[TR] yosemite - family climbing on moderates - pictures 9/8/2007

[markwebster]

Trip: yosemite - family climbing on moderates - pictures

 

Date: 9/8/2007

 

Trip Report:

My wife and I and our two kids (20 and 23) just got back from Yosemite yesterday. I was the only leader this time, and my wife had a sore back, so the kids took turns following, keeping me busy every day.

 

We worked our way through a bunch of sixes through nines, trying to stay in the shade as it was 100 degrees or higher most days.

 

The first day we did the three pitch Grack (5.6 on the apron). It goes into the shade around 3 ish and looked doable with a party of three. It has a very clean splitter hand and finger crack that is clearly visible from the trail along the left side of the Apron.

 

At the top of the second pitch, I had to belay in a painful toe jam crack using 4 stoppers, none of which was over one quarter of an inch thick. That wasn't a lot of pro for 3 people, especially when they're your kids.

 

Looking up, all I could see from below was a very thin seam that had tufts of grass growing sporadically out of the apparently blank slab. It looked about 10c, and made me wonder if we were on the wrong route. Once I got up on it though I found it to be beautiful finger locks with great pro.

 

This is Lisa, following the third and last pitch in the twilight. She was a little nervous about the approaching darkness.

 

 

 

I'd had the foresight to bring two headlamps and we needed them to find the anchors on the pitch dark slab, two sixty meter raps, and a ninety foot rap. It's an ocean of stone up there, and those anchor stations are so small. Watching my son rap down with a headlamp was bizarre. He was a moving cone of light on a black wall against the stars. Note to self: walk back to Monday Morning Slab to exit the Grack area. Do not try to hike straight down! We got lost in the marsh of Happy Isles in muck up to our knees.

 

We did a few short one pitch climbs at Church Bowl and Maneur pile, but it was really too hot unless you got there in the afternoon. I scored some nice booty on After Seven. Someone had left 2 nice stoppers and a .5 camalot. They weren't even stuck, just sitting there in the crack without biniers. We found a cam last year as well.

 

Back in the day, Sue and I had never checked out Glacier Point so we drove up there one night. It's tourist city but worth the trouble. You look straight down on the Apron and across at Half Dome, really a breath taking spot. This is Sue, Lisa and Half Dome.

 

 

Tuesday we drove up to Tuolumne to escape the heat and climbed Hermaphrodite Flake 5.4 at Polly Dome. I'd wanted to do the great white book, but the 100 foot runnout on the 5th pitch sounded like bad news. We saw a guy free solo all 5 pitches in 20 minutes, car to car.

 

 

Clint and I did Munginella 5.6 in 2 long pitches. We'd backed off the last pitch in the dark last year so it was nice to finish it out. Because the five open books area faces East, the dihedrals provide nice shade earlier than other areas.

 

The next day, Thursday, Clint and I climbed all three pitches of Commitment 5.9, five open books area. I had to hang once at the lip of the big roof. There is a killer jug there on the left wall past the lip that I remembered in a kind of deja vu moment. It'd been 25 years, but my body still knew where that jug was. Without that hold, it'd be a tough nine. This is Clint following the beautiful 5.7 second pitch layback.

 

 

Clint approaching the belay below the crux roof pitch.

 

 

Friday afternoon I led Grant's crack and Lena's Layback (both 5.9's) on the camp 4 wall. I had to hang once on each of them...maybe it was the heat, or my slowly improving technique. Lena's takes pro really nicely.

 

Saturday Clint and I led Harry Daley, a gorgeous 5.8 finger fest that climbs 2 pitches of pin scars up the middle of Monday Morning Slab. It has a scary section where you are climbing up a nice crack, with lots of pro, but then the crack turns left and runs horizontal, and the seam bottoms out. You have to traverse with your fingers in shallow flaring seam, and your feet on very steep friction. I got scared there, not believing my shoes would stick...but they did, and I was able to place a couple cams as I traversed. The next pitch has a very pretty two foot roof that's dead easy and then more thin pin scars to the top. The pro is bomber all the way up, truly an amazing route.

 

Rapping down the last pitch a tree decided it was time to die and came tumbling down the cliff out of the blue. Clint had to run sideways on rappel to dodge it but our ropes weren't so lucky. The tree exploded on the third class walk off ledge and cut both our ropes, right through the sheath to the exposed core.

 

this is Clint following Harry Daley.

 

 

 

Despite the heat, I'd go back there in a second. There are so many routes we didn't get to do and I was just getting warmed up to the good stuff. Regarding camping, we made reservations in upper pines back in May. It's totally worth it as compared to the party atmosphere in camp 4. The rangers actually enforce the 10 pm quiet hour in the campgrounds.

 

 

 

 

 

Gear Notes:

I had my standard mix of hexes, stoppers and cams. The guidebooks tell you what you need. I usually carry stuff to fit up to 3 inches, though Harry Daley and the Grack are mostly no larger than 2 inches.

[billcoe]

Always nice to be on the classics!

[Jopa]

Awesome. Do your kids know how lucky they are to go on such a sweet family trip? Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

[Rad]

Very nice. I hope to do that with my kids one day.

Note to self: climb popular moderates to score gear!

[Off_White]

That tree-fall story from the Apron is gruesome, glad you two were okay. Nice TR, looks like a great family vacation.

[Rad]

Looks like your son has chalk up to his elbows!

[ken4ord]

Wow, that is like a dream family vacation. I look forward to vacation like that sometime, thanks for posting.