Check Mate

Mount Lemmon is generous with its gifts. Every time I meet a new wall on the mountain I'm thoroughly charmed, and it was no different Tuesday when Joe introduced me to the Chessmen.
"The approach is short, but it's steep," he said. That's generally a trade I'm willing to make and I'm trying to say 'yes' more in life and climbing so we grabbed some draws and a skinny pitbull and went out to get pumped.
I didn't take long either-- warming up on a couple of low-angle 10's in the shade of the first formation we came to after a slog up the hill. The warm-ups, that I'm lazily not even going to look up the names of, got the pumps primed with some tricky slabs run through with fingertip flake-cracks, little roofs and a flaring chimney where you can cool your heels and enjoy the view.
The real juice, though, is Two Kings and a Pawn- 5.11- which Joe touted as maybe the best 11 on the mountain.

                                             Pete on Two Kings and a Pawn

I don't disagree with Joe's assessment, either-- the route is an unstoppable good time.  The first crux involves high feet, a middle-finger mono sidepull and reaching for a flake.  The second crux involves a blind reach-to-match on a wee, little crimp and then dancing your feet out from under a roof and onto a sexy little arete.  Taken all together the climb is about as much fun as an orgasm at Chuck E. Cheese's.
 Chasing shade at the Chessmen is fairly easy, too-- just warm up on the slabs, climb the best 5.11 on the mountain then mosey around a little higher up and find yourself on a sick belay ledge with shady, sick views of Bear Canyon and a clutch of shady sick sick sick sick routes including Serfs Up 5.12- which starts on an even shadier even sicker belay ledge!!!

                                               Joe and Pete on the Serfs Up sick belay ledge

                                             The other Joe giving Pete a sick-ass belay



I didn't work Serfs Up-- by the time I'd pulled on Two Kings and a Pawn, the warm up climbs and another juggy 5.10 on the shady-sick belay ledge I was cashed.  I limped up a second, blocky, cracky, sickly awesome 5.11 on top rope and folded my cards for the day.  But Serfs Up has now officially been added to my long list of must-do climbs-- along with Demolition Derby at the Helmet, Delirious at Middle Earth and Hard Day at the Orifice at the Orifice (ha!). 
From the looks of the list I'll be logging lots of airtime this summer.
 I can't wait.