We left our temporary home in Turlock on the morning of January the 6th and drove to Yosemite National Park for the second time. During our first trip we had done all the touristy stuff like seeing the waterfalls and Ahwahnee Hotel but now we were there to climb! The best Will had ever climbed was a 5.10c and I was still on 5.9er's, we also hadn't done any climbing for a while but we felt pretty amped and had found a few doable looking routes in the guide book. However in the coming days we would discover Yosemite climbing is on a whole other level!
First up we headed to the spot known as Knob Hill containing a short bolted 5.8 and 5.9 route. We parked and found the spot with ease the only problem was that the two anchor bolts were no longer there. We were pretty disappointed as it looked like a fun warm up route with a bit of a crack to practice with. Will had a bit of a look around and found a few old slings used for different routes that were beyond our climbing ability so we had lunch while checking the guide book for another climb. It was 2:30pm on day one and no rock climbing had yet been done...
Not far along the road we walked down to another spot called Five and Dime Cliff where the other people there described the 5.8 route called Mockery as fun. The guide book described it as hard. Will set up to lead the climb while the other people top roped an overhanging 5.10c nose called Bijou. Despite falling a few times on the gnarly looking route they all looked pretty fit so we were both wondering how we would stack up. Will very quietly made his way up the 5.8 I could tell by his silence that he was concentrating hard and not having a whole lot of “fun". He did make it to the top though and once down reported that the climb was much much harder than the 5.10c climbs he had done elsewhere. I toped roped the climb but used the rope quite a bit and no way could I have led it.
Exhausted after our one climb we retreated to the campground for some food. Dinner was these amazing sausages that a friends dad Bob had brought for us. We ate them in buns with other good stuff and had to use a lot of self control to save two sausages for another night; to this day we still salivate over the delicious flavour. That evening or it could have been the next night we went to a ranger talk about bears, everyone was telling us to keep an eye out for them as the lack of snow and warm temperatures meant that they hadn't gone into hibernation yet this season. It felt like everyone we met had had a recent beer encounter so we were eger to learn more. The ranger told us some pretty interesting stories about his three close encounters with Grizzly bears and how the black bear is just a species of bear so not all of them are in fact black. They can be brown, grey, yellow brown, black or a mixture of. We saw photos, skulls, beer skins and knew what to do if we saw one. All that was left was to actually, physically, see one.
The following morning at ridiculous o’clock while I continued sleeping in the back, Will woke up and drove us to the Tunnel View look out to capture the sunrise. He was a little early for the sunrise but eventually it came up and he captured some stunning photos before retiring to bed again for a couple of hours. By 10am we were searching for the next climbing spot but the more we read the guide book the less doable climbs we found. We only had a 60m/195 ft rope so any pitches over 95 ft were out like the knobby sounding 150 ft New Deviations route. As was the 5.8, 70 ft route named Costa Rica as it only had two bolts and we weren't yet ready to climb lines that run out. Eventually we settled on a spot known as Cookie Sheet, however finding it was a challenge in itself. We must have driven past it twice before we found the described talus field and it was 2pm by the time we had made the 45 minute approach and had lunch. The whole rocky bear scat covered approach made me a little worried about what I would do if a bear actually came along while Will was half way up the wall. I collected a pile of rocks and we agreed if a beer came I would run up the wall Macgyver style using Wills weight and we would both hang in limbo until the coast was clear.
First up we headed to the spot known as Knob Hill containing a short bolted 5.8 and 5.9 route. We parked and found the spot with ease the only problem was that the two anchor bolts were no longer there. We were pretty disappointed as it looked like a fun warm up route with a bit of a crack to practice with. Will had a bit of a look around and found a few old slings used for different routes that were beyond our climbing ability so we had lunch while checking the guide book for another climb. It was 2:30pm on day one and no rock climbing had yet been done...
Not far along the road we walked down to another spot called Five and Dime Cliff where the other people there described the 5.8 route called Mockery as fun. The guide book described it as hard. Will set up to lead the climb while the other people top roped an overhanging 5.10c nose called Bijou. Despite falling a few times on the gnarly looking route they all looked pretty fit so we were both wondering how we would stack up. Will very quietly made his way up the 5.8 I could tell by his silence that he was concentrating hard and not having a whole lot of “fun". He did make it to the top though and once down reported that the climb was much much harder than the 5.10c climbs he had done elsewhere. I toped roped the climb but used the rope quite a bit and no way could I have led it.
Exhausted after our one climb we retreated to the campground for some food. Dinner was these amazing sausages that a friends dad Bob had brought for us. We ate them in buns with other good stuff and had to use a lot of self control to save two sausages for another night; to this day we still salivate over the delicious flavour. That evening or it could have been the next night we went to a ranger talk about bears, everyone was telling us to keep an eye out for them as the lack of snow and warm temperatures meant that they hadn't gone into hibernation yet this season. It felt like everyone we met had had a recent beer encounter so we were eger to learn more. The ranger told us some pretty interesting stories about his three close encounters with Grizzly bears and how the black bear is just a species of bear so not all of them are in fact black. They can be brown, grey, yellow brown, black or a mixture of. We saw photos, skulls, beer skins and knew what to do if we saw one. All that was left was to actually, physically, see one.
The following morning at ridiculous o’clock while I continued sleeping in the back, Will woke up and drove us to the Tunnel View look out to capture the sunrise. He was a little early for the sunrise but eventually it came up and he captured some stunning photos before retiring to bed again for a couple of hours. By 10am we were searching for the next climbing spot but the more we read the guide book the less doable climbs we found. We only had a 60m/195 ft rope so any pitches over 95 ft were out like the knobby sounding 150 ft New Deviations route. As was the 5.8, 70 ft route named Costa Rica as it only had two bolts and we weren't yet ready to climb lines that run out. Eventually we settled on a spot known as Cookie Sheet, however finding it was a challenge in itself. We must have driven past it twice before we found the described talus field and it was 2pm by the time we had made the 45 minute approach and had lunch. The whole rocky bear scat covered approach made me a little worried about what I would do if a bear actually came along while Will was half way up the wall. I collected a pile of rocks and we agreed if a beer came I would run up the wall Macgyver style using Wills weight and we would both hang in limbo until the coast was clear.
The 5.7 route was called the Dark Side and could be done as a short multi pitch, this would be our first ever multi pitch climb. We had also never climbed on such silky smooth granite before but luckily it had quite an easy slope so we were both feeling confident. As it turns out I don't much like climbing granite where there is next to nothing to grip but Will the trooper ended up leading both pitches and we made it to the top for some awesome photos. Unfortunatly no bears or beers in sight. Afterwards we drove over to the visitors centre to get a back country pass and a bear canister for our overnight hike to the top of El Capitan the next day. Before heading to bed we also popped over to Camp Curry for a much needed hot shower.
The next day dawned blue sky once again and we couldn't resist the urge to sneak in one more climb, a 5.9er called "Gidget Goes to Yosemite" on the Endless Summer Wall. Once again it took us far to long to find the wall and we sweated hard during the open up hill approach. At 11am Will started the climb - or should i say battle - but the over hanging ledge at the third bolt proved too difficult and as time was ticking we had to abandon the climb for the first time leaving a carabiner behind. After quickly retreating to the Dodge we parked at Camp 4, left a note in the windscreen and started the hike towards Upper Yosemite Falls. This is how one web site describes this walk that we stated at 2pm with no proper lunch.
"Difficulty: High. It's a long, steep climb from the valley floor to the valley rim, and easily rates an 8 out of 10. Consider this question: would you climb the stairs all the way to the top of the Empire State Building? Well, in the course of your hike to Upper Yosemite Falls, you'll climb the equivalent of just over two Empire State Buildings."
"Difficulty: High. It's a long, steep climb from the valley floor to the valley rim, and easily rates an 8 out of 10. Consider this question: would you climb the stairs all the way to the top of the Empire State Building? Well, in the course of your hike to Upper Yosemite Falls, you'll climb the equivalent of just over two Empire State Buildings."
It was challenging for sure and we were glad to have our friends energy balls to keep us going. Past the top of the falls we planed to make it a further 7Km along the ridge to the top of El Capitan that day but I called it quits not far past the falls when a nice camp site presented it's self. We cooked the mouth watering sausages again with pasta following all the bear rules of cooking 50 yards from the tent, but neither of us got much sleep. Any little sound had us wondering if a bear was right outside. Of course come morning the canister was exactly where we'd left it the previous evening.
That morning we hiked the top of El Cap and spent a few hours savouring the truly majestic view and discovering all the climbing left overs around the place. There was stack of full water bottles hiding under rock shelters, old rope, old shoes we could even see some climbing bolts as we neared the edge. We also wanted to find the famous tree featured on the film "Race for The Nose". Its the finish point for The Nose speed records. After lunch it was time to get moving we still had a long walk ahead of us down the other side. We started off and after a few pleasent hours made our way down a long snowy ridge that eventually came to an old unused road. We followed it uphill for half an hour before coming to a sign that read Tamarack Flat and Tioga Rd while another read Foresta... we knew we didn't want to go to Tamarack Flat but Foresta didn't sound very familiar either so we turned back thinking we must have missed something or were meant to go the other way down the road. I won't name names but someone didn't bring a map with the end of the trail on it. Back where we had first met the old road we found no signs but there was a definite track leading through the over growth along the road so we decided to follow that. Evidently we should have chosen to follow the Foresta sign which lead to Big Oak Flat Road. Instead our road descended very slowly as it crawled it's way back into the valley. At 5pm we were still far to high so when the ancient road dissipated for the third time under a massive rock fall we took our chances and scrambled down the jumbled run off. We then had to crash through a few hundred yards of bush in the fading light before we finally emerged on to the valley road.
We had gone so far into the valley that we came out on the one way section that exits the park so for a while we had to walk along the road back the way we'd come. The plan from here was to hitch hike back to the Dodge but who would pick up two unkept hikers in the dark in America? We directed our head lights onto our faces and put on our most friendly smiles. Fifteen cars later we were picked up by an older couple who's son had traveled to New Zealand through his work with singer Jack Johnson. At the Dodge we discovered we had a flat tire so quickly pumped it back up with the 12v compressor. We then had another hot rejuvenating shower at Camp Curry. I was ready for some food but Will wanted to get a photo of us underneath the Camp Curry sign and took forever setting it up while I died of hunger. We had dinner at a bar inside the park which sadly only had healthy choices such as kale salad or turkey sandwich. We made do with the pickings available then took our tired bodies to bed.
On the 10th of January we were about to leave Yosemite when Will decided he needed to get that perfect shot of El Capitan from the meadow he persevered while I moaned about going but he did end up with some pretty cool shots like the Gopro one below.
Rochelle & Will
Rochelle & Will