The Mountaineering school had its second annual training party at The Grotto in Sonora, and although I'd done very little climbing before I thought I would go along for the social scene. As it turned out, I was able to get on three climbs before deciding that I was starting to push my luck, including this steep 5.9. I keep making a mental note that I should send this picture to my surgeon at Stanford.
I've also done a small amount of backpacking recently with YMS. It was a short trip as backpacking trips go, just one night and very low mileage. Plus, I had the advantage of hiking with a pack of guides who were happy to carry a little extra, so that my pack was limited to my personal stuff and remained relatively light. We started at Tamarack Flat and hiked out to Devil's Dancefloor and then down the Old Big Oak Flat road, one of the early roads into Yosemite Valley, now long abandoned. I took an embarassingly small number of pictures and this one of Starr – one of the new hiking guides – is one of the few that is at all decent.