Over the weekend I did a bunch of climbing, and my body has suffered for it. Friday night I drove up and toproped Do Or Fly up at Puppy Dome. I was psyched that Lucho didn't mind belaying me while I figured out the moves. I ended up toproping it clean, so I guess I should go back and lead it. So much for trad climbing...I find I do a lot more sport-trad climbing. Whatever. I also want to go back and try Grenade Launcher and Horshoes and Hand Grenades. On toprope of course!
Friday night Drew showed up at the Mobil and we had dinner, beers, etc. Saturday morning Drew and I hiked up to Fairview Dome to try La Bella Luna. I think we both thought it would be vertical, but it ended up being mostly slabby, runout knob climbing. Drew took the first pitch, a looooong, awesome 5.8 starting with a crack and then busting out onto a face with 2 bolts. I was planning on taking the second pitch, a 150 foot 5.10-. I climbed up, clipped the first bolt (which suspiciously had a quicklink on it) from a good stance, and looked around. Where the hell was the next bolt? After about 5 minutes of bitching and whining, I saw what I thought couldn't possibly be the next bolt about 20-25 feet away. No fucking way. I backed down and slabmaster Drew stepped up to plate. Watching him climb made me extremely grateful that I backed down. The 20 foot runout was followed by a bolt that was fairly close, but after that it was about 30 feet to the next bolt. Despite the fear factor (on lead) and the fact that it wandered all over God's Green Earth, it was a high quality, sustained 5.1o pitch. The pitch after that was the crux at 5.11- something-or-other-who-knows-because-it's-probably-broken and was chossy, contrived and lame, but the pitch after that was kind of a cool 5.8 roof. Unfortunately it was preceded by my least favorite type of climbing: unprotected slab traverse. Rated at about 5.6, I did plenty of bitching. I get so gripped on that shit! Anyway, we made it to the top and back down to the ground with little excitement, except for the fact that I forgot shoes for the walk off and did most of it barefoot. Shitty. I think I'm going to size up on my next pair of rock shoes (I'd like to note that I already sized up once this year after doing part of Free Blast with Dan). Fuck tight shoes.
After La Bella Luna, to celebrate the fact that we were in Tuolumne and doing a little rock climbing, we headed over to Tenaya Lake and sat by the water while I ate some chocolate. Then we headed over to
Oh shit, Luke just got his arm sliced off!
Anyway, we headed over to Electric Africa where Drew did 3 laps and I did one...damn...that thing is hard. I gotta stop trying to layback it and start climbing it like a real knob climber...using my feet...after I buy bigger shoes.
Whoa! The classic Vadar line: "Luke I am your father." Luke seems pretty upset.
During the day, Drew and I got psyched to take advantage of the amazing visibility in the Sierra and do something big and long. We decided on the North Face of Bear Creek Spire (see photos in previous post). Peter Croft says that it is the most classic 4th class route in the Sierra, and that is good enough for me. We drove down to Rock Creek to sleep, woke up early, left the car at 8am and were back a little after 3pm with time to chill at the summit and by a lake on the way back. Lots of elevation gain. Let's just say that Drew is in good shape, and he had to stop and wait a few times. That dude is fast! The route was super-cool, and we ended up on a ridge that had a few 5th class moves and excellent exposure. I finally got to see the legendary Skypilot, a polemonium that only grows above 12,000 feet. "Skypilot" is a nickname for a person who leads others to heaven. Appropriate for a plant that grows higher than any other in the Sierra Nevada. Also note that Polemonium peak is named after Skypilot. See the previous post, second to last photo for a pic of skypilot. The last photo is of alpine buckwheat. I get a kick out of little alpine plants.
After Bear Creek Spire, I was too tired to even think about climbing on Monday and headed home. Rested Monday and did my longest bike ride yet today, a 55 mile loop. I made it back in time for food and a shower before I headed to the infusion center for 3 hours of steroid IV drip. I'm supposed to go in for one day a month for the next 4 months. I don't mind so much because I get to joke around with the infusion ladies, but the stuff does kind of make me feel like shit. Whatever, I could be getting chemo and that would suck a lot more.
All I want to do right now is ride my bike, climb and hike. Is that so wrong?
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