The Conn Diagonal and Jugs, September 28

The Conn Diagonal is one of those Hills classics that I've been wanting to do for a couple of years now. It gets great afternoon sun, but on a beautiful fall day like we had, the temperature was great even in the morning shade. Joel and I found Chris in the Sylvan Lake parking lot around 9 am. He hadn't seen any sign of his climbing partner so, to our good fortune, he joined us.

Chris leads the first pitch.


Joel approaches the first belay station then will keep going to lead the second pitch.

I think this is where the famous traverse starts. For some reason I had vertigo the whole climb. I had a very hard time getting out of that little space and unto the wall. Much whimpering ensued. It's odd to feel fear when I wasn't actually afraid of falling or being dropped or any bad things happening. It was just fear. I found it strange. At least my fashion sense is still good.

Chris's outfit works nicely with the fall color.

Joel, sporting man-pris, with Chris on this grand, spacious summit. You could have a picnic or a game of twister.

We set up a toprope on Jugs, a not particularly well protected sport climb on the flip side of the diagonal. Chris of course just glided up it like it was some easy little thing. He could've at least grunted a couple of times. I spent about a half hour trying to work out a stickly little section which was much closer to the ground than I first realized. There are a few notable times when height is a factor. This would be one. With great envy I watched Joel stand on this near-ledge and stretch up to a huge jug right past the section I couldn't get.

I thought the downclimb to get out of there was frightening. I prefer much larger holds when it appears I will be stepping back into an abyss. It wasn't at all frightening with a belay, so I was fine. Chris and Joel didn't seem bothered at all.