We got up and did out normal morning stuff before heading to Headstone Rock (which was just a couple hundred yards from out site) to start off the day. Ellen was slow getting packed, so we pointed to the rock and said we would meet her there. She had trouble finding the scramble up to the climbing, which was a sign of things to come. By the end of the weekend I had decided her new name was train-wreck. I led a fun face route called the SW Corner (5.6 - 4 bolts). Tim tied in short and came up behind me after watching Ellen tie in. Without getting into it too much, there was a knot in the rope about 10 feet from the end that she failed to notice, so it kept getting stuck in the draws as she came up. Upon finishing, she said Tim had left a knot in the rope which caused all the trouble… so much for taking any sort of responsibility for herself. Funny that Tim made it up just fine. We then rapped off the back and headed out.
Next we headed to Hall of Horrors to get on a few routes that I had seen when walking around the area with Chrissy. There are about 4 routes right in a row that has a scramble to anchors, and two of the routes were 10’s that I wanted to try. First we did Ledges to Lawndale (5.10a) which was fun and then got on Buckets to Burbank (5.8) which also went pretty easy. Lastly we got on Pull-Ups to Pasadena (5.10c) which ended up having a very tough start, but we all made it up once we figured out how the start went. During this time, a few little incidents happened that I won’t go into detail about, but Ellen started earning her new name. It was getting on in the day and Tim had to head out to get his tire fixed on his way home. Ellen and I headed back over to the site and ended up getting on another climb right in Ryan CG on a formation called the Manure Pile. Tom Bombadil (5.7 Trad) was interesting with a very tough move getting around a roof to a face that didn’t protect very well. I placed a few nuts, but wasn’t super confident in them. After a take to figure out the move around the roof, I got on the face and made a decent go at it, then had a bit sketchy run out to the top. Ellen followed up with a few long delays to get the nuts out, but she ended up making it up just as the sun set, which was good as I was starting to get cold and a bit annoyed. The scramble down was a typical JTree route finding exercise and soon enough we were back at camp.
The next morning we packed up camp and went to meet a couple folks at Intersection Rock. A few more incidents happened I will leave out, but rest assured the Train-Wreck was in full force. We met up and ended up going to an area called the Cathouse located in the Lost Horse area. It was sheltered from the wind and nice and sunny. We had 5 people, so a couple of us led routes to get some ropes up. I led Felix (5.4 Trad *) and it was an easy fun route to warm up on. Ellen followed and then I moved the rope over to Limited Partnership (5.8), which was a fun double crack start to easier finish. I then did a route called Marmac (5.6) which was a fun crack. We used the same rope to TR a 10a (can’t remember name) then a route called Tourette’s Syndrome (5.10c) which had an insanely hard start and I was the only one to make the route. Nobody else made it past the first move. Then we moved over to the right side and did another fun route of which I never know the name, but it was a 5.8 with a couple bolts to start and a fun crack to finish. We hiked out and had a beer in the parking lot before saying our good-byes and headed home; after a mandatory stop at Starbs of course.
I didn’t include the details, but there were numerous incidents with the Train-Wreck not getting tied in correctly and just generally being helpless. I will not climb with her again, as she seems to lack the ability to focus on what she is doing. I didn’t go off on her to avoid a “situation”, but maybe I should have I guess… just so she would know to get her shit together.
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