Not Much of a Swimmer

I had a lot of excitement in my life yesterday.  My friend John and I nearly drowned in the heavy flowing Barton Creek on the approach to our local climbing spot.  We were expecting waist deep water at the worst, similar to the crossing at Gus Fruh last week.  But it just kept getting deeper and deeper.  In the middle we were up to our shoulders and the current was really moving, and with a rope bag on my back, I couldn’t keep my feet down.  With John’s help, I managed to swim/thrash to grab a few branches on the other side.

But we got across, and that meant good climbing in sunny 65 degree weather.  We started the long and eventually incomplete process of drying everything out under the cliff.  Every once in a while a pair of climbers would shout at us from the opposite bank, asking how we got across.  No one was willing the brave the cold rushing water though, so we had the place to ourselves for the afternoon.  That, or they were scared away by John, who was wearing nothing but boxer-briefs and a harness.  The climbing was great.  We took it easy most of the time, keeping things at or just above John’s skill level, which was great for me to ease back into things after a week and a half away.

iPhone quality can't detract from the greatness in this picture.

I did get to test out my new quickdraws yesterday.  I need another six in my inventory for our trip to Mexico on the horizon, and seeing how I’ve been so impressed with DMM’s quality and attention to detail, I ordered six of their best – their Shield quickdraw set.  They have a pretty radical shape and design, and the gates are pretty stiff, which made me a little apprehensive.  But I was blown away from the first clip.  The shape just works so well in practice.  The curve in the spine just begs your extra fingers to use it, giving you secure leverage to get the rope past the stiff gate with no trouble.  The combination of usability and security is a huge confidence booster.

We risked getting hit by cars while crossing the Barton Creek bridge to get back to the other side, rather than brave the water again.  It was definitely the more sensible choice.  After a quick ride home, we ended up at another friend’s house later that evening, and spent the rest of the night in good company, talking about our exploits from a few hours earlier.