My friend Punan and I went out to Calico Basin this morning to do some rock climbing. We had our sights on Physical Graffiti, a 2 pitch 5.6 rated trad climb. We got to the base of the climb just after sunrise and it began to warm up. I decided to lead the first pitch because I had read the second pitch was a bit longer and more awkward and Punan is slightly more experienced than I am, so I wanted him to lead pitch 2. After a couple of false starts I was finally able to send the entire first pitch. The first 20 feet is rather bouldery and vertical. I was having a hard time finding places to hold on to while trying to place protection. Once I made it thru the first 20 feet or so I was fine, I cruised the rest of the way after that. Punan followed up quickly, and soon realized he had forgotten his cleaning tool. It's a long thin metal tool used to poke and pry nuts out of cracks while cleaning a pitch. He had left it at home. Luckily he was able to clean the few nuts I placed on pitch one. We decided to just rappel down pitch one and call it a day instead of trying to climb the longer pitch two without a cleaning tool. We took some time on the belay ledge to take in the views and then headed down. Physical Graffiti is a fun climb and we will go back and send the whole route with all the proper gear next time.

Mountaineering

Nevada, United States

time : Jan 15, 2017 6:35 AM

duration : 3h 57m 12s

distance : 2.2 mi

total_ascent : 541 ft

highest_point : 4000 ft

avg_speed : 0.6 mi/h

user_id : steadymovin

user_firstname : Chris

user_lastname : Gorney

My friend Punan and I went out to Calico Basin this morning to do some rock climbing. We had our sights on Physical Graffiti, a 2 pitch 5.6 rated trad climb. We got to the base of the climb just after sunrise and it began to warm up. I decided to lead the first pitch because I had read the second pitch was a bit longer and more awkward and Punan is slightly more experienced than I am, so I wanted him to lead pitch 2. After a couple of false starts I was finally able to send the entire first pitch. The first 20 feet is rather bouldery and vertical. I was having a hard time finding places to hold on to while trying to place protection. Once I made it thru the first 20 feet or so I was fine, I cruised the rest of the way after that. Punan followed up quickly, and soon realized he had forgotten his cleaning tool. It's a long thin metal tool used to poke and pry nuts out of cracks while cleaning a pitch. He had left it at home. Luckily he was able to clean the few nuts I placed on pitch one. We decided to just rappel down pitch one and call it a day instead of trying to climb the longer pitch two without a cleaning tool. We took some time on the belay ledge to take in the views and then headed down. Physical Graffiti is a fun climb and we will go back and send the whole route with all the proper gear next time.