Yosemite Day 5 - The Valley

Day 5 - 12 September 2012

"The money goes. The money goes. The money goes. The money goes...up her nose..."

So says the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, preachin' and bellowing his message about the evils of doing drugs (on that particular song) in his backwoods rockin' blues style.  Mitch had brought their latest album with us and we found ourselves rockin' out to the grooves numerous times on this trip.  Funny how music can define so many things.  For me, I'll hear certain tunes and it brings back memories of trips.  I liked this band so much I bought the album when I got back.  Check 'em out: www.bigdamnband.com

Anyway, we quickly packed up on Tuesday morning and headed out.  I checked with the Rangers one last time to see if my Tuolumne SuperTopo book had been turned in...no dice.  Oh well.  The story on that is that I left it by the window next to the sink in the bathroom.  I forgot about it while brushing my teeth and walked out without it.  I came back like 5 min later and it was gone.  Later that day I checked at the Ranger Station for the campground.  They said some guy had come by with it and asked about it.  My name wasn't in it but they said that it indeed had red tabs on the pages so we knew it was mine.  But at the time the guy was asking about it, he said he would take it for the day, use it, and then bring it back later...which he obviously never did.  I hope the guy didn't get into trouble out there or something, but I have to scratch my head at the whole thing.  I mean, seriously? It's obviously not yours but you're going to take it anyway and bring it back when it's convenient for you?  Oh well...whatever.  Mitch had a guidebook too so it wasn't a huge deal.  Besides, we were leaving Tuolumne for the Valley.


Yosemite Valley or The Valley as most climbers call it.  From the moment we stopped at the first overlook I was once again beset with a feeling of awe and wonder.  The sheer vertical steepness of El Capitan and the impressive figure that Half Dome holds over the entire place is just amazing.  But that's not it.  You see rock everywhere you look as you drive in.  It's almost as if you want to stop every 1/4 mile and just stare...or take more pictures. 

Part of that feeling was the impressiveness of the cliffs, especially El Cap.  But it's also just the realization that I was there.  I was in the friggin' rock climbing mecca of the world!  This was it!  I was making the pilgrimage to the place I'd heard so much about.  And it didn't matter that I wasn't doing some super-hard 20+ pitch over 2 or 3 days up El Cap.  I knew that pretty much whatever we ended up doing there, would kick ass.  That's about the best I can describe it in words.  To really understand, go there yourself.  Even if you don't climb, there lots of things to do there.  From the history, to the hiking, to the waterfalls, people watching (including climbers), etc.  There's tons to do there.  And the park service has a pretty cool shuttle bus system that runs all around the Valley.

We got checked-in at our site, which was not really that close to Curry Village.  No, we weren't really concerned about the hantavirus cases that had come up recently in Curry Village.  We weren't going to be around any mouse poop or urine (which is where the virus is present and how it's transmitted...you breathe it in) so it was an issue.

After getting camp set up in Upper Pines Campground we headed over to the climbing shop.  Ya see, on the 2nd day of climbing back up in Tuolumne I noticed a small hole in the rubber on my right climbing shoe.  I didn't realize I was that close to needing a resole.  I climbed in those shoes (Scarpa Thunder) one more day (Cathedral) and that was it.  The hole was big enough by then that any more climbing in them and they would be done for good...stick a fork in 'em.  The only other pair I had were my velcro Evolv Pontas shoes, which are not exactly an all day trad climbing shoe, much less a crack climbing shoe.  So I needed something and I was praying that the shop would have something that would work.

I'd had my eye on the Scarpa Force shoes, but unfortunately the shop in Yosemite only carried La Sportiva, Five Ten, and Evolv brands.  After trying a bunch of shoes on (Five Tens do not fit my feet at all) and much back and forth banter with Lydia (the cute staff member helping me), I settled on a pair of La Sportiva Mythos...the low-profile version...aka women's!  Thankfully they're not some serious girly color like pink or something.  I've never been able to have the Mythos shoes fit me that well.  However, these bad boys (err, girls I guess) fit like nothing else.  I was shocked and pleasantly surprised.  Alrighty, let's go crush something!


Note: technically, today was supposed to be a "rest day".  Keep that in mind as the rest of this unfolds. Oh and most times when I'm talking about crack climbing, my hands are taped up.

We talked with Lydia about where we should climb that afternoon.  It was pretty warm...def around 90 degrees (but it's a dry heat!).  So we knew that anything in the sun would just be seriously cooking us.  She said Pat and Jack Pinnacle would probably be cooking but for some reason we had our minds set on the place.  ACK had recommended it and the SuperTopo guide had good things to say.  We finally got down there and scoped the place out.  There are a number of very cool looking lines there that I'd love to come back and do.  A couple of the crack climbs there look wild, but like a ton of fun.

After walking/scrambling further down we found this cool looking corner in the shade.  The book said it was called Golden Needles (5.8).  Mitch asked if I was up for it, indicating to me that he didn't want to lead that day and that it was all me.  Well, I had the new shoes and figured, "what the hell?  Why not? Let's do this thang!"

Pitch 1 was fun, with the lowest part being easy climbing in a corner using the face and the crack in the corner.  As I pulled up to the crack in the corner above it became sustained 5.7 crack climbing, about hand/fist size.  At one point I think I leap-frogged my #2 BD cam 2 or 3 times (meaning I placed it, then climbed above it a bit, then reached down, pulled it out, and placed it above me again).

The real fun came on pitch 2.  Right off from the belay you get this double-crack about hand size (meaning, slotting your hand in sideways and then tucking in the thumb till it locks in the crack).  Just getting established in the crack is difficult because you're underneath it...so it's sorta this overhang you have to crank up and out of and into the cracks.

Start of P2. Mitch is standing at the rap anchor where I could've bailed off when climbing.

I pulled up and out and got situated but was getting seriously pumped.  I had good gear in so falling wasn't worrying me, this was just tough, brutal climbing.  Right leg started going "Elvis leg" on me or "sewing machine" (involuntarily bouncing or shaking due to fatigue and lack of oxygen in the blood going there).  I relaxed, took some deep breaths, got another piece of gear in and then got moving again.  I could see the next really good stance up this corner I just needed to pull through these tough moves.

Once at the stance I had a big decision in front of me.  At this point was a rappel anchor that consisted of a bunch of slings with rap rings around a block.  Mitch asked me what I wanted to do.  It was decision time.  I scoped out the route ahead, but I already knew what it looked like...generally.  It was an overhanging lieback and there were 2 tiers to it (it zig-zagged to the right like a sideways W).  I knew it was going to be hard.  But that's why we climb right?  I went through a lot of internal dialogue here that to me seemed like it took awhile to come to the decision but to Mitch it was probably just a minute or two.  The fact was, when I agreed at the base to climb this the intent was to climb the entire route and explore how this thing would be done.  I never said, "well, if I get up there halfway and I can bail then I'm going to do that."  Sitting there at this blocky rest-stance I knew I needed to get myself physically engaged in the route again.  I knew that would get the curiosity going again.  So I did.  I moved up like one or two moves to another stance and placed a bomber piece of gear.  I looked up at the crack under this huge flake/roof that ran out to the right and got my hands jammed up under it.  I placed one more piece of gear in the crack.  But then as I moved up I noticed something else.  There was a small vertical crack to my right where I could get my feet.  I noticed I could also get a good piece of gear here which would allow me to remove that piece I'd just placed in the crack...thereby freeing up that section of crack for my hands.  See what was going on here?  I was now fully engaged in the route and in figuring it out...not wondering whether or not I could do this, but how it would get done.

Full-commitment time arrived and with one quick look down I knew that I was fully engaged in going forward and that backing down wasn't even an option anymore.  I mean, seriously, at this point reversing everything I'd done would probably have been nearly as hard as going forward.  So let's go forward!  Gear was placed, fall zones were clean, and I could see the moves.  I worked up and through this section and remember hearing Mitch give me some encouragement as I pulled around the first corner.  Truth be told, I nearly slipped, but a quick weigh-shift adjustment that was surprisingly automatic kept me steady and moving up.  I don't really even remember too much after that just that there was a ramping inside corner with a crack and then the 2nd lieback overhang.  And the hits just keep on comin'!  This thing did not stop.  The trick, as usual, was finding the rest points.  Even the very top section below the anchor/rappel tree was hard to reach with very exposed moves above basically no pro and with my belayer unable to see me.  Fun!

The P2 double-crack section.  Harder than it looks.

The overhanging lieback we came up. Mitch is at the rappel anchor and I'm rapping down to him.

Top of the 2nd overhanging lieback.  Rapping down!

 When I finally reached the top, clipped in and yelled "Mitch, off belay!" I was exhausted.  For sure one of the hardest climbs I've ever had the pleasure of leading (ranks up there with Springboard at the New River Gorge (5.10b).  This, in my humble, opinion was no 5.8.  I felt that was confirmed for me when Mitch fell in the opening sequence of the 2nd pitch.  And as I sat there, I took a moment to look around and take in the view.  The absolute beauty of the day and the experience I had just been allowed to have.  I thanked God for the opportunity and the talents to do this crazy stuff and for having created such an amazing place for me, in that exact moment, to have had 'fun'. :-)

Looking back towards the Valley.

I came up that corner, passing the tree around on the outside, and then up the face just to the right of the tree from this point of view.

Mitch came up a bit later and being quite exhausted himself said to me "So much for a rest day huh? That wasn't 5.8...I'm glad you led it cuz there's no way I would have."  So much for a rest day indeed, but that's just being a climbing addict.

When we finally got back down we took the time in the nearby parking lot to figure out where our route had taken us.  I managed to snap a pic that shows the upper portion of the climb at a distance.  Again, you'd never see this line if you didn't know what you were looking for.

Upper part of P2 of Golden Needles

Another day was done, another amazing experience was in the books.  I had climbed my first route in Yosemite Valley and had to give it everything I had that day to get it clean.  What a ride and what a thrill.  When you give so much like that, you get so much more in return...it's an amazing feeling.

Thankfully, this night we would get dinner at the cafe in Yosemite Village and get a shower for $5 at Curry Village.  Might seem like a lot but I didn't care.  I gladly paid the $5.