Balcony Point

September 2, 2006

We finally had the pleasure of taking our buddy Matt to the Black Hills for some climbing.  He had been away from climbing for some time, serving our country in Iraq.  Needless to say, we were glad to have him back in one piece and were thrilled to get him back out on the rock.

So, since we'd brought him to the Hills, we figured we might as well start him off right and took him directly to the Cathedral Spires.  Not only is the climbing a lot of fun, but, let's be honest, on some level we just thought it would just be fun to get Matt good and scared on a relatively easy Cathedral Spires climb.

Will and Alison were along as well and were gunning for Spire Three, so we tagged along into the Two-Three gully to climb Balcony Point via a very intimidating crack next to Spire Two.  We knew this crack was particularly scary looking because we'd sat at it's base twice before thinking "We really ought to climb that!  Maybe some other day!"  It had always been easy to put it off, but this time we were really gonna do it!

Angela led the first long pitch which is an easy ramble up to a notch between Spire Two and Balcony Point.  Fortunately you can't see much of the pitch from the ground, so Matt couldn't see the sparse protection that Angela was getting in--he was already nervous enough about doing his first climb in a good long time.  It wasn't long before Angela reached the anchor and called down to let Matt know that he was on belay.  He gave me one last look that said, "well, here goes nothing" and headed off up the knobby rock.

When I saw him next, at the belay with Angela, I wasn't sure whether he was having the best time or the worst time of his life.  I couldn't tell at first if his smile conveyed giddiness or sheer terror!  Once I pointed out the crack that we would be continuing up, the matter became quite clear--it was definitely terror.

At any rate, it was my lead and I had really been looking forward to giving this crack a try.  I reassured Matt, "It can't be that bad, it's only a 5.6!"  I figured that even though the bulge at the top looks like it must be at least 5.8 there must be a big jug of a hand hold at the top or some chicken exit that would skirt around the overhang.

So, I reversed the delicate mantel that had led up to the belay ledge and stepped across the notch onto Balcony Point.  It was a little weird to be following an actual crack since they are somewhat of a rarity in the Black Hills.  It turned out that the entire pitch was a bit awkward due to the bulging nature of the rock.  On the bright side, the protection was really good and there were nice holds and hand jams the whole way.  Eventually I reached the final bulge below the top.  I had thought from below that one might be able to skirt to the right on a bit of a ramp, but once I got up there it was just to steep and there was nothing to hang onto except for the crack.  I put in one last piece of pro and gunned for the top.  To my surprise there was no big jug or crystal over the top to grab onto--it was all about the crack.  Luckily my hands fit it perfectly.  The only bad part was when a scab I already had on the back of my hand got ripped off!  With my heart pounding from exertion and excitement I had to take a moment to apply direct pressure and stop the bleeding once I sat down on top.

Now it was Matt's turn.  He made slow but steady progress up to the roof, at which point I could finally see his head.  The pitch hadn't been easy for him and he was freakin' out a little about pulling the last couple moves.  I assured him that he was going to be ok and he finally gave it a shot.  Jamming with his left hand and crimping on crystals with his right he slowly made his way up over the bulge.  However, he had a hard time working his feet up properly, and ended up doing a belly flop and drug himself up onto the flat sub-summit below me.  Of course, in the excitement of him topping out on his first Black Hills' climb, I had the camera going and got a nice play by play series to tease him with later.  Fortunately Matt has the good nature not to take himself too seriously and we both had a good laugh over his performance.

Meanwhile, as Angela was making her way up the crack behind us, Will and Alison were topping out on Spire Three just across the gully. 

When Angela got to the top we had another good laugh recounting our different perspectives of Matt flopping onto the top with his legs flailing behind him.  Matt admitted to us how scared he had been and what a surprise that was after spending a year in Iraq getting shot at and blown up.  While it might seem that experiences like that would numb you to the fears involved with climbing, they instead seem to make you even more acutely aware of the danger.  Of course the thing about climbing is that we use the rope and hardware to reduce the real dangers, but sometimes it's just hard to convince the mind that that is true.

After a few self-portraits (including one with Will and Alison in the background) and taking in the views, we rapped off the top and on to our next objective.  Apparently we hadn't scared Matt too much because he was game to go and give Spire Four a try!