Bella Vista View, from the top of the second or third pitch.
Paul came up after work, and we dashed up Bella Vista for its namesake view. Just enough spice to be interesting, the route leads up to an open promontory with a picture-perfect…uh, vista of the fall foliage lining the slope below and the hills beyond.
Pausing near the top of p2, with lowering sunshine beginning to strike the leaves on the trees below.
It’s a short story at best: we managed the entire trip, car-to-car, in three hours. We swapped leads, with Paul taking the first and last (the traditional route is 4 pitches, but either p1 and 2 or 2 and 3 can be combined, with a 60m rope). There is one 5.7 move on the route, but even that can be avoided, lowering the overall grade to 5.5. There are several runout sections in the 5.3/5.4 range, but otherwise the climbing is well-protected.
Climbing up Bella Vista late in the afternoon yields striking colors as the sun descends.
Columbus Day weekend usually heralds the passage of autumn colors into the harsher weather of winter to come, but it looks like this year we will get the best the season has to offer right on time.
Another pose, near the same vantage point.
If you decide to climb the route this weekend, I expect you will see some magnificent scenery.
Sunset glow on the foliage from the top of Bella Vista