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What I Learned with Cookie Monster, a tale of forgetfulness, stoke and too many logistics. What turned out to be an outing with just yours truly and another friend to do Cookie Monster turned into an epic before we even got on a climb. We invited two people who definitely know what they are doing - done this before, 5.7 should be absolutely no problem. Stoked to get to the top of Mescalito. We get to Pine Creek canyon after waiting for one of the invitees to get off work - putting us about an hour and a half behind our original schedule. Oh well, thats what you do with friends and when you wanna have a little bit of fun I guess. Fast forward, Pine Creek canyon parking lot. We're gathering up the gear, packing up and ready to hoof it as fast as we can to the base. Green rope on a pole, blue rope on my buddies back. Gear is all set in bags, we have water, some food, a couple beers - alright, let's roll! Hour and a half hike in to the base of Cookie Monster. Purple .5 BD C4 at the base of Cookie Monster becomes mine, finders keepers! The sun shines upon on this beautiful day. "Alright, let's flake out the ropes!" Blue rope is flaked - green rope... shit, where's the green rope? My bag is full to the brim with the rack, water, helmets and some food. My other buddy has /his/ rack, microtrax for simul-climbing shenanigans, and some other fuckabouts. Other buddy has my rope on his back and wore his harness in (lightweight baby!) Buddy four has a small backpack on, with minimal gear and ... no rope with him. Oops. After cracking a beer and thinking of something naked, we decide to just stay put and get up /something/ just to look at the stars at night on a rocky ledge. Cat in the Hat pitch 1 was fun, and I got to learn how to do a carabiner block to lower off one rope when you don't have enough rope to middle it. Worked very well, I was super impressed. Some desert bighorn tried to ruffle some bushes next to our descent. A fun night. Long.
