Ticklist:
Munginella (5.6) - crowded, but great fun! 3 pitches, linked to 2
Hanging Teeth (5.8) - Fun lay backing with a sustained and runout 2nd pitch. 3rd pitch wasn't terrible, but the loose, overhanging blocks up top do require some care.
Highway Star (5.10a+) - variations offer several very fun options. great for toprope laps, look forward to going back on lead
Trip Highlight: camping in Tommy Caldwell's site while he slept in his van
Once again upon returning from China, I decided to push my luck against jetlag and head for a Yosemite climbing weekend. This trip went a bit better than last time around, but still "the mind is primary, and today the mind was weak." But I'm getting ahead of myself, and being negative: there was good climbing this weekend!
Kat, Nina, and I all climbed Munginella (in the Five Open Books area to the west of Yosemite Falls). I led the first pitch, Nina took the second, and Kat floated the whole climb. We came down and had a leisurely lunch. At 3:30, Nina and I hurried back for a second Book. We were aiming for the Caverns. After making it up two pitches, and looking at the time, we determined we didn't have enough time to make it to the top of the climb by sunset. Nina had stopped at the first tree (our topo said the pitch ended after two), and there were still two pitches to go. Too far! But wait...something wasn't sitting right. It should've been easy to make it to the second tree before running out of rope. Another look at the topo revealed that we were actually two pitches up Hanging Teeth. On the plus side, only one pitch to go! Unfortunately it was labeled "loose, dirty, overhanging 5.8 blocks" of "rapidly decreasing quality." Tempted as we were to back off, I was happy that I made the decision to take the rack and head up. Some good steps of liebacking, and a finish of the promised poor quality, and we were at the top and heading down the by now familiar descent in the twilight.
Sunday morning we determined we wanted some good crack practice, and so we headed over to Highway Star. On toprope, we each got in several good runs on each of the many variations of 5.9 hands and off-hands, and 10a and 10b fingers. Really fun climbing and definitely recommended for what it is!
Alltogether not a bad weekend for climbing (I was able to step up and lead some relatively easy trad pitches), I guess I'm disappointed that I didn't push harder. Why not go for it and get moving from camp earlier in the morning? Try to do 3 Books instead of just two? Couldn't I have tried to lead Highway Star? Or we could've climbed in an area with more options? Like I said, not a bad weekend (really, no weekend in the Valley is bad), but excellence is a habit and serious jetlag or not, I wasn't practicing that this weekend.
Munginella (5.6) - crowded, but great fun! 3 pitches, linked to 2
Hanging Teeth (5.8) - Fun lay backing with a sustained and runout 2nd pitch. 3rd pitch wasn't terrible, but the loose, overhanging blocks up top do require some care.
Highway Star (5.10a+) - variations offer several very fun options. great for toprope laps, look forward to going back on lead
Trip Highlight: camping in Tommy Caldwell's site while he slept in his van
Once again upon returning from China, I decided to push my luck against jetlag and head for a Yosemite climbing weekend. This trip went a bit better than last time around, but still "the mind is primary, and today the mind was weak." But I'm getting ahead of myself, and being negative: there was good climbing this weekend!
Kat, Nina, and I all climbed Munginella (in the Five Open Books area to the west of Yosemite Falls). I led the first pitch, Nina took the second, and Kat floated the whole climb. We came down and had a leisurely lunch. At 3:30, Nina and I hurried back for a second Book. We were aiming for the Caverns. After making it up two pitches, and looking at the time, we determined we didn't have enough time to make it to the top of the climb by sunset. Nina had stopped at the first tree (our topo said the pitch ended after two), and there were still two pitches to go. Too far! But wait...something wasn't sitting right. It should've been easy to make it to the second tree before running out of rope. Another look at the topo revealed that we were actually two pitches up Hanging Teeth. On the plus side, only one pitch to go! Unfortunately it was labeled "loose, dirty, overhanging 5.8 blocks" of "rapidly decreasing quality." Tempted as we were to back off, I was happy that I made the decision to take the rack and head up. Some good steps of liebacking, and a finish of the promised poor quality, and we were at the top and heading down the by now familiar descent in the twilight.
Sunday morning we determined we wanted some good crack practice, and so we headed over to Highway Star. On toprope, we each got in several good runs on each of the many variations of 5.9 hands and off-hands, and 10a and 10b fingers. Really fun climbing and definitely recommended for what it is!
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| Kat heading up .10a fingers. A tough intro to liebacking! |
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