Ragged Mountain - 9/11/2010

This past weekend was spent in central Connecticut - a trip with Eli, Gabe & some friends of theirs I didn't know beforehand. The purpose: climbing Ragged Mountain - a gorgeous hunk of rock near Meriden, CT. Friday night was spent with Eli & Gabe playing Dominion & Gheos - and catching up. Saturday morning we were up bright and early and headed to the rock. After a refreshing walk through the surrounding woods to the cliff (refreshing if you spend most of your time in NYC), we got to the main climbing areas - and pleased to be the first ones there setting up. We picked out 2 routes in the Weissner Slab area (a huge hunk of the cliff fell off a long time past and lays diagonally against the wall, like a single domino trying to push down the whole mountain). One route was designed to be easy, with options for making more challenging - and the other went through a hole existing at the top of the slab and decending into the cavernous space between the slab and the main wall. The wall was in total about 100 feet of vertical climbing, with fantastic west-facing views of the surrounding area from the top.

I took my first ascent of the day pretty early: a warm up climb over the middle of the Slab - it was a quick 5.4/5.5 climb sloped inward for the first half. It was a lot of fun, and you can use some inventive moves just for kicks. I got the top of the slab, enjoyed the view for a minute - then appraoched the sheer vertical face, and I just rocketed up the wall to the top. It was a stark contrast from my past outdoor experience at Lantern Hill. I definately brought my A-game and I was buzzing the rest of the day!

We had way more people than we had harnesses, so there was plenty of downtime between climbs. I took some of this time chatting with everyone, but also setting aside some sketching time! I make 2 sketches on the day - one from the top of the rock looking west - the other of Gabe belaying another climber:





Throughout the day - I made another 5 ascents of the mountain, all of them harder than anything I've done in a rock gym. I was climbing extremely well and really having a great time. At one point, I was able to hang onto an undercling 80 feet up as Wasp stung my middle finger. Everyone down below was laughing at my yell and watching me swat the air with one hand and holding onto the rock with the other.

Everyone was climbing really well, and I'm happy it was a fantastic time all around. I was able to snap one picture: sunset from the top of the rock as I was cleaning up the ropes & webbing from the day's activities:



I spent Saturday night with some laid-back discussions with Eli about books, life, philosophy, etc...it's always great to have conversations like that. I don't think people have lively discourses enough these days - it helps to keep my mind open to new viewpoints & ideas.

- Chris