Seneca with Turtle

In October of 2004, Apryle and I decided to go to Seneca for a weekend. Somehow, we managed to pick up Todd McCormick, then a freshman at Pitt. Todd was pysched to get out on his first multi-pitch outing, and Apryle was all fired up to try some 5.8s at Seneca. As for me, I had an old grudge to settle with High Test.

Apryle started off leading Conn’s East Direct, probably the easiest 5.8 at Seneca. She sent it with no problems, and we found ourselves at the base of Alcoa Presents…one of the toughest 5.8s at Seneca. Todd was in his glory, and we noticed that with his helmet on he posed a striking resemblence to a Turtle.
Apryle fired off Alcoa like it was her job, freaking out for a second at the crux, but pulling through for a classy 5.8 onsight trad lead at Seneca, her toughest lead yet. Turtle struggled to follow, but managed to drag himself to the summit with ego mostly intact.

After a quick lunch, we rapped back down the east face and I racked up for High Test. A year earlier I had foolishly underprotected the first 15 feet of the climb and fell, taking a 30 foot factor 2 screamer straight past the belay ledge. I was unhurt, but definitely learned a lesson. This time I stitched up the bottom section, found a crimper that had eluded me on my previous attempt, and climbed the rest of the route without much difficulty. A stout 9, though, for sure!

After that, I was feeling strong and solid, so I decided to take a run at Pollux – a tough 5.10 finger crack on the lower east face. I pulled through the bottom section without difficulty, placed a big stopper to back up a fixed piece, and hauled myself up to the flexy flake that marks the midpoint of the route. There I fell, a clean 10 foot whipper. Lowered to the ground, shook out, at gave it another go…only to whip again. I think I whipped off that climb 5 times before I made it through the crux, utterly pumped. I took the falls in good form, though…lowering off and starting again from the ground up.

I haven’t climbed quite so hard since that weekend in 2004…