climbing journal 26 January 2015

A beautiful day in January in the Hills, sunshine, no clouds, wind about 10 mph.  Rapid City was 74 degrees this afternoon, broke the record by 10 degrees.

I met Mark at the Wrinkled Rock Climbing parking lot at 11:30 am and we hiked into the South Seas climbing area, maybe a quarter of a mile.  The South Seas area is about a mile or less west of Mt. Rushmore.  We climbed on a rock called Shark's Tail, three climbs, Shark's Breath, Shark Bait and Shark Attack.

Shark's Breath is a classic climb with 4 out of 4 stars with a difficulty of 5.7, which means that it is a moderate climb and 110' in length.  The climb goes up an arete to the top.  Mark led the climb and I followed.  There are a couple of thin spots which make up the crux, I had to stop several times but I figured it out without hanging on the rope or falling.  Mark had asked if I had climbed this before and I said no but later noted in my climbing guide book that I had climbed this in September.

20 feet to the left of Shark's Breath is Shark Bait, a climb rated at 5.8 with 3 out of 4 stars and 110' of length. This is a face climb.  Again Mark led the climb and I followed. It was far more challenging and I did have to hang on the rope on several occasions to get my strength back into my fingers but made it to the top without any AG (anti gravity - that is Mark didn't pull me up the rock). I was pretty much done for the day after this climb.

20 feet to the left of Shark Bait is a 5.11 called Shark Attack.  5.11 is a pretty difficult climb, not within my range and may never will be. It has 2 stars and is 100' in length.  Mark opted to use a top rope technique to complete this climb.  He stated that some of the crystals have been broken off and that the climb has become more difficult.  Mark struggled at points but was able to top out.

Thanks Mark.

Got home about 3:15 pm.