October trip to Yosemite

    Our trip to the Yosemite Valley; Wild, Fast and Scary! After pulling into Camp 4 and denied a site, we got some restless sleep with Senior El Capatain. Climbers roam the wall with torches ablaze. Six or more Adventures were at work. We score cell-block 29. Simul-climbing by ten O'clock on Manure Pile Buttress we soar though After Six, After Seven and Nut Cracker. Sweat is poring off of us! A bottle neck at the Mantle on Nut Cracker. Under the parties of our fellow travelers we go, greasy, hot slab awaits. We bypass climbing sandpaper and moss. Back to camp dropping the 8.2 simule-rope for a real one. Off to Serenity-Sons. Hot! We bleed and send. Sleep.

Bear Boxes clang and slam from all the awaking soldiers. Amy is excited about the on-sight solo of Royal Arches about to take place. Meeting more Comrades at the start and in the belly of the Beast, they slide through with ease. We swing on the Pendulum with packs on our back, we have a plan. Amy slams the Tower above the hollow, springing tree, laced with jugs. The final exposed slab we take and feel the relief. North Dome we trudge toward. Awesome and bizarre slab climbing weaves through the Crest Jewel. Mystery relics appear on the left at times from past explores. “Where's” and “whose”, wander through our mind with “whats that?” as we climb. We greet a Baby Cub on the summit as he dashes down the descent trail. Where's Momma Bear?

We take Rest.

     We approach the Sentinel. Welcome greetings from a man named Jake belaying an unknown Leader while we rack tools. They are strong and fast. We start simul-climbing, Jake and Peter hang waiting for us to pass. Through Wilson's Overhang we go. Amy is unhappy with all the equipment and bag O' supplies. She passes through the wydes with nothing, but strength and style. We start pitching full rope lengths. Jake and Peter have swapped their blocks. Jake moves! We hang in a cave eating our feast of nothing below the Narrows. Jake goes through the slot then Peter follows. We watch as Peter tries to squeeze his giant body through the chasm. Legs dangle and wiggle in space as he inches up. Amy takes the reins and chases quickly through the heart of the giant. I push for the top hearing Peter and Jake sound “Good Bye! See you on the Descent!” A shuffle through the equipment and only one usable headlamp we head for the way off in sandals. We have just found the Boys. “Rock!” I yell as the ground gives way under me. Blocks fly though the gully as Peter and Jake dive out to the walls. I got Peter. He is “fine” he says and continues as if nothing happened. Strong! We clash beers together at their rolling palace. We talk about favorite pitches and future plans. We are now friends and will see each other again.

    Appropriately enough we clash beers over our dinner on the rest day. We talk about traveling to Patagonia. Jake and Peter fill us with all kinds of useful information on the region. They are excited as are we.

The Lower Cathedral Spire, Higher Cathedral Spire and The Braille Book we wake to climb. Starting on lower spire we climb with enjoyment, simul-climbing the first four pitches. We shoot of the Regular Route and jump onto South by South-West. Amy racks for the 5.10d pitch. It fights her as she works it out. She commits. The steep, slightly overhanging wall greases her off, the double 00” t.c.u rips, she goes even further. She reels her self in. The rope has been slightly melted and core shot twice. Good thing the piton held. We swap. The climbing is stout and totally enjoyable. Amy takes us through a hole to the summit. We rappel and start soloing up the ridge-saddle to link into the higher spire. We part a bush then through a half dead oak. “Ow! It must be an oak leaf in my sock, AHHH!”. Ow! Amy starts screaming. “Its Bees!!!”. We start soloing and trying to move! Ow! Ow! Amy is below me being totally attacked. I jump down to her and start plucking Meat Bees out of her hair as quick as I could. Another one gets me in the ear. We start hauling ass up the mossy wall, trying to get away. We have no rope or harness, they are in the pack. We hit a ledge and are forced to rope up. I can feel a few bites, Amy has no idea how many she has. She is in a lot of pain. We get to the base of the Higher and bee line straight to the car. We need Benadryl. We swell and feel bad for ourselves.

   The next morning everything is swollen and puffy. We pack the car and head back to Lone Pine cutting the trip short by a few days. We are happy with what we had done. Amy got to see Yosemite Valley finally, we got to see some future endeavors, but now it is time to ice our stings.

Thank you TRANGO!!

We are very excited that Trango Climbing has brought us on as Grass Roots Climbing Team Athletes. The support and excitement that we have received thus far, has lite a fire under us for our next expedition to South America!

Our plan and goal is to be base camping at the Japanese Camp under the Central Tower of Paine Massif. We will be there for four month taking the ride on some really big Giants. Being on a 4,000ft beast is keeping us up with the thought of spending anywhere to 20 days on the wall to establish what we seek. A Journey into the unknown is what is all about.

Another Lone Pine Peak Adventure-Ptergio Dieythno

the white colored fin is centered Credit: Amy Ness

After our last experience on the south side of Lone Pine Peak, we wanted to return immediately. However, the winds that nearly blew us off the Serrated Ridge brought with it a white blanket which covered the peaks throughout the last week. Finally, getting stir-crazy in the valley, we decided to hike in the snow to check out a future endeavor and get some fresh air. On our way, we couldn’t help but notice the dry, south-facing granite looming above us. We continued on towards the stone house, knowing that we would turn around to pack for the trip that couldn’t wait.

	myles and max ready to go...lone pine peak is behind them Credit: Amy Ness

Salami…check. Dry milk…check. Inflatable pillows…check, check. We are ready to go by the next morning. Arriving at the base of what appeared from afar to be a ridgeline, we encountered a bunch of wide, kitty-liter quality rock. We had been hiking for about 2 hours and the idea of going around the corner to scope out other options seemed like such a challenging task. We built up the energy and walked to the right of the formation. We found a large dihedral that took off from the ground eventually hitting a saddle that connected to the large brown dihedral we had seen from afar. The climbing looked moderately difficult and we would have to climb 4-5 pitches before connecting with what we thought would be the 1st real pitch if we chose the ridge route.

	myles ready to simulclimb Credit: Amy Ness

We decided to stick to our plan and climb the ridge, so we wrapped our kiwi coils in order to simulclimb. Myles started up and before making any progress, called down, “You wanna go direct?” “Yes”, I called back, “this looks stupid!” We reflaked the rope and hiked back over to the beautiful dihedral…not knowing how difficult or long of a process we had in store for us, knowing only, that this was the line we had come to do. I must admit, I was nervous; the wall had transformed from a simulclimbing romp with a few more difficult pitches into the unknown. The days in mid-November are short, and the descent will be covered in snow…yet, here we go!

	fin from the base

Myles goes up the dihedral with ease ending atop a bowling pin block. After a flake, he steps across to a roof and belays me up.

	myles on first pitch

I take the rope up a chalkstone arc and wandered up the wall passing 2 beautiful flakes to where my rope ran out in an oasis.

	chock-stone arc

Myles joined me in my perfect little hole and took off over a chicken-head roof crack, eventually belying in an alcove about 100 ft. up. His pitch was short, which he briefly mentioned while we looked up at the lieback I was about to climb. I used the nut tool to clean-out a spot for gear in the beginning (a technique we had used a time or two before on this route). As I reached the top where the lie-back widened and my only #3 was 10’ under me (the other was at the belay), I reached up and found the jug…except it was moss. The slickest, oozing, slimy moss I have ever encountered! I tried to jam my thigh into the crack and all of the sudden…POP! I was off. Hanging 10 ft, below my piece, I collected myself. “My turn”, I hear not 20 seconds later. “Bullshit!” I yell back as I grab the rope and get to high point as quickly as possible. This time, I put in another piece a little lower and take my #3 with me. I go again for the mossy jug, my thigh slips in, and I place my #3- whew! I skim up the mossy, muddy, wide crack to join into another wide crack.

	my lieback...mossy jug on top!

My angry partner joins me at my tree belay and renounces my decision to go up the wide crack instead of going up the face…with no pro. We had to carry our boots, microspikes, as well as the ordinary all-day climbing items; making the 2nd carry a thick, heavy pack. Haha. He took the rope left over some 4th class to the case of the brown dihedral. He went up the odd, brown face protecting the crack. After standing on some questionable, but necessary, blocks on the face, he moved left to a ledge and belay.

	knobs

I went up some flakes, over a ledge, and worked the ledge left to where I encountered easy knobs to a thin ledge belay. The experience of tiptoeing across unprotected, easy knob-climbing has become one of my favorite aspects of climbing in the Sierras…the other option was a wide crack, which my partner wouldn’t have appreciated! Myles then walked up a ramp to make an unnerving move across to an overhanging, wide crack with bushes on top. After a difficult move, he lead us past flakes and cracks to the summit.

	Credit: Amy Ness

That was it. We were done. The sun had almost hidden behind the canyon leaving us just enough time to get back to camp. The descent is long and snowy, but we could still manage to see our faint tracks from 2 weeks ago and our microspikes kick ass:) As we relaxed by the fire that night, Myles asked me what my favorite part of the day was. Thinking for a moment, I replied, “When you wanted to do the direct.”

We have no prior knowledge of the route being done. It goes up the white fin on the right-hand side of Autumn Ledges for about 1450 ft. Even though I fell, I think it goes at about 5.9…without the moss!