Black Canyon: Climbing Checkerboard Wall and Dragon's Tooth

I would say that Yosemite is kind of the destination. As far as North America, I bet Black Canyon is number two. If not number one for what it is. That's a bold statement. I don't know. I'm not really a climber. Well, let's just put it this way. The climb we did after I first moved into the peak house was Checkerboard Wall. And it was kind of like an entrance exam. I think I got about a B-. Luke is a skier, I would say. We're here climbing amazing routes and he's like, oh, I'm ready for ski season. You guys see that ski descent the other day? Like, oh man, we could go down and do this one on this pass. And this couloir looks really good. We should go get it. And it's like the middle of the summer. Matt is the type of person where you go climbing with him and no matter what you put in front of them, they seem to just have no problem with it. I've not seen Matt at his limit yet. The feeling of the day for me was really about being confident in the climbing that I was doing, feeling really secure. And that doesn't necessarily mean that I felt like, you know, I didn't walk up to the climb and saying, I'm going to send this route. I know for sure that I'm going to send it. It was more that, you know, I felt comfortable in where I was at with my climbing and comfortable in my ability to kind of go up on the wall and see what happened and kind of questing on up the route. The first thing that came to mind on the checkerboard wall, Matt, the first time we were out here, was that I'd never been so high off the ground on top rope. I never really got too scared of exposure, but there's a couple of moves on there, especially like going on a traverse, where sometimes you climb up a little bit and a little slack builds up and you're so far off the deck that, you know, you slip. It's not a big deal because there's a rope there, but it's kind of scary. Climbing with Luca is great. He was struggling at some points and that was really difficult for him to like be there and feel all that pressure of trying to do this climb. Maybe it's too difficult for me and I'm in front of these people that I don't know maybe that well and I need to keep composure in that moment. Kind of in my head about this first couple pitches. After taking on that hard one. Right. On the second one, I was like, oh my god, it's gonna be so much harder. And it really wasn't that bad. I do watch like an anime series. It's about like, you know, these pirates who are going around and they're out on the ocean and there's lots of different other pirates that they have to fight and they're trying to go exploring and get to like this last island that only like one other group of pirates have ever gone to. And so it's a lot about exploring and going into storms and having a lot of fun in dangerous, unrealistic situations and being able to follow like a dream. Like your dream is to get to the top. If you don't get to the top, that's okay. But the entire time you're gonna wholeheartedly fight to get to the top. To the top. Jesus, why are they so tight? You gotta get bigger shoes, man. Because these are my bouldering shoes. What route are we climbing today, Luca? Climbing Dragon's Tooth. It's a 5.8. Hopefully not sandbagged. Last time Matt was leading the climb. Now it's my turn. I've heard that the Black Canyon is a place where the climbs are pretty hard. It's pretty easy to get in over your head. Do you feel like you're a moderate climber? I think I climb about as good as a powder skier. I can get up stuff. I can build a good anchor. I can play skier. It's right, but I'm definitely a little bit slower. You know, you watch Matt climb and he just... He's a machine. And you can tell that's all he does is rock climb. Dragon's Tooth is a lot easier climb. I think checkerboard wall is about 5.10. And Dragon's Tooth is 5.8. I think with the Black Canyon, the thing that helps you gain confidence is that you kind of just have to do it. Here comes Matt. How are you doing, Matt? You just can't even think about what's below you. It's just every move that's in front of you and what's next. Because you might be climbing a grade or two lower because it's your first time here. But you've got to make the moves to get out of the canyon. It's a powerful motivator. The last time we were in the Black, I had no toenail. And I stuffed my feet into some brand new super small climbing shoes because my other ones were getting resold. Now this time, I got an ingrown toenail. I think it's related. It was cool to see Luca's progression because after we climbed on the checkerboard wall, then he went back to Europe and was like, I need to get stronger. I need to do more climbing. And I want to prepare so that I can climb in the Black. And then he went and led this thing without any falls and was able to figure it out and get to the top on-site the route without any help from either of us. I think the next thing for me is probably to just keep climbing some moderate long trad routes. Just get the mileage in. I think there's a few of them that are really good in the Black for that purpose. And every time you climb them, it feels like you're really out there. Even though there's a ranger station, running water and everything as soon as you get to the top.