Day 1: I meet Mike at 3pm at Stewart Airport, just 1/2 hr from the rocks. Time to climb! Unfortunately, I've screwed up and have only one rock shoe. Oh well - I can still lead Disneyland (5.6, ***). Mike follows and has no problems. Gelsa (5.4, **): I give Mike the top pitch and he gets the hang of vertical jug pulling. Still a little more light: time for something harder: Te Dum (5.7, *). Mike leads into the fading light. The full moon gets us back to the car. Time for some slides that evening.
Day 2: Alastair and Suzanna are with us. Her first day climbing. Mike and I want Something Interesting but the toads have it - what else is there? MF! MF!! (5.9, ***). I'm not totally honed and hang a bit on the cruxes. Mike flashes but has to dyno for the jug at the second crux. He's gotta learn how to be tall! Instead of doing the second pitch, we rap to see how Alastair is doing.
No problems with team Haggis. Mike leads Snooky's Return (5.8, **). Way cool. He finds the hard part easy and the easy part (top of the first lead) hard. From there we trend right until we join Minty and Team Haggis. Suzanna is a little gripped but going OK. Mike finishes with the Minty Overhang (5.5). Hard for short guys! Mike and I rap, Haggis walks.
Last route: Bonnies Roof (5.9, ***). Mike gets up under the hang but can't pro the crux (due to tired arms). He whines about water in the crack. Mike lowers and I finish. On toprope it's no problem for Mike.
On down for a Dudefest. Taco Bell. More driving. Lotsa slides. Again.
Day 3: Saturday I stay with the family and Alastair takes Mike. They bag Layback (5.5, **), Yum Yum Yab Yum (5.3), and Yellow Ridge (5.7, ***). Some sort of minor epic on Outer Space (5.8) ended with a retreat in disgrace. Taco Bell again. Mike returns around 9 and is still up for slides!
Day 4: Whole family this time. Plus Heather, Jeff's girlfriend, and her friend Nicole. Eric and Jay demonstrate how to fight in the car for Mike. He's impressed. We start with Three Doves (5.8+, **). I have the first lead and Mike gets the crux. Big fun, no falls. Marti and the rest TR the first pitch while we work on the top bit. Next, I team with Eric and Mike with Heather for Red Pillar (5.5). Eric is feeling like a honcho and we're up fast. Eric and I head down while Mike and Heather finish. Heather gets gripped on the rap and has to lower down but Mike keeps everything going OK. Time for one last climb. Really. Limelight is free so we bag the first pitch (5.6). Marti joins us while Heather and Nicole agree to take the evil kids (suckers!!). At the GT, the folks on Arrow back off because they think it's too late. Not for us! Arrow (5.8, ***) is ours and we're outta here. Pretty dark - gotta move! Arrive at the car at 6pm. Plane leaves at 6:50 - gotta hurry! We deliver Mike's corpse to the airline (still smiling!) just 13 minutes before takeoff. He misses the chance to eat at Taco Bell one more time (this is an All-Gourmet trip!). We do the math in the car: the ticket was about $175 so that is about $7 for each * climbed. (Or $9 per pitch!) Not bad.