Making The Most Of A Rainy Day

Driving east out of town, towards Mt. Lemmon, Tyler and  I realized there would be no climbing on the Lemmon that day. An ominius grey fog enveloped the mountains, and in town the light drizzle had become a steady rain. Wanting to squeeze some climbing out of this rare rainy May day, we turned the car around and headed west, towards the Tucson Mountains and the Silverbell Boulders. For some reason (possibly a rain shadow?) the Tucsons typically stay drier, and we thought the overhanging boulders at Silverbell would be our best bet for dry rock. 

We were sorta right. As we drove out, the roads and sidewalks were dry, usually a good sign. But the rain caught up with us just as we were unloading our crash pads. Unanimous decision - screw it, lets climb. And we did, for a while at least, until the rain picked up and things just got messy. Muddy shoes, soggy crash pads, dripping rock. We tried to make a day out of it, but called it quits about lunch time, loading our wet, stinky gear into the car and heading back into town.

Here is a short video of two of the burly little problems found in the A-Frame area of Silverbell.