Yosemite Day 7 - After 7 & Church Bowl (and mini bears)

14 September 2012

Mini bears.  That's what we called them when I first ventured out west and encountered ground squirrels.  They can be infinitely more of a problem than bears.  Bears will tear into your stuff in search of a piece of gum.  There are horror stories of them ripping off car doors and smashing windows simply because they saw or smelled a soda can or a candy wrapper.  This is why you don't leave any food in your car.  Everything edible goes in the large metal bear boxes that the park service provides at campsites and at several of the popular climbing areas.  Mini bears are another story...



Mini bears (which really is a catch-all term that encompasses all small ground rodents) will stop at nothing to get at your food just like bears.  But mini bears take much more to be scared off.  They are usually very accustomed to people, sometimes being directly fed by them which just makes the situation worse.  Sometimes you will encounter them in the wild such as the case with Mitch a few years back.  They chewed into his pack that he left at the base of a climb.  They found the food they wanted and then promptly chewed their way out of the pack creating a second hole.  Classic mini bear.

McFatty Ground Squirrel

The mini bears of Yosemite (aka the California ground squirrel) is quite an ingenious rodent.  Around people, especially dumb people who think that they're "just so cute", the mini bear thrives and is well fed.  They regularly pick up the food scraps that people either drop accidentally or feed to them intentionally.  But mini bears were the least of our problems.

It's always interesting to me how things pan out over the course of a long climbing trip, especially concerning the little nagging injuries that can occur.  In our case, by the end of the previous day (when we climbed After 6) Mitch had developed a few blisters on his feet.  In my experience, this is an uncommon thing.  I've never had it happen to me.  It may have started while we were climbing West Crack on DAFF Dome when Mitch had to be in a very uncomfortable stance at the belay he built in the middle of the pitch.  Whatever the cause, it was obvious that he was going to have trouble climbing.  He taped up his toes and heel as best as possible and off we went the next morning.

We arrived once again at Manure Pile Buttress in the early morning hours, the air still cool and dry.  I noticed a few other cars parked in the lot and realized we probably had company and might not be able to climb the route we wanted.

Sure enough, there were not one, not two, but three parties on Nutcracker...and a party waiting to start.  Sheesh.  So we settled on me taking the sharp end of the rope and leading After Seven.  What a beautiful line.  Good hand and foot jams, some nice, interesting side-pulls at the crux of the route and a few edges for the feet thrown in for good measure.  It was just a very nice 5.8 climb to start the day.  I brought Mitch up and it was obvious to him that he wouldn't be able to continue.  The pain in his feet was just too unbearable.  We found a bolted rap anchor and quickly rappelled down to the base.  So in the end, it was actually a good thing we didn't get on Nutcracker because a quick descent off the first or second pitch would not have been nearly as easy.

Once we were down some discussion ensued and we settled on heading over the Curry Village area for lunch at the burger place and then evaluate the afternoon climbing options.  The heat was definitely cranking up and I didn't feel like climbing while swimming in my clothes if I could avoid it.

After Seven

Mitch following on After Seven

After a moderately overpriced lunch we decided to head to the Church Bowl area, which is not far from Yosemite Village or the Ahwahnee Hotel.  It's also only about 50 yds or so from the street.  We once again expected a lot of people but were pleasantly surprised to find it mostly empty.  I climbed Church Bowl Lieback.  It was a fun 5.8 climb...until I climbed out of the shaded section and into the sun.  The rock was just baking in the heat and I could feel the rubber on my shoes soften up nicely for the lieback section.  However, that also meant I was sweating like crazy.  By the end of it, my hands were burning from touching the hot rock.  The climb ended at a tree with some slings so I was able to rappel right back down and clean the gear from the route.  Just a bit to the left of this climb I did Uncle Fanny, a 5.7 chimney.  I think Mitch just wanted to hear me grunt and swear as I dragged my butt up the chimney.  In chimney climbing, you essentially wedge yourself in there with your back against one side and your knees on the other, the opposing forces holding you in there.  You also use those opposing forces to aid in moving up.  There is definitely an art to chimney climbing and I'm proud to say I'm getting better at it.  Becoming more proficient with crack climbing definitely helps because you learn to endure pain for the sake of upward progress!  Uncle Fanny led to the same tree as Church Bowl Lieback so I was once again able to clean my own gear from the route without any problems.

Church Bowl Lieback (right) and Uncle Fanny (left)

Chimney of Uncle Fanny

I was quite thankful Mitch was gracious enough to belay me on those climbs that day.  He could've whined about his feet and tried to convince me to go do something in the park other than climbing, but he didn't.  I know I would've done the same thing too but it's nice to realize that you've picked good people as your climbing partners.

All in all it was another fabulous day in the Valley.  We had one day left.  Thanks to an older climber that we chatted with at the base of Church Bowl I had a good idea what I wanted to do...it was just a matter of getting up there and doing it in the morning before we left.  I remember telling Mitch later that evening,  "I want to do Bishop's Terrace tomorrow.  Let's get up and knock it out."