Yosemite NP, CA

We arrived in Yosemite on Friday, once again struggling uphill over the Tioga Pass, passing signs that read “Steep Grade: Trucks with trailers will have difficulty”. We heard that.

We finally pulled into Yosemite Valley, peering over the dash at the looming granite towers like so many of the other “nature paparazzi“. It’s difficult to describe the enormity of these walls, even in pictures. After a stern lecture from the rangers about proper storage of food at the campsite, pointing to a sign that indicated 120 bear-related incidents since January 1, we stowed our stuff and hit the sack.

The next morning we got on a climb at Manure Pile/Ranger Rock (apparently named for the dump there that used to be used by the park). Another guy whose climbing partner was a no-show joined us for the climb. It was good fun and had a great view of Cathedral Spires and faint views of El Capitan and Half Dome.

Coming back to our campsite, we picked up a couple, who had just completed a really long hike, but missed the shuttle, and gave them a ride back to their campsite. We got a thumbs up from an older gentleman while dropping off the couple on the other side of the campground, apparently a fan of our ride. Back at our site, the same man showed up, apparently following us back to our camp (he later explained that he heard the unmistakable early-80’s Volkswagen diesel coming from a mile away and simply followed the sound back to our camp, a good ways down the road). He was a German climber in his late 60’s who, with his friend, was trekking (over a series of years) from Argentina up to Alaska in his own German VW Transporter. The four of us exchanged stories over some warm Natural Light (theirs, not ours) of the nervous travels in our vans. It turns out that they were unsuccessful in their attempt to get up the road to the Whitney Portal  a few days before us (Go Goose!). We also exchanged stories of climbing and life in general - they had climbed Mt McKinley, Annapurna and many other mountains in their day, and were quite experienced. They wanted to stay a couple of more nights at Yosemite but did not have a reservation and the campground was full, so we agreed to share our site with them for the next 2 nights. Turns out they planned to do the same climbs as us, so that worked out pretty well.

The next day we returned to Ranger Rock to climb Nutcracker with our new friends, Georg and Falke. The climb is a nice polished crack that goes all the way up the face for 5 or 6 pitches. Our new friends followed us, but ran out of gear midway through the third pitch -- they only had a set of nuts and 5 cams, so they could not protect the route. They ended up breaking away to the left to belay from a tree with slings, which was an unfortunate decision, because it took them a while to navigate back to protectable rock again. It was a sustained route that took a greater part of the day, and we retired to Degnan’s Loft for some pizza afterwards.

Our friends Anne and Tom climbed in that area a couple of weeks before us and said that they saw a bear at the bottom. Fortunately, we did not have good Internet access before Yosemite and did not read their trip report until afterwards. Else we might have been a little more hesitant to climb there - or we would have been a little quicker setting up the first pitch!

Finally, on the third day, we set out to climb the Snake Dike route on the southwest side of Half Dome. It was a good decision that we left this for the last day, because after the long approach and hike back,we certainly needed a rest day afterwards.

We started on the trail right behind our campsite at 5am with Georg and Falke. It should have taken us about 4 hours to hike to the 3.5 miles, 3100' feet elevation gain to the base of the climb, but it took us 6 hours, for several reasons. For starters, we took the wrong trail (which got us to the same point, but was longer), and then we kept waiting for Georg and Falke who were a little slower than us. Once we got to the climbers turn off from the main trail, they told us to go ahead and just wait for them on the base of the climb, instead of stopping and waiting every half our or so. So we took our time on the climber's trail and made some additional cairns to help guide our friends (and others) as the trail was not well marked, and we did not want them to get lost. After about an hour and a half, a couple of guys passed us on the trail and commented on how well marked it was, so I guess the extra cairns were beneficial. They said that our friends were not far behind them, so we continued up, taking longer and longer breaks figuring there was no point to hurry up to the top and wait. Plus, from where we were on the trail, we could see a couple of groups on the climb already and they were moving VERY slowly. We finally got to the base of the climb at 10:45am. We waited a little while for Georg and Falke to arrive behind us, but they never showed up. The hike was taking a toll on them after the long, dehydrating day on Ranger Rock, so they made the smart decision to turn back. We assumed they must have turned around and started up the climb at around 12:30p when the last group before us were onto the second pitch. They were a group of 3 and we were a group of 2, so we caught up to them, but they were pretty quick, so we usually only had to wait about 5 minutes at each pitch. The route was good fun, following a prominent mound all the way up the wall, kind of like riding on a dinosaur’s back. Emily and I switched leads, sharing the average 150’ pitches that typically had only one or two bolts and no natural protection. After a while, you get used to running up 85’ without any gear between you and your belayer. We finished the roped climbing at around 4:00pm, took a little break, packed up our gear, and headed up the 800’ or so of 3^rd class slab and reached the summit before 5pm. 

After a good break at the top, we reluctantly and slowly backed down the Cables Route on the northeast side. This is one of those crazy National Park Service routes that allow hikers to get to the summit. There is nothing supporting you from sliding off the side of the wall except your hands on the cables on this nearly vertical rock. It takes the life of a hiker almost at an average of once per year. We both thought it much more dangerous than anything we do. At the top we had seen a lot of people with harnesses and Emily asked Pete why they had them since they didn't climb, but then Emily saw a marmot and forgot to pay attention to the answer. So she did not hear Pete say that they use them to clip into the cables, so that if they fell, they would only fall a little bit. It was about one-third the way down, right when it got steep, that Emily realized what the harnesses were for and was cussing that hers was still in her pack. At least some others we had spoken with at the campsite recommended bringing leather gloves, so that helped a little. We are even more impressed with our friends Tom and Anne who did this a few weeks ago when the cables were "down" - which is a bit of a misnomer because the cables are there, but the poles and boards, which allow you to rest along the way down, are gone and the cables are just hanging flat against the rock. 

We wanted to make it down before dark, so we really booked it, and made it down the the cables and the 8mi, 4800’ trail in 3 hours and 15 minutes with another 10 minute walk on the road back to our camp where Georg and Falke had wine, cheese and bread waiting for us. They are such great guys. We talked a while about the climb with them and immediately hit the sack - food all over the car and the window still down, as if to invite the bears in for a midnight snack. Even after all that, even if by accident, we still never saw a bear. 

Stiff and sore the next morning, we left for Sonoma to meet Pete’s parents and Aunt and Uncle to visit some wineries and generally chill out. It will be a welcome break after some intense days before our attack on Mt Shasta on Independence Day.