A Pillar to Conquer

"I have a pillar to conquer" she said, and she did. Steph started on a 5.8 on the pillar. After having a hard time with the first and second move because her legs were getting in the way, she figured out that simply flagging her left leg allowed her to do the move. I did a 10 on the other side of the pillar. We followed it by a 9 and an 11 respectively; on the face that can be seen in the pic. Neither climbs were easy for us. Steph then tackled a 9 to the left (in an arch) that involved stemming on both sides of the arch. The climb looked interesting, definitely not an easy 9. I did a red 11 on the right side of that same arch. It involved some serious high stepping and finished with a two handed dyno from below the overhang to the top of it: really fun.

We then bouldered, something Steph usually doesn't get to do. We started in the back. She did a 0 and worked a 2. I did a 4 and a lime 5 that involved a strange mantel with a high right foot, really 1.5 critical moves. After that we went to the front. Steph attacked a 1 and a 1+, I worked a blue 5+ that was lots of fun. It went from left to right with an important downclimb in the middle. Another climber did it very smoothly and efficiently before me (its a long problem). I did it neither smoothly nor efficiently, but I did it.

Steph worked on her footwork. I worked on being less sloppy.

All of this was followed by steak, fries and beers at the Sheep Station. Farewell Stephanie from Indiana (via St-Louis).