Index - Inner Wall June 3

It is so nice to be able to climb after work, especially on the hottest day of the year... and stay cool in the shade. I have only climbed the Lower Town Wall, so I was excited when I picked up Dave at the Index General Store at 3:40pm and found out we were going to head to the Inner Wall.

When we pulled into the LWT parking area, I noticed that some of the "long term" RV campers (AKA squatters) had moved on and there was room to camp next to the river again... about damn time. We then headed up to the IW, and I realized I was in flip flops and had no other shoes, which ended up sucking on the upper part of the trail. When we arrived, we were in a small canyon with a few routes and a cave, but mainly over grown lush vegetation, moss and most importantly, shade.

We got geared up and Dave led Toxic Shock (5.9). It was a sweet route with a finger crack for 15 feet or so, then a easy-ish section, followed by a committing, exposed step onto a slab to gain the next 20 foot hand crack that leads to the tree anchor (slings and a rap ring). From there, Dave traversed and set a TR on Even Steven (11a) and lowered down. Next, I followed on TS and cleaned gear. The first piece would not come out easily, especially while in a lay back, so I had to sit on the rope and work out the cam... the second cam in the same crack was not as difficult to remove, but tough also. From there I scaled the gully section and across the slab to the hand crack. This was tough but fun climbing and soon I was at the anchor.

Next Dave worked Even Steven on TR, the two crux sections were thin fingers and looked very tough. After he lowered, I climbed the easy crack below to gain Even Steven, but getting on the lower crux was a bit over my head, so I lowered and Dave worked it again, trying to work out the cruxes so he could send it clean. I then got back on TS again, trying for a clean send, as now I don't have to clean pro and can just climb. As I was doing the lay back up the first crack, I popped off and fell quite a ways for being on TR. We had the whole rope out over both climbs, so there was a lot of stretch. I couldn't believe it! The hands were thin in that area, and I just lost it. And it happened 2 more times before I was able to do it without falling off. Once past that section, I was able to gain the upper crack easily and did a combo of lay back moves, stems and hand jams to finish it off.

After that, we headed over to Corner Flash Grandeur Buttress (5.7) on the other side of the canyon. Dave led it easily, and I followed and cleaned pro without incident. It was a fun, easy climb to finish off the day... it was now about 8:00pm and the sun was fading into the trees while the shadows were growing long into the mountain side. The hike back down over quickly and I was dropping Dave off in Index shortly after before heading down Hwy 2 towards home. Another great afternoon on the rock.