We arrived in Mammoth to see the ski lifts still in operation - gutted that we had sent our snowboards home! But 4 days of excellent climbing in 4 different locations soon cheered us up. Tim of Sierra Rock Climbing School was a great instructor and we both progressed very fast under his guidance.
Day 1 was spent at Iris Slab in the Inyo National Forest - not the easiest area to access with a wobbly log across a very wide stream testing our balance and coordination skills early on! It was a good spot to practice belaying each other and also great for V to learn how to "fall" off the rock - to prove that all the safety systems we were learning worked! The granite slab was very different to Smith's tufty hardened volcanic ash, it was much dirtier!
Day 2 was a long dusty drive to Area 13 at Clark Canyon, to some harder climbs on a tufty type rock. We felt very safe in the company of what seemed like the entire Mammoth Ski Patrol who had chosen the same spot for the day.
The third day started at Triple Cracks - an area where we learned to build anchors using gear (to keep the rope in place at the top of the climb) and as we moved onto the "Tall Boys" area in the afternoon we put these into practice, climbing off our own anchors and belaying each other. The Tall Boys area had numerous "postbox" type holes, small and deep - it didn't make things easy though as they were very hard to see above or below!
The final day we returned to Iris Slab again and Tim acted as our "supervisor" where we set up the anchors and top rope and climbed as if he wasn't there, but it was good to have him on hand to stop us from doing anything wrong! We managed to get a pretty good grasp of the top roping idea (where you set a rope up at the top rather than leading a rope us) and he reckoned that we had the skill set to try and begin to do things ourselves which was really great.
A good week and another excellent instructor.
For more information on rock weeks please click the following link:: Rock Weeks
