what's my line?
that's the name of the famous (i use that word verrry loosely) climb i did last month down in the cochise stronghold, southern arizona. cochise is a well-known climbing destination, a truly beautiful place, and i feel so lucky to live so close by. we did this climb quite a while ago now, but i'm posting this today for 2 reasons: 1) all my knitting / yarn / WIP photos are on my other computer that is now living with the bf since his was stolen - boo; and 2) i'm heading back down to cochise tonight for another adventure, so i had better get this out before i have a serious backlog of cochise shots.not able to drive down and camp at cochise the night before, my partner and i left early in the morning and were on the trail by 8am. after a somewhat long and steep hike up to the rockfellow / cochise dome area, we found ourselves bushwacking through a densely vegetated wash. after some minor frustration and a few scratches on the arms and legs, we arrived at the base of the dome.
cochise dome from a distancethe climb follows a rash of chickenheads (plate-like features) up the right side of the dome, which is otherwise fairly featureless. the climbing was fairly easy, but just getting to the start of it involved sketchy unroped climbing up an approach gully that dumps you out at a ledge 300 ft off the ground. from there, you have to pendulum over the the chickenheads to start climbing. that was... exciting... if you like the exhilaration of 100 m of air below your feet as you go swinging on a stretching 10mm rope, trying not get swung around and dragged across granitic protrusions.
having made the pendulum swing and following up the 1st pitch of chickenheads - see them?
having made the pendulum swing and following up the 1st pitch of chickenheads - see them?i led the next easy pitch up some more chickenheads, using them to set up a belay anchor. no gear, no bolts, just a few big chickenheads and some nylon slings.
i was loving it up there, although i did get pooed on by a bird - maybe that same one that's dive-bombing me in the picture?
view east from the pitch 2 belayone more pitch of climbing, 2 rappels, and we were back on terra firma and had a great time. i can't wait to go back and climb again tomorrow! there is so much to see and so many more undiscovered areas.
view of rockfellow dome from the start of our climb
view of rockfellow dome from the start of our climbknitting content coming soon - i've started 2 more big projects and finished a couple of small ones...
posted by rockbridge @ 11:49 AM
1 Comments:
We swung through Cochise on our drive to Texas last Thanksgiving. Just had time for a few sport climbs on Zappa wall, but we did walk up to have a look at What's My Line. Your post confirms it: it looks terrifying!! But gorgeous and exhilarating
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