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Published: October 11th 2008
Yosemite Map
we entered through 120 on the east side, through the valley to mariposa grove near the southern entrance then retraced our steps back again.Yosemite National Park is a huge area- I have included a map in the photos to help the reader orient themselves so this narrative doesn't become overly cryptic.
Before I get to the more relevant details, a brief word on how we are dealing with the lack of clothing etc after getting rocked in Tahoe. The Crash-Pad has not yet become a problem since we haven't done any bouldering. We carted that thing all over North America and when we are one stop away from the first place we would use it, it walks off...Oh well. Losing the packs sucks but we can do without them. Getting some of the clothes back is the top priority. We drive south on 395 before turning west into Yosemite; In Mammoth and Bishop, we plan to hit up some of the outfitters and a Kmart. No sense buying North Face underwear for 30 dollars a pair...Unfortunately none of the stores (outfitters included) have anything that is Stefs size. They have very little in my price range but I get by. Eventually we find Stef a Patagonia bathing suit that will meet the need at hand. Enough info about the lights? Good.
Back
El Cap
the captain; the big stone. this is what all the hullabaloo is about. center of the climbing universe. I feel like a Muslim who is nonplussed by a visit to Mecca saying this, but I would rather climb at many places besides Yosemite Valley. up 395, pissed and tired from a day of fruitless shopping. Stef convinces me to try Carls Jr, a west coast fast food joint which apparently is affiliated with Hardees. I usually demur from such an obligation but this time it is fortunate that I opted to break the pattern. Without undue detail about a hamburger joint, this place can turn any fast food place on its ear. AMAZING. Made me forget about rude sales associates and having to follow Stef through the girls underwear section of Kmart...
With a quality burger under our belts we head the remainder of the way up towards the eastern entrance of YNP, which goes first through Tuolumne Meadows. TM is located on the eastern end of the park and lacks the striking angularity and vertical cliffs which liberally populate Yosemite Valley. At around 9000 some-odd feet of elevation, it is also considerably cooler and lacking the hordes of tourists that abound in the Valley. This is like saying that in December, it is warmer in central Alaska than at either of the polar ice caps. Nonetheless, we make it almost to the park but it is pushing 1AM and we are tired.
Profile
the captain from the side- you can barely make out half-dome in the background We find a parking area for a hiking trailhead (USFS land) and set up to sleep as per our usual arrangement.
The morning comes cold and with it an irate police officer brandishing a flashlight at my window. I had heard that the locals went to great lengths to climbers from making use of any free camping spots, but this seems a bit much. I have no idea what the hell this guy wants or why he has a flashlight out, save for bludgeoning purposes as it is well after sunrise. I stagger out of the car literally half asleep and I hear that the charges brought against me are not concerning vagrancy, but rather vandalism. Apparently someone had come into the parking area at night and spun a huge, deep doughnut which kicked a decent amount of rubble out onto the highway. It took me a few minutes to fully grasp this and the officer nearly has me convinced that I did it. He asks me if I can explain how this "brodie" is in the middle of the parking lot and my tire tracks don't pass over it.
I respond no less than ten times that
El Cap
a closer view of the nose I entered the parking lot from an angle that did not require me to drive over the defaced area and so his observation is moot. Spitting a black stream of tobacco juice in the dirt at my feet he asks me how the back of my car has become besmirched with dust and dirt and how that fact does not indite me. I proceed to recount how 'we have been on the road since june', something about lots of dirt roads and being lucky that the front axle is still in tact. Meanwhile Stef is on the phone with Christie, preparing the legal team in case the night stick comes out. After about 15 minutes of straight up harassment, he asks me if my car is rear wheel drive or front wheel. By this time I am starting to wake up and it occurs to me that there is no logical way that I could have spun a doughnut 6 inches deep in a front wheel drive Honda Civic. After allaying his fears that I had the one and only Honda Civic EVER MADE with RWD, he apparently felt kind of dumb, apologizing profusely and wishing me a good day
he left.
Welcome to Yosemite.
We decide, after that, to head west on 120 into the park, through Tuolumne Meadows and into the Valley to do some sightseeing and then come back to Tuolumne and scope out some climbing there. The Valley has all the popular sights that the tourons flock to see, so we decide to put off any climbing there till next time around. We figure that while passing through the Valley, we can stop at the outfitters there and pick up some clothing and a crashpad.
Like every other place we had been, they are sold out of all the stuff we needed and packed to the gills.
Welcome to Yosemite!
It was weird going into the Valley for the first time. I had braced myself for the worst. I prepared for throngs and traffic jams and golf-attired, overweight, balding business types and numerous other evils that I tend to associate with the cities. You have to take the good with the bad and with miles of vertical rock, there is a lot of good to be seen there. Yosemite is hallowed ground to many; I find the scenery to be inspiring
but the crowds and the "scene" horribly off putting. Its sort of like having a very lucrative profession that doesn't allow you to enjoy any of your money. I think it helps to be prepared for the negative elements and I plan to return there before I'm 30 and climb El Capitan. Unlike the Tetons and Yellowstone, the grandeur and majesty of the rock did not diminish in the face of hordes of tourists and their cars. Rather it just made the possibility of really enjoying it as much as should be enjoyed seem quite out of reach. Dealing with the requisite red tape of such an excursion would be a great task but one which I think would be worth doing on some level. Once. Maybe. I actually have Baffin Island in my sights, sort of the polar opposite- west of Greenland, 100 miles from the nearest village...but I digress.
We saw the sights, such as they were, dreamed great dreams of the future and headed back to Tuolumne Meadows where smaller objectives could be found. Smaller and rounder, TM is home to many domes which are interesting to climb and still are massive in their own
sequoia
this is one of the large pines of Mariposa Grove right, but are less vertical and much smaller than something like El Capitan which is over 2000 feet tall. We headed back out of the park, retracing our route of earlier in the day to find a place to bivvy for the night in hopes of doing some climbing the following day.
We actually found a REALLY awesome spot, just outside of the park. Actually there were other people camped there so we confirmed that it was legit and wouldn't leave us on the business end of some overzealous patrol mans Glock. The next day we headed back into the park. We found a nice small crag with some easy routes and thought that we were in business. We had no sooner gotten on Puppy Crack (5.6) then people began lining up behind us to do it as well. I was hoping to have enough time to let Stef try her hand at placing some gear while on top-rope, but no luck. We finished that climb and left to find a more isolated place, which by this time it is apparent, will be tough to find.
We make our way out to a one pitch 5.10a route called
Candid photo of Sequoia
note the fire damage sustained by the tree. Little Sheba on a large formation called Lamb Dome. Our frustration with the crowds gives way to elation as we see there is no one in the area and we have this lovely finger/hand crack to ourselves. Since it is pretty stiff for me to lead, we scramble up to the top of the cliff to set up a top rope. Long story short, we miss the anchors and spend a bunch of time trying to set up an anchor on the wrong route, one which is way too hard. While I am screwing around at the top of the cliff, this other team walks up to the base and makes their way up the very route I had hope to climb, but had missed from the top of the cliff! Turns out there WERE good anchors for that climb and they both got off the route very quickly, leaving enough time for us to jump on it before dark.
Afterward, back at camp, we discuss the next step in our trip; whether or not to keep fighting the annoying, albeit limited crowds in Tuolumne. We initially planned to do some full day mountain routes (Tenaya Peak or Cathedral
Peak) but since our raingear and jackets have been stolen we decide to let prudence play the better part of valor and not risk an epic, since it is quite cold in the morning and evening.
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Tot: 0.154s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 17; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0548s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
