Yosemite National Park, is touted as one of the most spectacular places for climbers. The impressive granite rock formations, towering over the valley and meadows... just dare and beckon all the world's climbers to come and test their skills and push their limits here.
My boyfriend and I, along with a group of friends, flew out for the long holiday weekend. With 3 days in Yosemite, we planned to take the first day to acclimate ourselves to climbing in a new area on something easy. Day 2, we would get an alpine start for Snake Dike (5.7) on Half Dome. Day 3, we would do something easier depending on how we felt.
After a late night flight from JFK to SMF, picked up our car rental and drove through the night for Yosemite National Park. We arrived at our campsite in Upper Pines around 4:30AM. Since we had to move campsites that night, everyone made the decision to sleep in the car, rather than unpacking the tents.
We "napped" for an hour before we were awakened to start the day at 6AM. Soon, we found ourselves in front of the trail for Royal Arches (5.7 A0). I looked at my boyfriend and wondered why we were even considering Royal Arches, with 1 hour of "nap" time after a long way from home. The goal of this trip was supposed to be Snake Dike. We had to be back at the camp and getting ready for bed around 4pm on Day 1, so we would be well rested for our alpine start on Snake Dike Day 2. Royal Arches was a 15 pitch climb that is fully committing, and I wasn't sure that we were going to be able to finish the climb in the allotted time to be back at camp. We backed off the climb, while two friends decided to go for it.
Slightly agitated from being woken up and not getting adequate rest, we could have slept in a few more hours for a light day of climbing. However, now, I was stuck with no campsite, no way of sleeping, in the cafeteria, loading myself up with caffeine to stay awake. Then off we went to climb After Six (5.7) and were done at 3:30pm.
So we grabbed the car, and went back to the parking lot by Royal Arches, hoping to find our friends. Unfortunately, we would not find them until 11:30pm that night. Everyone was worried sick, but they seemed to be ok, and have completed all 15 pitches of Royal Arches.
We woke up at 2AM on Day 2 for our alpine start to Snake Dike. Our 6 mile approach to Half Dome was lit by the blue moon that night. We were able to hike without headlamps, and saving the batteries for the potential hike out at the end of the day in the dark. Within the first hour, it became very apparent, that our two friends who just finished Royal Arches the day before, were in no condition to do Snake Dike. They were dragging their feet on the hike in. I consider myself, normally the slowest of the bunch when it comes to hikes, and even I was in front of the pack with my boyfriend. We made frequent stops along the way, to wait for them to catch up.
By the time we reached the Lost Lake, it was already 7AM. We've only completed maybe 4 miles of the approach, and still have the remaining 2 miles with the steepest and most strenuous part coming up. Boy, we were moving too SLOW. Everyone was running out of water, even tho, we've each packed 3 liters plus each, and refilled once at the potable water station on the Mist Trail.
On the sketchy traverse around the base of Half Dome up high, I touched a dead tree, which turned out to be a beehive. And then I found myself being swarmed with bees and being stung. It was the fastest anyone has ever seen me dash across a sketchy traverse/ hike. Even though, I was stung quite a bit, I looked up and Half Dome, Snake Dike was just around the corner. I wasn't allergic to bees, but it did hurt. Refusing to bail and having to backtrack my way back down, I wanted to push on. By this time, it was 9AM and a few parties have already passed us. When we reached the base of Snake Dike, there were at least 5 parties and 10 people ahead of us. It was 10AM, and our two friends have almost no water left. We were looking at the possibility of just making it to the top of Snake Dike just at sunset, with the rest of the "endless" slab to the top of Half Dome in the dark. It would be unsafe.
No one seemed to have their hearts in the climb anymore, so we all turned around and hiked out.
Day 3, we ended up as a light climbing day, and we hit Mungenella (5.6). My boyfriend and I finished the climb in 2 hours and waited for our friends to finish up. We all packed up and started our drive back to SMF to catch the red eye back to New York for work the next day.
Overall, I felt the weekend was wasted and highly disappointing. Afterall, we trekked a long way out for a 3 day weekend on barely any sleep. I was hoping to at least accomplish one thing. Instead, it felt like a long disappointing lazy weekend climbing at home at the Gunks.
After this trip, it was lesson learned... climbing trips are not meant for big groups with different goals and agendas. Goals and plans should have been communicated prior to departure of the trip, to ensure that all parties manage their expectations accordingly.
Showing posts with label Trip reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trip reports. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Trip Report: Wallface and Rogers Rock, Adirondacks, NY
My boyfriend and I, along with 2 other friends, decided to do a weekend climbing trip in the Adirondacks. We planned on hitting Diagonal (5.8) on Wallface on Saturday and Little Fingers (5.6) on Roger's Rock on Sunday.This was the perfect set up to gear us up for our pending Yosemite Trip up Snake Dike on Labor Day weekend.
Diagonal is approximately 3 hour hike in from Henderson Lake in the Adirondack park, and a 7 pitch 860ft climb. The hike for Diagonal is definitely much shorter/ less strenous then what we'll be experiencing on Snake Dike, but it's still long approach and a long climb to make it a nice long day.
The 4 of us arrived late Friday night/ early Saturday AM in parking lot near the Upper Iron Works. We figured, it'll only be a couple hours before we needed to get up and started with our climbing day so we slept in the car. The alarm went off at 6AM and we started to sort through all our climbing gear we needed. That's when I noticed, my climbing shoes were no where to be found. I felt a little bummed/ discouraged and really awful since my boyfriend was really looking forward to climbing Diagonal and checking it off his list. I offered to let my boyfriend continue to hike in with my other two friends and climb, while I just slept and relaxed in the car. But, BF insisted that I at least tried to hike in, and maybe I'll climb in my hiking shoes, or his climbing shoes (which are 5 sizes too big on my feet)....
So... after some persuading from everyone, I silently agreed to hike in and tried really hard not to think about where my missing climbing shoes were and how I was going to finish this weekend's climbs without them.
First part of the hike was really easy and flat, and definitely got much harder and required a little bit of scrambling around some boulders. We were concerned that the trails would be muddy, since the area was supposed to have received some heavy storms the night prior. Luckily for us, it missed this part of the Daks and it wasn't so muddy after all.
Diagonal looked impressive, and I scanned the route and realized, it might be difficult to climb this without my shoes after all. Boyfriend handed over his climbing shoes to me, and started leading up the first pitch in his approach shoes. I gingerly followed up in his over sized shoes, and was sketched out of my mine on a 5.6 pitch already, feeling insecure every time my feet slide around in the shoes. I seriously just considered taking the shoes off and climbing up barefoot the rest of the way.
After making my way up pitch 1. I still wasn't feeling too thrilled about not having my climbing shoes. I was most of all annoyed that this was a pitch I would have easily climbed and led under normal circumstances. And yes, I was really hoping to lead most of the easier pitches and saving the 5.8 pitches for my boyfriend to complete.
So after some discussion, my boyfriend and I fixed the rope to the anchor and rappelled back down to the ground. We left the rope behind for our two friends to take with them so they'd have double ropes for the descent later on.
Grumpily, I hiked back out and headed straight to the Mountaineer shop in Keene Valley. Praying on the way there, they'd have my shoe in my size. Thankfully, they did and it saved my weekend.
That night we headed to the Rogers Rock campground and settled in in preparation for our climb on Rogers Rock.
After a late start on Sunday AM, we finally managed to paddle out on Lake George to Rogers Rock. With one canoe, 4 people and climbing gear, we shuttled 2 at a time and all the gear to the base Rogers Rock. Little Fingers was another climb we chose so that we could practice our slab climbing techniques in preparation for our Yosemite - Snake Dike - Half Dome climb.
Armed with brand new Miuras, which I paid a hefty $171 total for the day before, there was no way I was going to let this climb get away from me now. I slowly racked up, and mentally prepped myself for lead before I took off. It has been a while since I've been back on the sharp end, and it took a little bit of whining on the first 20 ft and mental toughness to get back into the groove again...
Suddenly, I heard my boyfriend call out on the radio, "You're out of rope, you should be at some fixed gear for anchor by now". Gosh, I looked at the remaining gear on my harness, and managed to pull together an anchor using 2 fixed pitons, a yellow C3, and a small nut. Of course, as I was about to put my BF on belay, I dropped my ATC. I prayed again to myself, hoping I remembered my munter hitch. So after rigging the munter hitch belay, and quadruple checking it, I belayed my BF up pitch 1. Of course, he also decided to slip 10 ft before he reached the anchor, and thankfully, the munter hitch worked!
I led up pitch 2 and set up an anchor at an uncomfortable slabby ledge below the overhang. By now my calves were burning and mentally I'm exhausted from leading. Climbing was never hard, being more inexperienced on slab climbing and leading again, slowly chipped at me. I shrugged it all off and focused on staying efficient and keeping things moving. The belay at the top of pitch 2 was so uncomfortable, that I handed the remaining pieces off my harness to my boyfriend and told him to take off and lead the remaining 3rd pitch.
We topped out the last pitch and waited for our friends, climbing in a separate team to finish before rappelling back down on double ropes.
The canoe ride back, the boys decided that there will be no shuttling. So they blew up the Donut/ Tube and tied it to the back of the canoe. The girls were handed a life jacket and they dragged/ towed us through the Lake back to our car.
It was definitely not way I expected the trip to turn out. But, after this, I am definitely always going to check for my climbing shoes before leaving home.
Diagonal is approximately 3 hour hike in from Henderson Lake in the Adirondack park, and a 7 pitch 860ft climb. The hike for Diagonal is definitely much shorter/ less strenous then what we'll be experiencing on Snake Dike, but it's still long approach and a long climb to make it a nice long day.
The 4 of us arrived late Friday night/ early Saturday AM in parking lot near the Upper Iron Works. We figured, it'll only be a couple hours before we needed to get up and started with our climbing day so we slept in the car. The alarm went off at 6AM and we started to sort through all our climbing gear we needed. That's when I noticed, my climbing shoes were no where to be found. I felt a little bummed/ discouraged and really awful since my boyfriend was really looking forward to climbing Diagonal and checking it off his list. I offered to let my boyfriend continue to hike in with my other two friends and climb, while I just slept and relaxed in the car. But, BF insisted that I at least tried to hike in, and maybe I'll climb in my hiking shoes, or his climbing shoes (which are 5 sizes too big on my feet)....
So... after some persuading from everyone, I silently agreed to hike in and tried really hard not to think about where my missing climbing shoes were and how I was going to finish this weekend's climbs without them.
First part of the hike was really easy and flat, and definitely got much harder and required a little bit of scrambling around some boulders. We were concerned that the trails would be muddy, since the area was supposed to have received some heavy storms the night prior. Luckily for us, it missed this part of the Daks and it wasn't so muddy after all.
After making my way up pitch 1. I still wasn't feeling too thrilled about not having my climbing shoes. I was most of all annoyed that this was a pitch I would have easily climbed and led under normal circumstances. And yes, I was really hoping to lead most of the easier pitches and saving the 5.8 pitches for my boyfriend to complete.
So after some discussion, my boyfriend and I fixed the rope to the anchor and rappelled back down to the ground. We left the rope behind for our two friends to take with them so they'd have double ropes for the descent later on.
Grumpily, I hiked back out and headed straight to the Mountaineer shop in Keene Valley. Praying on the way there, they'd have my shoe in my size. Thankfully, they did and it saved my weekend.
That night we headed to the Rogers Rock campground and settled in in preparation for our climb on Rogers Rock.
After a late start on Sunday AM, we finally managed to paddle out on Lake George to Rogers Rock. With one canoe, 4 people and climbing gear, we shuttled 2 at a time and all the gear to the base Rogers Rock. Little Fingers was another climb we chose so that we could practice our slab climbing techniques in preparation for our Yosemite - Snake Dike - Half Dome climb.
Armed with brand new Miuras, which I paid a hefty $171 total for the day before, there was no way I was going to let this climb get away from me now. I slowly racked up, and mentally prepped myself for lead before I took off. It has been a while since I've been back on the sharp end, and it took a little bit of whining on the first 20 ft and mental toughness to get back into the groove again...
Suddenly, I heard my boyfriend call out on the radio, "You're out of rope, you should be at some fixed gear for anchor by now". Gosh, I looked at the remaining gear on my harness, and managed to pull together an anchor using 2 fixed pitons, a yellow C3, and a small nut. Of course, as I was about to put my BF on belay, I dropped my ATC. I prayed again to myself, hoping I remembered my munter hitch. So after rigging the munter hitch belay, and quadruple checking it, I belayed my BF up pitch 1. Of course, he also decided to slip 10 ft before he reached the anchor, and thankfully, the munter hitch worked!
I led up pitch 2 and set up an anchor at an uncomfortable slabby ledge below the overhang. By now my calves were burning and mentally I'm exhausted from leading. Climbing was never hard, being more inexperienced on slab climbing and leading again, slowly chipped at me. I shrugged it all off and focused on staying efficient and keeping things moving. The belay at the top of pitch 2 was so uncomfortable, that I handed the remaining pieces off my harness to my boyfriend and told him to take off and lead the remaining 3rd pitch.
We topped out the last pitch and waited for our friends, climbing in a separate team to finish before rappelling back down on double ropes.
The canoe ride back, the boys decided that there will be no shuttling. So they blew up the Donut/ Tube and tied it to the back of the canoe. The girls were handed a life jacket and they dragged/ towed us through the Lake back to our car.
It was definitely not way I expected the trip to turn out. But, after this, I am definitely always going to check for my climbing shoes before leaving home.
Monday, July 30, 2012
Trip Report: Northeast Ridge of Pinnacle Buttress, NH
Climb Date: July 28th, 2012
Time round trip (Car to Car): 11 hours 15 mins
Party: 5 climbers split into 2 teams.
Climb rating: 5.7
Guidebook: Selected Climbs in the Northeast: Rock, Alpine, and Ice Routes from the Gunks to Acadia
Trail Map: AMC Map: Presidential Range: White Mountains Trail Map (Adventure Series)
Exciting weekend trip up to New Hampshire. On Friday night, we drove 6.5 hours to North Conway, NH with plans on climbing Pinnacle Buttress at Mt Washington.
Only with 5 hours of sleep, we woke Saturday around 6:30am, groggy but hoping to get some climbing in. The forecast expected some rain and thunderstorms for the day. The 5 of us consulted on what our options were for the day. We debated on whether it would be a good idea to try Pinnacle given the thunderstorm, and whether we should opt for a day of short less committing climbs at Cathedral Ledge.
We finally settled on giving Pinnacle a try in hopes that we move fast enough before the rain and storms would catch us on the climb. So off we went to Pinkham Notch. We hiked up Tuckermans Ravine Trail to Huntington Ravine Trail. Took us about 3 hours to get to the base of the climb.
The climb itself was on quality rock. Most pitches were rated 5.5 and under with two pitches rated 5.7. This is definitely within reach for a 5.7 leader.
With the prospect of thunderstorms looming in the back of our minds, we've tried to move as fast as we could on the climb. Topping out at Alpine Garden 5 hours later, just in time before the storm rolled in as we descended down the Tuckerman's Ravine Trail. We felt the Tuckerman's Ravine Trail would be the easiest and safest way down the mountain in the storm.
Time round trip (Car to Car): 11 hours 15 mins
Party: 5 climbers split into 2 teams.
Climb rating: 5.7
Guidebook: Selected Climbs in the Northeast: Rock, Alpine, and Ice Routes from the Gunks to Acadia
Trail Map: AMC Map: Presidential Range: White Mountains Trail Map (Adventure Series)
Exciting weekend trip up to New Hampshire. On Friday night, we drove 6.5 hours to North Conway, NH with plans on climbing Pinnacle Buttress at Mt Washington.
Only with 5 hours of sleep, we woke Saturday around 6:30am, groggy but hoping to get some climbing in. The forecast expected some rain and thunderstorms for the day. The 5 of us consulted on what our options were for the day. We debated on whether it would be a good idea to try Pinnacle given the thunderstorm, and whether we should opt for a day of short less committing climbs at Cathedral Ledge.
We finally settled on giving Pinnacle a try in hopes that we move fast enough before the rain and storms would catch us on the climb. So off we went to Pinkham Notch. We hiked up Tuckermans Ravine Trail to Huntington Ravine Trail. Took us about 3 hours to get to the base of the climb.
The climb itself was on quality rock. Most pitches were rated 5.5 and under with two pitches rated 5.7. This is definitely within reach for a 5.7 leader.
With the prospect of thunderstorms looming in the back of our minds, we've tried to move as fast as we could on the climb. Topping out at Alpine Garden 5 hours later, just in time before the storm rolled in as we descended down the Tuckerman's Ravine Trail. We felt the Tuckerman's Ravine Trail would be the easiest and safest way down the mountain in the storm.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Trip Report: Whitney Gilman, NH
Climb Date: May 27th, 2012
Time round trip (Car to Car): 8 Hours
Party: 3 climbers including myself
Climb rating: 5.7
We wake up super early in North Conway, NH. Perhaps around 5:30AM to get ready to take on the Whitney Gilman route. Driving, from North Conway to Cannon Mountain took us about over an hour.
Our friend drops us off at the trail head. We sign in and walk down a nice paved trail. The easy walking ends when we find the foot path through the trees leading our way up to towards the climb. The hike through the trees wasn't the worse part. Once the trees ended, we faced a large scree field of loose rocks and boulders.
I was trying to carefully pick my way through the loose rocks towards the climb. A few times, things shifted under my foot, setting of loose rock slides. I cried a little bit half way up, clinging to a shrub, until I summoned enough courage to continue the rest of the way up to the base of the climb. There was no way I was going to down climb my way through all the loose rock. It took me almost 3 hours to pick my way through the loose rock field.
The climb itself had a lot of loose rocks. We were really careful not to knock any thing loose. The climbing felt tough for a 5.7 rating. Perhaps it was because we were all still rusty from the winter season.
I felt this would have been a really great alpine type climb. Each pitch had different characteristics, which kept it interesting. There was plenty of exposure up there, particularly on the "Pipe Pitch". However, with all the loose rocks on the approach and on the climb itself, it spooked the living day lights out of me, that I never really enjoyed the climb. The black flies that were eating us a live on the route did not help the cause. Once we made it up to the top, packed up our gear and heading down on a hiking trail, I was glad it was all over.
Perhaps, it was my inexperience with alpine style climbing, but I thought this route was pretty wild and spooky. All I did was prayed on the way up that nothing would slide and crush us. I did not want to have a 127 hours moment.
Note: Sorry everyone for lack of pictures. Somehow, between being spooked on the climb, and computer crashing, neither me or my climbing partners have pictures from this trip. My boyfriend decided that we should go back and redo the route for pictures. I'm not so sure about that....
Time round trip (Car to Car): 8 Hours
Party: 3 climbers including myself
Climb rating: 5.7
We wake up super early in North Conway, NH. Perhaps around 5:30AM to get ready to take on the Whitney Gilman route. Driving, from North Conway to Cannon Mountain took us about over an hour.
Our friend drops us off at the trail head. We sign in and walk down a nice paved trail. The easy walking ends when we find the foot path through the trees leading our way up to towards the climb. The hike through the trees wasn't the worse part. Once the trees ended, we faced a large scree field of loose rocks and boulders.
I was trying to carefully pick my way through the loose rocks towards the climb. A few times, things shifted under my foot, setting of loose rock slides. I cried a little bit half way up, clinging to a shrub, until I summoned enough courage to continue the rest of the way up to the base of the climb. There was no way I was going to down climb my way through all the loose rock. It took me almost 3 hours to pick my way through the loose rock field.
The climb itself had a lot of loose rocks. We were really careful not to knock any thing loose. The climbing felt tough for a 5.7 rating. Perhaps it was because we were all still rusty from the winter season.
I felt this would have been a really great alpine type climb. Each pitch had different characteristics, which kept it interesting. There was plenty of exposure up there, particularly on the "Pipe Pitch". However, with all the loose rocks on the approach and on the climb itself, it spooked the living day lights out of me, that I never really enjoyed the climb. The black flies that were eating us a live on the route did not help the cause. Once we made it up to the top, packed up our gear and heading down on a hiking trail, I was glad it was all over.
Perhaps, it was my inexperience with alpine style climbing, but I thought this route was pretty wild and spooky. All I did was prayed on the way up that nothing would slide and crush us. I did not want to have a 127 hours moment.
Note: Sorry everyone for lack of pictures. Somehow, between being spooked on the climb, and computer crashing, neither me or my climbing partners have pictures from this trip. My boyfriend decided that we should go back and redo the route for pictures. I'm not so sure about that....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)