Lurking Fear

El Cap and Yosemite Valley

After enduring a few days of rain in the Valley, Will and I decided to jump on El Cap. We climbed Lurking Fear on the left side of El Cap and turned out to be a great climb. We  spent 2 and a half days on the route with 2 bivys. We ended up hiking down in the dark , it is a long ways to the East Ledges decent route from Lurking Fear. We picked up a couple parties who had topped out on the East Buttress and were lost in the dark, so I guided them down the decent. By the way, to those Brits, I am still waiting on those beers you promised for keeping you from spending a cold night out on top of El Cap. The next day we were both quite sore from hiking down with heavy packs.

Will hanging out on the Captain

Bivy #2

Life is Good

Heading Down

Summit View at Sunset

Climbing Off the Couch and into the Mountains

After taking a 3 month break from climbing and working in Texas, I hit the road for a Fall climbing trip. I met up with Will on the East Side of the Sierras and we decided to do 1 day at Toulumne to get acclimatized and get me back on some rock. What was suppose to be a chill day turned into a tough day at altitude for this sea level, non climbing working stiff. We did a couple multi pitch slab routes, then climbed West Crack on Daff Dome for another 4 pitches.

                                                   Will getting his slab fix

Will following the first pitch of West Crack

The next day we headed north to Bridgeport to hike the approach to the Incredible Hulk. This turned out to be a long hot day with heavy packs, 5 miles and 3400 feet of altitude and 3 hours later brought us to about 10,000' and our bivy spot.

The Incredible Hulk from the approach

The following morning we awoke at 6:00AM and began climbing the Red Dihedral (1200', 12 pitches 5.10b) at 8:00AM. The climb was awesome on amazing rock. We enjoyed ideal temps and climbed in long sleeve shirt and pants the entire time. We were first on the route and saw only one party low on the route then never saw them again. The climb took us 6 hours and we made back to camp a little after 3:00PM and began the painful descent back to the car. We were back at the car by around 6:30PM to make for a nice 12 hour day of exercise. Today both our bodies are hurting! All in All not bad for an off the couch climber who has only climbed one day in the last 3 months.

Stay tuned for more updates in the next few weeks.

Will high on the Hulk

Will following the tunnel through last pitch

On the Summit of the Incredible Hulk

Sunset on the Hulk

Can you find the climbers on the upper left?

Salathe Wall (El Capitain)

The Captain

The Salathe Wall on El Cap had been on my tick list for sometime, but for some reason things never worked out to get it done. When visiting Karsten and Andrew in Vegas back in March I asked Andrew if he would be interested in doing the Salathe and he was, Karsten who had done the route 8 years decided he wanted to get in on the action as well and a plan was hatched.
Andrew and I met up last Wednesday evening and began to rack up, Karsten would be driving in late that night. We met up with Karsten el cap bridge at around 6:45AM and headed up to do the Free Blast. Unfortunately there was a slow party beginning to start up the first pitch, we decided to hike some loads to the base of the fixed lines and give them some space. After hiking a load the second was just getting to the first belay. We decided to start up the route and informed them that we would be passing, I started us off linking the first 2 pitches to make the pass and began short fixing on the 3rd, the pass was complete. We made good time up the Free Blast, fixed a pitch above heart ledges, rapped down, ate some dinner at the bridge, hiked the remainder of our gear to the base and began to haul our bags to heart ledges, unfortunately a team of two beat us to heart but they had not climbed the free blast yet. We slept at heart ledges after a long day, I woke up being cold and wet, evidently the ledge I was sleeping on had a seep of water that I had blocked and I got soaked, so I was motivated to get moving. We ended up making it to el Cap Spire, that night, with Andrew leading the first block, me the 2nd block and Karsten the 3rd. I bonked hard at the end of my block and Karsten was so worked at the end of his block he was feeling sick, I think the effort we put in on the big first day was taking its toll. Andrew took one for the team and fixed a pitch above El Cap Spire in the dark. There was a team of 3 Koreans bivied in the Alcove and they had 2 pitches fixed above the spire, we needed to pass them in the morning as they were a very very slow team and we could not afford to be stuck behind them. We woke up early and quietly got our stuff ready, trying not to wake the Koreans. I took the first block and made good time until I hit the Sewer Pitch which I linked to "the Block", no one wanted to lead the Sewer so I took one for the team. This has to one of the worst pitches I have ever climbed, I soaking wet by the time I finished this waterfall of slime and awkward climbing with tricky placement. Andrew took the next block from "the block" to the Salathe Roof as the sun was setting. The Koreans asked us to fix lines, so we fixed ropes for them all the way to the Salathe Roof, something like 8 pitches, they were struggling and moving slow, so maybe we prevented a rescue. Karsten led the head wall pitch in the dark to "Long Ledge" where we bivied for the night, in the process he took a huge whipper just before the ledge when a piece pulled. The next day we climbed off and were on the summit by early afternoon, the decent down the East Ledge was casual.
Overall a classic route with good friends, what could be better!
 Unfortunately when we got down I discovered that a bear had broken into my van and made quite the mess. Most likely a momma bear broke out a window and put her cub in to the work as there is no way a full size bear could fit through the window. The damage was considerable and a bit of a downer, but we still celebrated our ascent with cobras and hit the pizza deck for food.

I decided I needed to leave the valley the next day, with the van damaged my options for staying in the valley were limited.

More pics to come when I get Karsten's!

Racking up

"look there's climbers up there"

Me leading the first pitch about to make the pass, el cap looms above

me leading pitch 4

Andrew leading off of Heart

morning on the heart

me leading below "the ear", photo by Tom Evans

Karsten in the Ear

Karsten on the Spire

"the Sewer"

Karsten riding the pigs

Andrew making it to "Long Ledge"

Karsten @ the "Long Ledge" bivy

on the Summit of El Capitain

Loaded down for the descent

Pizza Time!

Choinard-Herbert (Sentinel Rock)

Yosemite Valley

Yesterday I climbed the Choinard-Herbert route on the Sentinel, 15 pitches up 5.11c. Did the route with Branden who I have been climbing with for the last week or so and we had climbed before in previous years. We meet up at the trail head around 6:30AM and started the long approach, we eventually found the start of the route which involved some 4th class and low 5th class scrambling. We did one more roped up pitch to make it to the actually start of the route. The pitches down low involve some loose climbing but the middle pitches are quite nice, although more traffic would clean them up some. Some of the crack did contain some vegetation and a little dirt but gear placements were easy to find. Some of the climbing was exciting with commiting moves and the 3 5.11 pitches were burly and involved me pulling on some gear. I actually got off route will leading the 5.11c pitch and went for the aid variation which had me doing lots of pulling on old pitons. Another great Summit on Yosemite and  a long steep descent which was much easier in the light of day compared to my ascent of the Steck Salalthe on the Sentinel in the fall which involved a long painful descent in the dark.

Looking at starting up the Salathe Wall on El Cap starting on Thursday with my friends Andrew and Karsten.

Me leading the 10a face/traverse pitch

High on the route with Yosemite Falls in the Background

Looking up Valley to the High Country

Brandon on the Summit of the Sentinel

Yosemite Pics of the Day

Yesterday brought lots of rain and last night even brought some snow. Today the sun is shinning and weather forecast looks good for the foreseeable future. Here are a few pics I captured.

Bridalveil Falls and the Leaning Tower

Merced River with Ribbon Falls and Gold Wall in the Distance

Early Spring Conditions in the Valley

The Yosemite Valley weather as been very unusual for late May, it is more like early wet spring conditions. All the waterfalls are going off and there is a good amount of seepage on some of the walls.  The good news is the weather is supppose to improve this weekend and be warm and dry for a while.

Yesterday I spent half the day rope soloing down in the lower Merced canyon, climbed about 15 pitches total, then  took a break, and on my way out of the park I stopped at Manure Pile Buttress and did 2 laps on After Six. Today looks like it will be a rest day as it is raining on and off in the valley and the forecast does not look great for Thursday.

Back to Yosemite

I left J-Tree to meet up with my friend Mark with the plan of climbing the South Face of WA Column to get Mark back in the groove for our upcoming trip up El Cap this Summer. Unfortunatly the weather did not cooperate with wet and cold conditions, we did get in a couple of short days cragging. Mark finally manned up and asked Shannon to Marry him after making her hike 7 miles in the snow and cold and camping near the top of El Cap.

Congrats Mark and Shannon!!!!!

I will be hanginng here for a while hoping for better weather although I could use a little break from climbing so its all good.

More to come...............................................