Jonny5 and I were up in Tuolumne Meadows this weekend to do some climbing and meet up with some friendly squirrel researchers. Memorial day weekend Ryan and I met Haleh, Katie, and Jenny in Bishop at an artesian-well slash hot spring slash swimming hole. They're doing squirrel research in Tuolumne this summer which means they've got a free reserved campsite and can get us into the park for free. Haleh invited us up to Tuolumne for the weekend, and Jonny and I headed up.
We got in Friday night around 9:30PM after leaving San Francisco around 3:45. It always amazes me how long it takes to drive to Yosemite! Minor adventures and confusion ensued as we tried to find "The squirrel camp" which was actually being shared by the "Berkeley Butterfly Boys". There's an interesting and rich employee culture in Yosemite. People stay in cabins and tents throughout the summer doing field research on various species. I've met people who study frogs, owls, squirrels, and butterflies, and I'm sure there are other groups as well. Some researchers live in the valley, some live up in Tuolumne. Seems like a pretty fun job, living and working in one of the more beautiful places on the planet. It reminded me a little bit of the trail and bio crews that live and work at Moosilauke Lodge up in New Hampshire.
Saturday we woke up early and did a little bit of dog-smuggling and climbing. Yosemite (like all national parks) does not allow dogs anywhere in the park except on "improved surfaces" (pavement) and some campsites. My plan had been to leave Khola at camp while we climbed, but the camp host said that she couldn't be left unattended. It's too hot to leave her in the car, so we snuck her into the woods and to the base of the cliff. We managed to do that twice. The only thing that sucked is that Khola was very defensive at the base of the cliff and would bark at any new climbers that walked up. That was annoying and troubling, but in the end we didn't get caught. Still it was a big hassle and one that I would avoid in the future. It really frustrates me that our national parks don't allow you to bring a dog into the woods. Seems pretty ridiculous to me.
The climbing itself was great. We went up West Crack on Daff Dome which is a stellar 5 pitch 5.9. Really perfect rock with a nice long crack and some knobs and face-features, even a little roof you had to pull over! I got strung out accidentally trying to link the 2nd and 3rd pitches together. I was in the zone and blew right past a nice bolted anchor about 10 feet left of the crack and about 100 feet above the first belay. So, at about 135 feet I realized I had two slings left, and what looked like about 30 feet of pretty smooth, slightly flaring crack. I'd already had one 30 foot run out earlier on in the pitch and wasn't in the mood for another one at the end of the rope. I wouldn't have had any gear to build an anchor anyway. So, I built a nut anchor in the crack at a nearly vertical section of the cliff and had to hang there and bring Jonny up. Luckily he found the bolt anchor and we managed to get everything straightened out. I came down to the bolt anchor and Jonny finished off the third pitch with style. The remaining climbing was pretty easy and uneventful. I'd love to go back and do it again now knowing to stop at that bolt anchor.
We had a siesta back at camp and were pretty surprised that we hadn't seen Haleh or Katie yet. We went back out and smuggled the dog into the base of "Low Profile Dome", which should really be called "Low Profile Cliff" as there's really nothing dome-like about it, where we climbed a really nice two pitch 5.7R. The R rating was deserved, Jonny had a 30-40 foot runout at the top of the second pitch, but it was on relatively easy terrain. It was a nice finish to the day. It's amazing how much more pleasant climbing is when you can easily see and hear your partner. That was one of the biggest problems on west crack. When I ran out of gear Jonny was 130 feet below me and under a roof and it was windy. We couldn't really hear each other at all.
Again, back to camp, and some wading in the Tuolumne river, and then finally Haleh and Katie arrive. Car troubles delayed them by about 10 hours. Bummer. Jonny and I were both pretty tired and satisfied so we did a little bit of hanging out around a campfire, then off to bed, rise early, and head back home. I've got a big trip to Whistler coming up that I need to prepare for, and there wasn't much we could get done on Sunday without worrying about the dog and all that hassle so we just took it easy and headed back. You can check out Jonny's Flickr page for photos from the weekend. I brought my camera but it never got out of my bag.
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