It was the last day of the trip. The parade of climbers continued: Alex Chiang and his girlfriend Cara. I picked them up at the airport very late Thursday night and we all bivied in the casino.
When Alex and I were talking about the trip, he mentioned he would have a "friend" along. Upon further queries, this turned into "girlfriend". Then into "girlfriend who hasn't climbed a lot". Given that we had a very short amout of time available, I asked Alex if we wouldn't rather just climb with the two of us. But no - he thought she really needed to experience a trip with me. I was flattered.
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But now the reality. Why was Alex so keen to subject Cara to my presence? I finally found out what my role was: Bad Example. I could see Alex saying " Look, Cara, compared to him I'm pretty normal". But since this is the truth I suppose I have to accept my place in life. That's Mister Bad Example to you, Alex.
Anyway, we would have to to climb fast. Doing the most popular route in the Red Rocks didn't help. We arrived around 7:15 at the parking lot and found a large group of people wearing ropes and gear. Oh no.
On the drive up, I counseled the group: don't tell anyone where we're going, ask them instead. Don't give them any reason to jump on the trail ahead of you. But my plan failed: as I jumped out of the car the first question from the group there was "Where are you headed?". I suppose I should have lied but I didn't. They confirmed that they (7 or 8 of them) were also bound for Cat in the Hat and that another party was already on the trail headed in that direction. Our only recourse was to hustle. I grabbed my gear and disappeared down the trail, leaving poor Alex and Cara in the dust. We opened up a significant lead on the other group and I started to relax. Just past the fork in the trail I asked Anthony to wait for Alex and Cara so they wouldn't get lost. Turns out he must have waved to the wrong team because they never got the message.
When Anthony and I arrived at the base, we met a team that was racked and ready but not climbing. They were a bit cold and were waiting for sun. Even though half our team hadn't arrived, I promised them that we would be out of the way really, really soon and if they waited for us the rock would be a lot sunnier and warmer. They started telling me about the day before where they got behind a slow group and bailed after taking 5 hours for two pitches. I must have looked pretty pitiful though - they agreed to let us climb through.
I led the first pitch without hardly slowing down. Fortunately, Alex and Cara arrived as I was topping out. Everyone tied on and we were soon out of the way with nobody ahead of us. The rest of the climb was uneventful. I let Anthony and Alex do the leading in "euro" style, sharing protection and climbing close behind each other. I enjoyed pleasant chats with Cara while Alex and Anthony literally ran up the next three pitches. Since we climbed together I was able to get many hero shots of Cara as we climbed.
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We were on top just after 10 and it seemed that we had plenty of time (my goal was being back to the pack at 11:30). But the descent was slower than expected: Cara was fine with going up but wasn't nearly as keen about the descending. Plus we were rapping on top of all the parties we had passed. In the end Cara did fine and we didn't have any epics with stuck ropes or anything but we were running quite late.
I set a fast pace for the march back and then broke numerous traffic laws in the drive to the airport. Fortunately Alex agreed to return the car for me but still I was still the last person to check in to the gate for the flight. So that was it: I abandoned Anthony to the company of Alex and Cara and was soon back with the family.
