Breakfast in Hell, just another scary obscure choss pile, why wouldn't you climb it?

    Years ago Greg Prescott and I were wandering around the limestone above Lake Mary, exploring the Booze Pig and Long Ryders walls for the first of many times.  Admittedly we were somewhat lost, Toula's guide will get you in the general area but the rest is up to chance.  We found Booze Pig and were pretty sure we found Long Ryders and were stumbling about in search of what ever else might be out there.  Then we found it.  A tall roof leaning out over the sloping away hillside with easy climbing up to the point where the roof started and then everything gets very real and consequences become serious.  The landing slopes away and is tiered in such a way that pad placement is challenging.  Well ole GTP and I tried it a handful of times but ultimately decided that we needed more crash pad and more bodies before we tried this line again.  We walked away from the cliff but something about it just stuck in my head, something that I just couldn't shake.   I'm pretty sure Greg forgot about the line but it floated in that dark recess of the brain where bad ideas ferment.
      Fast forward a few years and my friend Anna and were out for a quick session at the Pig and some sunshine.  We exhausted the lines we could climb at Booze Pig and the call of that tall roof began to sound in my head.  We packed up and wandered across the hillside, I knew it was out there but wasn't quite sure where it had been a few years after all.  Eventually we stumbled on it again and layed out the pads, we only had two and I would only have one spotter, Anna.  Not exactly the dude-bro posse and plethora of pads Greg and I had envisioned but we were there.  I don't remember the details exactly other than knowing that if I blew the moves in the roof or pressing out the top out I would likely take a truly ugly and R/X rated fall and both Anna (if she didn't have the good sense to not spot me) and I would be seriously hurt.  But, I gave it hell anyhow and after a handful of aborted attempts I was able to top out the line.  It was terrifying and I don't remember the sequence at all.  I named the line Breakfast in Hell after a Slaid Cleaves song I had been listening to quite a bit.
     Its been years since that day with Anna and no one has repeated the line.  Its probably only V3 but the consequences are so dire that I'm not sure that I can really just tell anyone to go get on it.  In all reality if you were to blow the crux or top out you would end up in the hospital if not the ICU, hell it might even be worth wearing a helmet.  That being said though I keep coming back to it.  Last year I was able to talk Joel, JJ, and Wade into walking up there, thinking that with the added pads and a spotter a repeat or second ascent was assured.  No so luck.  Now really its not a pretty line its not all that aesthetic and the consequences are so dire that I really don't know why I feel a compulsion to repeat the line.  I've done a bit of work shoring up the landing area a bit and putting up a handful of other lines on the scrappy cliff band I've taken to calling the Unsung Wall (all the problems are named of Cleaves songs.)  A week or two ago I was out by myself just blowing off steam and found myself starting to reach into the crux of Breakfast in Hell.  Common sense came crashing down on me and I shakily downclimbed.  Sat there a moment and tried it again, same result. But still I tried one more time, this time I actually had my fingers just brushing the hold but couldn't quite commit.   Once again I reversed my moves and called it a day.
     This last week I had the great fortune to go climbing with Tam and Matt.  We hit the Long Ryders wall and appreciated JJ and Wades hard work in  trail building and cleaning the almost forgotten but classic lines on the wall.  Then I suggest  to Matt and Tam that we walk down to the Unsung wall, just to look...   They both were game and we headed through the juniper to the wall.  I showed them the other few problems and Matt made short work of "Cold and Lonely" another roof problem, not as high but just as hard and with its own challenging landing.  (FYI watch out for the Cactus!)  Then we moseyed over to my nemesis.  Its decieving, from the ground it just doesn't look the tall or hard or scary.  But pull up through the initial moves and yer focus narrows and you find yerself in a very serious situation.  Matt put several good runs at the line, sticking the crux move but finding himself unable to commit to letting go with his lower hand and downclimbing.  I tried and kept botching my beta, frustrating.  Tam just watched with Prince the weiner dog in her jacket and laughed.  After being denied one time to many we took off the climbing shoes and put on the street shoes again.  Matt scrambled up the warm up and shuffled over to the top of Breakfast and his eyes widened as he saw the desperate nature of the top out.

     Well we're back to square one, right where Greg and I were so many years ago, a posse, crashpads, serious psych.  Its possible, it does go, but its not really that aesthetic, its not really that hard, its not really that cool...  and if you blow it, the name says it all, you'll be eating Breakfast in Hell.    But for some reason I can't wait to get back on it posse or no and get my confirmation send.  Experience that fine line between in control and completely off the rails.  



---  so this didn't come out the way I really wanted, but hell its late and I'm tired.  But what is it that drives us to boulder alone and push the boundaries?  Thats the real thing I meant to write about but got sidetracked.  Anyhow if anyone reads this don't climb this boulder problem its Scary!  But if you do go let me know I'd love to see it happen and I'd appreciate a spot too!

video of Breakfast in Hell, Slaid Cleaves