Ascent of The Green Adjective

Sweet sexy crack. This climb reminded me a lot of Poodles Are People Too at Joshua Tree, in that it required delicate moves and protected with lots of small nuts. (I placed nothing but nuts, and when I got down we added up the numbers on them. The sum was 24!) On the other hand, it was a bit easier and less sustained than Poodles, and not as steep. But it followed a much more beautiful line: an extremely aesthetic, continuous, slightly right-leaning thin seam. I didn't get a picture of it, but the cover photo of the July 2005 issue of climbing magazine showed Bob Palais climbing it. I actually met Bob a few days later while having dinner... he's a professor in the math department at the University of Utah! I actually didn't quite onsight this, but I did redpoint it. On my first try, I went a little too far before placing pro, and I ended up standing on nubbins in the middle of the crux searching for pro. My feet eventually slipped, and I took a short ground-fall. The second time I placed gear a bit lower (a #1 stopper!) then just cruised through the crux.