Climbing in Yosemite, California
After landing in the US and spending too long in some grotty hostel in downtown San Fran I finally made it to The Valley.
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The dawn wait…..getting into Camp 4 |
The Tioga Pass had been shut due to rampaging wild fires and I had been forced to hang out in the city with only a brief excursion to some local crags. Finally in Yosemite I checked into North Pines campsite and hit the sack early. I had an Alpine start in the morning as getting into the famous Camp 4 was going to mean queuing from 5am!
Having no car meant I had to walk down to Camp 4 from the other end of the Valley. Upon reaching the Campsite it’s roll out the mat, sit…….and wait. And then hope. Hope that Pinky (the stern park ranger on the door) will let you in. Only a lucky few will gain access as it requires equal number of people leaving on that day. Camp 4 is at full capacity all season it appears.
I eventually made it in (on my second mornings wait). And once in I acquainted my self with as many climbers as I could. Basically I stuck a notice on the board. “Looking for a partner for free Trad routes. Lead 5.9ish though can follow harder”.
For a solo traveling climber, Yosemite Valley has to be the best place in the world. Loads of climbers on long road trips, on sabbaticals, dirt baggers, hard climbers, big wall climbers and old school trad climbers, all hang out throughout the summer. I met some lovely people more than happy to tie into a rope with me. Some of which I ended up traveling around the American west with...
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As a fairly moderate trad climber my first visit to the The Valley and Yosemite high country was great. There is an abundance of routes between 5.6 and 510a. The weather is the best of any major mountain range (sun sun sun). The popular routes do get busy and sharing belay stances with others is not uncommon. That said I only had to queue up once or twice to get on a route. The ‘big walls’ look amazing. I made a promise to myself to climb one one day!
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- Higher Cathedral Rock -Braille Book 5.8 – 700ft
- Royal Arches – 5.7 A0 – 1400ft
- Half Dome – Snake Dike 5.7R – 800ft
- El Capitan – East Buttress 5.10b – 1400ft
- Middle Cathedral Rock – East Buttress – 5.9 A0 – 1100ft
- Middle Cathedral Rock -Central Pillar of Frenzy – 5.9 -550ft
- Cathedral Peak – South East Buttress – 5.6 – 210m
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After a great first morning climbing in the Valley (6 pitch route After Six 5.6) I sat with Andrew (my new climb partner, met in Camp 4) and had a chilled lunch. The subject of Royal Arches came up and keen as hell we jumped on it at about 2pm. Now it would have been prudent to carry some water – it is 16 pitches after all. Even more prudent would have been to carry a headlamp. Long story short we found the abseil rings just as the sun dipped below the horizon. Fortunately Andrew had a headlamp. I didn’t so had to put up with 10 abseils in the dark highly dehydrated. Fortunately the Awahnee hotel is a stones throw from the base and we hit the bar for a beer.
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| Royal Arches. The scene of a long day of over 20 pitches climbed (including After Six which we did earlier) . Abbed down in the dark and got a beer in the Awahnee hotel |
A cold front moved in at the end of October. Things changed pretty rapidly. Goodbye wall to wall sunshine. Hello rain, ice, and even snow.
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