Spring Day at Rumney

On Sunday I found myself just getting up early 6am daylight savings time and getting in gear as fast as I could to make the drive down to Rumney.  The temps were supposed to get into the 50s and I decided that I needed out of the apartment after spending most of Saturday just reading and doing an errand or two.

The way that I would describe Rumney to a non-climber is this.  It is the closest area to Boston that has routes that are bolted so well that everything dangerous about leading has been engineered out of it by the placement of bolts that you can clip into.  The more overhanging the rock the cleaner the fall is when you are trying something.  The only thing you need is a competent belay. One other thing about Rumney is that it has the most used parking lots within the white mountain national forest. IT is comparable so some of the busiest hiking trails.  

Since I was alone I was a little worried of finding a partner and that I might have troubles with this but I have never had this issue really at a cliff.  My partner finding strategy works one of three ways if I am just showing up and have not posted to a forum:

1.  Get to the parking lot and get your happy to be there mood on and sad that you don't have a partner puppy eyes look at the same time.  This usually finds you the first person alone in the lot where you then have to ask, "do you need a partner for the day or are you waiting for your friends to show up".  If that doesn't work I go to

2. Hike to the base of the wall and find the first group of three that has someone bored and sitting around while the other 2 people epic on a sport route and pop the question.  "Hey I am alone today want to do this climb with me while your friends are on the other route?"

3. Hike to the cliffs and find the most inexperienced group that has a leader that is new to things and too scared to get the groups rope up to the top and offer to do the climb for them.  This almost always works but you end up being a teacher sometimes instead of a climber and getting short roped is always the case. But climbing is better then no climbing.

The couple of times last year that I found partners was typically number 2 or 3 option but yesterday it was option 1.  As soon as I got to the parking lot I opened my car door and watched all the "coupled" up partners leave for the cliff and then a white car pulled in next to mine and this tall thin guy stepped out and scanned the lot looking at other cars.  I realized that he had my tactics too and that this would work and I called over. "Hey Man you looking for a partner".   He said yes and introduced himself as Erik. 

We ended up being a well matched team.  We ended up doing six climbs together including a couple 5.9s and a couple 5.10s and Erik worked on two 5.12s that I fell my way up on top rope.  He was really tall (6'4'') so certain things were really easy for him with his reach.  The day was good it was warm enough that I could have been in shorts at the high point of the day.

Having had the full gamete of partners in the past that I have met for the day I can say this one was good. It is hard to suss things out just talking with someone over a phone or via email or even meeting someone in the parking lot.  There is always  a strange dynamic I feel for me of many unspoken things where you have to test the waters to see how experienced they are.  Sometimes you can tell just from how efficiently they move on the rock.  Sometimes just from their routine.  Little hints like this are what I rely on to tell me how much I may or may not know.  Just seeing how long it takes someone to put on their harness basically can tell you how good of a belayer they are and if they are on top of things and will be able to see you fall or not.

I have joked with some really good friends about  finding partners that it is sort of like online dating as many things can sound good on paper and yet have major flaws that are show stoppers.  I can remember finding a partner from an online forum once where he brought his dog which ran off half way through the day and he had to stop climbing to look for the dog.  That was one of my least favorite partner situations.