So much talk about getting out more this rock season, ending mostly, for me, with a few exceptions, in chatter. Many things intervened, not the least of which were acts of terrorism against the nation, sending this country lurching almost inexorably toward an indefinable war. In the end, Brian and I made time to climb. The alternative was to sit at home and watch more CNN. The alternative was to sit on our hands.*

We took off early, as usual, on Sunday, arriving at the trailhead a little before 9am. We had intended to start off the day by climbing Kauffman-Cardon (5.4), a two-pitch, traversing route up Seneca's southwest face, but we found two parties queued up on arrival. The first, a party of three, were on the first pitch of Skyline Traverse, which Brian and I had done on our last trip to Seneca. Unfortunately, Kauffman-Cardon also takes that first pitch. The second party was waiting to use the same pitch for yet another route. Running out of options, Brian and I decided to go ahead and thrash our way up Worrell's Thicket, a very easy, rampy, dirty, botanically rich pitch and a half that goes at a mind-bending 5.0. Basically we just wanted to get up to Broadway, where we could move on to the routes on the southwest face without having to climb Seneca's infamous Death Stairs, an infinite, steep grunt up the frontside. It's bad enough having to descend them at the end of the day.