The Yosemite

he says:

What can one write or say that hasn’t already been said about America’s favorite national park. During college, I remember reading a lot of John Muir during upstate New York’s winters. His works, his experiences in the wild, untouched Yosemite and Tuolumne valley’s, his view that through wilderness was preservation of the world... spoke to me then, and probably laid the foundation for my love of wild, untouched places. That said, John Muir would be royally pissed if he saw the valley today. I won’t comment further on what the park has become, because even though it is a busy, tourist swamped place, it is still breathtakingly beautiful.
This was our first trip into the Yosemite Valley (I’ve been to the outer park before). Simply incredible. Inorganic wonders: El Capitan, Half Dome, Stately Pleasure Dome. Organic wonders: Tuolomne Meadows, beautiful rivers, and numerous groves of Giant Sequoia.

Our primary goal here is to climb granite. Cracks and slabs, flakes and faces. There is more rock here, more great classic routes, than anywhere else in the U.S. Granite domes, sheer cliffs, split by cracks and littered by detached flakes caused by the exfoliation of these massifs as they weather through the eons. Rough texture and polished patina, fixed bolts and traditional gear. This place is a climber’s playground.

We hit every climbing shop in and near the park, and we can’t seem to locate a climbing guide. So, we borrow guide from a pair of germans at the campsite next to ours. Elizabeth cooks dinner, while I sketch routes into a spiral notebook, marking the locations of anchors, features, and crux notes. It is painstaking, but it does not compare to the anguish we would feel once we were “lost” on a 500’ granite cliff.

With several pages of notes, route descriptions, and descent notes copied into my own hand, we are ready to tackle some new challenges.

Puppy Dome: Puppy Crack, 5.6. A two pitch (rope length) clean hand crack, continuous and fun. Easily protected, but lacking features outside of the crack. So we were literally ‘all in’, two hands and two feet swallowed by the crack, moving up slowly and surely. Ankles barking as we stand up on over supinated toe jams, knuckles bleeding from the bite of quartz and feldspar crystals, and finger tips throbbing from the abrasive treatment. Physical climbing.

Pothole Dome: Assorted toprope routes. Unprotectable slabs. Moving up blank faces on impossibly small hands and feet. Friction. Dime-thick edges. Balance. Delicate climbing.

Lembert Dome: Northwest Books, 5.9 variation. A moderate five pitch, 400’ cliff route with a beautiful pitch of undercling crack climbing, and a very exposed pitch of finger crack in a dihedral up high. We start early in the morning to beat the crowds.
It is cold, the sun is not yet on the west facing cliff, so we dress warmly. The climbing is smooth, our rope work is efficient. The 5.9 crux is awkward and very exposed, but the move is easily protected and we both move past it fluidly. The sun soon warms us as we top out on the bald granite dome. Our first big multi-pitch route together. Elizabeth climbs better every day, and the exposure did not seem to phase her. It would have been very understandable for her to have ‘freaked’ at the crux, but she climbed magnificently. I should have known...

Stately Pleasure Dome: West Country, 5.7. Another 450’ dome route, four moderate pitches and very exposed. The route overlooks a beautiful mountain lake and the Tioga Pass Road. The crack is steeper than I expected, but the moves are solid and is easily protected. Two hanging belays (belay stances on steep rock that require you to sit and hang in your harness) make it feel even more exposed than would big comfortable ledges along the route. Elizabeth impresses me by using the non-verbal communication I taught her when the wind and distance make verbal comms impossible. We use short, sharp tugs on the rope, much like morse code, to communicate “off-belay” “on-belay” “climbing”, etc. We top out, and do two 180’ rappels, followed by a rather steep granite ‘walk-off’.
Great climbs. Unmatched scenery. Unforgettable adventure.