Saturday morning was actually mostly sunny in Bridgeport as we picked up our permit - typically, these thunderstorms don't arrive until the afternoon anyway. So we hiked in, as the sky progressively darkened. Sure enough, 15 minutes after setting up camp it started raining fairly hard - and we were tent bound for a couple of hours. Eventually it stopped so we could make dinner, but then it rained some more. Oh well... typical afternoon/evening thundershower, we thought - it'll be better in the morning. It didn't start raining until 4pm anyway - by that time on Sunday we should be well off the face, if the rain timing works out to be the same (big "if").

Sunday morning, however, was not the blue sky we were hoping for - instead, it looked pretty grey. However, it hadn't rained for a few hours at least, and the rock was dry - so let's go climbing already! We made coffee, ate a couple of bagels and hiked up - starting to climb around 7:30am. We were not in a rush - but perhaps we should have been - around 11am we were on top of pitch 5, and that's when the rain arrived, all too suddenly. Strangely, the sky was looking better in that last hour - and I thought we had it in the bag. It was really cold, but at least it wasn't windy. Still hopeful, we spent about 30 minutes huddled at the belay there while rain was pouring... "It'll stop any minute, and then the sun will come out!" - I kept saying. Eventually, sanity prevailed and we bailed - thankfully straightforward due to double ropes. Thanks to nice anchors and clean pulls we were on the ground in 40 minutes, while a waterfall formed left of the first pitch - yikes! It rained hard on the whole hike out, and we were completely drenched by the time we got to the car... at least there was no second guessing our decision to bail!

	Hiking into the Hulk is always beautiful	But the skies are gloomy...	Spires on the right side of the Hulk

	Camp is setup	Chilling for all of 15 minutes before it started raining	Sweet boulders

	Karen on the first pitch of PV, at the 5.10a bulge	Second pitch, 5.10c tips and then 5.10b traverse higher up, but not very sustained (good wake up, however)	On the third pitch, before the traverse crux

	The traverse is to that flake on the right	The third pitch of Positive Vibrations (on the short side)	Cleaning a piece before the "5.11a" traverse (more like 5.10a, or 5.9 if you're tall)

	Starting up the next pitch - easy but spectacular stemming and then a 5.10 bulge followed by sweet fingers at the end, very nice	So fun...	The end of the fourth pitch

	Move by move beta :)	The 5.10b traverse ends quickly with a jug	The exposure is sweet

	Starting the 5th pitch, while the sky is still blue	Clouds are building..	In the 5.10a handcrack on pitch 5 (starts wide/awkward but turns awesome)

	It's raining, and we're having fun. Here I'm hoping it's just a minor few drops and then everything will dry - hence the smile	Karen is amused at the attempt at positive thinking... whlie the rain intensifies	Ok, it's not looking good.

	The pitch 6 dihedral (in the rain) :( We waited for a while to see if the storm would pass, but it intensified...	My smile is slowly disappearing	Karen is also skeptical - note the black clouds above :)

	Ok, bailing sucks, but time to do it :(	Pouring everywhere...	A two minute appearance of the sun gave us a rainbow!

	We ate lunch under this boulder/overhang before packing up...	Hail	Back in camp after successfully rappelling and getting soaked to the bone

	Badass clouds in the mountains (as seen from Bridgeport)	Sunset from the Sonora Pass lookout