We Made It!!!

Cam and I have completed our second Grade V wall. The West Face of Leaning Tower consist of about 400 ft of 3rd and 4th class scrambling, 10 pitches of overhanging aid, and a final 4th class pitch to the summit.

This is the most aid intensive climb that both Cam and I ever plan on climbing. It was a very good experience, but we are really psyched on doing some free climbing again. Check out the video of the climb and look forward to some more free climbing footage.

We failed to catch it on film, but I got to take my first aid whipper on this climb. There is a trick section on the first pitch between two of the bolt ladders. Typically this sections has fixed gear (copper heads) that make it fairly straight forward. Unfortunately, they were not in place, so I had to make 2 body weight placement in a row. The second piece I places was somewhat blind and after committing to it, POP-POP...both pieces went!

It was a very clean fall due to the overhanging nature of the rock and the solid bolt below me, but exciting none the less. I estimate with the two pieces popping and the slack in the system, I fell about 20+ ft. Gotta love aid climbing.

Note: At one point in the video, I'm not wearing a helmet. This was because the camera was attached to it. Ironically during this 2 minute window in which I took my helmet off was the only time Cam dropped or knocked something off from above. It made for good footage, but talk about bad timing.