Matt McCormick racking up and getting organized.
I’ve gotta say the past few years I’ve been working more than climbing- which I wouldn’t change a thing about. The last time I was on Cannon Cliff was a couple years ago when a bunch of us used to throw an annual climbing party for all who dared to make the trek, and we called it The Swamp Donkey Disco. But the actual last time I climbed on Cannon was three or four years ago in the summer time with my friend Janet. We were climbing the first few pitches of Benedictus where I kindly gave her the 5.8R pitch, and then we both took laps on the following 5.11 pitch. But the last time I was up there in winter? Well, that would be my first date with my husband to be almost eight years ago on the Black Dike. Yeah, it’d been awhile.
So, Cannon is an exfoliating cliff- and well, I don’t go anywhere near it in the spring/early summer. The winter has always sounded great to me as I naively assume everything is frozen into place. Just before the holidays I headed up with my good friends Freddie Wilkinson, Rufus Lusk, Matt, and my hubby Bayard Russell. We were all psyched for different reasons. For me and Rufus we were stoked to get some cool video and footage of Cannon, climbing, and just gettin’ after it with your buddies. For Freddie, Matt, and Bayard they were psyched to swing their tools, heckle, and see what Cannon had in store for them.
There was no exfoliation on Cannon that day, we got some killer footage, and somehow kept pretty warm despite it being pretty frigid up there. I mainly shot video that day- but I snapped a few stills below.
Matt McCormick scratching up Omega.
Rufus Lusk filming on Cannon Cliff.
The view from across Cannon- Mount Lafayette
Bayard snapped this one of me and Rufus- note that film crew dress code was red.