The end of the month is a little sad because many of the great people that we shared the house with are leaving. On the other hand, I guess it’s a good excuse to throw some parties.
Month: May 2003
Stoner’s and Bircheff-Williams
We met up with Jens at Middle Cathedral to climb the first few pitches of Stoner's, then perhaps some other stuff. The idea was to do a minimum of walking since Theresa's ankle has been bothering her. After Stoner's I got back on Bircheff-Williams, which I hadn't tried since the first time, about three? years ago.
Fresno Dome
The weekend was a Memorial Day party courtesy Chris and Pat, including a cookout at their house and climbing and Fresno Dome.
Projects – Red Zinger, Cookie Monster, Lurking Fear
We went back to the Cookie on Friday (May 23) for our respective projects and then we spent the next day watching Yuji on his project. It was pretty instructive all around.
Butts Kicked on Mindahoonee Wall
Theresa and I had had a running joke for several days with our roomate Nick. We said we were headed up to do Mindahoonee Wall, a two-star 5.11a up near the top of Yosemite Falls. He said it was going to take us six hours to get there, we would never find the route, it would be choss and we should just go do a known, quality route. “Where's the adventure in that?” we asked. So joking that we would be back in three days, we set off yesterday in search of adventure and boy did we find it.
Theresa’s first 10d onsight – Moratorium
I had a lot of beta from my housemate, Bob, but I was still nervous about embarking on such a difficult lead without having had the opportunity to explore it before-hand. Moratorium is only 4 pitches, but at 10d, 10d, 11b, 5.9, the terrain is quite intimidating. I led the second 10d, a pitch with … Read more
South Face of Washington Column
43K version It rained on Wednesday, forcing hordes of climbers to abandon their climbing attempts and seek shelter from the weather. What that meant for us, is an opportunity to get a jump start on a popular 'big wall' route in the Valley. Normally the South Face is teeming with wall climbers, planning to spend … Read more
Tom Onsights Red Zinger (5.11d)
Tom is always teaching me things. When we first moved to California, Tom taught me that 10-15 pitches of climbing is more than do-able in a day. Having previously taken more than 10 hours to do only 3 pitches, this easy comfort with moving quickly over the rock was something that I hadn't really imagined before. He has undertaken a prolonged crusade to make me more comfortable hopping and dancing across steep boulder-fields and slippery scree slopes, maneuvers that would previously have had me crawling on all fours in tears. This winter he taught me to ski the trees in VT. It's always the same program, “Try this. Be safe. The worst-case scenario isn't that bad. You can do it.” and I learn, slowly, from his example.
Snow snow snow
This has been a strange year for snow. When we moved in, at the beginning of April, Hans said that having snow on the porch was highly unusual for that time of year. Now, it's May, and the snow is still falling. It's incredible – incredibly beautiful, and incredibly frustrating. This was not the view that we expected for the beginning of April in Yosemite Still, we're getting out some.
Yosemite
Well, well, it has been a long time. There’s so much to write about, that I hardly know where to begin. Tom and I spent December through March driving across the US, visiting family and friends. It was a great trip, and we had a great time visiting everyone, however the theme of our vacation so far certainly seems to be ‘driving’. We were definitely road-weary by the time April rolled around and we moved into our new place in Yosemite.