Jump to content

[TR] Yosemite - Various 4/18/2009


mountainmatt

Recommended Posts

Trip: Yosemite - Various

 

Date: 4/18/2009

 

Trip Report:

I just returned from spending 7 days in the valley with my buddy Evan. We were treated to perfectly sunny days, mid 70 degree temperatures, and small crowds.

 

Day 1: Link of ‘the Surprise’ (5p, 5.10a) to Selaginella (4p, 5.8). The first two pitches of the surprise were nothing special, but pitches 3 and 4 provided some fun finger cracks to the “surprise” slab exit. Salaginella was absolutely fantastic! Four really fun pitches that end about halfway up the upper falls trail.

 

Day 2: Five open books including Munginella (3p, 5.6), Commitment (3p, 5.9), The Caverns (5p, 5.8). Munginella was a really fun and relaxed warm up for the day, definitely a classic. Commitment was also an excellent line that involved a difficult ‘committing’ move to exit the 5.9 roof section. The Caverns was the worst of the 4 routes we did on the Five open books cliff; the first pitch was wet, the third pitch was dirty and covered in biting ants (which were stirred up by a party ahead of us), followed by a wet and dirty fourth pitch, and a dirty loose “4th class” exit pitch.

 

Day 3: Higher Cathedral Rock – Northeast Buttress of (12p, 5.9). This was a great route that worked me over. The opening pitches went without any trouble and we were at the base of pitch 6 by about noon. From here, the route is very exposed and the hard pitches are just beginning. The 5.9 finger crack was challenging but fun which led us to the base of the chimneys. Pitches 7 and 8 were full on chimneys that involved almost every trick on the book. I was exhausted by the time we hit the super exposed traverse on pitch 9. Pitch 10 was a nice long wandering series of features that led us to yet another offwidth / chimney pitch. We broke this last section into two pitches for rope drag and topped out just in time to watch the sun going down. A great route overall, but the chimneys definitely kicked my butt.

 

Day 4: Much needed rest day. Showers, pizza, beer, and relaxing in El Cap meadows watching teams on Salathe and the Nose, as well as someone putting up a new free line near Reticent wall (Caldwell and Potter were both in town).

 

Day 5: Lower Cathedral Spire – South by southwest (6p, 5.11a). Another awesome route! The approach is not pleasant as there really is no trail. Pitches 1-3 are relaxed 5.6 / 5.7. Pitch 4 provided a fun 5.9 section to a bouldery 5.10d with HUGE exposure. Pitch 5 provided a very hard 5.10 section of hand crack to a fun 5.11a lieback section. The remaining pitch wandered to the top and involved a nice tunnel exit (reminded me of the south face of Prussik a bit). There were fantastic views from the top in great weather.

 

Day 6: Middle Cathedral Rock – Central Pillar of Frenzy (5p, 5.9). This is one of the best routes that I have ever done. Every pitch was excellent, the cracks took great pro, and there were fantastic views of the captain all day. There was still a lot of snow at the base which shortened the first pitch by about 40 feet.

 

Day 7: Cragging at Church bowl. It started raining somewhere around 3 or 4 AM that morning, but we still wanted to try and get some climbing in. While the cracks were really wet, after French freeing the leads, we still got on some TR lines.

 

The valley

P4200539.JPG

 

Leaning tower

IMG_2320.JPG

 

North dome, Royal arches, half dome

P4180509.JPG

 

Salliginella from the lower falls area

P4210547.JPG

 

Pitch 1 of Salliginella

P4180502.JPG

 

Pitch 3 of Salliginella

P4180510.JPG

 

Pitch 4 of Salliginella

P4180508.JPG

 

Half dome

P4180516.JPG

 

Approximate route of NEB

NEB-route.jpg

 

Base of NEB

P4200529.JPG

 

Pitch 4 of NEB

P4200533.JPG

 

Pitch 5 of NEB

P4200535.JPG

 

Upper section of NEB

IMG_22781.JPG

 

Pitch 10 of NEB

P4200537.JPG

 

Upper and lower cathedral spires

IMG_22851.JPG

 

Matt on top of the lower cathedral spire

P4220572.JPG

 

El cap

P4220564.JPG

 

Central pillar of frenzy

P4240584.JPG

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

Trad rack, rope, beer, and expensive valley pizza

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 7
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.




×
×
  • Create New...