The Open

Matt's full of ideas.  For awhile now he's been saying we need to do an 18 pitch day at Golf Wall.  18 obviously like 18 holes of golf.  The only rules were that they had to be 18 different routes and they all had to be lead clean.  A few days before we discussed the order that we thought would work and wrote it down on a piece of paper that we conveniently forgot to bring to the crag.  We both warmed up on a couple easier routes before hopping on the hardest pitch of the day, Pink Taco.  I had the route wired but Matt hadn't been on the route in a while and messed up his foot beta near the top and fell on his first go, then crushed it second go.  We both had a big sigh of relief having completed the crux of the day for our 5th route.  We hoped it would be an easy coast to the finish for the next 13 routes.

The next 6 routes went smoothly until I fell on Putt Putt.  I'd done the route a hundred times over the years but just couldn't hold on.  I decided I needed to start taking longer rests between routes, eat more food, and stop trying to do doubles(2 routes back to back).  Matt motored up Bert and Ernie's even though it had some wet holds and I moved onto Cinderella.  I got 3/4 of the way up and melted off the holds.  This isn't good.  Matt proceeded to try Cinderella and fell on two attempts.  It seemed like we had both hit a wall.  More rest and more food is what we needed, I hit Cinderella on my second go by skipping a clip and Matt hit it on his 3rd.  Ok, back on track!

The second attempt on Mail Slot...

I went back to Putt Putt and it felt casual.  I thought I'd caught a second wind until I fell off the top of Mail Slot.  Matt ticked a few hold up top for me after he'd sent Greenskeeper and I sent next go.  We'd thought we'd coast to the finish after Pink Taco but as we got more and more tired there were no gimme pitches.  My last route was Hole in One and to be expected I almost came off right before the no hands rest.  We're surely not the first to climb 18 different pitches in a day at Golf Wall but that's not what it's about.

My order with approximate grades...
1:Greenskeeper .10+
2:Eagle .12b
3:Bushwood .12a
4:Par Six .11b
5:Pink Taco .12d
6:Divitator .12c
7:Masters .12a
8:Bogey Man .12a
9:Birdie(aka Pumpy ten) .10+
10:Shooter McGavin .10+
11:Gator Pond .12a
Putt Putt (fail)
Cinderella (fail)
12:Cinderella .12a
13:Putt Putt .11d
14:Three Roofs .12a
15:Pebble Beach .11
Mail Slot (fail)
16:Ping .11b
17:Mail Slot .11c
18:Hole in One .11a