High on Hallet Peak

• This photo is from the North Face of Hallet Peak . Here is a Short Slide Show of the climb. At the crux we came upon a guided climb, with a client (in red) from New York City. This rope of 2 was moving very slowly and would not allow us to pass them. When it was my lead, I decided to pass this party via a finger crack which then became a long difficult face climb with very few holds. I did a lot of smearing on the rock inflections and a lot of palming technique. I was not climbing with my rock shoes that day because I was too lazy to carry another set of shoes for the walk off. So the climb became technically harder. I had to run it out, about 100 feet above my last good pro to place some descent protection. We did pass the slower team and I was able to make a hanging belay off of a couple of stoppers. With all of that behind us we finished without any problems. There is of course a lot more to this story that will remain untold. The main thing is having a good partner, with matched skills for the climb and that is where trust in your climbing partner is all important.
• I think that the most significant times in my life, are the times when I get through a very difficult situation with someone I know well. I have many great memories that I often think about. One thing I do for all of my climbing partners is to always hold on to their life with my belay device. I have trained myself to continue to hang on to the belay even if I get pulled off the ledge, or if the belay anchor was to fail. On this climb, I am with one of the best! He is also an accomplished climber; he has my respect, and sometimes my life in his hands.

Randy