Donner Weekend

Chelsea and Eric looking at a hard climb

After spending a couple of weekends in SLO, it was definitely time for another trip.  We had Monday off for Memorial Day and I don’t have class on Friday so Chelsea and I decided to head up to Tahoe for the long weekend.  We arrived on Thursday night and woke up to cloudy skies on Friday.  We met up with Eric (Now my boyfriend! Wee!)  and headed out to Star Walls.  There is still a TON of snow at Donner so we snowshoed out to the wall.  I failed miserably on last summer’s project (probably because I was so distracted by the prospect of lunch!) and then watched Eric cruise Warp Factor 5.13a and try the link up, a Steep Climb Named Desire 5.14.  Steep Climb’s crux is right after the anchors of Warp Factor and it involves a really hard move to an undercling.  Sweet!  At this point, it was getting a little chilly and we were all so excited about all you can eat sushi that we called it a day and headed to Reno for a two hour marathon of eating!

The following morning, we met Ian at an awesome boulder problem called White Lines (V8).   Ian never fails to impress me with his natural climbing abilities and by the time we had hiked down to meet him, he had done most of the problem and just needed a spot for the last few commiting moves.  I set up my sweet new camera and watched Ian take an awesome burn.  Eric put his shoes on and sent the problem in an amazingly smooth fashion on his second go of the day.  As soon as Eric was back on the ground, Ian jumped on and sent.  Watching the two of them climb such a beautiful problem got me so psyched!  It was super excitng to see the problem go down twice in a row in such excellent fashion. 

Getting creative and making a stick brush out of a ski pole

About to crush White Lines

After White Lines we headed to Star Walls again.  It started snowing pretty hard and I tried climbing my favorite climb, Short Subject, but wimped out and came down.  I couldn’t believe how hard it was snowing!  Just a few days before June, and it seemed like it was the middle of winter still.  We met my good friends from the Bay, Danny and Adriel over at Star Walls and watched them try Warp Factor before calling it a day and heading for shelter from the elements. 

Danny trying to stay warm under Warp Factor

The weather was pretty terrible the next day so we took the dogs snowshoeing and took a rest from climbing.  On Monday, the skies were blue so we trekked up to Black Wall and got on a few fun climbs.  Donner is such a beautiful place and it was amazing to be there without the summer time crowds.  In fact, we didn’t encounter a single other person the entire weekend! 

Finally got a break from the snow on Monday

Titan sunning himself

Eric leading a fun climb above a lot of snow

It was a great weekend that got me rejuvenated for the last three days of class (now two!), psyched for the upcoming Tahoe climbing season and super excited about starting a new relationship with one of my favorite climbing partners :)

Chelsea snowshoeing

Lots of snow