Patrice Ayme and I went down to the Pinnacles last Saturday,
meeting Don Snyder and Wayne Johnson at Discovery Wall.  Don
has apparently *not* been reading "How to be a Hardman in
10 easy lesson": lesson 4, Hardmen do not get up too early
in the morning.  Well I got up at 5:30, got Patrice at 6:00,
infused my leaking engine with oil at 6:15, and got to the
parking lot at 8:30, taking a wrong turn in Hollister due
to being half asleep.  Patrice entertained me by narrating
the military history of WWI and WWII in Europe without once
mentioning France's allies (i.e. Great Britain).  Don was
at the crux of Pistol Whipped (Hung Jury?) 11a when we
arrived.  He was not too pleased with stuffing in TCU's
after the crux but got it.  Next, both Don and Wayne led
the Verdict (11c), and Patrice followed.  I gave Mammary
Pump (11a-c) a try to "warm up," but couldn't clip the 
bolt and hung.  Patrice followed.  Now awake (I guess) I 
redpointed Cosmos(11b), ending a long-standing vendetta.
Patrice followed.  Don and Wayne strolled over, after each
had led MP.  I had, of course, been reading my hard man lessons:
#7, wire climbs on the sly so you can flash them in front of your 
friends...   Don went up, refused beta, moaned, then begged for
it.   The beta delivered was accurate, but the combination
of general heckling from the 
crowd and the bewildering perspective of the initial traverse
moves left poor Don wondering which way was up and he lowered
off.  The crowd dispersed; Wayne led and Don followed. 
I tried to lead the Verdict, now in full sun.  I fell
on the 11a direct start when stuffed the wrong fingers in
the key pocket - too long away from limestone.  Patrice
led through so I could flail some more on TR.  On to the
Monolith area.  We set up Vigalante (12c) TR.  Uncharacteristic
slightly overhanging face moves on small flakes - no pebbles.
Patrice got all the moves - I got about 3 of them.  By this
time my old rope was developing new "core inspection points"
with each lower off.  I tried to lead Sunwheel (Autocream) 11a.
As a clipped into the second bolt I put the rope between my
teeth for a second and got a mouthful of fibers - bad sign.
Then I whipped while lunging for a good hold from tinies - and
the rope held.
Patrice led through (after taping a 2" bad section ofthe rope)
and we set up a highly frictional
circus TR with me climbing and Patrice ascending the other end
with his sticht plate.
As the sun set, we raced over to Piton Traverse (11c) - Patrice
climbed bolt to bolt, then got it with a hang on TR.  In
the meantime Don and Wayne had disposed of Black Dagger (11c),
Foreplay (11b), POD (10d), and Cantalope Death (10c).  We
finished the day by playing that most pleasurable game -
Belizzi baiting.  I had spied him on the trail when he yelled
"Hey Rubine" as I was TRing Vigalante.  I could see that 
Patrice was clearly going to win when he starting the conversation
with, "Chris, when do we start gluing?"  Chris countered
that breaking holds is part of the natural evolution of the
route and listed a series of loose classics that we were
totally selling ourselves short by not climbing - Electric
Blue, Adrenaline Junkies (essentially Clint's West side
tick list...)  Maybe if Patrice had mentioned the additional
benefit of getting to sniff the glue vapors...  As darkness
fell, Don showed on the trail with Maralee and Michael and
next thing you know we were enjoying fine Mexican food in
the Supertacqueria in Hollister - a fine Pinnacles excursion.

Joel

P.S. I bought a new rope on Sunday