[TR] Yosemite Valley - Munginella & Church Bowl 9/28/2009

[denalidevo]

Trip: Yosemite Valley - Munginella & Church Bowl

 

Date: 9/28/2009

 

Trip Report:

Day two of 14 in The Valley: went to Five Open Books and climbed Munginella (5.6) with Kurt. We had a 70m rope and did it in two pitches. Kurt led pitch one - a series of easy flakes to a small roof and a tree belay. I promptly started pitch two by going off route to the right and then traversing back left on some slab into the dihedral. This pitch was the money pitch - committing liebacks with bomber jugs in all the right places, finishing with polished stemming with a thin crack for fingers and pro. Adding to the spice factor was some horrendous rope drag due to my early wanderings below. Kurt scored his first piece of booty gear - a #5 nut on the final stem. All-in-all a very enjoyable climb.

 

Spent rest of the afternoon cragging at Church Bowl. I led Church Bowl Lieback (5.8) - a stellar series of liebacks (go figure) with sweet fingerlocks and bomber nut placements. The first time I led this climb in '08 I did it all on a single set of nuts; this time I used one .4 camalot, the rest was nuts. Love this climb! From the top of CBL we set a toprope on Revival (5.10a). I tried attempted the 5.10+ direct face variation for a short bit (desssssperate crimps and foot smears) then escaped left to easier terrain. The 5.10a fingers over a roof really wasn't bad, the 5.9 face/no-hands-stand-up-onto-a-sloping-ledge was sweet, and a bomber 5.8 finger crack finished it off with style. Good times - a great way to kick off two weeks in the Valley!

 

Gear Notes:

Munginella: Standard rack, doubles from .3 to #3 cams, one #4. CBL: nuts and one .4 cam

 

Approach Notes:

It's the Valley, can't be too hard...