Yosemite Day 4 - Cathedral Peak

Day 4 - 11 September 2012

The previous evening Mitch and I were hanging out at camp pondering just which dehydrated meal either of us wanted to brave.  Being gluten-free (aka a glutard) limits some of my options, but I had found some decent stuff at REI in Reno.  Mitch was quite decidedly 'glutening' it up.

As we were sitting there and to my pleasant surprise, a small white car came rolling up with none other than Arthur (aka ACK) and Matthew.  They explained they had made it a true road-trip from San Fran to Tuolumne by getting sidetracked with a few 'detours'.  It's just not a road-trip without at least one detour.  We still wondered what happened to Seth and Simone but figured we'd catch up with them at some point in the next day or two.

ACK and Matthew set up camp and broke out some beers.  We discussed plans for the next day and poured over the Tuolumne guidebooks.  Sleep came early as I was dead tired and knew we had a long day ahead of us.
The next day we woke up early as usual to wonderful cold temps.  Looking back, I like how on trips you sometimes completely lose track of the days of the week, much less the dates.  I never realized it was the 9/11 anniversary on this day.  But in our own way, I feel like we paid our respects by taking part in nature's own cathedral.

"This I may say is the first time I have been at church in California, led here at last, every door graciously opened for the poor lonely worshiper. In our best times everything turns into religion, all the world seems a church and the mountains altars. And lo, here at last in front of the Cathedral is blessed cassiope, ringing her thousands of sweet-toned bells, the sweetest church music I ever enjoyed." - John Muir, 07 September 1869 on the first ascent of Cathedral Peak

ACK and Matthew hit the trail ahead of us because I forgot to grab my sunglasses and had to go back to camp real quick for them.  Not that it would've mattered much as those two move fast, even when they're not acclimated to the elevation.

Mitch and I packed everything up and hit the trail.  It's about a 1.5 hr hike up to the base of Cathedral and as we got closer I started catching glimpses of the peak a bit closer up.

As we hit the final approach trail we were surprised to come across a National Park Service trail crew installing stone steps.  I thanked them as we passed and honestly wished I had time to spare to lend a hand.  For those familiar with the Seneca Rocks stairmaster, multiply that by at least 3 and you'll get what this trail will eventually be.

Cathedral is kind of a free-for-all kinda climb.  There's 3 main lines that people generally follow, all at about 5.6/5.7ish.  But there are so many variations that you can find yourself in some harder or easier stuff from time to time.  Route-finding is a very helpful skill on this thing.  We decided to start on the right side of the base, where the topo said it was about 5.7.  I looked at the rock, picked out a ledge that I figured I could reach in a full-rope length and cast off.  After this pitch, I have memories of certain things happening but generally, we just kept moving up.  There were quite a few people climbing around here and there and people would be climbing somewhere near you at any given belay or even while you were climbing.  Thankfully, everyone was in a good mood and nobody got bent outta shape that they had to wait here or there; you could always find a way around people as well if you were willing to climb a little easier or harder (usually harder).

Some other random climbers.

Mitch coming up the first long pitch.

Generally, this thing just kept going.  Just when you thought you were getting close, you'd pull up on another ledge and realize it was still a good ways to go to the top.

Looks like you can see the top right?  Nope.

The Chimney (5.6) that most parties funnel into.  We had to skip it though.

About mid-day I saw ACK and Matthew on the descent trail.  Damn they're fast (I won't mention that i saw ACK fall on his ass...oops!:-)

Mitch led this one particular section where it was clearly 5.6 going left. However, that was occupied by another group.  Further right was The Chimney, which was obviously occupied by a conga-line of people.  After some discussion, Mitch decided to lead up a face with an interesting undercling and then traverse right to a prominent crack.  I could tell it was tough (5.8ish), and Mitch definitely placed enough gear so that he felt pretty darn good about it.  Over the past few years of climbing with Mitch in times like those, I've come to realize that when he places a lot of gear, it usually means it's pretty damn hard climbing.  I used to question why he would place a lot, but now I know better.  And besides, protection is placed for the safety and comfort of the leader, not the convenience of the follower.

I got up there and as usual I said to myself, "damn this is pretty hard! Could I have led this?"  I'm sure I could lead it, but it's funny how climbing can be like that.  Your mental approach can be very different sometimes when seconding compared to leading.

Another memorable pitch was my last lead.  I turned a corner after leaving the belay and looked up to see a rather difficult looking corner.  I still didn't have my first piece in yet and was definitely in a "no-fall" zone.  After moving up to a stance I placed some bomber gear, clipped it, and looked down.  I remember thinking, "huh, that was pretty far from the belay."  Sometimes ya gotta run it out! The rest of the pitch was beautiful.  I stemmed out through the rest of that corner, moved up to a ledge, placed some gear that was there for mental purposes only then ran it out (no pro) up a nice knobby face to the huge ledge that Mitch is standing on in the pic below.

The last bit had me place some good gear below a big flake that curved out right.  I pulled a couple tough moves around to the top of flake and smeared up the face to the ledge, getting some more good pieces in along the way.  The perch I had for that last belay (in the pic above) was amazing.  I watched the weather with a growing concern of the clouds that looked like they were headed our way.  Thankfully by the time Mitch came up to where I was the clouds were pushing off to our south.

I also met a father and son team who were just hanging out enjoying the day.  The dad was talking about how his grandmother was sick and that he was up there that day just praying to God in this beautiful Cathedral that he would see her through this peacefully one way or another. Couldn't help but say a little prayer for them both.

My sweet little perch for the last pitch belay.

Note the storm clouds. Yes, the dad did have a shirt and jacket with him.

Mitch led the last little bit around the corner and up to the very top.  It's a very small summit and the only way off is to downclimb very exposed 5.4ish rock.  After taking some pics up there I belayed Mitch down and around to the backside where we would begin the descent.

On the very top. Eichorn's Pinnacle is there just below us.

 Sitting and standing on the top was quite an experience.  Mitch wanted me to do some yoga poses or something...I thought he was nuts, especially with the wind blowing.  Seeing Fairview Dome from up there was humbling.  I had seen that dome looming large behind us when we topped out on DAFF Dome.  And now, on top of Cathedral I was just blown away by the sheer beauty of the landscape around me.  Stunning.

Fairview Dome is the large one center-right

The descent trail was a bit of a challenge for us to find but I think we just went a bit too far north on the ridgeline before dropping over; we should've dropped over much closer to the actual Cathedral.  No matter, we found our way down, with me hitting the new steps that the trail crew had been working on.

Side view of about 2/3 or so of Cathedral.

I also managed to snap a photo that turned out surprisingly well considering I used the panorama function on my camera (the same camera that's been to AFG and back and through many other adventures...a miracle it still works so well).

All-in-all it was an amazing day.  And when we finally got back to camp we told ACK and Matthew to "cancel the search party!"  Turns out they got back to camp and pretty much crashed, the elevation change finally catching up to them.  We swapped stories about the day's adventures and planned for our morning move down to the Valley.  Thus far I had been continually surprised and impressed by the sheer beauty of the land around me and the amazing climbing.  Hard to believe it was only going to get better.