Greg on the tyrolean over the Ausable River
Matt and I finally committed to heading out to Moss Cliff yesterday. It’s been on our radar for a year or so but the guidebook makes it clear that Moss Cliff is a big boy playground with the following description; “If you can lead 5.9-5.10 cracks, then Moss Cliff holds some of the best long crack climbing in the region, although there are no easy routes.” The prospect of heading to Moss Cliff was enough to cause more than just a little anxiety. However, after a strong weekend of climbing in the Gunks last weekend I was feeling confident.
We got to the parking area and headed for the tyrolean that crosses the river. Whoever setup that tyrolean used dynamic rope, the same stretchy rope we use in climbing to absorb the force of a fall, so it sags a lot. By the time you’re in the middle of the line, you’re almost in the water especially with the added weight of a pack full of gear. Once you cross the river, the adventure has only begun. The approach to the cliff is a bit of a sleeper. It’s only maybe 30 minutes, but it’s uphill the entire way and puts your calves to work. Thoroughly sweaty, we hit the base of the cliff and headed for Hard Times (5.9+), “a true Adirondack testpiece at the grade” as Lawyer and Hass write in the guidebook.
Matt in the pitch 3 chimney of Hard Times (5.9+)
The crux pitch of Hard Times begins with a chimney and then transitions out into a right-facing corner with an overhanging bulge (the crux) that then kicks back to off-vertical polished face/crack climbing that leads to a 7″ off-width. You can split the crux pitch into two sections by working left at the top of the chimney to a bolted anchor on a nice ledge for another route (Spirit of Adventure). We chose to do this, based on my relative inexperience in chimneys and that Matt had followed this climbing a month before and did not in anyway want to have to lead the crux. So Matt led the chimney and then I tackled the crux and “scary” climbing above the crux.
You have to traverse out right back into Hard Times from this interim anchor which is a little heady, but not exceedingly difficult (you can see the ledge in the picture and the overhanging bulge to the right). The crux of Hard Times is intimidating, but the gear is all there and you can spot all the moves before you attempt it. The polished face that follows the crux is a different story. You have to make committing moves above small gear (micro cams/small stoppers) on polished features with a lot of your weight on your feet. It’s definitely the psychological crux in my mind. After I got through that I took a long time to figure out how to climb the short off-width section of the climb, but finally got it and proceed to link together the second half of the third pitch and the final fourth pitch.
Greg follows on the last pitch of the day as twilight begins to settle
It took us a long time to do Hard Times, but it’s really hard climbing so it’s a little more reasonable to take 4.5 hours to do 4 pitches. Pleased with our success we decided to also do A Touch of Class and we would attempt to get the whole climb done in the quickly fading sunlight. We started around 4 or 4:30 and got through the climb in about 2.5 hours (three pitches) so we definitely sped up on this climb, but the climbing was less challenging than what we had previously done (still hard though).
We ended up running into Matt McCormick and Jean-Pierre Ouellet (aka Peewee) at the cliff and on the way out helped them setup a better tyrolean system, so there is now a much tighter piece of static line (much less stretch) in place. McCormick recently went on a blitz in the Adirondacks with 5.13c R and 5.12c PG first ascents to his name. Peewee has specialized in becoming one of the world’s best crack climbers with an impressive list of ascents of some of the world’s hardest cracks. It’s pretty unreal to hear these guys talk about the potential for new routes at the cliff; referring to 5.11 terrain as “easy”. It was cool to see that they were very real and down to earth people though. Which reminds you that in the end climbing is a pretty similar experience for everyone, whether you’re climbing moderate classics or elite testpieces.
All in all we had a solid day. Six of the seven pitches were 5.9 or 5.9+ and some of the climbing was straight up hard and sometimes mentally demanding. It really felt like the day was the culmination like all the hard work and training I’ve done this year. It’ll definitely be a highlight of this season.
SELF Magazine - Today's snake oil
The following is a rant filled with elitist tirades; be fore-warned.
This is the kind of crap that gets me fired up. SELF Magazine ran an article through MSN entitled “Secrets of the Fittest”. In six short paragraphs the “feature” reveals six “secrets” fitness “trainers” use in order to get that [insert whatever crap-filled line about what a good body they have line here].
Take this first tip, which effectively suggests that exhaling during a situp will give you “hot abs”. Really? I’m sure that’s why all of us don’t have six-pack abs…we haven’t been exhaling at the right time. There are some many things wrong here, I don’t even know where to start. First, if you care about looks more than your fitness, you might as well go masturbate in front of the mirror because that’s what your workout will effectively be. If mediocrity is your goal, than your results will be mediocre. “Fit” bodies come from hard work, trying to say anything else is ignorant, naive, and just plain wrong.
Second, the idea of isolating a muscle group is myopic and misdirected unless you’re a meat head body builder. In the words of Dan John and Mark Twight, there is no “core”. The body is “one piece”, as all movements originate from the center. Training natural movements improves flexibility, proprioception, leads to functional strength gains, and trains natural motor programs for everyday movements. What more accurately describes a movement you’d do in daily life, sit in a chair and curl something with nice comfy handles to your chest through a fixed plane of motion or pick something heavy up from the floor?
It’s ironic that our society focuses on image over fitness when image is a consequence of fitness. It’s pretty remarkable how form follows function. When you concentrate on becoming fitter your body follows in suit by striping the excess and keeping the essentials. However, most people will look at you and think you’re not fit because of the predominant over-loaded idea of fitness in our society (i.e. big muscles equals fit). That’s fine, just load them up with a pack and have them try to keep up on a trail with you over 12 hours; if you even care. Otherwise get out there and start getting stuff done.
Regardless, I’m pretty sure I lost whatever thread of coherency I managed to strike here. Anyone who suggests you can get results from anything but plain damn hard work is 1) wrong, b) ignorant, or 3) lying. Remember, in the end it’s all about the journey and how you get there, rather than the destination. If you take shortcuts, you miss out on some of the finer points and your journey is less fulfilling and you gain less from it. Maybe you only care about the destination, in that case I’m surprised you made it this far. For the rest of us though, here’s to experimenting, learning, understanding, and getting at it!
Matt following pitch 3 of Quadrophenia (5.7+)
Presented with a stellar forecast for Friday and Saturday and a crap forecast for Sunday, Matt and I did what any self-respecting climber would do, we blew off work and headed for the rock! Friday we headed down into Keene and went up to the Hurricane Crag. We hadn’t been there in about a year, so we were interested in looking around and seeing all was around up there. We did the standard 5-star must-do moderate Quadrophenia (5.7+). We linked Pitches 2 & 3 to avoid the uncomfortable belay stance under the pitch 3 roofs (highly recommended to do so). After looking around at some lines that ascend up in the area of the rappel line, we were struggling with motivation. It seems like a lot of the routes in the Hurricane Crag that are in our range (5.10a or easier) are either dirty and not highly recommended or have PG/R gear ratings and closer to our limit (5.9/5.8). There is however, a 4-star 5.10b with solid gear there called Forever Wild. The 10b crux is a fist crack in a pretty much dead vertical section of the wall. From what I had researched about it on Mountain Project, it was supposed to be a pretty sustained 10b though. Just one look at the climb and I could tell it was going to be pretty consistently hard.
We hemmed and hawed about what to do and finally I decided to sack up and attempt to lead it. I loaded up a double rack from fingers to fists (#3 Camalot is essentially fists for me) and set off. Unfortunately the 4-star climbing is marred by a 0-star start. You have to ascend a steep, vegetated dirt cone for about 30′ with no real protection to gain the start of the crack system. Once you’re in the crack, you’re presented with a dead vertical, tight off-finger crack (consistent #.5 C4 cam size) for about 20 feet. I’m not going to lie, this was fucking hard for me. I couldn’t get any finger locks/jams and it was too small to get finger stacks to work either. As well the left side of the crack stuck out from the right side so you had a weird edge on the crack, making it tempting to try and lie-back it, which was strenuous and made protecting the climb that much harder. I ended up aiding through this part to gain a consistent finger crack section tucked into the back of a shallow alcove. I must admit I also aided this as I wasn’t really excited to take a fall around the alcove. At the top of the alcove, you gain a horizontal that splits the finger crack from a dead-vertical to slightly over-hanging hands/tight hands crack above it which goes for about 10′ to gain another horizontal. I managed to free this section of the climb after some strenuous jamming & foot work. At the second horizontal it’s possible to step left and do a 5.9 finish variation. I highly do not recommend this variation. It involves little gear, a make-out session with a cedar tree (I have scratches all over my back and shoulder), and dirty, rotten lichen covered rock. After I brought Matt up, I had him lower me and I did a quick TR run on the entire climb. I made it to the crux (actually taking the right-ward traverse at the second horizontal to the 10b crux fist crack. I fell twice on TR at the crux trying to figure out the sequence. The sequence I found involves strenuous cupped hands/tight fists and a toe hook/jam and basically going horizontal to be able to finally jam my fists up high to pull up onto my feet. It’s wicked strenuous for 1 or 2 moves, but it works. I’m not sure if there is a better way on this or not, I’ll have to revisit it sometime. The good news is you get a bomber #3 cam placement right at the crux and it’s dead vertical with a clean fall below. I think knowing the gear down low would allow me to lieback the opening section and punch through that strenuous part, the rest of the climb I think would come together pretty well. We’ll see, a project for the fall time.
Matt leading the third pitch of Pete's Farewell (5.7)
After our “project” session (3 hours later), we headed out and did a quick run up Pete’s Farewell (5.7) at the Pitchoff Chimney Cliff in Cascade Pass. Matt got pitches 1 & 3 (the ones I got the last time we did it a few months ago) so I decided to do the climb in my approach shoes. I was pretty confident I could handle the second pitch in them. I managed, though it made a couple moves a little more interesting. After we got back down to the car we headed into town and grabbed some dinner and then headed to the Meadows to quickly setup our tent and get some shut-eye.
In the morning, we slept in and had a slow start to the day. The weather was pretty overcast and it was chilly in the morning, so that didn’t motivate me much to move fast, on top of the little sleep I managed to get. We decided on going to Poke-O to give Psychosis a shot. The guidebook notes Psychosis as one of the two most-feared 5.9s at Poke-O (a pretty bold statement). We had heard some guys talking it up a few weeks ago, and saying how they took a big whipper at the crux. I’m not going to lie, a bit of the appeal was to go and get on it to see how hard it really was, as these guys were a lot of talk and I was pretty confident I’m a much better climber than either of them. Well, I can say that it is a really hard f-ing pitch. The pitch is basically a 40-foot leaning lieback that is wicked strenuous to climb and protect. I managed to get within 5 feet of the end of the hard stuff and was just super pumped. I didn’t want to push it and miss and end up falling weird (falling while in a lieback always sketches me out that I’m going to catch my feet on a sling and flip). I decided to move a couple moves down and push off from the wall to make sure I took a nice clean fall. I took a short little 6 foot fall and shook out and climbed back to my last piece and chalked up and then fired the last remaining section. I’m kind of frustrated because I should have just pushed that last 5 feet because I’m pretty sure I could have made it, but I made the safer decision and at least I didn’t take a huge ride on the climb. Matt took the next pitch which was a pretty stout 5.7 with a pretty intimidating crux (strenuous undercling lieback on a slab). I got the next pitch which was a 5.8 traverse in the dyke rock. This was another intimidating pitch. The guide book says the crux is a traverse around a blunt arete into a shallow corner, but I don’t agree. I found the crux to be a thin face traverse before all that. You have minimal gear for it, and you’re not high above the slabs below and could pendulum down on to the slabs if you blew the moves (which are thin and committing, though you have pretty solid feet). The “crux” isn’t well protected either and involves some tricky sequency foot work in order to get through. I had to climb through it and then back to a rest stance a few times before I sussed it out and could commit to it. After that it was a traverse up onto a vegetated ledge; a straight-up jungle expedition through dense vegetation (at points I couldn’t see where I was putting my feet). I ended up blowing past the belay, but fortunately found a much nicer belay 15 feet to the right that unfortunately forced us to have our ropes in the firing line of menacingly loose blocks and flakes in the dyke rock.
Greg investigates the psychological traverse "crux" on the third pitch of Psychosis (5.9)
Matt commenced with the final pitch (5.6 PG) and expertly set up a few directionals to keep the ropes away from the loose shit and then proceeded to lead us to the top. Up until the second half of the 3rd pitch, we thought the climbing was really pretty good and couldn’t understand why the route was only 2-stars. The second half of the 3rd pitch and the 4th pitch are why. The fourth pitch is exceedingly dirty and the gear is kind of shitty around the crux, which is just kind of weird. It’s very easy, but just an awkward committing move with a bad fall potential. After that you ascend like 50 feet of “slab” which is apparently guide book code for grass, dirt, and dead tree branches. It really kind of sucked. After finishing the route we proceeded to continue to try to find the Discord rappel line, which we couldn’t find. We found a tree at the cliff’s edge with a seriously worn piece of cord and a single quicklink. We backed it up with another piece of cord and a rap ring and set off to find ourselves rappeling down over the Roof of All Evil (A3+). After a cluster fuck of a rappel situation, we managed to make it to the ground somewhat demoralized but still pleased with our getting on a new “obscure” route.
We talked with a local later in the day and he summed things up nicely with the response “That doesn’t get done much…” to our answer to his question “What did you guys just get down from?”. He confirmed our opinions that the crux pitch is really freaking hard and that the traverse pitch is pretty ballsy, and that the other sections are in fact, pretty damn dirty. It felt nice to have some validation as to why we felt so worked. We spent the rest of the day looking around, trying to get on climbs we wanted to do, but ended up walking back to the Discord area and getting on Group Therapy and then looking around the Luther Wall area before it started to rain and we decided to call it quits.
Overall, a good weekend. We got some new projects (Forever Wild, clean run up P1 of Psychosis, found some new climbs to add to our projects (Phase III, Son of a Mother, Discord, Slime Line, & more), and learned how to climb in the real world (aiding, protecting ropes and seconds in loose terrain, etc). We also stayed true to the three rules by coming back safe, as friends, and having had fun. You can’t ask for much more.
I’ve been slacking on a lot of stuff lately. I’ve got a podcast in the process of being written, and an essay mostly written with some thoughts on training. I’ve just been really tired lately. I’ve been climbing hard lately and really pushing on the training side of things as well. In the past week, I completed a couple bouldering projects, pushed my limits on trad leading, took some falls, and generally have been going at the edge of what I can put out.
I think I’ve been over-reaching/over-training here. In retrospect I’m exhibiting a lot of the symptoms; exhaustion, lack of motivation, suppressed appetite, trouble sleeping, etc. It occurred to me that over-reaching/over-training is a negative feedback loop. You feel like you’re not performing at your best, which forces you to try to push harder or train more, which just puts you deeper in the hole, which pushes the psychological need to train, ad nauseam. For me, I think one big indicator that I need to scale back is when I just don’t even feel like heading to the gym/boulders/etc to train. For me training is an integral part of my daily existence; my release. When I don’t feel like doing it, it should be a pretty powerful flag to stop and look at things. More often then not, I’m concerned I’m just having a weak mental moment, and I’ll push myself to hit the trail, work a project, or grind through a workout solely to push through a mental barrier. Maybe I need to take more time and look back at the training log and consider whether I’m just being lazy or if I really do need to take a seat for the day. I guess this is what they mean when they say only a fool has himself as a trainer.
Day 9 (6.20.10)
We had to move camp out of Camp 4 and down to the Indian Flat campground in El Portal that we were lucky enough to reserve on Saturday. As well we needed gas and the gas in El Portal is about $4.00 a gallon, so we were told by a ranger to drive 30 miles to Mariposa where gas is significantly cheaper, a useful piece of advice. We ate lunch at the Happy Burger diner which had an incredible selection on the menu, as well as free WiFi! Over lunch we examined route topos and decided that we wanted to drive up to Tuolumne to see the conditions and if good, climb the Regular Route of Fairview Dome (5.9).
Day 10 (6.21.10)
We woke up with the plan of driving to Tuolumne and climbing the Regular Route on Fairview Dome. After driving all the way up there, I realized how exhausted I was (didn’t sleep well) and in general the lack of enthusiasm I was feeling. In general I just didn’t have a good feeling about the day. So I put the brakes on climbing that day, a decision that I struggled with the whole rest of the day and really beat myself up about. We drove back down into the Valley and hung out beach side for a while and relaxed, which allowed me to decompress a bit. With the extra rest day, we decided that a big day was in order for tomorrow. So we planned on the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral (5.10c/5.9 A0 or 5.10a). Since this was our plan, we took a walk up to the base of the route to scope the approach so we’d know where we were going the next day.
Day 11 (6.22.10)
Game day. We got an “early” start (6am) and drove into the Valley. Even with our recon mission the day before, we still got turned around a little bit on the approach because we took a more direct trail that we forgot to turn off of. We got the base of the route to find another party on the route, but they seemed to be moving quickly. Matt took the first lead, and linked pitches 1 & 2. I struggled, for no good reason, with pitch 3 and ended up not linking it with pitch 4 because we were going to let a party pass us. However, the party proved to be incorrect when they boasted that they climbed fast, so Matt took pitch 4 and then left us with the dilemma of whether to take the original 5.10c/5.9 A0 pitch 5 or the “50 crowded variation” which goes at 5.10a. While decide the leader of the aforementioned party joined us at the belay. Based on the fact that the second climbed slowly, I figured we could put some distance on them by taking the 5.10a pitch and I knew I could most likely free that pitch pretty quickly as it’s a short bit of 5.10a, then 5.8, then 5.6 all in a style that I’m strong at. Sure enough, I was through the crux quickly and at the bolts before the leader from the other team was anywhere to be seen near the bolts of the original pitch 5. We put a lot of distance on them in remaining pitches until we could no longer see them in the last 4 or so pitches. We topped out the route in about 7.5 hours, and I managed to find a nest of biting ants again at the top of the climb as I was bringing Matt up.
The descent off of Middle Cathedral, in general, sucked. We got totally lost and then we got separated trying to get to a commonly used bail anchor that lead to a rap route that landed us back on the proper descent path. We took close to 3 hours to get down, but we still made it down with plenty of daylight left, feeling quite pleased with ourselves for the route…and straight-up relieved that we made it down.
Day 12 (6.23.10)
Time for a rest day so we can recharge for our repeat attempt at the Regular Route on Fairview Dome in Tuolumne. We took our rest day in Mariposa and poked around at the shops and fattened up on fancy coffee drinks and pizza. After all this we drove back up into the Valley to check out a YOSAR helicopter training session. The training was happening on the route we had just climbed the day before, the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral. It was cool to see them up where we had been, just the day before. While watching the whole deal from the El Cap meadow, we met a pleasant older gentlemen who had climbed in Yosemite a little bit back in the 80s. We talked with him for a while and he filled us in on what teams were on El Cap and let us borrow his binoculars so we could see each team he was talking about. With nothing else to do for the day, it was a nice distraction from our usual process of trying to figure out what to do. After this we headed over to the Sentinel Beach to hang out in the water for a while and then headed back to camp to eat, set the rack up and pack, and get ready for the next day.
Day 13 (6.24.10)
The night before after dinner my throat started to become quite sore. I knew what had happened, but I didn’t want to believe it. Matt had been sick before the trip and had been getting over it the whole time we were there. I had finally gotten whatever had made him sick. I awoke to an incredibly painful sore throat that made swallowing and talking very labored tasks. I couldn’t even get any throat drops as there were no stores that were open. I spent the entire drive up to Tuolumne not really talking, which only made Matt nervous as to whether I was going to back out on this climb again. I was however, very committed to the climb if we could get to it and it looked like it would go. We didn’t know how much snow there was at the base or how wet the first few pitches were.
With all the snow on the ground we got completely lost trying to find the start of the route. Eventually we found it after meandering all around the snowfield at the base of Fairview. There was no party on the route, and no other parties in sight trying to find it. We had a good feeling. Matt took the lead and deal with a dirty and somewhat wet crack, though better than the “flowing with water” description the guidebook warned of in early season. We had gotten a late start after the drive and the mucking about searching for the start, so for the first 5 or so pitches, we both had that thought in the back of our mind that we might be on the route later than we wanted/planned to. Of the first 6 pitches, 5 are somewhat sustained. So we knew if we could get to the top of pitch 6, the terrain eased up considerably and we’d be ok. I think we reached the top of pitch 6 at about 2pm. We knew we had a good weather forecast, so we breathed a little easier. A couple hours later, and we were on the summit, 7.5 hours from the start of the route.
On the descent, we both agreed this was the best route we’d done in Yosemite. It felt like this route was an expression of the skills we’ve learned over the past few years with tricky gear/belays and forcing ourselves to push past pieces with long pitches and only 11 slings. We certainly didn’t set any records, or do anything to impress anyone. But we did it, safely, controlled, and within the guidebook’s time. To us, that’s a huge win.
Day 14 (6.25.10)
My feverish symptoms continued today. Even with Advil I wasn’t feeling 100% so climbing was not really something I was interested in. We had ended the day before on such a good note, I couldn’t see trying to climb our only remaining “obtainable” objective Central Pillar of Frenzy as a good idea. We knew that route would potentially kick out butts, and to do it being fatigued from the previous day and sick just didn’t make sense to me. Matt was in agreement, let’s end it on a note of success. So we basically just kicked it around the village for most of the day. We ate dinner at the Cafe (lodge cafeteria) and then headed back to start packing up to head back to San Francisco the next day.
Day 15/16 (6.26.10-6.27.10)
We packed up and headed back to San Francisco. The rental car needed to be back by 11:30 that night, so we took our time. We stopped in Berkeley and poked around the gear shops and then headed down to Fisherman’s Wharf area and did tourist stuff, went to the Patagonia store, and then grabbed dinner before heading to the airport to drop off the car and crash where ever we could. Our flight left at 06:00 the next morning, so we didn’t see the use in a hotel room…and we’re cheap. We ended up “sleeping” in the booth seats of a food court, though I’m pretty sure neither of us slept more than 30 minutes. Finally, 04:00 rolled around and we got up and headed to security and then to our gate to begin our trip home. After a couple hours delay in Chicago we were finally on the flight home. Foster met us at the airport; a trooper for dealing with our nightmare of a travel schedule being re-worked a few times. All in all a good trip.
Day 1 (6.12.10)
Our plane leaves Syracuse around 15:00 destined for a stop in Philadelphia before our flight to San Francisco, destined for a 22:00 (Pacific Time) arrival. We got into to SFO and realized that we were effectively wrecked and needed sleep. We got the cheapest hotel room we could find and decided to get up early the following morning and pick up the rental car, take care of logistics, and drive to Yosemite.
Day 2 (6.13.10)
We picked up the rental car and after a bit of a complicated affair with filling out paper work to record all the scratches and such on the car, we departed the airport. I forgot that Matt had never been to San Francisco so he suggested that we drive out of San Francisco on the Golden Gate Bridge, which was a great idea! It’d been at least 10 years since I’ve been to San Francisco, so it was great to see a lot of things I recognized from my last visit as a kid.
So we drove out to Berkeley to hit an REI so we could stock up on “sport-specific” food. Basically we needed to buy energy gel. We both find that we really enjoy eating it while climbing. It’s easy, convenient, and light. After stocking up on gel, we programmed my phone with the directions to Yosemite and set off.
We arrived at Yosemite to find out that there were about 20 or so spots available at Camp 4 still, so we rushed into the Valley to try and get spots for ourselves. Luckily, we were able to walk right in to Camp 4 at like 4:30 in the afternoon. It’s as if the climbing gods were on our side!
The sheer size of most of the cliffs in Yosemite is at the least humbling for an east coast climber. We really don’t have large cliffs in the east. Wallface and Cannon are really the two biggest cliffs, with the latter being the most imposing. El Capitan, the Cathedrals, Half Dome, Sentinel, and the countless other cliffs stand menacingly above us dwarfing us in size and in spirit. The thought of climbing any route on these monsters, in a day, is intimidating.
Day 3 (6.14.10)
We decided that it would be best to “test” ourselves on some “short” moderate routes first. We decided on a couple climbs on the Manure Pile Buttress, an area whose name does not accurately describe the quality of the routes held on the formation. Two really good climbs are on this cliff, After Six (5.7) and Nutcracker (5.8). Nutcracker is a 5-star classic, with a lot of historical significance. It was one of the climbs Royal Robbins put up using “chocks” he brought back from the United Kingdom to prove they were viable.
After Six is an easy climb, with only one serious pitch (the first pitch). The upper climbing is broken up by a lot of easy terrain. We managed the route fine enough and decided to give Nutcracker a shot. Nutcracker was a step harder in difficulty, and also in terms of how sustained the pitches were (i.e. the climbing would be harder for longer distances). We found this climb to be more what we were expecting in terms of grading. The first pitch was a genuine Adirondack 5.8 that was fairly sustained. The crux pitch has a bad fall potential on a “scary” mantel, so I was super nervous about leading it, but the moves were not worth the hype. In my mind the first pitch is the crux of the route.
This was a good day to show us we could do a lot of pitches on moderate terrain and still feel like we had a lot left in the tank, so we called it quits for the day and headed back to walk around and eat a casual dinner in Curry Village; some of the most expensive, least appealing pizza we’ve ever had. Thankfully we were starving from 11 pitches of climbing.
Day 4 (6.15.10)
After our moderate success from the previous day we decided to step it up and get on Royal Arches (5.7 A0) which is 15 pitches. A longer single route than the previous days activity. From what we knew of it though, it was broken up by a lot of easier terrain, so we were hoping to move “quick” on it. In short, this day was a death by a thousand paper cuts. It took us 12 hours ground to ground to get through the route. We came up quick on a party on the lower easy section before you get caught up in more “difficult” climbing and have fewer options to pass a party. So we rushed like mad to pass this party because we figured we would stay ahead of them. The party had a quick leader but a slow follower. However, the leader didn’t mind being right up our ass all day. It was stressful dealing with this situation, as we would pull away from them on one pitch only to have the leader right up on us again when we got slowed down a touch.
Admittedly I was moving slowly this day. I just didn’t enjoy the type of climbing on the route. I also made a mess of the pendulum pitch as I’ve never done a pendulum before and I wasn’t sure how to use the fixed rope exactly. It took me a few tries to get it down to swing over enough to grab the ledge I needed to get over to. So I was just super frustrated at this point, I think I told Matt at that point that he was leading everything from then on, but I bounced back shortly after. I saw this awesome looking crack system, labeled “5.7 steep hands” on the topo and figured I would give it a go. It had to be because we were just tired at this point (we weren’t eating a lot because of the pressure of the leader in the other party) but I got shut down hard on this pitch. Off the belay I felt like the climbing was harder than indicated and ended up aiding through the 5.7 steep hands section. It just seemed awkward and hard for 5.7…and at that point I was only concerned with moving quickly, french freeing was my best option at that point.
We got off the route feeling roughed up; being in the sun for a long time, not having eaten much, & we kicked our water around the 14th pitch. We’re glad we did the route; for me it was Type II fun. I didn’t enjoy the style of climbing as much as I liked the idea of the whole process when all was said and done.
Day 5 (6.16.10)
We realized a rest day was in order when we both took a long time to get up to our 06:00 alarms in the morning. We also found out later in the day that we were only allowed to stay a week in the park, something we hadn’t been clear on. So we decided to take a good rest day to refuel, rehydrate, and plan out three days of climbing before we had to leave Camp 4 on Sunday and move to a camp site outside of the park. After we got our plan down, we decided to head out to Mariposa Grove to check out the Giant Sequoias there.
Day 6 (6.17.10)
We decided to do a medium volume day on the Five Open Books area to get ourselves acquainted with longer harder multi-pitch routes. We did Munginella (5.6) as a warm-up and Commitment (5.9) to see what 5.9 was like in Yosemite. We linked pitches on Munginella and did it in two pitches and then did Commitment. I found the moves off the ground (awkward 5.8) to be the crux on Commitment. The 5.9 section on the third pitch was hard but I had a bomber #1 cam in the roof right by the crux. Off the ground I had no pieces and was looking at a fall down the 3rd class scramble to the base of the route. I managed to find red biting ants on both Munginella and Commitment, securing my reputation for being the Pied Piper of ants. After doing Commitment we discussed doing another route but decided against it to rest up for the big day we had planned for Thursday, climbing Snake Dike (5.7 (5.4R/X)) on Half Dome.
Day 7 (6.18.10)
04:00 wake up. 05:20 marks setting foot on the trail after some digestive issues with team members is sorted out. We’re in for a big day here, about 16-17 miles of hiking with some bushwhacking and lots of 3rd class scrambling. We did the first 2.5 miles of trail which gains 2,500′ of elevation in about 80 minutes, so we were moving at a healthy clip. Getting soaked from the mist coming off Vernal falls helped that ability, as I was getting exceptionally cold at points until I dried out and the sun came out. We got lost trying to find the climber’s trail that breaks off from the main trail, not knowing it was only 50 yards up the trail so we lost a good 10-15 minutes debating what to do about that, and another 10 minutes or so due to further digestive issues a few minutes down the climber’s approach trail.
Day 8 (6.19.10)
Our last night in the Valley. After the previous long day we definitely slept in. As well we generally just kind of lounged around in the morning with plans to climb Super Slide (5.9) later in the day. The route is only 5 pitches and we planned to do it in 4, so we figured we could bang it out pretty quickly based on our progress so far. We ended up getting a later start than we wanted to due to lots of traffic on the shuttle buses. I think we started the route around 15:00 and ended up topping out the route around 17:45 or so. We’d been having really good luck so far, so it was time for our own little Yosemite cluster-fuck. We got the ropes stuck on the second rappel but after a bit of a cluster fuck another party coming up by us freed our rope for us. We remembered to get their tent site number so we could bring over some beer later that night to thank them.
Matt coming up on the pitch 4 belay
Well, we’re happy to say that we climbed the Regular Route on Fairview Dome (5.9) yesterday! We have to admit that the entire day was a bit more difficult than we had hoped but we still managed the climb (12 pitches) in 7.5 hours (the guidebook recommends 6-8 hours). The biggest complication was snow! There is still a lot of snow up in the “high country” and we had to ascend a receding snow field to gain the crack system that starts the first pitch of the route. We found the ratings of the pitches to be much harder on Fairview. The crux 5.9 pitch was very difficult as much of the footwork was on polished rock and it was very dirty from having been wet earlier in the season. Our fear of the crux pitch being wet didn’t come out to be true, but the dirtiness didn’t help make things easier. Above were a couple more pitches of 5.7/5.8 and they were sustained, more difficult than we anticipated, and long (like 150′). The climbing was worth it though! Wow, what an incredible route with pitch after pitch of amazing climbing which all lead to a summit that topped out around 9900′ giving us a great view of surrounding peaks and Tuolumne.
Greg on awkward 5.8 terrain
To us, this climb represented the culmination of our combined 10+ years of climbing requiring a lot of skills and techniques learned previously. We got the genuine alpine feel we were looking for, with perfect granite, snow-capped domes and peaks in the horizon, and no other people around. Based on the topo, this route involved about 1400′ of climbing, which most pitches being 5.7 or harder.
Today, we’re deciding not to climb anything. I finally came down with the bug that Matt was trying to shake the whole trip. I had the initial signs yesterday, but was still able to climb. Today, it’s not so good. We’re ok with it though, we got 2 of the 50 classics done this week and yesterday was a great note to end the trip on. We’re taking it easy in the Valley today and tomorrow we’ll be packing up and heading back to San Francisco to do some tourist-type stuff before we head back to the airport to drop off the car and then hunker down for our early morning flight. I’m sure we’ll have a more detailed trip report once we’re back, but as of right now I know both of us would have done anything for this experience. This was an amazing trip; one that I’m sure we’ll both remember for the rest of our lives.
Matt running it out on the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral
After a couple rest days, we hit our main objective yesterday. The East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock (5.10c, 5.10a, or 5.9 A0), one of the 50 Classic Climbs in North America. We chose the 5.10a variation and we both freed the moves on the crux pitch! We did the route (11 pitches) in 7.5 hours, 30 minutes quicker than the guidebook suggested time. The descent however…that’s another story. Let’s just say the descent off of Middle Cathedral makes all Adirondack descents look like pre-school. Armed with the guidebook’s directions we still managed to get completely lost at the top. After about an hour of aimlessly following faint signs of impact we stumbled upon a tree loaded with slings. We made the rappel and ended up on a ledge, we did some 4th/3rd class scrambling down to get to a somewhat sketchy chockstone loaded with a rat’s nest of tat and some biners. After backing up the tat with some fresh cord we made another rappel and ended up on a huge vegetated ledge where we finally picked up the proper descent path that landed us in a talus-filled gully between Higher and Middle Cathedral. Another hour or so of scree surfing and 3 rappels through polished/wet 4th class brought us back to the approach trail and after three hours we were back at the car (for reference the guidebook said a maximum of 2 hours to descend).
Today we took a rest day in Mariposa to re-hydrate and refeul for our next big objective, another member of the 50 classics, the Regular Route on Fairview Dome (5.9) in Tuolumne Meadows. We’re a little unsure at how this one will go. There is still snow up in Tuolumne (it’s at about 9,000 ft), and the guidebook says that in early season the crux of the first pitch (also the crux of the whole route) is running with water. We took a drive up there Monday with the aim of climbing the route but I bagged it before we left the car because I was exhausted and just didn’t feel up to it. We’re feeling better about it now, and hopefully it’ll go with minimal problem. It seems as long as we can get the first 4 pitches in the bag, we’ll get the route done no problem. The only issue will be the descent, a 2nd/3rd class walk-off on the backside of Fairview Dome which we aren’t sure whether or not is holding snow still. There’s only one way to find out.
For anyone who doesn’t get the title it’s from The Muppets Take Manhattan…I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate for this post. We got to see our first bears yesterday after a week in the Valley. The weekends in Camp 4 are the scene of some debauchery in regards to bear prevention protocol. We were talking with a fellow climber when he noticed a bear rummaging through an open bear locker from a nearby campsite. He sprang into action, as you’re supposed to do, screaming and generally making yourself appear intimidating to scare the bear off. Not wanting to feel left out I joined in in the screaming to create an even more opposing challenge to the bear. Clearly the bear took one look at the two of us and realized he was in over his head and smartly turned and ran away. Our second bear was an hour or so later.
Half Dome Cables
On to climbing front, our day doing the Snake Dike was long (12 hours and 20 minutes) but still enjoyable. We hiked about 16 miles all told, did about 1400 feet of technical climbing (8 pitches), and then about 1,000 feet of 3rd class slabs to reach the summit of Half Dome. Most people “hike” Half Dome using the pre-installed cables on the South-ish side. These cables were our descent. The cables are a crazy thing to see, we though they’d be up 3rd class (low-angle) terrain, but it was like straight up 5th class slab climbing that we would probably rope up to climb.
Matt on the crux 5tth pitch of Super Slide (5.9)
Yesterday we rested for the first half of the day and took care of some logistical errands and then climbed a 5 pitch 5.9 route called Super Slide after a late start. It turns out we were mis-informed that we could camp in Yosemite for 14 days. Currently during the peak season you can only stay for 7 days total. So today we’re taking a rest day and re-locating to a campsite in El Portal, about 30 mins from the Valley. It’s not ideal, but it’s only for another 6 days.
We’re hoping to get up to Tuolumne tomorrow to attempt to climb something. The reports we’re hearing aren’t good though, lots of snow still and if no snow then mud in its place. We’re choosing climbs with very short approaches as a result. Our really only “big” objective is the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral (5.9 A0), which is right across the Valley from El Capitan. It’ll be a big day, but we think we can handle it.
Another quick update. Again, tomorrow is going to be a huge day so I only have a few minutes to do quick post. Tomorrow we’re going to do the Snake Dike (5.7R) on Half Dome and we’re getting up at 4am and we have about 15 miles of hiking to do along with the climb.
Since we’re doing such a big day tomorrow we did a “short” day today with only 5 pitches and about 600′ of climbing. We did some climbs at an area called Five Open Books which is just to the left of Yosemite Falls. We did a warm-up 5.6 called Munginella and then did our first 5.9 here in the Valley called Commitment which had a wild roof/layback crux with a spectacular layback corner up above as well as a fantastic hand crack on the first pitch. I was lucky to get both the hand crack and the crux pitch! Although the first pitch had a nest of biting red ants in a section of the hand crack that swarmed me while I was leading it, not so fun!!
We found out that we can only stay in Yosemite for 7 days total during the high traffic season of the summer. That definitely messes with our plans, especially since the Tuolumne campground isn’t open yet. We’re going to be scrambling to figure how to make this work but there are a bunch of Forest Service campgrounds just outside the Valley, so we might be able to get something there and just make the commute each day. It won’t be ideal, but at least we can salvage our second week.
Sorry, no pictures today because I’m having problems getting the netbook to read the cards. I’ll try to get something up tomorrow if we get in early enough.