Day Two

Early morning before the sun hit the Dawn Wall the guys were roped in and Kevin was working on pitch 6. He finished it off first try and then they retreated back into the portaledge to avoid the hot sun. When the climb went into the shade around 200pm they got into position to start up pitch 7. Tommy gave it the first burn, bit fell. From there he and Kevin alternated leads until someone sent, which after 7 tries between the 2 of them they both made it up; Kevin on lead. That was a huge battle for them and the wall put up a big fight, bit they made it. After some dinner and resting they started on pitch 8, a shorter, bouldery pitch. Tommy Gage it the first burn and fell at a sideways dyno...not "the" dyno pitch, a different one. After falling he figured out that he could do the move without jumping. Kevin made it up first try and after Tommy headed up on lead very strong and confident. The guys are doing great and Kevin totally rocked it.

FYI, right before they both sent pitch 7 they watched a Rocky/Eye of the Tiger quick video...there might just be something there. Then before pitch 8, Kevin poured part of a Starbucks Via (instant coffee)packet into his mouth,took a swig of water, swooshed it around and swallowed. Might be something to that as well!

I jugged up to the portaledges today and will be staying on the wall for a couple of days! It's 2am now and I am dozing off with each letter I type. Tomorrow is a potential rest day, which might mean working through pitch 9 in the evening, but we will see how they feel. Today and yesterday were big days!!