Bishop, CA

Oct. 31^st: Well deserved rest day

Nov. 1^st – 5^th: Bishop, CA

We left Yosemite late in the afternoon and drove through Tuolumne to reach the small town of Bishop. We drove up to the world renowned bouldering area named “The Buttermilks” which was only a 15min drive from the town of Bishop. Apparently the name originates from a water source that created a high quality grass for the cows to feed on. Because of this enriched grass, the cows gave a higher percent of cream in the milk. Hence the name Buttermilk! Since we arrived around 10:00pm it was dark and didn’t find the bouldering area. Instead we came along a nice spot to spend the night and waited for sunrise to search for “The Buttermilks” bouldering area. I woke up for sunrise and did a photo session of the area. It’s always a surprise (usually a nice surprise) when we arrive in a new area at night. I never know what the area will look like at sunrise. This morning was a contrast to Yosemite. The vast desert area slowly got lit by the warm rays of the sun with snowy peaks in the background. Not a bad place to wake up to!

On November 2^nd we spent our first day in “The Buttermilks” area bouldering. Rather, Pat spent the day bouldering as I took photos. I tried a few boulder problems earlier in the morning and my ankle would sometimes hurt depending on how I twisted it while climbing and falling on the crash pad. A sign for me to rest! So I listened.

On November 3^rd we drove to another bouldering area named “The Happies” which are in another area 15min from Bishop. Bouldering at “The Happies” is quite different from “The Buttermilks”. The rock itself is more featured and is made of volcanic tuff. This makes the climbing more acrobatic. “The Buttermilks” are composed of glassy granite which is less featured and more technical. Again, I rested the ankle and cruised around on my mountain bike and took photos of the area. Before dinner, Pat and I went to the Galen Rowell Photography Gallery in town with a friend we had met in Yosemite named Alexandre Buisse from Lyon, France. I had read a few books written by Galen Rowell in the past and loved his work. It was great to see the large prints of this photographer displayed with Alexandre who is doing well to become a professional photographer. You can see his work on his website: www.alexandrebuisse.org

On November 4^th I stayed in town and caught up on e-mails and photos at the Looney Bean coffee shop while Pat went to trad climb at “The Gorge” for part of the afternoon. Later on in the afternoon I visited the Galen Rowell exhibit.

A beautiful sunrise near the Buttermilks.

Taking in the sun during breakfast.

A Buttermilks boulder.

A boulder at The Happies.

Yosemite: Half Dome, Northwest face (23 pitches, 5.9 C1)

The Northwest face of Half Dome
 with the Death Slabs approach bellow.



Our climb on Half Dome turned out to be an epic 27 hour adventure!

At 01:00am Pat and I left Camp 4 on our bikes guided by headlamp to reach the start of the climbers trail up the “Death Slabs”. (Pat found a shortcut yesterday). We stashed the bikes and took off on foot. It took us just under 4hrs to reach the base of Half Dome from Camp 4 with some time lost searching for the climbers trail now and again up the Death Slabs.

We started climbing at 05:30am while it was still dark. We were on the second pitch when the first sign of daylight came across the horizon. It was nice to have daylight at last! Climbing in the dark made the climbing feel more difficult and had slowed us down. To help save time I brought up the extra slack in the rope and used a technique in big wall climbing called short fixing. This newly acquired technique allowed me to start climbing up the next pitch while being belayed by a GriGri as Pat climbed the pitch bellow with his ascenders. Once he reached the belay station I had just left. He could put me back on belay and fixed the gear he cleaned from the last pitch onto my trailing tag line. This allowed me to gain extra ground as he came up.

As we gained higher ground we came across the Robbins Traverse on the 10^th pitch. It’s needed to get across a blank section of rock. This was my first pendulum on a climb. I was lowered off of a bolt placed higher up and began running from one side to the other to gain momentum. After a few runs back and forth I was eventually able to throw myself far enough to grab a flake and pulled up onto higher ground. It was a different feeling!

We managed to make it to the 20^th pitch as the last of the light dimmed over the horizon. We had three more pitches ahead of us to do in the dark. We pulled out the headlamps once again. On the second last pitch, Pat made it up halfway before realizing that I forgot to hand over the sky hooks that he needed for his pitch! I tied them off to the trailing tagline and he quickly pulled them up to finish the pitch. By now we were definitely feeling the accumulated fatigue and were looking forward to the walk back down. Without daylight our progress slowed down for the last part of the climb but we made it on top of Half Dome. It was 11:20pm. We were exhausted and quite thirsty. We had rationed 5 litres of water between us. It was enough to get us up the climb but we were feeling slightly dehydrated and could have drank more if it wasn’t so heavy to carry up.

From the top of Half Dome we needed to walk over 15km down the John Muir trail to reach the valley bottom. We were looking to hike what seemed to be an ultra-marathon ahead of us. To our advantage we were already familiar with the trail from having done the climb named “Snake Dyke” which goes up the opposite side of Half Dome and goes down the same trail. Getting lost in the dark wasn’t a big concern.

When we topped off on Half Dome we had talked of spending what little time was left of the night sleeping in the washroom lower down on the John Muir trail (desperate times = desperate measures). We also knew there was a drinking fountain next to the washrooms! I felt like I could have polished off a five gallon bucket of water in one sitting. We put our heads down and marched along the trail. After an agonizing 2+ hours along the rough trail, a few close calls on rolling my previously injured ankle. We finally reached the washrooms. Big deception! There was a sign on the door: “Closed for the season”. To make things even worse we found the water fountain nearby also closed for the season. NOOO!!! I was sooo thirsty! We could have called it there and settled down shivering all night in our emergency foil blankets waiting for sunrise. But instead we chose to keep going down the trail. The fatigue was really setting in now. I was digging deep into my energy levels. After another 45 minutes we finally reached the road at the end of the trail. We were still another 4 or 5km from Camp 4 and because the approach to the climb was different from the walk down. We were left without our bikes. By now it was 03:00am and hitching a ride wasn’t going to be possible on this quiet road. Pat offered to run back to Camp 4 to get the van and pick me up. My ankle was in no shape for a run and the walk back would be painfully slow. We passed a bus stop where there was a bench and from there Pat took off and ran to Camp 4. He was then going to drive back with the van to pick me up. Shortly after he had left, I had fallen sound asleep on the bench and made good use of the coiled climbing rope as my pillow. Pat made it back in what seemed like no time. Even with Pat’s puffy jacket on top of mine I woke up shivering from the cold. I was so passed out from the fatigue that I wondered how long I would have been able to sleep with the near freezing temperature.

Finally we both made it to Camp 4 and crawled into our sleeping bags. It was 04:00am.

Click on photos to enlarge.

I'm leading up the 20th pitch

The sun setting.

Pat getting ready go back in the dark as we finish the last bit of the climb.



The last light across the horizon.
We had 3 more pitches to go in the dark afterwards.

Yosemite: Royal Arches (16 pitches, 5.7 A0) + North Dome, Crest Jewel (10 pitches, 5.10a)

We covered a lot of ground today with a total of 26 pitches of climbing!

It started off by taking the bus to the Ahwahnee Hotel and walking up the short approach (10min) to the base of Royal Arches. We started climbing at 08:30am. Pat and I simul-climbed the majority of the route with a few short belays along the way. This helped save time as we topped off Royal Arches at 11:00am. Not bad for 16 pitches!  We stashed our gear and brought 14 draws to use on Crest Jewel which is all protected by bolts. It took about 45min from the top of Royal Arches to reach the start of Crest Jewel on North Dome. The route-finding along the way was a little trivial at some places. We didn’t lose too much time searching for a trail and resorted to some bushwhacking.

At the base of Crest Jewel, we were pretty sure that we had found the correct start to the route but couldn’t see any of the bolts. Pat won the game of Rock, Paper and Scissors. So he headed out a few meters to see if any bolts were in sight. After some searching he found a bolt actually quite close to him. The bolts seemed to blend in with the colour of the rock. On bolted routes it’s usually just a matter of connecting the dots. But the run-outs between the bolts on this climb made things difficult for route-finding on the featureless slab. We kept the route topo nearby while climbing to help us refer to the location of each bolt. It was the first time that I had trouble route-finding on a bolted route! The climbing was quite consistent and enjoyable on the slab. By the end of the climb I was getting quite confident with the friction of my climbing shoes. We made it on top of Crest Jewel by 04:00pm. To save time we had linked two and sometimes three pitches with the help of some simul-climbing. This allowed us to do the 10 pitch climb in as little as 4 pitches. As I took my climbing shoes off I noticed that my ankle had become a more swollen. I could feel it hurt a little on some of the slab moves. We walked off the back of North Dome and returned to our gear at the top of Royal Arches. There were 15 dedicated rappel anchors next to Royal Arches which were simple and painless. It sounded more enjoyable than the North Dome gully descent option. To save more time Pat and I both simul-rapped at once off of the anchors. We were back at the bottom of the route just as the sun set behind the horizon (6:00pm).

Click on photos to enlarge.



A view of North Dome as we approach on
vast expanses of low angled granite slabs.



Climbing the 6th pitch of Crest Jewel on North Dome.



The swollen ankle (aka "cankle") at the end of the climb.



Kickin' it old school with the short shorts.
Coilling the rope at the end of the day.

Oct. 29^th: Rest day

Pat and I spent the day making our action plan to climb the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome (VI, 5.9 C1) tomorrow. We decided to go light and will try to climb this long 23 pitch route in a day! It will be more technical and committing than yesterday's link-up of Royal Arches and Crest Jewel. We’ll be putting the past 18 days of free climbing and aid climbing in Yosemite to the test. We plan to leave Camp 4 on our bikes at 01:00am and will have hopefully climbed a few pitches before sunrise. This should place us in position to top out before sunset. 



A view of Half Dome's Northwest face.
Taken while climbing Crest Jewel on North Dome.

Yosemite; Leaning Tower (V 5.7 C2F)

Today was a long one!

We left Camp 4 at 06:00am and biked roughly 20 minutes towards the Leaning Tower to climb the West Face (V 5.7 C2F). This was going to be Pat and my first aid climb. It's a shorter “big wall” with only 11 pitches (compared to some that have 30 or more in Yosemite). The overhanging nature of the West Face has it overhanging 110 degrees on the first half of the climb and 95 degrees on the upper half. This gives it the title of the most overhanging wall in North America. The guidebook mentions that most people take three days to climb. Although a friend of mine told me that it is possible to climb it in a single day. Yesterday I had gone up solo (belayed by a Grigri) to fix a rope on top of the first pitch and stashed climbing gear and water to make the approach easier and faster. This would help us attempt climbing it in a single day. On the climb we brought along a bivy sac, an extra litre of water (5 litres for both of us) and some energy gels in case we needed to spend the night on the wall. We weren’t too sure what to expect since this was going to be our first long aid climb. The climbing was slower than we expected. It took us about one hour to lead each pitch. To make things faster we started linking the pitches on the upper half. With three pitches to go I noticed thick dark clouds rolling in from behind El Cap and coming our way. This placed some stress on us as we kept the rhythm going. I finished leading the last pitch just as the last light disappeared behind the horizon (around 7:00pm).

A few things stood out for me during the climb:

-When we started hauling the pack up it was about 40 feet away from the wall. That’s quite overhanging!

-The more interesting part of the climb was found on the upper half of the wall. There were some fun horizontal roofs to pass.

-The climbing was more time consuming than we expected.

-It helped build confidence with smaller gear placements and placing them properly for body weight only.

Leading up the traversing pitch 5.



The overhanging wall.



Looking down on the sixth pitch.

Making good use of the etriers on the hanging belay.

Leading up pitch 7.

Traversing a roof on pitch 9.

Yosemite Update #2 - Ups and downs

Oct. 17-19^th: Forced rest days... The “Camp 4 bug” has caught up to me. Quite a few people around Camp 4 seemed to have cold symptoms. I had low energy and a good case of the sniffles for a few days. Ian, a buddy from Monod Sports in Banff, brought me and a few other friends from Camp 4 to a massive rope swing that is at the base of El Cap. It was a blast! The 70m rope hangs from an overhanging alcove 100m off the ground. I figured that we must have been swinging out at least 80 meters! Quite the feeling!!! After dinner on the 19^th Pat and I biked a few minutes up the road to an overhanging boulder that had a bolt ladder to practice overhanging aid climbing.

Click on photos to enlarge.

 

Oct. 20^th: Cragging day at the Five Open Books area. We climbed “Surprise” with the 5.10c alternative start. It seemed to be the best way to start off the climb with a fun cruxy traverse move on small gear. Pat and I then walked back down and simul-climbed “Committed”. It’s a great 5.9 route with short and powerful cruxes. After dinner we went to the “Aid Route” on nearby Swan Slabs and practiced more aid climbing. This time it was on a mix of bolts and gear. It seems like we’re getting a good hand on the basics of aid climbing. Pat seems to start having symptoms of the Camp 4 bug!

A climber on a slack line at Camp 4.

Oct. 21^st: Pat Audrey (friend from Monod Sports in Banff) and I Simul-climbed Snake Dyke aka Snake Hike. The day consisted of 20km of hiking for eight pitches of easy and enjoyable climbing. We started up the trail at 09:00am and took the shorter alternative to reach the base of the climb. We passed two parties on the way up. One was a party of four which made them quite slow. We were glad they didn’t mind us passing. We were back in camp at 05:00pm for an early dinner. I had made plans to climb the Steck-Salathé (5.10b) on Sentinel Rock with Cian (a climbing buddy from Banff) tomorrow. After dinner I was on my way up to take a shower in Curry Village and fell off my bike. At first I thought that I had broken a bone around my ankle. But I was still able to bike back to camp and thought that maybe it was only a bad sprain. I had my personal physio (Pat) take a look at it. He determined that the tendons and ligaments were fine. He figured that it’s a chipped bone?

South Face of Half Dome.
A view from the start of Snake Dike.

Looking down the North face of Half Dome.

The fixed cables on the descent.

View from the East face of Half Dome.



Nevada Falls... On the walk back from Half Dome.



Oct. 22^nd: Forced rest day due to my ankle. It's nothing serious... I can walk around and put weight on it but can’t get much mobility out of the ankle. It seems like I’ll need to rest it for a few days. I guess that means more time to practice my aid climbing technique.

Oct: 23 & 24th: Rest day. Seems like the ankle is recovering quickly. Maybe it was just a bruise? Here are some photos from early this morning.

Click on photos to enlarge.

Take the easy way across the river?

Tasty fall foliage.

Reflections of Half Dome during sunrise.

Implied motion.

Fall Foliage