This past weekend I started by climbing at Jailhouse on Friday with Dr. Rob. I hiked the warm-up (always a good sign), got on Whipping Boy, which I hadn't been on since it was trundled and drilled, went up Soap and then Common Thug. It was fun to get on a bunch of different routes. I think I'm more psyched on doing actual rock climbing and laps than I am on projecting stuff right now. The thought of long-term projecting makes me want to curl up in a ball and die.
After I left Jailhouse I drove up to Yosemite and was shocked by how cold it was. Not only that, but as I was driving through the valley, it started snowing! I looked up through my windshield in astonishment and felt a huge grin spread across my face as the swirling flakes engulfed all of the classic valley landmarks. I can't even remember the last time I saw snow...it's been a while.
I hung out in the Caf and visited with a friend and sipped some hot chocolate...it was nice. The I headed over the the Pines to meet up with Drew and Alice to talk about the next day. Which was going to be cold. The original plan was to do the Rostrum, but the forecast was for arctic temps and possible snow, so we decided on the Cookie.
On Saturday we headed to the Cookie and warmed up on Outer Limits, then I belayed Drew on Crack a Go Go, which I'd toproped before and remembered as being hard. Drew got pretty worked on it, but made it to the top so I could toprope it (what a gentleman). I was psyched to TR it clean! I ended up just using the right crack and making moves between finger locks. It was snowing again by the time I was near the top, so we went back down to the car to make sure Alice was still alive after a hypothermia scare, and then decided to do Catchy and Catchy Corner. Again, I took the easier lead (Catchy) and made Drew lead Catchy Corner. I'd tried to lead Catchy Corner before, but ran out of gear and ended up lowering down to get more. I was curious to toprope it to see how it felt now. It felt hard. It made me not feel so bad about getting gripped on it before. Again, I was psyched Drew put a rope on it so I could TR it clean. HA!
Sunday I met up with Dan and we had Plan A and Plan B. As we were 3rd (me) and 4th (Dan) day on, we decided to do Astroman but potentially just do the boy. We woke up early and it was COLD. My car thermometer read 29 degrees in the Caf parking lot around 7:15. But we figured that it would be nice on A-man in the sun, so headed up to the base. Sure enough, it was gorgeous over there, with no wind and crispy temps in the sun. We linked 1 and 2, 3 and 4 (the easier boulder problem allowed this with minimal drag), and 5 and 6. By the time we got to the top of 6, the temps were arctic and the shade had hit the wall, so we decided to bail. This went fine until Dan rapped the Enduro Corner and forgot to hang on to the other line because he was so excited about single-line rapping. I looked up at him and said "DAN! WE NEED THE PURPLE LINE!" To which he responded "OH SHIT". I always rap with a gri gri so I always single-line rap, but Dan had a reverso, so I just assumed that he would double line rap and hang on to the purple (tag) line.
So Dan is halfway up the Enduro Corner, and the tagline is fairly far left, a bit tangled and over the edge of the corner. Crap. By this time it's shady, I'm stuck on the ledge below the boulder problem sitting next to someone's dried-up shit, and I'm FREEZING. Dan says, "I might have to climb it again..." and I said "yeah but we have no lead line!"
Dan goes in direct so that I can give him some cams to make it back up to the anchor, which is probably about 35 meters away by that point. So Dan starts futzing around with the reverso and I yell up "why don't I give you my gri gri?" So I send up the gri gri. Fortunately however, after about 20 minutes of struggling, the capricious Gods smile on us and blow the purple rope right enough so that Dan can grab it. Then Dan starts futzing around a bit more and I yell up "dude! what are you doing?" He says "I'm going back on the reverso cause I'm afraid of losing the tagline" I respond "DUDE! WHY? Stay on the gri gri, drop the rest of the tagline and I'll fix it to the anchor. I WANT TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" He listens and pretty soon Dan and I are at the anchor, and then on the ground. Yay!
To the caf, where I eat a burger and fries, and then home to Davis. So that is the Yosemite trip report for this weekend.
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