Spire Four
May 2002
In May 2002, we had the opportunity to climb Spire Four two more times--once with my brother, Jarvis, and once with his wife, Gina. We had gotten them both out on the rock for the first time on the super easy climb, Inner Course, in the Outlets. After that experience, Jarvis was interested in climbing something a little more adventurous. We suggested Spire Four since we were familiar with the route and new it had an amazing summit view that Jarvis would really dig.
It just so happened that Jarvis was free the next day, but Gina had to work. So the three of us headed up into the Cathedral Spires. The climb went more smoothly this time than last--it helped to have some idea where we were headed! We spared Jarvis the fun/misery (not really sure which it is) of the Wormhole, opting instead for the face to the left. This was definitely the more enjoyable way to go, and it wasn't nearly as hard as it looked like it would be.
Jarvis enjoyed himself so much and talked up the experience that Gina decided
she would give it a try. So the following day we headed back to Spire Four
for our third ascent.
The climb went just fine, but for the rappel we took
the advice of a "local" and made one long rappel in to the Four/Five gully
instead of descending down the route we had climbed up. The way it turned
out, two fifty meter ropes weren't quite enough to reach the bottom! We
ended up having to
get
off rappel in a chimney and downclimb the last little bit to the ground.
Normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal, but with Gina being a tad nervous about rappelling in the first place, the situation was a bit
tense.
The three of us made it down safely, but when pulling the ropes to retrieve them, they got stuck about 60-80 feet up. Great! Just our luck! It looked like it would be possible to climb up to the jam with the rope we had available so I tied in and began climbing up a groove/chimney. The rock in this area was quite rotten--I had to test every hold before committing to them and broke several crystals off in the process. Angela was not happy! She was belaying from the cramped chimney we had landed in and had no where to go to dodge the crap that kept raining down on her. Fortunately I found my way through this rotten section and eventually made it to the stuck rope and freed it. I was also fortunate to find a nice natural anchor to rappel off of, so all I had to leave behind was a sling. The thought of having to downclimb that rotten gully didn't appeal to me at all! I rapped down the pitch cleaning the gear I had placed on the way up. Angela and I both crossed our fingers as we pulled the ropes again--this time we had better luck. Soon we were hiking down the grassy gully with another adventure behind us.
