Today is a sunny day to start with. Grace wanted to do Spider Man and Yinan hasn’t led any pitch although she’s followed once. We arrived at the base and found Siewmoi and Shannon on the top of the first pitch! We started at the variation (to the left of the standard route). Yinan led it and I followed. It’s a perfect 5.7 diehedral and lots of fun. I led the second pitch which is the crux pitch. I remember it being strenuous and it proved so again. I put in a couple of bomb proof pieces before the crux and powered up. I was sweating like a pig when I reached the belay station. Yinan decided to lead the 3rd and final pitch. The crux of this pitch is getting around the big roof. I was a bit nervous and asked her to put in 3 big cams under the roof. She made the moves look so easy though. It’s a bit awkward for me to crawl under the roof. It’s probably the height disadvantage. We did a double rope rappel all the way down to the ground.

We then headed over to Wherever I May Roam which is a 5 pitch 5.9 sport route. There is a whole bunch of backpacks at the base, which is hilarious. The first pitch starts with an overhanging 5.8 diehedral. Classic Smith style sport route: crux right off the ground and the unprotectable. I saw a cheat stick at the base and didn’t hesitate to “borrow” it. I have no desire to take a ground fall. 5.8 is not a whole lot below my leading level. The route meanders a little to a big flat area. Yinan seemed to have some hard time following this pitch and she said it’s pumpy. I don’t know why. It’s not overhanging at all. 2nd pitch starts across the big ledge to a vertical wall. It’s a bit thin at the 2nd bolt and it looks overhanging but is not. It’s a delicate balance move. The rest is all pretty straight forward 5.8ish moves, probably a few 5.9s but nothing too hard and nothing overhanging. But then it started sprinkling when Yinan started to follow. We have no desire to lead the next pitch which is also a 5.9 when the rock is wet. So we decided to bail and spend time in the restaurant. Amazingly, Yinan followed this pitch faster than I can take in the rope and she wasn’t even breathing hard when she reached the belay station. Why she found a 5.8 pitch harder than a 5.9 is beyond my comprehension. Anyway, we rapped with a 70 meter rope to the ground and of course it stopped raining right after we reached the ground. Oh well, I wouldn’t complain a nice dinner at Sully’s Italian in Redmond.