After a less than successful day trying to climb cracks at the Morbid Mound followed by an evening spent watching YouTube videos on how to climb cracks, we headed to the Short Wall to try some more cracks and test our new learning.

The Short Wall is located in the Indian Cove Campground.

The Short Wall Right Side has shorter climbs as the name implies.  There are 3 crack climbs we were interested in. Two rated 5.3 and one rated 5.6.  We looked over these climbs and chose a 5.3 called Toe Jam Express to start on.

Toe Jam Express – 5.3

Dan climbed Toe Jam Express first, on lead, and then set up a top rope anchor.  We knew from a recon day last year that anchors can be built using boulders at the top but these boulders are far back from the edge of the cliff.  A long static line is needed to extend the anchors for top roping.  We had brought our 100-foot static line for this purpose.

Dan brought the long static line up with him by tying one end to the back of his harness and dragging it up behind him as he climbed.  

I had decided that I would not push myself to lead this day.  Instead, I wanted to focus on figuring out how to use the crack climbing techniques we had watched on YouTube.

I climbed Toe Jam Express on top rope, taking a lot of time on the awkward bottom half to try different ways of jamming my feet in the crack.  Too deep and it was painful and difficult to remove my foot.  Too shallow and my foot slipped off when I shifted my body weight onto it. 

If I was too deep in the crack or too stretched out, I couldn’t see my feet below me and it was difficult to feel around for a solid foot placement.  I also experimented with jamming my feet sideways across the crack, the heel on one side and the toes on the other side.  I called this a “bridge” but I think there is another name for it.

Sometimes I learn a lot more from failing.  Being on top rope while trying these jams meant I could safely fail over and over.  I learned which foot placements would hold and which would pop off.  I got to experiment and find the ideal placements.

First, I spent a lot of time on the bottom half of the climb working my feet.  

Then I tried a similar process with hand placements, working on placing solid hand, fist and finger jams.

Once I was at the top, Dan lowered me.  Then he pulled the rope and led another 5.3 crack called Double Crack.  This climb is the only climb on the Short Wall Right Side that gets a star from the guidebook. I agree it was a nicer climb than Toe Jam Express.

Double Crack – 5.3

Dan enjoyed the lead.  At the top, he shifted the anchor to hang over Double Crack so I could do it on top rope.  

Once again, I worked on practicing the crack climbing techniques.  The hand jams were coming a bit more easily.  I liked the fist jams.  They felt solid if I could place them where the crack was the right width. 

The footwork was more challenging for me.  I didn’t like the feeling of the bumpy edge of the crack digging into the side of my foot.  I worked on figuring out a less painful way of foot jamming. 

The top half of the climb flowed nicely for me.

After Dan lowered me, I asked if he would mind belaying me again so I could get right back up for another try.  Of course, he was fine with it.

I felt I was nailing down some of the techniques and I wanted to solidify my learning.  The second time up, I pushed through the painful foot jams at the bottom.  Moving quickly helped a lot.  I felt a lot more confident and climbed it much better.

S.O.B. – 5.6

Dan wanted to try the 5.6 crack so we pulled the rope and moved to S.O.B.  He did really well leading the 5.6.  At the top, he shifted the anchor so that once again I could climb on top rope.

The 5.6 is the vertical crack on the right side of the photo.

This climb had a few more opportunities to use holds on the face outside the crack.  I combined that with my new crack climbing skills and moved really well up the 5.6.  I felt good about that one.

At that point, we were ready to call it a day.  When I got to the top of the 5.6, I pulled the rope and threw it down to Dan.  I started untying the anchor and Dan came up the walk-up on the back to help out. 

Overall, it was a great day of learning for me. I got a lot of practice and experimented with crack climbing techniques. Next, I want to put it all together and climb a crack on lead. That will be a real test of my learning and confidence.