Luther Spires, 90 Foot Wall (7-8 July 2012)

I kept my streak of climbing weekends alive by heading up to South Lake last weekend.  Saturday was spent at Luther Spires.  I led every route I climbed, including a .10a mixed route which led to my only fall of the day, and my first fall on gear ever.  The gear held, which was a relief.  I'll head back and try to lead it clean another time, but the way B and I climbed it definitely felt strenuous.  I thought this crack was the crux, not the bolted section at the top.

Rattly fingers in the shadow.

For what it's worth, the SuperTopo seems to have some confusion in the Mixed Emotions area.  The .8 OW is easy to find, as is Mixed Emotions.  The bolts for Ringlock are nowhere to be found, though it's possible they're actually right of the OW. I wonder if a ring lock is the key to Mixed Emotions...

Day 2 was a day of top roping at the 90 Foot Wall.  Slippery rock, but some of the harder climbing I've done in a while (.10c I think). Worth a visit, especially for the nice lake views, but avoid the sun. I'm looking forward to getting a little stronger and trying Mayhem Cove in the same area.

Ticklist:
Dog and Gri Gri, Two Bucks (5.9)
Beer and a Hot Dog, Two Bucks (5.8)
Unknown, 2 bolts (5.9?)
Just Jerry (5.9)
Jacko (5.10b)
Jane Spy (5.7)
Mixed Emotions (5.10a)
Many topropes 5.8-10c

Royal Arches and Starr King (16-17 June 2012)

Spark Notes:
Saturday: Royal Arches
Sunday: Star King

Song of the Weekend: Peaches - The Presidents of the United States of America (Spotify)

Maybe there are more fans of the Presidents of the United States of America than I think, but those seem to be the unifying songs this year. I've belted out verses about the little boll weevil while winding over Carson Pass and sang along to Peaches (which I guess everyone knows) while swerving past Hardin Flat towards the valley.  I guess those will be some of my memories this year.

I once again managed to get myself along on a trip with Luke, Chris and Manit.  This time they were three and Luke was trying to figure out the most efficient way to get them up the long Royal Arches route.  I offered that maybe two teams of two would work well, which I guess everyone was okay with, so I was in.

We headed out of camp very early, parked at the Ahwahnee, and were the first folks on the route.  In fact, the only people we saw all day were hauling bags up the 5th pitch at 3pm. I have absolutely no idea what they were doing. Luke grabbed the rack and headed up the first pitch, a very slippery chimney.  After that, he let me lead the way and he followed as we simul-climbed.  Every gear exchange or two, we waited for Chris and Manit to catch up.  Overall, it was really quite a relaxing experience.  I felt pretty good climbing the whole day, except that I wasn't sure where to find the beginning of the rap route and stopped a bit early.

Luke enjoying the valley view before the sun hit.

The climb was pretty uneventful, just good fun.  Highly recommended, especially with an early start to beat the crowds and as much sun as possible.

Luke had plans for a long run on Sunday, Chris was in the valley with his in-laws, wife and little girl (chillest family ever, by the way, but they're Hawaiian so not exactly a surprise), and Manit wasn't psyched on climbing. So, after checking out Hans and Honnold in the meadow, I took another trip to Mt. Starr King (though I haven't written about the first one yet...oops).

While this I had my head together a bit better, I still wasn't really interested in soloing the slab without really knowing where to go.  So, I down climbed after climbing half the first pitch.  It's funny, with a belayer, even without pro, I would have been fine, but there's a time and place for soloing, and that wasn't for me that day.  Was I disappointed in myself? Yes, but it was still the right choice. Another time perhaps, or maybe not, time will tell.  In any case, still a great hike to a beautiful part of Yosemite with plenty of wildlife (7 deer and plenty of birds and marmots).

Ticklist:
Royal Arches (5.7 A0) - 17 guidebook pitches, climbed in a short chimney pitch and 5 simul-ed pitches

Matthes Crest (1 July 2012)

Song of the Weekend: The Presidents Of The United States Of America – Kick Out the Jams (Spotify)

Wooohoooo! That's really all I have to say about that....but I guess I'll go on anyway.

Traverse the skyline from right to left, rappel from the highpoint

After a day of hanging out with friends (E and G were passing through on the PCT), and actually climbing the last few weeks, I was actually excited about climbing and about leading.  Bennet was psyched too, though, so I let him take the first pitch.  I led off from there, taking one of the "many options" in the SuperTopo to get around other parties on the route. I climbed quickly, I climbed well, I placed little gear.  I was psyched, all was well.

B strolling along the Crest.

The day was sunny, the temps were great, and I was having a good day.  The exposure was enough to keep me on my toes mentally, but in most places the climbing was mellow and fun (with a step or two to think about here and there).  We were one of five parties on the ridge, but never really ran into them once we got on the ridge.

We descended from the south summit and debated hitting the north summit. We were tight on time, but figured  we'd go anyway...might as well, right?  Just climb fast so that Kat wouldn't worry. I wanted to lead the last pitch, but I saw that Bennett kind of did but wasn't going to without a push.  There are no friends on a powder day, but this wasn't a powder day.  Pushing him to lead, and seeing him push and crush it was great.

Cathedral Peak...next time...

For some reason, the only time I was gripped all day was while following on top rope.  I guess there's something about seeing that loop of slack in front of me that makes me nervous (even though I know I'm facing a much, much bigger fall after not placing gear for 20 feet.  Something to work on I guess.

Anyway, after following B as fast as I could, and barely stopping for a breath on the north summit, I started setting up rappels.  We hiked fast back from the base, then at the lake a couple miles from the trailhead B stopped for a refreshing swim and I started running (in case Kat hadn't gotten my text).  Turns out, she had and I ended up getting a good work out and bruised toes from running in approach shoes for a few miles.  At least the extra speed got me car to car in in under 12 hours (including the 1.5 hour wait to start the route).

Ticklist:
Matthes Crest (5.7) - small rack, as many or as few pitches as you want, we roped up for the first 3, the crux in the middle and the last pitch.