. Know how much rope you have out, apparently important, (who knew?)

4. Practice clipping at home, as a newer climber I completely underestimated the importance of being  

    to calm down and make a simple clip when shit was hitting the fan. 

5. Clip if you can, I regret so much not just clipping, with the combination of all that I had done  

    wrong up until this point a simple clip would have avoided it all.

6. Communicate with your belayer, I was to proud to say I felt pumped, taking up the slack could 

    have easily prevented the entire mess. 

I will be back to this route, prepared and ready next time. Happy Climbing everyone, Stay safe and crush hard! I would also like to give a shout out to Black Diamond for making a great helmet, the Half Dome saved my skull, thanks BD!

Also want to give a big shout out to Ashley Camsell for all the great photos!

    

Seconds before the fall, the second bolt is still above my head in this photo.