On Saturday Drew and I did the Rostrum, despite the fact that the weather looked a little bit suspect. Fortunately by the time we got down it was perfect and we started up the climb around 10:30, the first party on the route. I'd done the Rostrum a few years ago with Dr. Freesolo and had done fairly well. I've been trad climbing a lot more lately, so I was hoping to do better than last time.
I had a feeling that I'd need more water than one liter, clipped to my harness clanging around, but I decided to try to climb the route sans pack. It worked ok, but on the whole I think it was a mistake. I'm sorry, but carrying a tag line and hauling a pack so you can be more comfortable is the way to go for me these days. When I can do the Rostrum in 4 hours, I'll consider carrying my own water while leading and following again.
It took about 6 hours, I led pitches 1, 3 and 5, whipped on 5, and then got a little worked on the offwidth. I actually climbed up half of it, which I was pretty psyched about since before I had only aided the thing. Right knee stuffed in the crack and some hand stacking worked pretty well. I was also psyched to follow the second to last pitch clean, since I had remembered it being really hard for me.
I'm still sore today (Monday) even though I only did a little bouldering yesterday. I think it's because I got so freakin' dehydrated. It seems like I feel a lot better the net day when I've had plenty of food and water during a long climb. I wish I were tougher, but I am not. It's time to accept it.
So Sunday was really fun! All kinds of people came into the valley. Shannon and John, Alan and his lady-friend Amna, Becky, Patti, Lyn, Paul and Cameron, Courtney, and a bunch of people I'd never met before, but were friends of friends. It was cool to hang out in the caf with the Berkeley crew. Most of the people I hang with (John, Shannon, Justin) are NOT morning people, but Lyn and Patti were pretty darned perky. It was rad.
I ended up bouldering at the Lost World boulders. Well, mostly I sat around and watched people boulder, ate half a bag of the Trader Joe's version of Cheetos (I think the technical name is "Baked Cheese Crunchies") and did 2 boulder problems. Not sure what the first one was, but it was a pretty cool V2 thingie. I did another boulder problem called "Once Upon a Time" which was a highball (ok it was pretty tall, but is it considered a highball in Yosemite?) V3 stem corner. SICK! I did some boulder problems! It's cool because aside from the time I bouldered with Justin a week or two ago, I hadn't bouldered at all in a couple of years. The last time I bouldered in Yosemite there wasn't nearly as much development. I'm psyched.
I also got to watch Shannon, Justin, Beth and John get worked over by a steep boulder problem that was essentially a steep offwidth crack. There weren't any sends, but the effort was proud and the psyche was high. I'd forgotten how much fun bouldering is with big groups of people. It's cool.
Alright, I'm still here, sitting in the Ahwahnee recovering from the past two days. I should just hang out and drink a bunch of water today, maybe hike up to the base of the Rostrum to collect the jacket and hat that Drew and I decided we wouldn't need, read, maybe do some work? It would be pretty cool if I could hang here and study for my qualifying exam which is coming up in December.
John should have some good photos from the weekend, so I'll link over to his blog when those show up.
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