Our first night there we camped out at the employee parking and hung with a few of the trail maintainers. They were a good group and fed us and shared our beer.
The next morning we got up and went down to the first come first serve sites where we got our site assignment and set up camp before a very late start on Cathedral, a 500 foot, five pitch beauty! The hike was pretty long, and uphill the whole way. Quite a way to start the morning.
Voltaire was our fearless leader, with Parrish on belay. After Voltaire would lead the pitch he would belay me from the top. I trailed the second rope, unclipping the rope I was climbing on and clipping in Parrish's rope behind me. Since I didn't think in a million years we would get to climb this amazing stuff I hadn't brought a small day pack. So up I went with my camera bag pulling me backwards the whole damn time. Combined with the drag from the second rope I had to work to get up some not so difficult climbs. When I would reach the top of a pitch I would belay Parrish off of the anchor that Voltaire set up.
On we went for a few pitches before we got to the chimney. Yey! The fun part was figuring out how we were going to get our packs up since it was too small for us to fit through wearing them. We decided that Voltaire would get up past the chimney and then lower a rope for us to hook our packs to. Then Parrish and I would grab ours on our way up.
On one of the pitches we could not get a piece of gear out of the crack. We decided that it was our sacrifice to the climbing gods. As we moved through the next pitch a woman passed us soloing (soloing is no rope. No rope at all. There were way too many people soloing that day for it to be caused by individual insanity). She had our gear! Our nut to be exact. Parrish and I laughed with her about our sacrifice and as she moved past us we looked at each other and realized... She was the climbing god!
The last three pitches were scattered with chipmunk shit. What on earth?! I put my hand right in it. Damn little bastards. I will never look at them as innocent little creatures again.
The last pitch of Cathedral was hard! There was a lot of wrapping around and with the drag from the rope I took to throwing my body in the opposite direction just to get enough slack to move. Before the final pitch you came up over the top of the rock and the view completely knocked me on my ass. I yelled! Parrish thought I hurt myself (not an unreasonable assumption), but I just couldn't not contain my amazement. We had been looking down on such a great view the whole day and it was nothing compared to the view through the pass to Half Dome, all of the lakes and other peaks surrounding us. I am sure the reaction was heightened by the journey to it, but I swear it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
Voltaire was our fearless leader, with Parrish on belay. After Voltaire would lead the pitch he would belay me from the top. I trailed the second rope, unclipping the rope I was climbing on and clipping in Parrish's rope behind me. Since I didn't think in a million years we would get to climb this amazing stuff I hadn't brought a small day pack. So up I went with my camera bag pulling me backwards the whole damn time. Combined with the drag from the second rope I had to work to get up some not so difficult climbs. When I would reach the top of a pitch I would belay Parrish off of the anchor that Voltaire set up.
On we went for a few pitches before we got to the chimney. Yey! The fun part was figuring out how we were going to get our packs up since it was too small for us to fit through wearing them. We decided that Voltaire would get up past the chimney and then lower a rope for us to hook our packs to. Then Parrish and I would grab ours on our way up.
On one of the pitches we could not get a piece of gear out of the crack. We decided that it was our sacrifice to the climbing gods. As we moved through the next pitch a woman passed us soloing (soloing is no rope. No rope at all. There were way too many people soloing that day for it to be caused by individual insanity). She had our gear! Our nut to be exact. Parrish and I laughed with her about our sacrifice and as she moved past us we looked at each other and realized... She was the climbing god!
The last three pitches were scattered with chipmunk shit. What on earth?! I put my hand right in it. Damn little bastards. I will never look at them as innocent little creatures again.
The last pitch of Cathedral was hard! There was a lot of wrapping around and with the drag from the rope I took to throwing my body in the opposite direction just to get enough slack to move. Before the final pitch you came up over the top of the rock and the view completely knocked me on my ass. I yelled! Parrish thought I hurt myself (not an unreasonable assumption), but I just couldn't not contain my amazement. We had been looking down on such a great view the whole day and it was nothing compared to the view through the pass to Half Dome, all of the lakes and other peaks surrounding us. I am sure the reaction was heightened by the journey to it, but I swear it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
The hike down was a little sketchy. Needless to say it made me nervous. At one point Parrish went ahead to see if she could get down a pretty steep slope. It was like slow motion... Her feet slipped back and she belly flopped a good seven feet down. Voltaire and I were helpless. It scared the shit out of us, but she was okay. The rest of the hike down was dark and we kept losing the trail. The river kept us going in the right direction and we finally got back to camp at midnight.
The next day was a rest day. We climbed some single pitch stuff including the guide cracks. I only climbed one before the ankle started screaming. Crack climbing is a lot of foot and hand jamming... It all comes down to pain management, and with my ankle already jacked up, I should have known better. While Parrish and Voltaire climbed I wondered around and took pictures.
At dinner that night we decided to climb Fairview. It is 12 pitches and 900 feet to the top, and is considered one of the top climbs anywhere. The approach was a lot shorter than Cathedral, and we got to the base at sunrise to make sure we could get up and hike back down before dark. The first pitch was led by Voltaire and Parrish followed. I climbed up third. The first pitch was 180 feet of crack, most of which was wet. About half way up my ankle was hurting so bad I could barely put wait on it. Since I knew I wouldn't be going beyond this first pitch I knew I had to finish it. The noises coming out of me must have been frightening they were so primal! But I did it. I got up the first pitch, 5.9 crack, of Fairview. Once I regrouped at the anchor they lowered me back down for me to hike to the car and come back to get them when they were done.
Sitting at the bottom I chatted with other climbers and then finally made my way back to the car. The fight up that crack really exhausted me. I went straight back to the camp and daisy chained my leg to the ceiling of our tent and crashed.
On our last day there we were planning on hiking Vernal Falls in the Valley. Since I was hurt we decided to go down to El Cap Meadow and show Parrish Yosemite Falls. It was great to hang out and show her the sights. It was also neat to see El Cap and Half Dome with a climbing guide book in hand. Voltaire was planning on climbing Half Dome in following weeks. Quite the accomplishment considering the amount of stuff you have to carry up its intense 2000 feet.
Parrish's flight out wasn't until late so we met up with some friends for dinner first. This is where I met Saunders and Melissa, my new climbing girls!
It was an incredible weekend.
1 comment:
Pam lets climb together!!!!!
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