LEADING AT VEDAUWOO

so, this is it, probably one of my favorite things on the trip... i got to sport lead!!!


let me explain a bit about sport leading, and it's differences from top roping. first of all, the leaders had to sport lead in order to set up the top rope which everyone else climbed on.


top roping is when you have a system set at the top and the rope is threaded through the system and the two ends of the rope go down to the bottom... the climber ties in to one end, and the belayer the other... so when climbing, the rope you are climbing on is always above you, and if you are tired or if you fall, you can just sit on the rope, and you won't go anywhere...


sport leading, however, is different. on a lot of rock sites, there are bolts bolted in to the rock. in sport climbing, you equip yourself with a bunch of quickdraws, tie the rope to yourself, and then climb, bringing the rope up with you. as you come across bolts, you put in the quickdraw, and then put the rope through quickdraw, and then climb on to the next bolt. there are specifics and details about doing this process, so it requires a lot of quick thinking and practice. but as you see in the pics, the rope is not above, so you can't take breaks, and falls are twice as far as your last bolt. so ryan pulled me aside and gave me a private lesson on how to lead climb, and then after much practicing on te ground, it was off to the first climb... which is the first three pics.

(by the way, the black rope you see in the pics is just a fixed line sitting there... has nothing to do with my leading :)

it was SO AWESOME!!!!! there is so much more in sport leading! there's more communication between you and your belayer, there's an added element of risk, more strength is needed, thinking, planning, all that on the rock! so so so so so so so so so so cool! and then when i got to the top, i built the system and set up the top rope. wicked awesome! so my first sport lead was a 5.6 i think, which is good for a first lead.
in the first pic you see me grabbing a quick draw, and in this pic you can see me grabbing the rope to pull it up and put it in the quickdraw...




then it was off to a bit harder of a climb... about a 5.8... this one was so awesome... more diffictuly and more technical on this climb. you see in the pic where i am making my knot all the quickdraws on my harness... i also had 6 more on the side too... i felt so cool with all the gear on me :) and you can see tara in the background (one of the leaders) who belayed me on this one... lead belaying is also really cool (i learned that at our first time at vedauwoo)... requires much more interaction, and the giving and taking of rope.

climbing on lead!!! sweet! nice mantle action right there!!!

sweet pic... that's ryan at the top... he told me that my first two leads were flawless! he told me i looked comfortable and confident, which is needed for leading... it is just so much stinkin fun!

this is a good pic to explain leading... you see i put the quickdraw in, then i yell "clipping" and my belayer gives me slack, and then i clip in and yell "clipped" and she takes... and then i climb higher... so awesome!

i am SO addicted to sport leading now... love it!

and then after a day of climbing, we ate dinner and then took off to drive through the night back to michigan... 18 hours!!! crazy... so here's a picture of the group, and that's it for my wilderness trip! thanks for reading!