When

March 16, 2020

Where

Enchanted Rock

Routes

Mark of the Beast – 5.8

After a break from writing, it’s time to record my latest outdoor climb. Actually, this was my last time climbing anything. This was before all the quarantines, so we didn’t think too hard about whether it was a great idea. When we got to the park we were very surprised at how busy it was. It was a cloudy, misty, and slightly wet morning and we thought that would keep people away, but we didn’t consider that it was spring break week and many people probably already had plans, which is only fair since we picked this date a few weeks prior. After we got to the back side of the park we were by ourselves for a few hours, which was both peaceful and comforting. In hindsight, this was a poor example of social distancing and I feel a bit guilty. But it was also my first experience with multi-pitch climbing ¹ and it was an awesome experience while I was there.

Enchanted Rock is a big granite dome. In order to get to the wall, we had to scramble around some trails and over some boulders. I thought it was great as an adult; I can’t wait to bring my kids there to run around. I was anxious about climbing for most of the morning. One of the other climbers had been telling me about his experience climbing granite and, when you hear it, it really does sound rough. The typical experience with granite is countertops, and that’s not exactly comforting to think about climbing. Compared to the other things I’ve climbed, this wall could almost be considered flat. There aren’t big sections of rock jutting out to hold on to, you have to crimp your fingers on any bumps or bulges you can find. So yeah, that sounds pretty hard. In practice, it went really well. The wall is very textured, so while the holds are small, your fingers can find something to hold on to and the rubber on your shoes have a ton of grip. This route wasn’t quite vertical, more like 60 degrees or so, which adds a bit to the traction. It was scary to start, but it quickly became fun. It took our group of four about two and a half hours to climb, which was probably on the slow side since some of us were learning how to multi-pitch. After finishing, we got to hike down from the peak of the dome, which was really neat too. The only bad part of the day is that we finished too late to get BBQ on our way home. I guess that gives me a reason to go back.