foot in the stirrup

Yep, not quite back in the saddle yet. I finally got on the rock again today with Boysenberry and his son, T-rex. Didn't tell Eight about it because I didn't want to say the finger was ready and then have it blow up again. So, I figured today'd be an easy day out; Boysenberry hadn't climbed in 20 years and his son, only since this winter. They said that they were both climbing 10's in the gym, but I still wasn't going to let someone I didn't know belay me on lead if I didn't know the real deal. I set up a little TR on an 8 (top pic) just to see where everybody was. Lucky for me nobody was boasting. We each flew up and then T-rex wanted a shot on a 5.7 lead that continued from our anchor. He'd led before, but never set an anchor. I walked him through it and then had him take apart the anchor we were using and he had no troubles setting his anchor. Anchoring to bolts is never hard, but your first anchor is always a fun one; you double, triple, quadrouple check everything as you set it and then do it all over again before coming down and even still look up at it hoping and praying you did everything right. Boysenberry cleaned from the bottom; so the 8 then the 7. I decided to take a more direct line under the 7. It's my favorite kind of climb; a frictioning 10b (the bolt line starting at the center of the top pic) and I made it up without a hitch, although the finger was starting to ache. As I finished and cleaned the anchor T-rex picked the next route; an 8+ with a nice crack through an overhang. He wanted the lead so we geared him up and he got on... for 2 bolts to the crux at the overhang. He almost got it, but just couldn't quite clip the bolt above the lip. This is where the kid showed true smarts; admitted he wasn't doing it that day and said he'd save it for another. He came down, we swapped gear and I rallied up to the anchor. A great first day back for me not having climbed at all in 3 months. Course I'm paying for it now; it's only been a couple hours and the finger has swelled up again. Ah well, the hand therapist wanted a story for tomorrow anyway.