it was supposed to be so easy...

Yesterday was great. I had a really productive day at work, and then got my butt into the climbing gym... ran on the treadmill, then opted for a bouldering pyramid since I didn't want to be there all night and felt like having a little time to myself. Bouldering is not my strong suit... a year and a half ago I fell from the top of the bouldering wall making a stupid attempt toward a finish hold and wound up with bone bruises in my ankle, which took about eight months to heal and another several to return to normal range of motion. So, I have a very strong association now between bouldering (or, taking any kind of risk while bouldering) and pain.

So, I started out with my pyramid, doing three v0s to warm up. Did two v1s first try, and then had to pick a v2 to work on. The first v2 took about three tries to get (including having to make some risky moves, which was fun to do after being so afraid of falling while bouldering for the last year and a half)... then got on another v2 for kicks on the cave (which I don't usually boulder even at the top of my game since it's hard for me to downclimb) and got it on my second try. It was FUN. I eyed v3s to see if there was something that looked fun... but by then, my tummy was rumbling for the artichoke and chicken dinner that had popped into my head, so I cooled down by reversing my pyramid, did my weights/abs routine, and then headed out. I felt bad ass, and strong. It was nice.

Had a good outside run to my friend Lynn's to break my four month television moratorium (The Closer season premiere, if you were wondering)... running outside felt good after so much time on the treadmill. Unfortunately, I overestimated my confidence and didn't finish the run home at 10:30pm at night... got a few blocks from Lynn's house and was harassed by a car full of guys who I didn't want to get better acquainted with despite their persistence so when they circled around the block I turned tail back for a sprint for Lynn's and she took me home.

It was a good training day. And, a good day for my mental health and balance. Wish I'd had my girl power nighttime run home uninterrupted, but when you read police reports for part of your living, your radar gets a bit skewed. Things have been out of whack the last few weeks (either tending heavily toward work, or heavily toward play, but not well balanced between the two) so it was nice to have a good, moderate day.

Still no for sure plans for this weekend, although the girls are chatting about possibilities... so hopefully I'll get out to North Bend one of the days... and it's little sister's birthday weekend, so hopefully will get some good girl time even if it's not climbing. Life is good.

strangely normal

I stayed home last weekend despite a few outside invitations in order to let my skin heal, and accidentally spent most of the weekend catching up on work. It wasn't as bad as it sounds... I finally found the first of my furniture on Saturday... a cafe table and some plastic chairs for my patio, aka, my "satellite office" which is conveniently located next to an electrical outlet. Despite doing a fair amount of work, it didn't feel like work because I was sitting outside in the breeze with HanaTheDog at my feet. Not a bad working Saturday.

Unfortunately, I've been eating like a man ever since we got back from the trip, so it's time to buckle down and get back on track. Healthy eating, getting some exercise now that my wounds are healed, and getting back to "normal." I'm headed for the gym tonight, which will be good... despite the heat and how lovely it is outside, I'm hoping to spend a good bit of time in the gym this week to get myself back on track. Probably will try to get out this weekend a bit, but can't go too far since I have HanaTheDog visiting again.

Off to the gym... have a good sunny week, all...

Nice Climbers: Chris Gibson

So, while we were at Tuolumne, we spent one of the days at Cathedral. The bugs were, as I mentioned in my trip report, UNBELIEVABLY bad. The bugs were bad all over Tuolumne, but at Cathedral they were literally attacking in swarms. It was the one day I didn't bring bug spray, and while we waited to get on the route, I lamented the fact that the one day we really needed some deet, I hadn't packed it in.

To the rescue came a neighboring party... one of the climbers handed over a precious bottle of bug spray, and we thanked him profusely. Unlike me to not introduce myself, but the climber and his partner set off on their route, and all day I thought about how nice it was for them to share their DEET with us, and about how I bump into the nicest people while climbing.

Turns out, the nice climber is Chris Gibson. Chris snapped a shot of Shawn on lead on his "variation" to bypass the chimney on the 4th pitch of Regular Route at Cathedral... see here for the pic. Notice the runout. There were murmurs of admiration / disapproval of the variation among neighboring climbing partners... Vic followed Shawn, and I followed Alex on the same variation. It was runout. But, it was within the guys' leading ability despite the runout, and it was fun.

So, Chris - thank you, very much, for the bug spray, and for sending the pic!

me gusta ... tuolumne and lovers' leap trip report, July 2008

Originally I called this "when soul meets body..." a long title for what's sure to be a long trip report, despite the fact that I started to type at 11:31 pm and have to be at work in the morning. A Death Cab title is a bit cheezy, but the first verse lyrics caught my attention anew when we heard the song during our commute for dinner at the Lee Vining Mobil.  The sun wrapped its arms around us... despite excessive sunscreen use, Vic burned like toast and I came back more tan than I've been since I was a sun-worshiping kid.  We bathed, at every opportunity, in the cool and cleansing water of the lakes near where we climbed... Vic and I agreed that lake swims are going to be a highly desirable feature of planning future climbing trips.  We still wound up filthy, but at least you feel a bit cleaner when you get to dunk in a beautiful mountain lake at the end of the climbing day.

Edit... But then, I woke up and realized that I'd mistitled the post... hence, the renaming.  Me gusta.

Anyway - despite the many requests I've received for photos, you all are just going to have to live with my prose... our official trip photographer was too busy ropegunning his way up pitch after pitch to take photos, so this TR, for once, will be photo free at least for now.
 


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Tuesday, July 1: travel
We left Bremerton about 11:30am on Wednesday, since my day ran a little longer than expected (I had court that morning, so went directly from court to Shawn's, our meetup place). A quick change out of lawyer clothes and into comfy clothes, and a bit of repacking later (I did, indeed, have to leave behind my "luxury item," my big green camp chair with the footrest in order to fit all four of us in my VW Jetta wagon) and we were on our way. The crew was me, Alex, Vic, and Shawn... such a small group this time I didn't come up with nicknames, although Shawn will sometimes be called Campbell because that's just how it is.

Wednesday, July 2: I love a happy accident
We rolled into the park in the wee hours on Thursday... I think it was 2:30 or 3 am when we actually got to Yosemite. The trip down was relatively uneventful, and there was just enough moonlight to see some of the rock faces as we pulled through the park. One of my secret objectives for the trip was that, at some point, I'd get to the Valley, and to see El Cap. We planned to bypass the Valley and head straight to Tuolumne, but the universe had other plans for us. We missed the turn for Tuolumne, and wound up at the foot of El Cap just before sunrise. We discussed options... and Campbell's idea, which suited me just perfectly, was to park it in El Cap meadow and watch the sun come up over El Cap. We nestled in under a tree with a beautiful view and one of my objectives for the trip was accidentally met. For how early it was, there was a lot of activity on the Nose, and spectators started to join us in the meadow just after sunrise. Hans Florine and Yugi Hirayama had started their speed attempt on The Nose, which ultimately resulted in a new speed record of 2:43:33. We didn't stick around to see them finish, since we had climbing of our own to do. Instead, we set off for Tuolumne, set up camp, and headed to Stately Pleasure Dome.

Vic and Shawn set off on one route (a 5.9, I think), and Alex and I headed for West Country (5.7). Alex lead the first pitch, and then offered me the rack for the second pitch, which I tried but lowered off of after about a third of the pitch. The gear was a challenge for me ... small cams are not my strong suit, and I definitely need to gain more experience with them, but that particular day we had racked for Alex to lead (so we had plenty of gear for him) but not necessarily for me to lead (so a third of the way up, I felt like I was running out of gear and got nervous). Alex took over, and lead up the route... it was great fun, especially as a follower. After we topped out and met up with Shawn and Vic, we headed for Tenaya Lake for a dip (note to self -- try to always plan climbing trips in locations with lakes. That was awesome). The other three picked out a post-swim toprope adventure... a 10c offwidth where I did belay duty, literally almost falling asleep on belay I was so tired.

Thursday, July 3rd: 900 feet of fun

Saturday's objective was Fairview Dome's Regular Route, a twelve-pitch (yes, twelve, pitch) 5.9. We waited behind other parties, so had a leisurely trip up... Shawn lead and I cleaned, with Vic and Alex in a party of two behind us. The climb was unbelievably good. Fun from the ground up, it's one of those where the holds are right where you need them, and it's just plain enormously good. The rock seems made to climb, and the views just get better and better as you go up. We topped out just in time to descend during the sunset, and reached the car at dusk. Perfect.

Friday, July 4th: most peaceful 4th of July ever
I didn't hear a single firework on the 4th of July. Instead, we continued the trend of the trip and slept in, got a late start, Campbell picked an objective, we rock-paper-scissored for partners then racked up and rolled out. The objective for the day was Daff Dome, where Vic and Alex headed for West Crack (5.9) and Shawn's plan was Crescent Arch (10b). I was a bit nervous... the reported 10b crux of the route is on a traverse, so if I blew it as second, it would mean the equivalent of a lead fall onto a slab, and then either groveling my way back up to the route, or ascending using a prussik, or some other time-consuming and embarassing task to try to get back on route. But, we surveyed the route, Shawn was stuck with me, and I figured, I'll figure it out. I just can't fall.

The route turned out to be sustained 5.8 / 5.9 with what appeared to be challenging protection on lead for Shawn... and I was really surprised by just *how* sustained the climbing was on the lower "easier" pitches. I've done a fair amount of following on 5.9 terrain, and this climb was strenuous. Shawn pulled the crux move, and then announced his opinion that the sustained 5.9 was harder than the 10b crux move, which added to my "can't fall" mantra. Sure enough, he was right... I couldn't actually distinguish what the 10b crux move was, since there were two traverses on slabby footholds with thin hands... either of two sections could have been the crux, as far as I was concerned, and neither felt 10b. I was pretty stoked to have not fallen, but while I was excited, Shawn was freezing his ass off belaying me, so we moved quickly off the top and to the slightly warmer and sunnier south face of Daff dome for some single pitch adventuring. A lovely 5.8 caught my eye, and I did a poor form lead on it... I had to take on my gear a couple of times at the start, but then finished it off and had fun despite the poor form. The 5.5 to the right did, indeed, call my name... it was just plain fun. 5.5s and 5.6s rock. Vic, Shawn and Alex climbed just about everything there was to do there, and then headed to the Lee Vining Mobil station for dinner. If you haven't been there, it really is a scene. Good food, great people watching, beautiful weather, no fireworks. Best Fourth of July ever.

Saturday, July 5: alpine day
I think Sunday would qualify as an alpine day... although in keeping with the trip trend, we did not get an alpine start. The objective for the day was Cathedral's Regular Route (5.6) (or, its variations, which proved more challenging than 5.6), and, time permitting, Eichorn Pinnacle (5.4). Shawn and Vic took the start to the right; Alex and I started up a rather crowded middle/left side variation. The climbing was, again, long... the route was very crowded, but even so, the views were stunning and the climbing was fun. Shawn and Vic got a head start on Eichorn Pinnacle while Alex and I waited behind another party at the top of Cathedral, before an intimidating top-out (as far as I was concerned) and traverse over to take pictures then meet up with Shawn and Vic as they topped out on Eichorn and then rapped off. Alex lead up Eichorn and I was shocked by the 5.4 rating when I followed... the climbing was not easy, but it was hugely fun, and it was pretty cool to complete another big day. Alex wasn't feeling well so we didn't celebrate the summit... we rapped off Eichorn Pinnacle and then hiked out.

One note about Cathedral and Eichorn Pinnacle (and, especially, the relatively long hike in and out)... if someone's told you that the mosquitos are bad, they're lying. The mosquitos are HORRIBLE. Like, swarms at the base of the route and on the trail, and, I even ran into the buggers *on* the route. We were lucky to bum some 98% deet off one of the parties who started near us (on one of two days I didn't pack bug spray)... but even so, Vic ended up COVERED with mosquito bites. If we all get West Nile Virus, that's probably the day that did it.

Sunday, July 6th: getting a reality check
So, I've been leading very cautiously on gear for about a year now... mostly sticking to 5.6 and 5.7 in Washington and Squamish, with an occasional 5.8 or 5.9 but I'm not regularly getting 5.9s done clean. On Monday, the guys decided that it was the girls' turn to ropegun, so we headed back to Stately Pleasure and to my nemisis, West Country (5.7). Vic set off on lead with Alex as second; I started my lead with Shawn on belay. Because of traffic on the 5.7 start to the right, we took the 5.6 start to the left, which was okay at the beginning, but when I hit the big traverse to the left, I lost my nerve with visions of horrible rope drag, not remembering that the terrain was really easy. I build a crappy anchor and brought Shawn up... he took one look at my anchor and we decided he'd finish the pitch since my anchor was Not Ideal. He finished up the pitch, built a typically bomber anchor and brought me up. So much for me ropegunning for Shawn... one pitch up, and I'd lead half a pitch, and he'd lead half a pitch.

On pitch two, my nemesis, my performance continued to be terrible. This time, I had plenty of gear so no excuse there. I just didn't place enough of it. I sewed up the start of the pitch with less than stellar placements because I was so nervous, then once I got to the slightly thinner, slightly flared section, my skill went right out the window. At one point, I placed a crappy nut (a size too big; if I'd kept my head, I could have gotten in a bomber nut just by going a size smaller) and very, very, gently took... thank goodness the nut held, because otherwise I would have faced a huge fall onto a marginal (to poor) grey alien. I finished the pitch, but may have well been soloing; my gear was crap. I need practice, still, with cams for sure, and I still have a lot to learn about choosing when and where to place gear. Luckily, I reached the bolted anchor safely, at which time I clipped in to both bolts and then called "off belay," and announced to Shawn that I finally had some good protection.

The next pitch was more fun... a runout (but not R rated) slab with lots of rolling dishes to paw your way up. Despite my poor performance on the last pitch, I had a ton of fun on the bolted slab. The next pitch was over after the first few moves... easy terrain up to a spot where I built a belay (don't know if it was an intended belay; don't think my anchor was any good, so again, Shawn climbed up and over and finished out the pitch).

It wasn't exactly a girls-ropegun day for me... Shawn ended up leading two half-pitches or so. It was a well-timed reality check for me, though... I still have a lot to learn about gear placement and anchor building, even after as much practice as I've had. I got some good coaching from Shawn, and decided that I need to be more careful about the routes I take on while I'm still learning... I need to pick routes where I can see the gear I'm placing, instead of having it hidden on laybacks or low-angle dihedrals, and to look for routes where I can practice resting, and routes that have good feet so that I'm not as desperate placing my gear while I'm still learning. I appreciated Shawn's coaching without any yelling or reprimand... but still felt like I'd gotten in over my head on that particular route. It was a learning experience, for sure.

That afternoon, we headed for Tahoe.  We took a dip in the lake (secret objective #2 of mine, met) and then made our way to a smoky/hazy Tuolumne.  The air was pretty heavy that evening, and I was nervous about conditions, but we had the campground almost to ourselves, and the place was gorgeous.  The haze gave us a beautiful sunset.

Monday, July 7th: Five Star Day
My concern about the conditions was not merited... Lovers Leap was GORGEOUS.  Shawn, again, lost the coin toss and ended up with me as a climbing partner for what turned into a truly perfect climbing day.  We started on Surrealistic Pillar (5.7, 3 pitches) to a side trip to Tombstone Terror (a super, incredible, amazingly fun 10c... Shawn's lead was impressive to watch... despite the terrain, he did a well-protected lead and set a good example for me with gear placements and small cams.  I couldn't pull the top, despite a few tries on toprope, so finished up on the easy top-portion of Boothill, 11a, just to the right.  Shawn got on the 11a... (which he named the "best 11a ever") and I tried it... I think I made it through the 11a section only to (as is typical for me) pump out and blow the easy section at the top (which I'd actually already climbed, and everything).  It was SUPER fun, though, and I appreciated the very patient belay.  We finished up Corrugation Corner (5.7, 3 pitches) to bring the grand total to eight pitches pre-siesta, and then hit up the Strawberry Lodge for snacks and chilled (or rather, cooked) at the campsite waiting for climbing temps in the evening.

Climbing temps didn't hit until later than we hoped (we were hoping for 5pm; turned out it didn't cool off enough to climb until about 7pm).  At 7pm, Shawn polled us for who wanted to go do The Line, an ultra classic 5.9 3-pitch route.  I honestly gave Vic and Alex an opportunity to speak up before I jumped up to start racking up... we headed for the route just before the sun started to dip, and after bushwacking our way up to the base (last time I try to take the lead on the approach when time is running short) Shawn set off on lead.  We had just enough rope to combine the last two pitches so Shawn lead the route in two pitches; I followed.  There are very few perfect things in this world... that route, at that time of day, was perfect.  The climbing was fun, the views beautiful, the sky just a tinge pink from the haze... there were other climbers on East Wall and as the evening got even more beautiful I heard happy hoots from across the wall.  Shawn was visited by an extremely large squirrel while belaying me up the last pitch... the critter turned out to be a dog, whose owners were very apologetic.  I topped out at dusk, and we met up with Alex and Vic who were doing a route to the left and who topped out just after we did for a descent in the dark.

Upon reviewing the guidebook later on, I noticed that we did an entirely five star day, that day.  Aside from any guidebook, grade or rating, I would be hard pressed to imagine a more perfect climbing day than our five star day at Lovers Leap.

Tuesday, July 8:  going home
We woke up the next morning tired and sore... Shawn still had hopes of climbing, but my brain drifted toward pancakes at the Lodge, and Alex and Vic were also less than motivated to climb.  Instead of pancakes at the Lodge, we set out for donuts and coffee at the Safeway, and turned toward home.

I've already told you about the trip home, so won't repeat here.  And, it's now 12:49 am, and I have to be at work in a few short hours, so I'll save any further reflection for later.  I can't believe, even now, the quality of the climbing we did... every pitch was fun, and some pitches were some of the best/most fun climbing I've ever done.  The views, and the sheer beauty of the places we climbed and slept and swam far exceeded my expectations.  I'm thankful for the happy accidents of the trip, and appreciative of my climbing partners company and expertise.  It was, quite truly, a wonderful trip.

a teaser

It's approximately l2:51 am as I type... and I have to be to work at 8 am and to Edmonds for a meeting by noon, so I'm headed to sleep very shortly to hope that somehow I can shower off some of the grime before tomorrow (or, rather, later today) because there's nothing I can do about all of my bruises and wounds (I look like the loser in a cage fight, to the untrained (aka, inexperienced with week-long climbing trips) eye).

The very short version is that the trip was... wonderful. No other way to say it. We had a good small group this time, just me, Vic, Shawn and Alex. The snapshot is that we missed the turn for Tuolumne when we came into the park in the week hours of the morning after driving all night... so we sleeping-bagged to watch the sunrise in the El Cap meadow our first morning in Yosemite. Climbed several fantastic days in Tuolumne, then had an ultra classic day of five-star climbing at Lovers' Leap ending with a sunset ascent of the three-pitch The Line (5.9) done in two pitches and a hike out from the East Wall by moonlight. We headed home this morning and made good time... after a slightly punchy trip home, we arrived at Shawn's house, the jumping off point. When we approached his driveway, there were emergency vehicles in the neighbor's driveway, and there was a murmur in the car about the emergency vehicles. We pulled into Shawn's driveway, and the dialog went something like:

Me: "Um, Shawn ... your backyard is on fire."

I don't remember what the rest of the dialog was, but Shawn and Alex hopped out to turn the garden hose on the brush fire... I moved my car to make room for the firefighters that pulled into the driveway right behind us.

Long story short, the fire gives Shawn an excuse to sleep on his deck tonight rather than returning to civilization immediately like the rest of us. I'm back at home... bruised, battered, and a little bit shell shocked that I have to go back to my real life in just a few short hours. Stay tuned for the trip report which will surely be a whopper even without photos... since we were a party of four, there wasn't much time for photography this time around. Now, I'm off to sleep in a bed, in my apartment, which just seems so bizarre after this many days on the ground in my beloved sleeping bag. I'm going to miss the stars tonight and the sunrise in the morning.

Where...

Where do people who have furniture pack for climbing trips? Granted, my living room is small... itty bitty, some say... but my climbing gear alone takes up almost the whole floor, not even counting camping and kitchen stuff.



I kind of love that.

Other things I learned today while packing. My Leatherman does indeed have a bottle opener. It's located on the same tool as the very sharp can opener, and, right next to the exceptionally sharp saw whose purpose seems to be to slice fingers open. All of the tools mentioned work quite well for their apparent purposes.

My plan of packing two packs -- one for climbing, one for camping -- may not actually work out. Apparently, I am a girl. I don't think I'm going to achieve my minimalist packing goal this time around. Especially with the chance that we may get to stop off at Tahoe for a bit. The fact that my stuff won't fit in two packs is due entirely to the bikini and camp towel I just have to pack in case of Tahoe.

the good: GearExpress and new stuff to play with

So, thank you to the folks who've sent Tuolumne and Yosemite beta... er, Greg... I sincerely appreciate it. Yes, a bunch of the camping is open (although not all). Yes, there are fires. The forecast is for more fire risk through Saturday (last I checked), and at least as of earlier today the views in Tuolumne were still not too bad. Unfortunately, my second choice stop would be Tahoe, which is also dealing with fire issues. We'll see. I'm counting on the weather and conditions being kind to us.

In preparation for the trip, there were a few essentials that needed shopping for. I am not routesetting at the gym anymore, and I haven't dealt with trying to work pro deals through my other channels, so for once bought retail-on-a-budget to try to fill out my stash of gear. I shopped around and found the best overall deals at GearExpress and decided to give them a try. Their website isn't as slick and glossy as some of the big guys, but I actually found it easy to use (perhaps because I had already preshopped, so I knew what I was looking for). I filled my online shopping cart Wednesday but knew that my last chance to hit the private mail box for a pickup would be Monday. I'm skeptical of companies who promise faster shipping than they actually deliver, so before I hit "submit" on the order, I called down to see if they really thought that they could get the order out and delivered prior to my departure on Tuesday. The friendly customer service representative, Amanda, said that they'd probably actually package and ship my order out that same day, with free two-day delivery, for arrival on Friday. I didn't believe her, but figured, if they even come close, that leaves me two days of wiggle room, so I fired off my order and waited.

Sure enough, my Wednesday-placed order arrived on Friday (today). I'm super impressed. Not only was my order on time as promised, but the side benefit of that is that I already re-racked my gear and got to flake my rope a few times... I have two whole extra days than I anticipated to play with my new gear.

And, pardon me one girly moment... my favorite gear colors are orange and green, and I put that note into my comments... in exchange I received a splendid box full of orange and green climbing gear.

Perhaps I have low expectations of mail order shops, because I do so much mail order for business purchasing and non-climbing shopping... but these smaller (aka, not REI) mail order shops do a really fantastic job (another favorite is AcmeClimbing.com, by the way).

My order was: one Edelweiss Element 10.2 60 meter bi-pattern dry rope... while I planned to go with the New England Glider again, because in the limited time I had to bond with it I really did love it, but based on reviews the Edelweiss sounds like it will be a bit more durable, and, was way less expensive. I added a full set of Black Diamond Stoppers to my rack, since I only had a small set of DMM Wallnuts and generally place almost every one on any given climb. I decided, after reading numerous reviews, to give the Metolius Master Cams a try to start out my small cam collection, so ordered the 1, 2 and 3 in those. I'm not picky about slings, so went with inexpensive Dyneema from Wild Country, and a set of 10 Black Diamond Hotwire biners.

Now, my rack is very heavy on the passive pro, including some I may never use (I don't yet aid, so those itty bitty Stoppers are racked with my big hexes that I've never placed once and that typically live at the bottom of my gear bag). The Master Cams are interesting; I'm looking forward to giving them a try despite my continued skepticism about the kevlar component's durability. Once I'm back, and maybe while you all are waiting for our trip photographer's film to develop, I'll post gear reviews.

But, tonight's about GearExpress. Thanks, Blake and staff... you're officially part of my mother worrying about my mental health because I am choosing to invest in climbing gear instead of furniture.