oh Sierra!

Today I am back in Davis, which is very sad.  I spent Friday through Monday morning in Tuolumne, which was very happy!

I drove up Friday morning, choosing to go through Markleeville and over Monitor Pass instead of taking 120 through the Valley.  This is partially because they take about the same amount of time, but mostly because I am sick and tired of 120.  Any chance I can get to spend extra time East of the Sierra is always welcome.

I met Drew and his girlfriend Alice at the store around 1:30 and we headed over to Pywiack Dome to toprope Electric Africa, pictured above.  This is not a good warmup for your first route in Tuolumne for the season, but oh well.  Drew was kind enough to hike up and put the rope up, and proceeded to do the usual, which is impress me with his rock climbing abilities.  I don't even care if he's done the route 50 times.  It's still impressive watching him climb Electric Africa.  I flailed around a little bit and decided that this route is hard, but AWESOME!  I definitely want to go back and work it.  Plus, James pinkpointed it which means I have to redpoint it.  He also sent Shadow Warrior, which means I have to send that too.  Dammit.

For 4th of July festivities, Drew, Alice and I commuted down Lee Vining Canyon to the Mobil, where we sat, drank, ate, winced while listening to the band "The Flashbacks" cover lots of old songs...poorly.  The night ended when Drew brought out a giant piece of chocolate cake and more drinks.  Falling asleep was uncomfortable to say the least.

Saturday a bunch of folks went out the South Whiz Dome and Drew once again proved why he is an excellent climbing partner by hanging three topropes:  one on Body Count, one on Blackout (2 pitches with 2 bolts.  whoah.) and Shadow Warrior.  All of these routes are excellent!  I definitely need to work on my knob climbing skills though.  The only send of the day was by John, who dispatched Body Count in the blazing sun.  Pretty proud.  I never got a chance to try Shadow Warrior - it was too hot and the promise of trying Black Angel over by Tenaya Lake lured me away.  Unfortunately Kevin and Townsend wanted to try Death Crack and I ended up waiting by the lake for them to finish so we could go over and try Black Angel.  (I didn't want to try Death Crack...there's something about a splitter roof crack with only #4's and #5's that turns me off...not sure why?)  I probably should have gone up though, because then I would have witnessed Townsend getting his knee stuck in the crack for 15 minutes.  That would have been pretty cool.

Saturday night I hitched a ride to the Mobil again for dinner with John and Shannon.  They had the same band.  John continued to entertain with the side effects of his antibiotics.  blah blah blah.

Sunday was pretty exciting.  Lots of people decided to brave the cross country approach to Pillsbury Dome to try some routes that Drew recommended.  It was about a 2.5 mile approach to the dome, and it was gorgeous.  We barely got lost and spent some time sidetracked by the Tuolumne River:

The day ended up being hot, sunny, long, and awesome.  I finally felt like I had gotten enough climbing done and had remembered how to try hard.  It was a good feeling.

So now that I have gotten back to the high country once, I need to start making goals.  Hiking and climbing goals.  I want to hike up Mt. Dana and do Cloud's Rest.  I also want to send everything that James sent.  Ha!

I think I'll head back up there pretty soon.  The air quality down here in the central valley is pretty grim.  Really hot (over 100 degrees) and really smoky (hazardous air quality ratings).  Plus it sounds like some good people are headed back up there this weekend.