Southwest Face of Liberty Cap

With 10 days off in between a couple courses I am working, I headed into the Park to play on some big walls. My initial plan was to solo Ten Days After on Washington Column, but some major stuck rope issues forced me down after my second day on the wall.
After a couple days of getting my stuff down and decompressing at the El Cap Bridge, I teamed up with my buddy from El Portal, Andy Esparza, to go climb a route on Liberty Cap that had always captured my interest.

We racked up and hiked up the John Muir Trail, serving as amusement to the parched and dusty tourists who were amazed at the size of our packs (and that they weren't full of beer.) The best part though, was stopping for water along the trail, and several different people, thinking my open haulbag was a garbage can, threw their trash in it!
We made it up to the base, fixed a pitch, and went to hang out at a pool below Nevada Falls to relax and fill up our water bottles.
The next day came quick, and we started taking care of business pretty early. The second pitch featured a bitchin' 5.9 handcrack, and I got to lead the best pitch of the route, a super steep hook and rivet ladder out a steep corner.









The climbing overall was OK- a combination of decent climbing accompanied by some really low quality bush-grovelling. I likened it to Dante's Nine Circles of Hell, as experienced through shrubbery. The mini-epics were plentiful, including me leading a 5.6 chimney/c3 crack when my headlamp suddenly died, and one of Andy's approach shoes taking the plunge off the last pitch, leaving him to hike barefoot back down the trail, but the location was unbeatable.

Getting to look over at Nevada Falls all day long, looking at the tourists getting way to close to the edge and screaming, "YER GONNA DIE!!!" was priceless, and topping out and getting to look up into the Little Yosemite Valley was well worth our arboreal labors.

Sierra Summer Recap

As the summer officially draws to a close, and the cool fall winds breathe new life into the Valley and the High Sierra peaks, I figured it would be a good chance to reflect on the amazing months spent in the High Country and some photos of a couple of world-class routes I have gotten to play on.
The first is the North Arete of Bear Creek Spire (III 5.8, 13,800ft), a classic alpine rock route which takes a clean line up the striking pillar.

My friend Lyn Williams and I left Midpines to climb a route in Tuolumne Meadows before making our way over to the Eastside in the morning. We had in mind an easy, fun route that would get us psyched and break up the 5 hour drive. We approached the climb with no problems, but as we neared the base, Lyn began complaining of some "strange feelings". As I pimped my way out this traverse to scope the first pitch, Lyn calls up, "Hey, I don't mean to alarm you, but I CAN"T REMEMBER YOUR NAME!" Needless to say, I was alarmed. With Lyn fully ataxic, we descended really quickly to the car, where he drank a bunch of water and started feeling himself again. Really strange.
We did end up climbing a little route after all, but took it easy the rest of the day and drove to the trailhead at Mosquito Flat to sleep before blasting off in the morning to climb on Bear Creek Spire.
We left the car at 5 am, and made really good time on the trail up through Little Lakes Basin, one of the best Sierra approaches I've ever done.
The route itself was spectacular: it seemed like Cathedral Peak stacked on top of Yosemite's Nutcracker. We pitched out some of the pitches and soloed a great deal of the exposed 4th class, with smiles on our faces the whole way. We made it back down to the car in time to pick up cold beers at tom's Place and make it to the Mammoth Hotsprings for a wicked sunset.







A week later, I was hanging out in Tuolumne, doing some easy solo climbing and relaxing in the Meadows when a friend came up and started talking about the Incredible Hulk. I had wanted to get out and see for myself what the Hulk had to offer, as it has the reputation for having the finest alpine granite int he whole range.
So Daniel and I hiked in during the afternoon, making our way through aspen groves and over beaver dams, up to a basecamp situated directly under the massive stone.



As luck would have it, I ran into a few friends out there (the only other people climbing!), namely Robin and Roger, who were kind enough to bring us over hot chocolate (we had only brought cold canned chili in the name of going light).
We got up in the morning, not an alpine start by any means, and got started on the climbing on the ultra-classic Red Dihedral (IV 5.10c). The route was outstanding. Laser cut splitter cracks led to airy and exciting bulges to overcome, and the top it all off finished with a birth-canal tunnel though to the summit!
We scrambled/hobbled back down to our basecamp and packed up all our things, making it back down to Bridgeport for a greasy meal at a local cowboy bar. Giddy up!



The Birth Canal


As always the weather in the Sierras is some of the best mountain weather in the world, with day after day of splitter blue bird skies. So as I get ready to pack it all up for the season and head back down to Patagonia for another bout with the wind-battered spires, I am always appreciative of what I have in my own backyard.
Thanks.

Ridge Running in the Palisades

It ain't too often that you get to spend the entire day climbing, but never leaving the summit.  I just spent a few days off in between courses out in the Palisades region of the Sierras, climbing one of the phenomenal ridges which string together FIVE 14,000ft. peaks over a 1.5 mile traverse.  

I hiked in with my partner Matt, looking up at dark clouds which didn't give me a lot of confidence in our proposed itinerary, but kept my mouth shut as we pounded trail up past blue glacial lakes en route to our camp at Sam Mack Lake below the Palisade Glacier.

While I cooked our delicious Tasty Bite Punjab Choley,  Matt landed a small brown trout from the lake and we loaded up for the long day to come.  

Morning hits the Crest.

Waking up early in the a.m. got us moving up the glacier towards the North Couloir of Thunderbolt Peak, hoping to dispatch this first crux before the snow began to get too soft.  This turned out to be a wise decision, as there was a large (but not recent) slab avalanche that had swept down the couloir, and which made crossing the bergschrund an interesting activity.

Looking out from the N Ridge of Thunderbolt.

A view of things to come

The rock quality on this route is surprisingly good.  

My favorite section of the whole traverse, climbing down from the summit of Polemonium.

Once on the main ridge, the climbing just seemed to flow into a perfect mix of classic alpine rock (loose!), amazing exposure and breathtaking summits (Thunderbolt Peak, Starlight Peak, North Palisade, Polemonium Peak and Mount Sill), the tallest being North Palisade at 

14, 242ft.

Obligatory posing atop Mount Sill.  Our route directly behind me.

After 14 hours on the move, we made it back to our camp, thirsty and worn out.  A quick hike out the next morning would reward us with hot springs and cold Tecates outside Mammoth as we watched a huge storm move in and enshroud the mountains in a blanket of dark clouds.

 

Thanks for checking this out.  The summer ain't over yet though folks!

Peaks, Passes and Trails: 22 Days in the Heart of the Sierra

Living and working in the beautiful Sierra Nevada has been a dream come true.  This past month, I had the opportunity to instruct a 22 day mountaineering course in the heart of the High Country, located in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.  Every day brought us deeper into the wild and higher above the tree line.  The peaks are high, the trails steep, and the distances are great.  The beauty of this area is indescribable, and the amount of snow still present gave it that distinct alpine feel that the Sierra has always been able to capture for me. With any luck some of these photos will inspire others to take a personal journey and discover what lies amidst this range of light.

A cold view west from Twin Peaks after a snowstorm.

Taking it all in at Pear Lake.

Eagle Scout Peak

Suncups and Lawson Peak

Campsite in the Upper Nine Lakes Basin

Angel's Wings and Valhalla rising above Hamilton Lake

Lonely Peak aka the Scimitar

Tribal Rite, a Photo Trip Report

Well friends, it has been a long time now since I made it back down to Yosemite for the 2009 season, and since getting here, things have been in full swing.  With a lot of different friends showing up, and meeting a lot of new ones here in El Portal, I have been doing a bunch of free-climbing on formations that were totally new to me.  The valley is a pretty magical place for exploration.  

But the main draw, as always, is the Captain.  My buddy Rob suggested a vertical camping trip in the most scenic, exposed, and steep section of the wall- a route called Tribal Rite which cuts a clean and beautiful line up the left margin of the Dawn Wall.  To access the route, which starts 13 pitches up the wall after the Boot Flake, we climbed New Dawn.  After 2 days spent fixing, we were on the route for 7 days.

Tribal Rite was difficult and sustained, but the reward was the beautiful climbing we encountered along our grande tour of El Cap ledges.  Enjoy.

Grassy beginnings on New Dawn

There was quite a bit of cursing coming out of this flare.

Rob loves free climbing with the goon-rack.

Enter the Nose Superhighway. Fixed lines from El Cap Tower.

Boot Flake bolt ladder.

Don't mess with Texas!

The journey begins- pitch 1 of Tribal.

Steep!

Miles of heads and rivets get us to pitch 4.

The reason for it all...

Robbie enjoys Sun Ledge (pitch 4), while I tackle the Carrot first thing in the morning.

Another gorgeous open corner...

Which leads us to this strenuous and gently overhung A2 arrows corner.

Somewhere mid-route, Tom Evans started getting some pics of us from the bridge!

What does Robbie eat for breakfast?  Hooking off the belay.  Every time.  Does a body good!

Beginning the RURP pitch.  

Inside the beak, looking out.

Rob's best friend is his funkness.

Still lookin' fresh in our flair!

Top out haul ROCKS!

We topped out, packed up, and dispatched the East Ledges quickly to be met with cold beer and good food by Rob's wife Kendra.  Now we rest, swim in the river, and hatch new plans. 

After getting down, Rob has a Jim Morrison-locked in a bathroom-episode and decides that the past week was just another hallucination!

Later guys and gals. ryan.

Back to Life on 4 Wheels

Well, it has been about 3 weeks since I have gotten back from Patagonia, and I have already managed to climb twice as many pitches since my return as I did down there!  Although work has been slow (non-existent) around here, it has been nice to relax a bit and catch up with the family and some friends before heading back down to the madness that is Yosemite.  

One of the greatest things about having so much time on my hands (and power tools at my disposal), is that I was able to finally tackle a project I had been planning:  a sleeping platform/storage system for the back of my truck.  I based it of of several other people's designs, and took what I liked from each, trying to keep things as simple as possible and easy for one person to remove.  now it's finished and covered in a nice carpet, ready to hit the road down south in a couple weeks.  This baby is like the Four Seasons compared to throwing down next to the rig in a dust bowl outside Mammoth!  See you folks down there...

Aguja De la "S"oul

It´s been a long time since my last post, mainly because I haven´t DONE anything in the last few weeks! After the last attempt on de la S, there was a 2 week storm that either forced people to pack up and bail or to wait it out and endure a strange brew of Patagonian cabin fever.

Our cabana

With swollen rivers and deep snow, I was held captive my my gear cache at my high camp below the Rio Blanco glacier, so we sat out the storm in epic Patagonian fashion. Two long weeks were filled with seemingly unending asados (BBQs) with a live band courtesy Nico Favresse, Mason and Sean Villanueva, baking marathons, brief bouldering sessions at the Madsen boulders in town, and by going for days impersonating Borat.

Nico, Mason and Sean

Beckett crooning. Notice lack of opposite gender.

Nico on Vaca Muerte
boulder

When the weather forecast finally did show a 2 day window for the 22nd and 23rd, Wagner and I made plans to go back up and complete the Austrian route on de la S and retrieve my cache. I changed my flight back to the States so that this would be my last attempt- my patience was already worn too thin to wait for another good window.

Bivy Cave below Rio Blanco Glacier

We hiked up to the cave in good time and with light packs, arriving to find more food than I had thought I left, so we had a nice meal and settled in early. Waking up at 4:30am, we were on the glacier at 5:10 and making tracks up to the base of the route. As the sun came up and covered Fitzroy and Poincenot with a ruby red glow, I could not believe how much snow had actually fallen during the storm. All the open crevasses had been filled or covered over, and the SE faces of de las S and St. Exupery were blasted with rime ice.

Sunrise on Poincenot and Fitzroy

Wagner looking up at the route

Once we were at the base of the snow ramp, we were confronted with the harsh reality of Patagonia: climbing rock routes after a huge storm is dumb. There were two large slab avalanches that had come down the ramp (probably the day before), and the upper dihedral pitches were choked with snow and ice. With our backup route (the Bulgarian direct) also out of condition, we headed down.

The Calm before the STORM

On the way, the "good" weather decided to pack up as well, and was replaced by a mixture of snow, rain, and the strongest winds I have ever been in. At one point while hiking down from the cave, it was coming in so strong that I was being lifted OFF my feet and moved a couple meters!
So back down in town I began to pack up, and I bailed yesterday, taking a flight out of Calafate to Buenos Aires, where I sit and write this note. You can´t win em all, and for a first trip to Patagonia feel like I may not have accomplished any of the ambitions I came down with, but did get to stand on top of Cerro Solo, and now have all the beta and ideas for how to make the next trip down here that much better.

I'm OUTTA here!