Tioga Pass opening 2010

Tioga Pass is to open 8AM Saturday June 5.
Tomorrow morning that is...

Happy times!

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 :-(

Tuolumne

Happy!

Kicked off the Tuolumne season last weekend...
Beautiful as ever!

We drove out on Thursday evening, so that we could get an early start on Friday to head up Cathedral Peak. It was my fourth time on Cathedral, but it's always a treat! A nice, mellow alpine climb with fantastic rock and unbelievable views...
What was even nicer, was the weather: T-shirts were sufficient, even on the summit, quite rare conditions!

We ended the perfect day of climbing with dinner at the Mobil station in Lee Vining, where we also camped for the night.

Waking up to these views is incredible!
The morning got even better... Pancakes from the TM grill for breakfast :-)
After the long day on Friday we choose to take it easy on Saturday and go top roping on the Western Front. We climbed 'Green Eggs and Ham', 'March of Dimes' and 'New Tricks for Old Dogs' before heading back to the Meadows to enjoy a beer ...

Tuolumne Meadows and Cathedral Peak
Hoping for a sponsorship from Mammoth Brewing Company!

Tioga Pass opening date 2009

One of the many questions discussed last weekend was "When will Tioga Pass open this year?"
The estimates ranged from early May to Memorial Day weekend. As much as I'd like an early opening this year (I have a few weeks off in May) looking at the webcam I have doubts that this will happen. Based on the opening dates of the last two years, and the fact that there was more snow this year I assume it will be in early June.

UPDATE: Tue, Apr 21: Looking at the webcam I see one lane at Tioga pass is plowed! Perhaps there will be an early opening!

Regular Route on Fairview Dome, aka the North Face

I know this is majorly delayed, but here it finally is: The trip report of the Regular Route on Fairview Dome in Tuolumne Meadows.

The morning after coming back from Carlsbad I got up at 4:30 (the time I usually got up in NM anyway), packed up my gear and drove over to Sam's place in Milpitas. From there we headed out to Yosemite around 5:30. It is always amazing how fast the drive out there is when there's no traffic. Including a gas stop and a coffee stop it took us just over 4 hours to the Cathedral trailhead, where we stashed our food in the bear boxes. On the way there we passed the pullout for Fairview and were amazed that there was only one car parked. Even by the time we got back it was just one car... It took us a bit to sort out the gear and rack up. After a walk of about 20 minutes we reached the base of the route and could jump right on. Sam started leading the first pitch and chose the left of the two parallel cracks. He did a solid job all the way through the crux about 2/3s up the pitch. He continued on and linked pitches 1 and 2 with my 70m rope. Following the crux I had a pretty hard time due to the slick rock. I can't imagine how that's supposed to work when the crack is wet, which is supposedly the case often. Sam also took the lead on the next pitch, the 5.8 finger crack. At the next belay I took over the lead, and from here on we swung leads to one pitch above Crescent Ledge. At this point I got off route, because I was following another party, to which we had caught up. Following, Sam took the right way while I belayed from above. Things went downhill from here on, at least for me: I suffered from a severe headache. I don't really know what was the reason. I definitely was well hydrated. The most likely reason must have been the lack of sleep and insufficient food. Anyway, Sam lead the rest of the route in three pitches with me following. Since the upper pitches are quite easy we pitched it out, but hardly placed any gear. We reached the summit at 6:30PM after 8 hours on the route. I took it pretty slow on the descent... so that we got back to the car around 7:30. Since my headache got better as soon as we were back at the base it might actually have been related to altitude, although I've never had problems at altitude before. At this point we decided to cut the trip short and drive back to the Bay Area the same evening. Unfortunately Taqueria Algave in Oakdale was closed by the time we got there, so we stopped at In&Out in Manteca for dinner.
I got back to my place around 1AM that night...

Tuolumne Meadows

Last weekend Ben and I went up to Tuolumne again. The trip started Sunday morning at 5:30AM, when Ben picked me up. Traffic was not bad at all, and we got to Tuolumne about 9:45. After dropping off our food at the bear boxes on the South side of Tenaya Lake, we continued on to Mettlicot Dome. A 20 minute approach on trails and climbers trails brought us to the base of Shagadellic. Since I had led the first pitch already while climbing "Piss Easier" last year, Ben started leading the first pitch. Following him I managed to clean a stuck cam and scored a .75 BD cam. I took the lead on the second pitch. It took me quite a while, and Ben got quite cold. The wind on Sunday was pretty strong and cold. The third pitch was Ben's lead again. Instead of topping out after the fourth pitch we rappelled back to the base and headed over to Daff Dome to check out the approach to West Crack. Since we were already there, we climbed "Witch of the West" I started leading, but at some point couldn't find the next bolt anymore. The wind was a problem too, and made it hard to find balance sometimes. I bailed of the third bolt. Ben led the whole climb nicely and lowered down.
From the base of West Crack we walked over to the Western Front, where we TRed a 5.9 and a 5.10a (me) and 5.10b (Ben).
After this it was time to check out the campground, where we met Lesley and Daniela, who had invited us to stay with them. After shortly checking in with them we drove down to the Mobil for dinner. The evening ended with a bottle of red wine at the campfire...
Sunday we started on West Crack, where Ben led the first two pitches and the fourth. Following the second pitch scared the living day lights out of me: It took me quite a while to figure out the chimney part at the start of the second pitch. It was hard to squeeze my 6'3" in there. The rest of the pitch was not bad at all. It was funny to find a nest of critters behind the flake at the start of the wide crack. What do they eat up there?
The third pitch was a nice lead, fingers to hands well protected. It definitely helped to regain my confidence in my leading abilities.
The last two pitches were a nice cruise. After rappelling down, and walking back to the car, we decided to have a look at "Little Sheeba" on Drug Dome. At this point a streak ended: It was the first climb in Tuolumne I had to wait for in Tuolumne this year. Ben led the one pitch 10a finger crack, which I TRed afterwards.
After 12 great pitches on the weekend we got back in the car around 4:30 on Monday and headed back to the Bay Area, of course stopping at the Taqueria Algave in Oakdale.