Spark Notes:
Saturday - hiking, napping, lunar rainbow photography
Sunday - cragging at Shultz's Ridge Base
We rolled into the Valley after midnight on Friday night with a major goal of
moonbow photography, and a minor goal of climbing. The full moon lit El Cap spectacularly, and we stopped at four different pullouts to ogle and photograph before sneaking into Luke's campsite and rolling out a tarp.
I woke early in an effort to fight jet lag, but that only caught up with me in the afternoon. After a hike to scope photo locations for later that evening, I passed out for a couple hours. Whoops.
Not wanting to miss a whole day of climbing, we headed up to the Endless Summer wall on Shultz's Ridge, just beneath the massive Southeast Face of El Capitan. If heading there, beware that the first bolts on Gidget Goes to Yosemite (5.9) are missing (per
Supertopo and Clint Cummins) I did at least start by climbing up 20 feet before retreating. I would like to head back for
Crystalline Passage though, even better to continue the line all the way up to the base of El Cap.
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| Regular Rainbow, Bridalveil Falls |
We headed down to catch Bridalveil Falls before it lost good light before cooking dinner and staking out Cook's Meadow for moonrise. We didn't really do our homework, so we arrived a couple hours before the moon made its appearance, but that did make for some awesome stargazing. If you do ever decide to visit Yosemite in the spring to spy moonbows, definitely make the visit to the lower falls (more spray, more reliably than the upper falls). You can find the best times for viewing at this
forecast.
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| Lunar Rainbow and the Big Dipper, Lower Yosemite Falls |
Saturday was for photography, and Sunday was for climbing. Since we only finished with Saturday at 2:30am, we didn't get back to Schultz's Ridge (Dan and Jerry's Playground) until noon. I was still feeling apprehensive from the previous day, but all the psyche in the air from James and Luke, and another friendly crew at the crag, made it easy to just have fun. After a couple topropes, I wanted to lead the crag's other warm-up route. The 5.10a label made that intimidating, and made leading New Suede Shoes (10c) even scarier. Kat asked why not lead, and I said I was scared. Luke asked why was I scared, and I had no good reason. The result: I led the route (almost peeled, but didn't) with Luke's calm coaching. Then sent the two harder climbs on TR.
Conclusion: I've got to do more of what Luke was able to do, just ask a rational question and evaluate whether my fears are justified or not. If I don't want to lead, that's fine, but understand why that's the case and make sure it's justified. Thanks to Luke for getting me to try hard. It would be nice if I could stop limiting myself, and get out of my own way in the future and be as psyched at the base as I am when reading the guidebook at home.
Tick List:
Second Thoughts (10a) - TR - a better warm up than the route of that name
New Suede Shoes (10c) - bolts - TR, lead
Warm Up Crack (10a) - bolts + gear - lead - lives up to its name
Just Do Me (10d) - TR - sustained and pumpy at the top
Are You Hard Enough? (10d) - TR - definitely the easier 10d at the crag
