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.

Skyline to the Sea (23 June 2012)

Spark Notes: ~27 miles, 2400 ft up, 5000 ft down, 5.5 hours

Depending on where exactly you start and what source you read, the Skyline to the Sea trail is somewhere between 27 and 30 miles long, and runs from Saratoga Gap down to the Pacific Ocean at Waddell Beach. There are more eloquent trail descriptions out there, but here's the short story: 8 or 9 miles winding back and forth across the highway, another 10-15 miles through the spectacular redwoods of Big Basin State Park, then 6-7 miles of relatively unremarkable multi-use trail to get to the beach.

I had plans to visit Monterey and Santa Cruz on Sunday, so the goal was to pack in a full Saturday, and keep it close to home.  I've been planning on taking Kat backpacking down the trail over a two or three day weekend.  Naturally after thinking about it for a little while, doing the trail in the day seemed like a good way to get an idea of its difficulty before taking Kat out. A little Googling, and the fact that the Western States 100 was going on at the same time, made me think that a bit of running could be fun. (No, I don't really run at all.)

Thanks to Kat, I started at 7:30.  I had no expectation of running the trail when I started, but a half mile in or so, running just seemed like a good idea. So I did. Despite the proximity to the highway, the first several miles were really quite fun.  Actually the whole trail was great: winding single track in an ever more aesthetic setting (except for the last 6 miles, which were bearable only because they finished the trail). The miles disappeared underfoot and time flowed by...it was just great to move! And so, about 5.5 hours later, I found myself making change to use a pay phone to let Kat know that I had arrived a bit early (having predicted 8-10 hours on the trail).  The world has a way of working out though...in this case, for a trio of girls who had just finished the trail over 4 days and needed a lift back to San Jose.

The hardest part was the pounding on my ankles.  I wasn't exactly moving fast, so cardiovascular fitness wasn't an issue, but the constant pounding definitely took its toll.  I wanted to stop for a few minutes at Big Basin HQ (~15 miles in), but my ankles/lower legs hurt more and more the longer I stopped.  So, after stuffing down a Clif bar, I kept on my way.  That bar, a sleeve of Shot Blocks, and 2L of water was enough to get me through.  Of course I carried a nice big lunch all the way that I got to enjoy at the beach. Oops.

Would I do it again? Sure, though I would take less water (plenty of fill up stops) and might get a new pair of shoes first instead of using a 2 year old pair that I wear only occasionally. It would also be nice to go faster, or maybe do the loop that makes it a 50k. In any case, it's kind of nice running a marathon without the hassle of training or an organized race (apparently the previous two weekends had seen events on the trail that I was fortunate to avoid)...Forest Gump might be proud.

Snake Dike (21 April 2012)

Spark Notes: Snake Dike (Guide: Yosemite Valley Free Climbs by SuperTopo)

Song of the Weekend: Easy - Deer Tick (Spotify)

Whoops, this one's been sitting in drafts for a while.  Anyway...when the chance to climb Snake Dike with a strong crew came up (gotta do something when the skiing isn't great and Tioga's still closed!) I really couldn't say no.   Two of Luke and Lizzy's friends were training to do a long day on the Eastside, and Snake Dike would be a good chance to put in plenty of miles and climb some moderate pitches.  Originally, I was to be one of four, which then evolved to five so I was on the chopping block.  Fortunately, one more joined us, so we became a party of six (three rope teams) heading up the Mist trail at 5am.

The day went smoothly, we were the first party on the route and only saw a couple other folks all day.  My partner led most of the pitches, but I did take the first dike pitch.  Despite having only a single bolt in the whole rope length, I felt more comfortable leading than following the other pitches.  That might have had something to do with the large loops of slack I was getting (teaches me to be more vocal next time).

Runout (more like fun-out!)

Awesome day, and Lizzy posted a great report with more photos on Dream in Vertical here.

Ticklist:
Snake Dike (5.7R) - few bolts and less gear - 8 pitches, linked to 6

Slackcountry Daytrip (14 April 2012)

Spark Notes:

Saturday: Kirkwood and slackcountry to Emigrant Lake

Song of the Trip: Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) (Spotify)

Usually I pick a "Song of the Trip" because it was something that I particularly liked while on the road, or have been really enjoying that week.  This week, however, I'm dispensing some advice: spring skiing means harsher sun and longer hours, and I have a goggle tan burn to prove it.  I really ought to remember that lesson year to year.  So, yeah, wear sunscreen.

Despite the burn, I'd say the day was still worth it.  I got to Adam's at 1:00 on Friday night/Saturday morning and crashed on the couch.  We were up at 7 and out the door early to try to catch first tracks.  Why bother in April?  Believe it or not, fresh snow in April!  Kirkwood had been blessed with over 2 feet of snow in the previous 3 days and no terrible thawing temperatures.

Rusty shredding inbounds.

We rode lifts and hiked inbounds all morning to get as many fresh turns as we could.  By the time the afternoon rolled around, most of the resort was tracked out, so we skinned along the ridge to the south of the top of Sunrise (Chair 10, I think).  Completely untracked slopes led down to Emigrant Lake just below Melissa Coray Peak.  I ended up skiing with two new folks (friends of a friend) and had an awesome time.  Definitely a highly recommended slackcountry destination on days with good snow stability, especially since the tour back to the lifts is pretty mellow, too.

We'll see if there's more skiing this year, hopefully the freeze/thaw cycles will line up for some good corn snow.  I may just get too excited for climbing though...

Mostly work, a little climbing (1 and 7 April 2012)

Spark Notes:
Sunday (a week ago) - Handley Rock Park, lower tier
Saturday (two days ago) - Castle Rock State Park, Waterfall Cliff
Guidebook: Rock Climbing Guide to the Castle Rock Area  (but Bay Area Top Ropes has some information on the areas, too)

Song of the Weekend(s): Little More Time - Zox (Spotify)

The past couple weekends have mostly been spent working (with a trip over to Merced for a day to pick oranges at my grandma's and do income taxes...hardcore, I know.)  Even on working days, though, I've been happy to get out for at least a couple hours on real rocks.

On the plus side, I did manage to climb at least a little bit at a couple local areas and Handley Rock Park and Castle Rock State Park.

Handley is relatively close, has zero approach, and top rope setup is super easy.  From the top (an easy scramble), the views of the valley and bay are pretty nice, too.  Having previously climbed on the left side of the top tier (5.8-5.9s and a 5.11), we headed down to the lower tier (5.7-5.9 depending on the line you choose).  The sandstone definitely makes you trust your feet and balance.  Good practice.

Handley Rock (Credit: Access Fund)

As for this weekend, I had been hoping to climb all day Sunday, but work wasn't going to let that happen.  My prospective partner was coming down from SF, and that commute just wasn't worth the couple hours that I could commit.  Fortunately, Kat and I climbed at the Waterfall Cliff (sorry no photos) for a couple hours yesterday.  The area is about a mile hike in, and has a nice view over the top of the (namesake) waterfall.  The waterfall dries up in the summer, but it was flowing pretty well this weekend.  We were also watched over by some circling turkey vultures...slightly ominous.

Despite being a wuss, and worrying about my forgotten chalk bag, I did keep working on my major goal for this year: becoming a better leader (trad leader, even better).  We climbed on the far right side of the cliff: Degeneration (5.10a) and Leading to Death (5.9).  Both were "mixed" climbs (gear and bolts, not rock and ice).  The gear sections were 5.6-5.8 and good practice for placing both nuts and cams. Again, the nature of the climbing meant mostly footwork with only a little bit of pulling. I was happy to climb without falling, but getting comfortable falling (when it's safe) is definitely something I need to work on as well.

Tick List:
Handley: Lower Left Routes (5.7-5.9)
Castle Rock: Degeneration (5.10a on bolts, 5.6 on gear) and Leading to Death (5.9, 5.8 on gear)