A good training's weekend

Ugh! I am way behind on my postings... What a new, exciting job does!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I went to Tuolumne Meadows (again!) with Linda. After our successful and quick trip up Cathedral Peak, we figured we'd give the West Ridge of Mount Conness a shot. We left from my place in kind of a rush on Friday night, only to get stuck in traffic on HW680. This was not the last delay of the weekend though: As we stopped at the Taqueria El Algave in Oakdale a couple of hours later, I look down at my feet and see flip-flops... I had forgotten my approach shoes! There goes the plan of an early start the next morning, since a 4-6 hour approach in sandals didn't seem very appealing.
Fortunately the climbing store/ gas station in Tuolumne Meadows had a good deal on 5.10 Tennies, so I wasn't set back too much... We moved the weekend's goal to Sunday, and decided to keep it easy on Saturday. (It was too late to start up Conness after the store opened).
The first objective was Golfer's Route, according to SuperTopo, a great introduction to TM runout climbing. I can only agree to this since it took me a few tries to lead the thing all the way to the top. But ever since I like to come back and enjoy the knobby climbing. This morning however, we found a long line of people at the base of the climb, some obviously intending to set up a TR. Black Widow, a few feet to the right was deserted though, so we hopped on that. Good thing, since I had never done this climb before... By the time we were done, the line at Golfer's had gotten even longer, so we left Low Profile Dome, and headed over to Daff Dome, where I wanted to give Wicked Witch of the West a try. It is a somewhat run-out 5.9, and a felt a bit squeezy at some points, but made it to the anchors alright. After Linda cleaned the anchors and rapped off we did the climb right of WWotW, which seemed a bit easier, and better protected. I don't know the name, though, it's neither in SuperTopo, nor in the Reid guide.
The rest of the day was spent at the beach and having a beer in the meadows before heading to the Mobil Station for dinner. Before hitting the bivy spot we made quick trip the the South Tufas of Mono Lake, where we saw a fantastic sunset. Too bad that the lightning we saw on the horizon caused wildfired in Inyo National Forest...
On Sunday the alarm went off at 4:30AM, in order to give us a good, early start on Conness. Just as I woke up I realized that I felt pretty shitty, but decided to give it a go anyway. By 6AM we were at the parking lot of Sawmill Campground and started hiking in. We were warned that it's a long, steep and confusing approach. All the warnings were correct, as we discovered about three hours later: We had missed a turn off from the trail and ended up in the wrong bowl... After hauling our gear over talus fields, scree slopes and swampy meadows for three hours... At this point we made the best of it, had lunch with a beautiful view and called the day a good workout.
We got back to the car exactly seven hours after we had left.
The West Ridge will have to wait for a bit, but I'll be back!

Photos after all!

Fortunately Clement took some pics this past weekend. Thanks a lot!

Super Chicken

Me leading Goldmember (with alternate start)

West Face of Eichorn's Pinnacle from the John Muir Trail

Clement on pitch 1 of the West Pillar

Summit shot!

Tuolumne... again!

I spent the 4th of July weekend in Tuolumne Meadows, almost a tradition by now...

I picked up Clement at 6 AM on Friday morning, and we got to the Meadows around 11, thanks to the line at the park entrance. Well, it was a holiday weekend after all...

On the way we decided to climb on Medlicottd Dome on Friday, and kept some options for Saturday.

We started out on Super Chicken, a two pitch 5.9, where I led the first pitch witch a flaring 5.8 section, and Clement led the stellar second pitch. A really nice route! After rapelling off we moved over to the base of Shagadelic and Piss Easier. Our goal was to climb Goldmember... Clement led the first pitch of Piss Easier, I took the second lead...
Once at the base of Goldmember we weren't quite sure if we wanted to actually try the route...
It was supposed to have 9 bolts in 190ft of sustained face/slab climbing on Tuolumne gold-polish... The problem was that we only spotted two of the bolts from the start. We started thinking about a backup plan, but I decided to give it a shot... I clipped the first two bolts, and moved straight up, which (as I later found out) was off route, but actually easier. I managed to place a few pieces of gear in a small roof, and found the remaining bolts. Yay! It turned out to be a very nice route...
To finish off the day we climbed 'D'Oh', and toproped 'Beer' and 'Donuts'.

On the way to dinner we picked our goal for Saturday: The West Pillar of Eichorn's Pinnacle.
Eichorn's Pinnacle is located on the western slopes of Cathedral Peak, so it requires a lengthy approach along the John Muir trail and some cross-country travel to reach its base. Once there the route follows an obvious wide crack. The first 5.9 pitch is not bad though, although the crack is wide, the protection is good and there a plenty of knobs on the outside, which make good footholds. With 160ft it is rather long though, so that we ran out of gear towards the end. The second pitch is a completely different story! I didn't enjoy the pitch a bit... first one has to traverse a slab section, which was fine, rounding the blank arrete was little fun though... followed by a roof with a flaring wide crack. Once that is passed, there is another roof/chimney/OW combination which was also little fun to climb (especially with a backpack).
From there on the climbing eased off. I led the third pitch, long wandering handcracks. A traversing pitch brought us to the base of a 5.9 flake, the last obstacle before the summit...
After the rapell we gained the shoulder of Cathedral Peak and took the trail back to the car.
It took us ten hours car to car.

No pics this week :-(