apAdventures

Winter has arrived! Guess this is our cue to head home.

Goodbye Yosemite. We will be back, sooner than you think!

posted by arr

Our decision is made. We’re going to do the whole drive back to Tucson in one day to maximize our time in the valley. We’re not leaving until tomorrow morning! Woohoo! So what to do with this last glorious full day? Well…

I’m not at all exaggerating when I say that the first time Silas saw Yosemite Falls he wanted to hike to the top of it. He made this very clear to us, each and every day of this trip.

“Can we hike to the top of the falls today?”
– No.
“How about today? It’s a rest day! Can we do the hike?”
– No.
“But I want to! Why can’t we?”
– It’s too far. It’s too steep. Maybe when you and your brother are a little bigger.
“Can we do it today? It’s Thanksgiving! Let’s do a Thanksgiving hike to the top of the falls!”
– NO! We said NO! NO MEANS NO!

We decide to make this last day a ‘kids day.’ We let them pick. Climbing? Sightseeing? A walk? And you can of course guess what they said (because at this point in the trip Silas has badgered us so much that he’s now got Ivan badgering us too! Grrr). Alright, alright. We all compromise by deciding to do a portion of the hike and then they can see how steep and strenuous it is and we’ll just turn around. Just a short out-and-back. Agreed? Agreed.

Meanwhile I throw lunch and some extra water in the pack and make everyone take along their down jackets. ….just in case. You all know where this is going, right? heh heh. 😉

Heading up…

We make it to the top of the lower falls (base of the upper falls). Kids are psyched and fresh as daisies.

Higher…

Higher still…

Yep. You guessed it. The top.

We did shoulder them a bit near the top, not because they were tired (they actually protested at this!), but because we wanted to ensure they didn’t GET tired with so much more to hike. For those not familiar with this classic trail, let me just share some stats straight from www.nps.gov:
Distance: 7.2 miles (11.6 km) round trip
Elevation: 2,700 ft (823 m) elevation gain
Difficulty: Strenuous
Typical Time: 6-8 hours round trip (It took us 5 hours. Bam!)

And now the boys are chatting about wanting to climb El Cap. Uh oh.

posted by arr

Uncertain on whether to depart tomorrow or the following day, we decide this day has to be a climbing day. Our last one! We head back to the boulders we started on in the trip.

Paul samples Shadow Warrior, v12 to see if there’s potential on a future Yosemite trip

And I give another attempt at The Diamond. There is a v6 exit to The Diamond that I desperately wanted to tick on this trip. The v6-ness is all in this big one move though, and I’m still unable to stick it. An issue of trusting the tiny granite foothold and body position. Boo! I suck on granite!

…which makes me just want to climb it MORE! I dial back the ego and school myself on a vB slab instead.

Send! Yeah! hehe.

posted by arr

Today we got an early start so we could have plenty of time to prepare our dinner that afternoon. Unfortunately for us though, early meant COLD! I swear it was below 30 degrees!!!! …and I refused to climb until 10am, when the sun finally peaked out from behind the giant rock walls of the valley. The kids were not phased a bit by the cold…as they typically are about any kind of weather mother nature decides to dish out while we’re climbing. They had a blast playing in frozen mud puddles and tapping on frosty vegetation, all the while completely fascinated by “seeing their breath,” something we rarely experience in the desert due to the dry air.

A bitter cold send of the Camp 4 classic, Cocaine Corner, v5

The sun has peaked out and I warm up

Crack shot

Another classic! Paul sends King Cobra, v8

Sending in pairs seems to happen a lot for us. Immediately after Paul’s tick of King Cobra we walked over to the climb I’d tried two days prior, Ament Arete, v6. Send!! Woohoo!

Now on to dinner!

The kids preparing a pickle platter

We decide to head indoors for the feasting. Home sweet home in the van! We had nut loaf, cranberry chutney, mashed potatoes, green beans, butternut squash with brazil nuts, kale and pepitas, a variety of olives, pickles and my mom’s pickled beets, Barrio bread, flourless seed and nut bread, champagne, Sand Reckoner wine from AZ, sparkling cider for the kids and no-bake vegan pumpkin pie. Thankful for homemade deliciousness!!! YUM!

posted by arr

Rain early again this morning. The rain is lining up nicely with our rest days, woo!

We take a drive…

…to all the vistas.

Cool woods

Checking out Yosemite Falls…

…from the bottom (more on this later)

Three boys, in the woods, in the tree

posted by arr

It rained early the morning of Day 3. We made pancakes, scored some free hot chocolate and coffee in the Ahwahnee Hotel, scoped boulders and rested.

Now on to Day 4:

Silas runs up first climb of the day, Unnamed #10, vB in Camp 4

Ivan gives a go

The Kor Problem, v3

Unnamed #11, v3 on the same boulder

Thriller, v10. He’s on…

…and he’s off.

Ament Arete, v6

posted by arr

Time to climb!

Paul doesn’t hesitate and jumps right on the 4-star smear-y, stem-y and tall classic Once Upon a Time, v3

I settle for Alobar, v2

The Diamond, v8. AMAZING!

This is the view from this particular set of boulders. Not bad.

If you look really really REALLY close in the center of this pic, you’ll see two portaledges (i.e. hanging tents affixed to vertical rock). They belong to Adam Ondra and party, and at this very moment he was trying to complete a repeat of The Dawn Wall. He succeeded and later in the week Paul and the kids ran into him and got to share their congratulations.

Back down on earth’s smaller stones, Paul makes quick work of Bridalveil Pogo, v7

…while the kids entertain themselves on fallen trees

Love it!

posted by arr

For the last few years we’ve spent the Thanksgiving holiday at Hueco with our dear Pittsburgh climber friends. Alas, this year they didn’t make the cross-country trek (but will later in the season! Stay tuned!), so we decided to change it up a bit. Back in 2008 Paul and I spent Thanksgiving in Yosemite, and have kinda wanted to repeat that memorable trip every since. Well, this was our chance. Time to show the kids the big rocks. 🙂

We arrive! I’m just as awestruck by this place as the very first time I saw it. I honestly can’t say that about most.

All settled in Upper Pines Campground

posted by arr

With the recent arrival of our little guy we’ve been busy developing our new “routine.” We’ve got climbing fever bad and are setting our sights BIG on some projects for 2010. We’ll be announcing our tick lists soon. Some projects which have been left unfinished and some new projects that will put April and I in new territory. More later…

For now, as we start our training insanity we’ve been getting psyched by reflecting on great memories from our last year’s trip. Enjoy this little video of one of the most classic climbs in the world.

Finally, the update you’ve all been waiting for. After seven weeks in Bishop it was time for a change in scenery. It’s too bad we had to leave the unfinished Mandala and High Plains Drifter behind but the opportunity of ending this big climbing trip at a place we consider one of the most beautiful on Earth was too hard to pass up. One week in paradise:

One of the most well known boulder problems in the world is marked with this image. With a year packed full of incredible classic sends I knew this would be the ultimate conclusion.

Midnight Lightning, v8, the centerpiece of Camp 4 on the huge Columbia boulder was first established by Ron Kauk in 1978 before I was born. Still to this day it is one of the most sought after boulder problems by all types of climbers. It requires both technique and power and holds the rewarding “Yosemite mantle” as the last hard sequence. After 13 years of climbing I found myself finally standing below the masterpiece, wondering is it now my turn?

Yes!

With Midnight Lightning complete the pressure was relieved. Now it’s time to focus on the beauty of my surroundings (and cheer April on as she works her grand finale).

Tendons Give, v4, a traverse into the fun, bad landing, DO NOT FALL Tendons Mend, v0. After raving extensively about how amazing the moves were I convinced April to not only try it, despite the scary landing, but to send it. And she too got to experience a good old-fashioned “Yosemite mantle” at the top.

The Font Problem, v6, recommended to us as by a couple of friends as “a good ass whoopin.” As the name denotes, you can expect to squeeze your way to the top bypassing nothing more than little dimples in the stone. Very, yes, Fontainebleau-like. April worked it the first day and sent it the next.

Bears in our campground at night, bear next to April as she’s peeing in the woods, bear trying to get into our gear while we are climbing, bear in the tree next to Midnight Lightning while I’m trying to send, bear cruising through the forest on our hike out of the boulders. Bears everywhere.

Rain day in the valley.

Beautifully secluded campsite number 176.

Secluded? Just kidding. Behold the boxed-in future of American Car Camping.

Half Dome on a Thanksgiving Day.

Our first attempt at cooking our very own Thanksgiving turkey.

Stoking the fire under the feast.

Our stuffed bird cooked to perfection accompanied by mashed sweet potatoes, creamed corn, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls with butter and of course pumpkin pie.

Burning off the Thanksgiving dinner with a hike up to Glacier Point via the Four Mile Trail.

Yosemite Falls.

Half Dome.

April enjoying the view from Glacier Point.

Wait, wait, there’s one more. The Force, v9, adjacent to Thriller, v10, situated in front of the coolest tree in all of Yosemite.

Tick list complete.

And last but not least, our Cute Morgan.

posted by pjv