Spring 2010
Posted on Friday, June 11 @ 22:08:34 EDT by squishy
I haven’t been keeping up on publishing stories and content for a little while, my only excuse is that I have been really busy climbing and enjoying the mountains and beauty of California. I finally sat down long enough to put a bunch of pictures and video together, so I guess I should tell you an exciting story. To be honest it’s getting harder and harder to try and explain, but I will keep trying.
In this year’s long and wet winter, I managed several snow climbs between the storms and even a few trips during the storms. I attended many group outings with other clubs, making several new friends along the way. Thanks to the Decadent Outdoor Adventurers, the ROCKaholics and the super cool people from SuperTopo for places to stay in Yosemite Valley and for the good times, I hope to share many more.
During the winter, we had a period of time where the sun would come out in the middle of the week and then it would rain all weekend, it was horrible weather for a weekend warrior like myself. As consolation we took on the Coast Range of California and hiked up Glassock Mountain in the rain on January 25th, umbrellas optional. Click Read More for a bunch more.
Then it was off to Yosemite Valley in January, I haven’t been there in the winter since I was very young. We pulled into an empty camp 4, a place I avoid in the tourist season, and had it all to ourselves. We spent two days exploring the Sunnyside Bench and the upper Yosemite Falls. It was a beautiful time to be in the Valley.
Adam scrambling with the brink of Upper Yosemite Falls in the background
One wintery day after a long rain storm, the sun came out, so we headed to Mt Diablo and resolved to find and see the waterfalls on the north side of the mountain. I had heard of these falls 10 years ago and had never seen them, and it added quite a bit of worthy mileage to our hike. The falls were much better than imagined and timing was everything, you definitely need to come here during or shortly after a good rain.
The Waterfalls of Mt Diablo
Adam scrambling the Devils Pulpit on Mt Diablo
On March 6th Biz found a rather small weather window and tried to drag us up Hawkins Peak near Carson Pass, it looked feasible and fun. Needless to say we failed to summit Hawkins but had a hell of a time summiting the nearby and smaller Picket peak. This video says it all.
One weekend in March I randomly hooked up with DingusMilktoast and he dragged me to Yosemite Valley for some crack climbing. I was shocked the routes were clear of snow, and no one was there. This was quite a learning experience and I struggled up several classic crack climbs including Jamcrack (5.9) and Bishop's Terrace (5.8). It was a crash course in crack climbing footwork, and I learned that there is much more to learn.
Back to the snow on March 27th to repeat one of my favorites, Round Top and a attempt on the Crescent Moon Couloir. I met with Gomez, Deets and Brian from SummitPost for a nice little hike. We failed to get up the couloir and only Brian and I made the summit, it was a great learning experience for those who went and I made several more friends.
Somewhere in here I took off to Yosemite Valley to meet up with Holly and Nat of the ROCKaholics climbing club. They kindly let me crash their campsite numerous times and it was there I met Javi and Qun. We climbed some fun routes before the weather began caving back in Sunday afternoon.
Nat Leading the Pine Line with the clouds moving back into the valley
Then I went back with Adam and Toxo and all three of us crashed the ROCKaholics campsite this time. I took them back to the Pine Line, which adam led with passive gear, he also led the Sloth Wall on the way out of the Valley. The weather was finally beginning to cooperate and the season was getting started.
Adam leading the Pine Line on El Capitan, Yosemite Valley
The next trip was pretty ambitious; we left on a Friday and hiked up 600 feet from the Yosemite Valley floor before setting up our bivy. The next morning we went back down to attempt an old route long forgotten and found in an old guidebook. It was a horrible experience with loose crumbling rock and biting fire ants, we bailed after three pitches and headed over to Curry Village for some pizza and beer.
adam leading the second pitch on what looks like solid rock
The next day we recovered from our epic failure with a pleasant jog up the Grack (5.6). We beat the crowds and had the route to ourselves, Adam took the spicy pitch and Toxo was terrified at the hanging belay anchor.
Adam leading the Grack’s third pitch on extremely solid rock
On May 8th I headed back to Round Top with my friends HandjamMasterC and Dragger for an SP gathering. We had two teams of three, each taking a different side of the Crescent Moon Couloir, it was an awesome day of climbing with great weather. During the descent we did some glissading and Dragger cut her cheek with the adz of her ice axe, here was a recollection I wrote soon after the event.
“…After my crazy fast glissade next to Rinat, I stopped to traverse over and above our stash of gear at some lower rocks. I was going to continue the glissade but stopped to watch those above me, Lena and Dragger, who were also glissading. I saw Dragger come down a steeper section, hit a nice piece of really hard snow and she took off with a burst of speed then turned over to self arrest. Rinat on the very 1st glissade near the summit hit similar icy snow and directed us to a different location after a similar self arrest. The snow conditions varied and you could start sliding on really slow soft snow but end up on ice and out of control.
Dragger rolled and stopped herself in a picture perfect self arrest and I proceeded to traverse, I wasn't even watching her anymore and thought nothing of it. Then I heard this weirdly calm voice, "Hey Sean, I need help"....."Get the 1st aid kit out". I looked up and Dragger was walking toward me holding her face, covered in blood. I called over to Rinat for help who was still nearby and we replaced Dragger's glove, which she was using to hold back the blood, with a bandage while she applied direct pressure to the wound. There was so much blood Rinat needed to wipe her face and head to see the cut. Dragger was so calm it was infectious. Rinat soon called over his wife Lena (a doctor) and she looked it over and talked to Dragger. Dragger remembered a woman pad (sanitary napkin) in her pack and Lena asked for handkerchiefs. She did an awesome job using what we had to bandage Dragger for the hike out. I just manned the pack and handed out tools as requested "scissors".."bandage" and so on...those crafty Russians, Rinat and Lena did all the work…”
Lena leading the whole gang on approach
On May 29th the snows began to melt away giving access to Lovers Leap and other places. I had committed to taking Deets, who I met back in March on Round Top, up Knapsack (5.5) at Lovers Leap. Knapsack is a great beginner multi-pitch climb, with 350 feet of easy class 5 climbing at an easy angle, Deets learned a bunch. The next day I returned to the Hogsback with Brain and ran up Harvey's Wallbangers (5.7) and Deception (5.6).
Lovers Leap and the melting snow
On June 5th we all went for a long hike along the beach at Point Reyes. Beginning a few miles inland we made a wrong turn and instead of a marshy loop we got a long out-n-back to the mouth of the Drakes Estero. It was a wonderful mistake and we walked bare footed for miles down the beach exploring everything we found. A couple bottles of wine later and Biz and Adam were swimming with the seals. I wonder if they were all as sunburned as I was.
The meeting of land and sea
I am now unemployed and I took advantage of the time by going to a state job interview one day and climbing the next. Adam, a professor who happens to be off this time of year, and I headed for Lovers Leap to get in some good pitches. We completed Harvey's Wallbangers (5.7) and Deception (5.6) after being jumped by a very professional rattle snake on the way in.
I worked hard looking for a job on Wednesday, so I figured what the hell and went climbing again on June 10th. Brain and I headed for the Phantom Spires this time, an interesting place with crack and knob climbing. The “chickenheads” stick out of the rock and sometimes offer the only means to proceed, Brain wishfully wrapped a few with slings for protection. Here’s a video from the upper spire, we climbed the North Ridge (5.6) and Gingerbread (5.7). Both of the routes were very exposed, airy and scary, the wind was always there to remind us, but the summit was beautiful.
