Trainwreck on spaceshot

The weather cooperated and I finally made it out for my solo of spaceshot. I'm sure my timing could have been worse but I'll ponder how another day. I was third in line behind the trainers of three and then two other cool folks. The party of two blasted off an hour before I did - I took the Alpine start while they groveled the 5.5ish. I ended up on their tail the rest of the day. Meanwhile Trainwreck INC managed to finish pitch three and four (they fixed two the day before) and deploy their red portledge at the top of four. We arrived at the top of three right after dark and were immediately greated by a shower of pastatio shells from above. How thoughtful we all thought.



Now it should be noted that Trainwreck INC was armed to the hilt for this climb. Three bags and Two ledges would see them to the top no matter what!

It became pretty apparent rather quickly that the next day would be a painful crawl at best. I set my bivy on the ledge, hopped into my bag, cracked my oil can, ripped open my tasty bites and whipped out MY NEW BIGWALL SPOON. Joy set in.



The brothah and sistah in the other party did mostly the same. We bitched and moaned about the party above. What else was about to rain down on us we wondered...



I thought I might be able to get up early and try and blast by the folks snoozing in their ledges above. Dawn:30 hit and I could barely open my eyes - the brutal work weeks prior kicked in. Toothpicks were required to open my eyes. The trainwreck was moving slowly but managed to get a guy on lead and finish the 5th before noon. We were doomed. I lead the fourth after deciding bailing was the only smart move. After that Alex (from other party) lead the same pitch - they also decided to bail. I had my line still fixed so I jugged it and snapped some good shots of his lead.

We watched as one of the guys took about a fifteen foot almost-factor-1 on the fifth. He mumbled something about the crack being wet. Did I mention we were doomed?

Here's the kicker. Alex reports that Trainwreck INC stopped in the middle of the 7th and set a belay - hammering in a few pins in the process. If anyone does this route any time soon I'd like to know if there are apparent pin scares on this pitch. So much for reading the back of the Wilderness Permit, huh?

In the end I'm not really bumbed. I got to test out my soloaid (and me likey!) as well as MY BIGWALL SPOON! (me really likey). I'm into it now. No going back. Even with the added work and the sometimes pain in the butt rope management it's worth it. Your partner can never bail on you and you never have to wait while some else climbs. No arguements and all that. It's a ton of fun and I had a blast climbing half the damn route.

Next I just need to find a route where I won't have anyone above me to piss on me (that happened too).