SAC Trad Lead Climbing Class II
aus mowiki, der freien Wissensdatenbank
Trip to Yosemite, May 4th thru 6nd, 2007
Clint, Björn, Ian and I started our ride to the Valley at Friday around 7pm. I was slightly late because I was at REI to get new climbing shoes: my first Mythos, a real classic. I picked them up at their places, and because we also had lots of SAC gear the Jeep was pretty stuffed. The ride was not very exciting. The Jeep was doing well except for the usual issues, that is the check engine light came on (which indeed turned out to be random misfire) and the squeaking hamster operating the fan. At midnight we arrived at Clint's secret spot outside the national park, where we wanted to stay for the night. We found several other cars parked there, Jared's among them, so I guess this spot is not nearly as secret as I thought. We got our sacks ready, and I got back to the car to lock it and somehow managed to set off the car alarm. Sweet. I didn't know my car actually had that feature... The night was pretty cold, in the morning ice was dripping from the trees. But we all stayed warm.
It was decided to have breakfast at the vista point close to Reed's Pinnacle where you have that beautiful view of Half Dome. It was sunny by now, we spread out our sleeping bag to let them dry, and enjoyed the beautiful morning promising a beautiful day. Every so often a car would stop and spit out some tourists. We noticed there are actually four kinds of them: People like us first of all, people who stop for a few minutes and a small talk, people who just take quick pictures and finally those, who don't even switch off the engines of their cars...
We started climbing at Reed's Pinnacle Area, where we soon met the early birds who had left Stanford at 5:30am. The plan was to do some mock leads to finally get ready for some real leads and multipitches to come on Sunday. Clint and Sam set up two routes, which I mock lead twice each, including setting up an anchor.
- Center Route, 1st pitch, 5.7, lead Clint, mock lead Moritz
- Ejesta, 5.8, lead Sam, mock lead Moritz
Every time an instructor followed to check my gear placements, which turned out to be not that bad. This was good news for my plan to lead my first trad route on Sunday! In the meantime Chris had set up an interesting arete-double-offwidth climb which I guess is
- Flatus, 1st pitch, 5.9, lead Chris
and I did it on recommendation of Nat, who was really excited about that one. And exciting it was, indeed. I kinda chimneyed it and took a rest right before the slightly overhanging section where you just hang on hand jams...
I started my last mock lead on Center Route when it was getting dark, assuming that Clint would quickly follow it. But when the follower finally got closer to the belay station it turned out to be Dave! He rapped down again and Clint came up in the dark. So we cleaned the anchor and rapped off in the dark. Lesson learned: Take a headlamp on your last climb!
By now it was 9:30pm and the pizza deck in Curry Village surely was closed, so we all went to the picnic place at Church Bowl. Alexis had brought some amazingly cheap Whiskey and we celebrated El Cinco De Mayo. Then we drove over to the camp sites and quickly hit the sacks.
The next morning a gear sorting pary took place: All racks had got messed up. Then we needed to figure out, who should get in which car for the ride back, what took even longer. But finally, Warren, Clint and I left for mellow multipitching at "The Grack" at Glacier Point Apron. We all warmed up on
- Left Side, 5.7, lead Clint (1st pitch), lead Warren (1st pitch), lead Clint (2nd pitch)
because our desired route, Center route, was crowded. The Grack is a huge slab, and in theory you get a no hand rest at any place by just standing on the slab. Especially when you got brand new Mythos. But then I tend to forget about that, because once you are in this granite desert, it just doesn't look like a slab anymore but pretty vertical. So it was an interesting experience! Clint lead the first pitch and rapped off on a single rope. Then Warren lead it again and Clint followed checking the gear placements. Then they belayed me on the first rope. The second pitch was lead by Clint, followed by Warren and toproped by me.
After lunch we got ready for
- Center Route, 5.6, lead Moritz (1st & 3rd pitch), Warren (2nd pitch), free solo Clint
Clint said something like "Oh, I'm gonna free solo the first pitch and take some pictures of you!". The first pitch is actually not very difficult even by my standards, so wasn't too concerned by that. But then he kept on soloing even when it got to the sketchyer second pitch involving finger cracks! But then I guess it made me feel safer, because it cannot be too difficult when Clint solos it, can it? Another party was watching the whole thing and finally asked on the rap down if Clint was some sort of instructor. Clint was like yes, and no, and maybe not the safest way to go... Anyway, it was a fun day!
Lessons learned: Don't put too much on your gear sling. The pieces block each other so it gets really difficult to take them of especially when trying with one hand only. And don't use biners which have that knob as part of their gate. They suck!
Our way back was uneventful. We stopped at the convenient cheap gas / taqueria combination in Oakdale and where back at Stanford at 1am.
