anarchitect

Andrew took one for the team today, and went with me down to Anarchy Wall in Clear Creek to give me a belay on the route I've been working on. He hurt his finger to the point that he hasn't been able to climb for about a month, but was psyched to get outside and catch me as I lobbed off the quintessential, benchmark 12d on the Front Range. I really appreciate the fact that even though he is incapacitated right now, Andrew is willing to give up a few hours of his afternoon and let me try the route.
I first got on "Anarchitect" a few years ago, and it was entirely over my head. The opening moves were impossible, and I ended up aiding through on a top rope so that I could try some of the higher sequences. I remember lowering off and thinking that there was absolutely no chance of me ever linking all the moves together on lead.
Fast forward to this spring, and I've gotten a touch stronger. Beyond muscles and tendons, though, I think the real key to me getting close to sending the route is an understanding about just how much effort goes into doing a hard route. Before I had been beaten up by harder local routes and projects in Rifle, I naively assumed that people just walked right up and did whatever route was in front of them, regardless of the grade. There might be a few people who have the incredible talent and skill to do that, but I sure ain't one of 'em. That is, as far as I can tell, a major reason that I enjoy climbing routes that give me fits. I've learned to embrace the fact that routes like Anarchitect take a number of tries spread over days of work, and the reward isn't cheapened by its relative ease of attainability. Sending this route is going to be hard earned and well worth it.
The route starts with some interesting and insecure moves along a sloper rail that feels delicate and slimy. I think I've tricked out a sequence that involves a fair bit of knee scumming, and I'm doing this low crux at just the first bolt on virtually every go at this point. From here, you get a bit of a reprieve at a break in the wall, but immediately dive into another hard section. Fortunately for me, I'm tall and have some decent footholds to use. Otherwise I'd be doing a moribund shuffle along the likes of what my friend Olivia has to conjour, basically pulling on a small sloping rib of a hold with zero feet. Above, a couple of small holds give way to a decent jug at the fourth bolt, but the feet are small, a bit polished, and sloping away from the climber. It makes getting much energy back a tough order, but I keep telling myself to take big breathes and wait until my body is ready to launch into the final difficult section.
Out of this good hold, I move left into a pretty poor finger lock with misplaced footholds. I nearly have to campus across to another finger lock, and this saps a lot of whatever juice I can get back while at the rest. From here, I move up to a sloping pinch and small crimp where I need to fire in a pretty desperate clip, or skip it and face a much bigger fall if I blow the crux. Fortunately, the feet are better through this part of the headwall, and if I can just remember to pull really hard with my left hand and right foot, I uncoil myself up to a reasonable hold in a slot. Doing the move after a hang on the rope feels well within reach, but after all the difficult climbing below, I'm debilitated with hypoxia and have a hard time making my body do everything it needs to in order to stick the move.
There are a great couple of moves above this final toss to the slot, but hopefully nothing that will spit me off. Getting this done before I head off to Greece would be really satisfying, but I may only have one, or at most two, chances before the flight next Tuesday.