On Saturday we returned to Freeblast, which we tried climbing in November when the temps were even lower (38 deg F, barely above freezing). It was still really cold and we didn't move fast, so we ended up bailing from the top of pitch 5 this time. The fifth pitch was full value, however - I scared myself first on the "5.10d tricky pro" seam, then on the slab... which is very exciting!

On Sunday we thought we'd go to Moratorium, supposedly a good winter choice - but it turned out that it gets the sun only in the early morning, losing it around 10:30-11am... so we ended up climbing in the shade. At first we thought "well, at least the wind is not here", but once we got a pitch up, the winds were howling too! Oh well, sometimes suffering is good too. However, by the time I got to the 5.11b crux and looked at it, it was clear it was beyond me. It's supposedly quite hard/tricky even when dry, but the crack was wet, removing any illusions of free climbing it that day.

	Pitch 1 of Freeblast - 5.10c	Pitch 1 of Freeblast with the rest of El Cap above	The 5.11b roof on pitch 3 of Freeblast (I linked 2 & 3 which seems to make more sense). Damn hard, I did worse this time than the first...

	This is from the November trip, but shows pitch 4 nicely so I included it here	Looking down pitch 5 of Freeblast - 5.11b slab, yikes! Easier if you pull on some of the bolts but still hard :)	After the 5.10d seam - onto the slabby goodness

			Pitch 6 goes left

	Rappelling in the crazy high winds	The first 5.10d pitch of the Moratorium - very sustained liebacking/stemming, fun!	The 5.11b crux on the Moratorium viewed on rappel - desperate!

	The 5.10d crux on the second pitch - stemming around the right hand crack, quite hard! Viewed on rappel	And looking down pitch 1 on Moratorium	5.10a section on p1 - sustained!