Sierra Trip Reports

Location: Yosemite Valley

Dates: Thursday, November 26th (Thanksgiving) – Friday, November 27th

Climbers: Jon & Nick

Jon and I decided to head to Yosemite Valley to do some climbing over Thanksgiving. This was a trip of firsts for me, including:

1. This was my first time climbing in Yosemite Valley. To any climber, this is a huge development. I hope this to be the first of many trips in the future.

2. This was my first time climbing since I tore my meniscus in September. I had plans of grander this Fall to make many trips to the Meadows and the Eastside, all of which were derailed by my knee injury. After a lot of PT and still potential surgery, I felt it was time to “test the knee” so to speak.

3. This was my first time climbing on Thanksgiving. Last year I was skiing powder at Mammoth Mountain over Thanksgiving. This year, I thought climbing took the lead (no pun intended!).

4. This was my first time climbing with Jon. Jon is far and away a more experienced climber and a good friend to make the trip with. Enthusiastic, willing to teach and, most importantly, willing to down grade the routes we were on to fit my abilities (both from an injury standpoint and leading standpoint).

On to the trip….

We left San Francisco at 4 A.M. on Thursday morning and drove straight to the Yosemite Valley.

Stopping in Knob Hill, the first formation in the Valley, Jon led Sloth Wall (5.7), I led Anti Ego Crack (5.7) and Jon led Just For Starters (5.10a).

Anti Ego Crack was a little nerve-racking for me because it was my first time climbing an off-width crack. Still managed the lead (despite a huge run-out between my first pieces).

Jon sorting gear at the base of Knob Hill:

Jon leading Sloth Wall:

Once you broke above the tree-line, there was a nice view at the top of Knob Hill:

We then moved over and set up a top rope on Pot Belly (5.8). Neither Jon nor I wanted to lead it b/c the beginning was a pretty featureless slab up about 15 feet or so. Fun climb, though.

Here is Pot Belly (with the bottom portion cut-off a bit):

After Knob Hill, we went down into Yosemite Valley to the Five Open Books area and climbed Munginella (5.6) in two pitches while the party ahead of us did it in 4. I led the first pitch and Jon led the second.

We shared the climb with a guy with his 10 year old son! Was cool to see a kid that young handling the wall that well (although a little freaked out at points – completely justified though)!

Shot of Yosemite Falls – Odd to see it running this time of year (as it usually dries up due to snow at elevation):

Me leading the 1st pitch of Munginella – was a really fun climb:

Jon 1/2 way up the 2nd pitch, with Yosemite Falls in the distance:

Jon getting the gear broken down at the top of Munginella:

Walking off the top, with some cool light on Half Dome:

Thanksgiving night was spent in Camp 4 with Pizza, Beers and 21 degree weather. Pretty quite with only a few other climbers in the area (“few” being a relative term to Yosemite – probably another 100 people in Camp 4).

After a good night in Camp 4, we got up early and walked over to Swan Slabs. We linked Penelope’s Problem (5.7) with the upper two pitches of Swan Slab Gully (5.6 but the upper two pitches were only 5.5). Jon led the 1st pitch, and I led the 2nd two.

Jon on the first pitch of Penelope’s Problem:

Nick on the 3rd (and very short) pitch of Swan Slab Gully:

Great lean:

Not a bad place to do some rope coiling:

Finally we headed to the base of El Cap. I led Pine Line (5.7), Jon led La Cosita Left (5.7) and I lowered Jon from the top for a TR on La Cosita Right (5.9).

El Cap from the base – It is so big the pictures do not do it justice. From a climber’s perspective, El Cap is arguably the Holy Grail:

Gearing up for Pine Line, with the Cathedrals in the distance:

Me leading Pine Line. Frankly, this was my favorite climb of the trip and one of the coolest climbs I have done in a very long time! Awesome to be leading and look up to El Cap.

Only issue was a storm was rolling in at that point. I was absolutely freezing belaying Jon on the way up. Further, when leading the wind was out of control and almost blew me off the rock at one point.

Storm clouds starting to roll in…

Chilling and freezing at the belay ledge of Pine Line:

Couple of Jon leading La Cosita Left, a fun Chimney type climb that is way underrated (5.7) in my opinion. That leads us to this tangent – in addition to being bigger, everything in Yosemite is strongly underrated. A 5.7 here is easily a 5.9 in most other places….

After climbing La Cosita left and lowering Jon down on TR to climb La Cosita Right (my leg was bothering me at that point), I rapped down with the storm quickly approaching:

Storm clouds starting to cover El Cap:

35 minutes later, driving out of the Valley, the snow was coming down hard at 5,550 ft:

All in all, a great “First: trip to the Valley. Can’t wait to get back.