Life In Yosemite» I went Rock Climbing! | Life In Yosemite

I went Rock Climbing!

Theresa — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:04:45 +0000

Yesterday, after work Tom and I tromped out to a short piece of rock, roped up and went rock climbing. I tried to remember the last time I did this… last summer maybe, on the East Side somewhere? It’s been a long time.

Surprisingly, the mental rust was more noticeable than either my recovering shoulder or even my general lack of fitness. Tom laughed that it wasn’t the muscle memory for climbing so much as trying to remember if the red piece was bigger or smaller than the yellow piece, and was glad that concern for my shoulder had kept him from suggesting something more difficult. Once upon a time, this is the kind of terrain that Tom and I used to cover in what we jokingly referred to as “big swimming motions”. Now, certain sections made me nervous enough to not only pause, but to ask for a tighter rope. We ran into a friend there, who was getting in a quick free-solo at the end of the day. It took us longer to do a single pitch and rap than it took him to climb the entire route and walk down.

On the plus side, my shoulder didn’t seem to mind the climbing, and isn’t even sore today. Afterward my hands had the intoxicating aroma of chalk and ropes and climbing shoes that I associate with so many good times. That short pitch was just a reminder of how much fun I’ve had rock climbing in the past, and an invitation to do more over the course of the summer.

Hey. We should do that again soon.

Snow Creek to Mount Watkins

Theresa — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:21:37 +0000

… and breathe…

Between a Sisyphusean marketing workload with DNC, a conversion optimization class that operates heavily on the you’ll-get-out-what-you-put-in principle, volunteer activities at the Valley Visitor Center for a full day once every other week, a frozen shoulder that seems to be adamant about remaining stuck, and house construction (Tom’s been going nuts, and we now have flooring down in most of the house, and appliances waiting for installation, it’s very exciting), it’s been a long couple of months between the last post and this one.

Fortunately, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be getting closer. Two weeks ago, Tom and I met up with our friend Shauna, and skied out to the Nelder Grove of Giant Sequoias. Neither Tom nor I had ever been there before but it’s close to Shauna’s new house, and it was a perfect day and a great chance to explore. Last week, I got out for a quick walk on the Hites Cove trail to look at the wildflowers. And with those two activities as the sum total of my exercise for the last month, today Tom and I hiked up the Snow Creek trail to Mt Watkins and back. Our agreed-upon turn-around time left me a few hundred yards short of the summit, but I have Tom’s pictures from the top as inspiration for the next trip.

The skiing was brilliant and beautiful, the weather perfect, and it just feels fantastic to really get out and DO something for a whole day that doesn’t involve my computer.

It was about 11 miles round trip, with nearly 4500 feet of elevation gain, and I am bone tired and fully expect to be hobbling and sore tomorrow, but I am ever so happy. I’ll try to post some pictures soon.

Climbing The Nose & Dayhiking Whitney. The adventure week.

Theresa — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:23:50 +0000

Me - near the summit of Whitney

There was a lot of adventure in our household the week of 9/9/09. We moved our stuff out of the crawlspace so that our new contractors would have some room to work on finishing out the downstairs unit in our house Saturday and Sunday. Tom climbed the Nose in a Day with Hans on Monday, and then we drove across to the East Side and hiked Mt. Whitney in a day on Wednesday, returning tired but happy to our little place in the Valley Thursday night.

I’m really proud of Tom for setting such an ambitious schedule for himself, sticking to it, and coming through it all in such good style. To set the scene just a little bit – Tom’s pre-climb training regimen involved 2 days of rock climbing so far this season, and a couple of short days jugging fixed lines with friends. Not exactly a rigorous, intensive, highly-disciplined program. Fortunately, Hans was his partner for the adventure, and as Tom said afterward, there isn’t a better person on the planet to do this route with.

Hans is fast, of course, even coming off knee surgery, and he knows the route forward and backward, but that’s not all. Hans is just a great person and great climbing partner. Tom botched the King Swing on his first attempt across, and in the subsequent bouncing, managed to lose the bag containing all their food for the day except the 3 Powerbars and a couple of Gu’s that were in Hans’ pack. With another 9 hours of climbing ahead of them, it was a sad loss. Tom felt discouraged and sheepish, and thought Hans might want to turn around right then and there. I wonder how many people in Hans’ place would have shrugged off the loss, and then continued on to the top without another word of complaint. As Tom put it, there may be a lot of people who would say that it was OK, but Hans is the kind of person that really makes you believe it.

Anyway, they topped out in 12:39, descended safely, and went to bed.

The SLC gang at the Whitney summit - Annie, Sue, and Martha

The next day, we hopped in the car and drove around to the East Side. The drive was longer than normal because Big Oak Flat Road/Hwy 120 was still closed from the valley to Crane Flat, due to the clean-up efforts following the Big Meadow Fire in Forresta. We were forced to drive out 140, and the loop back around through Groveland to get to Tioga Pass, but at least we didn’t have to use Sonora Pass instead.

Annie had gotten the dayhiking permit and generously let us join their group when a few people had to cancel. We met up with her in Bishop, grabbed a quick bite, and then headed down to Whitney Portal where we met Sue and Martha, and camped for the night.

The alarm clocks went off at 4am, and we broke camp and were hiking circles around the parking lot in the dark by just after 5am, then watched the sun rise as we climbed the first of many switchbacks by headlamp and the light of the moon. It was beautiful. Somehow, in the confusion of moving, and packing for back to back adventures, we ended up with only one working camera between the two of us, which was fine with me because I wanted my pack to be as light as possible.

It was a perfect day. Sunny, not too hot, great company and a spectacular place. I’m not sure you could ask for better. Other people mentioned sketchy snow and ice patches in parts of the trail, but although there was just a tiny amount of ice on the trail on the way up, it was easily avoidable by stepping on the rocks that stuck through. We made a few half-hearted attempts to count switchbacks, but quickly got distracted with conversation, and lost track. Sue and I saw a pika, and we all spotted a marmot. We talked fitness and flowers, trees and gear. As I said, perfect.

Tom doing burpees in the parking lot after the Whitney hike

We set a respectable pace, and reached the summit in just over 6 hours. The summit reminds me a bit of Half Dome – tons of people with smiles on their faces, having lunch, taking pictures, and congratulating each other. The Easy Button was gone from the summit register, which was a minor disappointment, but the ranger I asked said he didn’t take it out.

There were a few parking lot antics when we got down. It’s not clear to me who started it, but in the end we all did 9 push-ups to top off the day, except for Annie who is either an over-achiever, or was so tired that she lost count and did 10, and Tom who had never done a burpee and didn’t know what he was getting himself in to when he was convinced to do 9 of those after 22 miles and ~6000 feet of elevation gain.

We were just about the get in the car and head back up to Bishop when I saw another amazing feat. A tiny chickory had scored himself a pine cone that was easily half his size and was running across the parking lot with it – it’s tail extended way out to try to counterbalance the cone. It had to stop half way to rest, before disappearing under the parked cars again, but I hope he got a nice meal in the end. I love those little guys.

Plus, Sue put together this great little video of the hike. You can see how much fun these guys are.

McCabe Lake and Sheep Peak from Tuolumne Meadows

Theresa — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:24:33 +0000

Tom at the summit of Sheep Peakwith Mt. Conness in the background

What do you see if you walk the 6-ish miles into Glen Aulin, and then instead of taking the popular trail down toward Water Wheel and the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, you turn right along the PCT and walk in that direction for a while? The Yosemite scenery is beautiful, but it’s the lure of exploration and new places that draws me in. Tom was also excited about the peaks at the far end.

About 13 miles along the PCT, passing Glen Aulin along the way, we turned right and headed up to McCabe Lakes and hiked to the top of Sheep Peak, a mostly indescript, not quite 12K ft peak (11842 ft.), that nevertheless was a grand adventure, with a spectacular view. We took many pictures with Mt Conness in the background, and tried some panoramas with our small point and shoot. It’s hard to capture sweeping 360 views in a single frame.

The Trail

Theresa hiking the ridge to Sheep Peak

~6 miles to Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp (past Soda Springs and some great scenery along the Tuolumne River. This section is a popular trail, and there were many people hiking with us.

~7 miles before the PCT branches left, and we head right to McCabe Lakes. This section of the trail is mostly flat and winds through Lodgepole forest, and a long beautiful open meadow that made us think about the shepherds that illegally grazed their flocks here before rangers escorted them to the boundary of the park, while escorting their sheep to the opposite boundary. When we stopped for a bite to eat, we saw a lone PCT through-hiker. People stop at Glen Aulin.

Tom looking out from our breakfast spot

The trail to McCabe Lake is listed as 1.5 miles on the map, but 2 miles on the trail sign. It starts out pretty flat, but then climbs up to beautiful alpine lakes below Sheep Peak. It’s after the trail starts to climb, that you see beautiful braided streams, and cascades from the outflow.

I’m not sure how far it is from McCabe Lake to the summit of Sheep Peak. Not far, but there is a nice elevation gain of roughly 2000 feet over steep talus. After my little scare on Horse Ridge a few weeks ago, I don’t really trust my perceptions on things like this, but Tom says that it was “lots” steeper than Horse Ridge. I had been nervous about it before hand, but although I still spent a lot of time imagining the rocks above me coming loose and rolling down on me, it seemed quite manageable. Progress!

Other notes

Breakfast by the river near Glen Aulin

We stopped for the night just before getting to a beautiful ridge that would have been excellent camping. Not a long hike from water, and some relief from the ubiquitous mosquitoes. (I marked it on the map.) There were some sheltered sandy spots that would have been fantastic bivy sites, although we’d have been hard pressed to set up the Double Rainbow tarp tent there without hiking poles.

Tom saw another Pika that I didn’t see. Some people have all the luck.

On the second day, we saw exactly 0 people. Bliss.

At one point, sitting up high on Sheep Peak and looking around us, Tom turned to me and said, “Oh, this is why we like going up to high places.” It’s been too long.

Virginia Canyon looks amazing – and quiet (a theme). It’s a longer drive, but a shorter hike in from the Virigina Lakes Trail Head on the East Side. The planning wheels have been set in motion.

Alpine Gold wildflowers on Sheep Peak

Yes the mosquitoes were everywhere. Long pants, long sleeves, a head net and just a few well-placed squirts of insect repellent, kept them pretty manageable. Although I sometimes miss shorts, I love my nylon hiking shirt. Sun protection, insect protection, and I almost feel like it keeps me cooler than when my skin is baking in the sun.

On the next trip, I’m going to carry hiking poles and see how that goes. There are pluses and minuses to everything.

Backpacking and Hiking

Theresa — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:25:07 +0000

Tom demonstrating the Anti-Ray Way in 2005

I’ve been thinking about backpacking lately. A lot. And I’ve been spending inordinate amounts of money on it too – or preparing to spend inordinate amounts of money anyway.

As it turns out, it has been a embarrassingly long time since I’ve gone backpacking, and I’ve just realized how much I miss it. It isn’t that we haven’t been getting out at all. Last summer we were pretty excited about getting into some longer runs, and we started getting a little more serious about collecting pictures, but as activities that take only part of a day, we were getting pretty comfortable returning home to the miracle of modern appliances, hot showers and a comfortable bed. No longer.

This winter, we thought it might be fun to ski out to Sentinel Dome to try to catch the light from the Horsetail Fall Firefall from the rim, far from the zoo-like scenes in the Valley. We cooked up a plan to ski out and camp – maybe with a plastic sled for some backcountry sledding the following morning, and then realized that our camping gear was in utter disarray. It would take days to find all our stuff, and Tom thought that some of our old stainless steel camping pots had been co-opted into impromptu lacquer containers when he was in a hurry to get the kitchen cabinets lacquered. Snow camping in February isn’t really the time to try to figure out your system again – the consequences for forgetting things is a bit more serious than in August in the Sierra. That, combined with the storm that rolled in over the days that we had set aside for the venture convinced us to stay home instead.

But the seed that was planted, started to sprout again as the weather got warmer, and Tom and I started to dig through our old equipment and began thinking about upgrades. So far?

Calipidder’s review of bear cans convinced us that the BareBoxer bear canister is the best (cheap) option for the short weekender trips that we will take most of the time. Small enough to fit more easily into our smaller packs, and lighter than our big clunky Garcias.

Gear Time with a neighbor, whose closet is so much more interesting than your average REI showroom, led to: New 1.3L Titanium pot from EverNew. New origami bowls from Orikaso, and a Caldera Keg stove – the amazing 3oz alcohol stove by TrailDesigns – a present from Neighborhood Gear Guy.

We also got a try before you buy deal on a DoubleRainbow TarpTent. Set it up in the backyard and slept outside for an evening. Boy did that get the I-want-to-go-backpacking bug going! We pitched it in semi-darkness, using the back porch lights instead of headlamps, so I’m not sure we really have that dialed yet, but even so decided that it was a great tent for the Sierra. Maybe I’ll talk more about it later. This is in definite purchase territory.

PS. Camping in your backyard is pretty cool. All the advantages of car camping – except you have a house full of stuff to choose from, and the kitchen sink – literally. The dishwasher too.

Plus, we are also re-evaluating our sleeping pad situation. The backyard camping test included a trial of the Women’s Pro thermarest which I found surprisingly comfy for sleeping on the ground, and unsurprisingly less comfy than my bed. Since I have the luxury, I may try a few other options before making a final decision on that one.

In the category of Other Really Cool Things, that we’re probably not going to get right away: the MÜv Aquastar UV water purifier – light weight, good for clean Sierra water, and the recharging system rocks. The PolyCryo ground cloth from Gossamer Gear is also amazingly light and packable, and although it’s only $8 for two, the shipping more than doubles the cost. Think we might stick with the rolls of 6mm poly or the extra Tyvek we have around from house building. At least for now. Lastly, kind of a cool modular sleeping pad system from MontBell is worth a mention, but ultimately not thick and comfy enough for us.

Ahwiyah Point Rockfall Bigger than 1996 Rockfall

Theresa — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:59:42 +0000

NPS just came out with an estimate of how large the March 28 Ahwiyah Point rockfall was, and I was surprised to learn that it was nearly 50% larger than the major rockfall in 1996 that fell near Happy Isles. Turns out, there has been a really interesting conversation going on over at Supertopo about the rockfall, and I picked up some more interesting information as well, and would recommend that as a good source for pictures and analysis about where the rockfall came from.

The main impact of the Ahwiyah Point rockfall is the closure of the southern part of Mirror Lake Loop Trail – part of the trail that often used by the Yosemite Valley Stables. With the Stables scheduled to open for business on April 10, I was a little worried about where they would end up going, and how that would impact their trail rides. However, in a case of making lemonade from lemons, (or maybe in the habit of not making a big to-do about little things) I was told that they planned to change their route just a little and incorporate more information about the geology of the Valley and educate people about rockfall. The story of rocks in Yosemite is a pretty interesting one, so people going on the 2-hour trail ride will be in for a treat.

One important note for the climbers: it sounds like the Slabs Approach to Half Dome has not been affected by the Mirror Lake Loop closure. According to the lead climbing ranger (JesseM – again from the Supertopo thread), that approach is still ‘open’, but is also still ‘active’ in terms of rockfall in its own right. Go places at your own risk.

Anyway, here’s the text from the NPS page…

On March 28, 2009, a large rockfall occurred from Ahwiyah Point near Half Dome. Rocks fell roughly 1,800 feet, knocking down hundreds of trees and burying hundreds of feet of trail on the southern portion of the Mirror Lake Loop Trail. The impact generated ground shaking equivalent to a magnitude 2.4 earthquake. Numerous smaller rockfalls have occurred from Ahwiyah Point since the initial rockfall on March 28. There were no injuries or structures affected.

The approximate volume of the initial rockfall is 43,000 cubic meters, or 115,000 tons. This is considerably larger than the 1996 Happy Isles rockfall, which was estimated at 30,000 cubic meters in volume. Therefore, this rockfall is the largest one in Yosemite National Park since the 1987 Middle Brother event.

Due to the debris and trail coverage, the southern portion of the Mirror Lake Loop Trail is closed to hikers indefinitely.

Because of the most recent rockfall activity around Yosemite Valley, there has been speculation that rockfall has become more frequent. Based on historical databases and recent events, park geologists are unable to discern a geologically significant increase in rockfall activity in Yosemite Valley.

Rockfalls are a natural and dynamic geologic process. Due to its steep, glacier-carved cliffs, Yosemite Valley experiences many rockfalls each year. Natural processes like rockfall help to create the beautiful and changing scenery in Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite Flower Report

Administrator — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 06:18:02 +0000

Bird's Eye Gilia

Tom and I dodged down to Hite Cove to check up on the flowers there and get a little run in. The run was marvelous. We went all the way to the Cove, and I felt great – although my legs were cramping a little toward the end (not sure why). Plus, the flowers were spectacular.

A friend had been a little worried that the poppies were past. True, they may not be as abundant as they have been, but there are still plenty spectacular. Right now, it seems like the best display is further up-canyon, near El Portal. For my money, the hillsides have gotten even more interesting because instead of uninterrupted carpets of orange, the orange is punctuated with many other flowers and colors. I think the show stopper this trip, were the beautiful patches of Bird’s Eye Gilia (of which I got the Gilia and the B, but had to look up the rest).. or the RedBud. RedBud is always amazing when it is in bloom.

Many of the people that I stopped to ask about flower names could only shrug. To my, “Ooo – do you know what kind of flower that is?” one guy smiled and said, “The pretty kind”. True enough. Still, for those who are interested in this kind of thing (and are understanding of my imperfect flower identification skills)…

Mystery Flower: Caryophyllaceae Family, Silene? Maybe Alpine Campion?

The Blue Dicks and the Poppies that are so amazing right at the beginning of the trail have been joined up front with Owl’s Clover, lupines and the Bird’s Eye Gilia. I missed the Shooting Stars, but Tom said he saw some – although they seem to be ending. The Baby Blue Eyes are still amazing, and the Goldfields are still there, but seemed to have moved. There is one spot (where we stopped for a snack on our last trip) where the Goldfields are almost done, but they are still blooming fiercely in other areas (maybe less direct sun? I’d have to go back and check). Also, the Popcorn Flowers that used to be so abundant seemed to be mostly gone.

In addition, we spotted (in no particular order) Pretty Faces, Chinese Houses, Fiesta Flowers, LOTs of Poison Oak, Indian Paintbrush, Fiddlenecks, Miner’s Lettuce and a bunch more that we don’t know yet. Today’s mystery is a flower that looks a lot like the Alpine Campion, but I still need to look at some more books. I’m still waiting for the Fairy Lanterns to bloom, but I think I have to wait until the Poppies are mostly gone for that. Guess I’ll just have to make another visit.

Fiesta Flower

And I just want to add – this is a wonderful trail to run – but not mid-day on a Saturday. The trail is narrow, and it can be difficult to get by people. We should have started either earlier or later in the day – which we have done before – but it was also nice to be able to enjoy the warmth and sunshine. (Yosemite West was a chilly 40 degrees after then mid-60s we enjoyed at Hite Cove.) Also, in answer to a perennial concern that we are not enjoying the flowers/scenery because we are jogging instead of walking – I hope it’s clear that I very much enjoyed the flowers.

Yesterday, spring. Today, sledding in the street.

Theresa — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:26:26 +0000

Sledding down the street

Yesterday, it was spring – warm weather, wildflowers, sunshine. This morning, I woke up and there was a kid sledding down the street in front of my house. Just a reminder that weather can change quickly in the mountains, and just because the calendar says it is now spring, doesn’t mean diddly squat in terms of what to prepare for outside.

This morning Badger Pass was buried under 18 inches of new snow (at 7200 ft), we had around a foot here at our house in Yosemite West (~5300 ft), and someone in the Valley said that they even had accumulations of 5 inches or so. I wonder if it snowed down as far as the bright fields of poppies that everyone has been so crazy about lately, and also whether any intrepid soul managed to get a picture of the poppies with some snow on them. That would have been a unique picture to get.

There was, unfortunately, so much snow that Badger Pass didn’t open today – much to the chagrin of DP who is here from FL and was hoping to get a day of skiing in during his trip. I hope he’ll be able to squeeze some time in tomorrow to get a few runs. Tom and I are planning to have dinner with him this evening at the Mountain Room. I love the food at the Mountain Room, and I’m looking forward to that for sure!

Skiing and storytelling

Theresa — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:18:15 +0000

Ski Tricks

I love being able to nip up to the ski area on a moments notice for a couple of quick runs, and still have plenty of time in the day for other activities. Our friend H came up with his kids last night, and we decided to drop our regular morning plans to hit the hill with them and H’s bro K for a while. The kids are great, and we had a fun time taking a few runs with them this morning. M and K showed me some of their tricks.

All too soon, though, it was time for Tom and I to head down to the Valley for the Yosemite Concert of the Mariposa Storytelling Festival, where they bring in professional storytellers from all across the country for a weekend of stories. Although there was a children’s storytelling session in Mariposa yesterday, these stories are mostly designed for grown-ups and there were only a few kids in the audience this afternoon. To imagine, picture one of the best storytellers you know – the person who can spin out stories that can make you laugh or cry, give them time to practice the presentation, and timing, and then give them a 20-minute time slot and a mike. The stories form the core of the experience, but there’s also a hearty helping of theatrics, songs and music. I laughed, a lot. We’d heard some of Kevin Kling‘s stories before, and enjoyed his performance very much, but my favorite story of the afternoon was told by Len Cabral about a boy who learns to tell stories. I’m a sucker for storytellers telling stories about storytelling – probably one of the reasons that I enjoyed Atonement so much (the book ending is so much better than the movie ending, by the way).

Silver Ski Race

Theresa — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 04:28:40 +0000

Skiing Fast

Today Tom and I volunteered as Gate Keepers for the Silver Ski Race, held annually at Badger Pass. Although I haven’t been around ski racing much, Tom has, and being a spectator at the Eastern Championships was a bunch of fun, so when the Head Coach of Yosemite Ski Team asked if I could help out, I said yes.

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to organizing a race like this, and it was interesting to see. There are skiers, coaches, crowds of excited parents, timers, gate keepers, course maintenance folks, and who knows what else. The course was set with knee-high gates for the younger kids, and then they changed out to the full-height rapid gates for the older skiers. From the perspective of a Gate Keeper, all of the sudden a dozen people with bags and tools descend from the starting area, and start replacing gates. There isn’t much discussion, as everyone seems to know what they are doing, and then, voila, the gates are in place.

Budding speed demon

There was a wide range of skiers in the race, from the cutest little kids with bunny or unicorn helmet covers, to quick-footed teens who come through fast, slapping the rapid gates to the snow. We took a bunch of pictures, but it is hard to tell who is who with the helmets, goggles, and sleek-looking racing suits.

Skiing the gates looks like so much fun, it’s too bad that there isn’t a Masters Racing program nearby. The mental and physical challenge of running a course as fast as possible is really exciting. I guess there is NASTAR, which at Badger is set up both weekend days in the afternoon, and is wicked fun in it’s own right, but a slalom course with rapid gates is a different kind of challenge. Of course, the last thing I really need right now is yet another hobby.