A 4 day stretch including 2 days of rock climbing at Indian Creek and Wall Street. We did something like 13 routes in those 2 days, mostly in the upper 5.10 range and climbs I had never done before. I didn’t weight the rope once. I was pretty pleased with myself.
More desert rain, camping, and some climbing at Indian Creek and Maverick Buttress up Long Canyon, outside of Moab.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come to get extreme” -Business 3000 Spence
By Davy’s last day we were getting a bit slab-crazy and decided to do a 6-pitch route up Glacier Point Apron. The Supertopo description for this route makes it sound a bit easier than I found it to be.
We made it to the top without any major complications though.
Some cragging, an evening hike, and multi-pitch climbing on Middle Cathedral Rock.
My brother Davy came up to Yosemite during my last couple of weeks there, and discovered that he is pretty into climbing. We went just about every day he was here. Usually pushing the daylight. These aren’t totally in chronological order.
The pictures that are on the wide and smooth chunk of granite (called Glacier Point Apron) were from some of his last days here.
Davy has had a pretty old-school introduction to the world of climbing. We climbed outside for his first time ever years ago in Gallatin Canyon, MT. I don’t think he’s ever climbed indoors and most of the climbing we did this trip involved cracks.
Crack climbing was all they used to do back in the day, but the advent of sport climbing and climbing gyms has made face climbing more the norm now. I would venture by the time he left that Davy had gained more crack-climbing experience than the majority of climbers.
The route is 1200′ tall and summits due to its starting location and El Cap’s tapering shape on its east side.
This all happened yesterday. A warm and sunny Saturday in Yosemite Valley. We didn’t see any other climbers.
The East Ledges descent is the quickest way to get down off the top of El Cap.
We were sitting under the rainfly on the summit trying to wait out the rain, and decided we were just going to get colder if we didn’t start moving.
Climbing from Camp 6 to the top. Once again narrowly avoiding getting rained on while we were climbing.
The pictures are from our third and final night up there.
Currently it is the 3rd week in October and I have been living in the area since May 19th. There haven’t been more than 6 days that saw considerable rain during that time frame. Somehow we managed to be on El Cap for 3 of them.
The climbing on day 3.
Started out at Camp 4 and ended up at Camp 6.
4 days and 3 nights at the end of September.
These pictures are from the first 2 days.
The photos of us on the wall are courtesy of Tom Evans at www.elcapreport.com.
Big thanks to Richard for being such a cool dude and great climbing partner.
The Friday after the hang glider morning Sean and I climbed Cathedral Peak. The climbing is all quite mild but the setting is pretty special.
Last week Richard and I climbed The Prow on Washington Column. This was the first time I had ever slept in a portaledge and the first time I have ever done a route where you have to haul all your gear up with you.
The route is steep and exposed, tall compared to the rest of the planet but a short wall by Yosemite Valley standards.
Props to Richard for swinging leads with me, all his help with rope management and hauling, and his easy-going attitude.
