Hi all,
I just did Falling Aspirations for the first time yesterday (mistakenly thinking that it kept left of the scars from the old man rockfall). Oops! It was very different than the guidebook description, but still pretty enjoyable on the whole.
The thing that will probably keep me off it from now on is the _huge_ pile of loose blocks sitting on a slab directly above parts of the first three pitches. It looked like a deck of ten-ton playing cards, just perched there on end. Not obvious from the ground, but really looks ominous, even to a guy who enjoyed topping out on Vertigo.
Some of the early belays were slightly questionable (but would have been much better, I think, if I had more small cams). Pitch 1 was a bit wet and (at least for rusty ol' me) fairly exciting. I think an earlier poster said they thought it was scary 5.7 now and that seems about right. A fairly large section of pitch 4 seems to be missing (the guidebook refers to a vertical finger crack, which is definitely nowhere to be found) but the climbing is easy, if a bit wandering, up to the start of P5. Pitches 2 and 3 are also somewhat different but still decipherable based on the guidebook. The pins at the early belays referenced in the book are not there, so far as I can tell, although there is one very bad pin at the end of P1, which seems like it might be part of the old belay.
Having said all that, some of the climbing was great, and I do enjoy the loose, wandering climbs on Cannon sometimes. We had a great day, topped out at about 2:30 or so, just before the rain started in earnest. I'm so glad the last two pitches of Lakeview/Wiessners are unchanged - they are stellar!
Peace,
Gavin
