I recently went on a little climbing adventure with Nathan Smith. We went to a place called The Thumb. The Thumb is a long and fun climb that consists of nine pitches of old school granite climbing. The first few pitches were enjoyable and pretty easy. I have never climbed trad before let alone multi-pitch trad. It was very educational to see the way Nathan placed the trad gear. For being a sport climber, I put all my trust in the bolts that are for the most part pretty solid. Putting my trust in little pieces of trad gear that I didn’t even place was a chore in and of its self.
The Thumb is a classic, so they say. It definitely has some old-school characteristics. The most memorable feature was the little chimney that I had to shimmy my way up. I wasn’t used to that at all. In my opinion, the chimney's full-body workout made the 5.7 grade a little deceiving. Once I got passed the chimney it was blast.
