Granite After Rain
Following clean slabs into the high country as a week of coastal weather finally breaks.
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The rain stopped sometime before dawn. By breakfast, the apron was already changing colour: black streaks turning grey, low cloud lifting from the valley, the familiar calculation beginning again.
We went uphill without much of a plan. The best days on granite sometimes start that way, with a rack assembled for several possibilities and enough food to keep changing our minds.
Above the last marked trail, the rock was clean and unexpectedly dry. We followed a system of low-angle slabs, corners, and short walls toward a shoulder that had looked insignificant from below. Up close it unfolded into a small world of ledges and wind-shaped trees.
Looking around corners
Route development is partly climbing and partly sustained curiosity. Does the crack continue? Is the blank section truly blank? What happens beyond the tree that has hidden the upper wall from every useful angle?
This time, the answers were encouraging. We left with a page of notes, a phone full of imperfect reference photos, and one clean line still waiting above us.
Nothing was finished. That was the best part.