Lessons Learned in Yosemite Valley
VALLEY, VALLEY, VALLEY! It had been so long since I had last been in Yosemite. On Thursday, before we left I was beyond excited. There was no use in focusing in class or trying to read or study. All I could do was pack my gear and twitch with excitement until it was time to go. My English class was miraculously cancelled and Chelsea and I jumped in the car and sang our way to Yosemite.
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| Camp 4... feels like home |
We were back! It was Thursday and we were cooking dinner in the Valley. Ahead of us were three full days of awesome climbing on awesome granite. Yes! Finally, after months and months we would be placing gear and tying into ropes. The last time I did either of those things was in Indian Creek (yes that’s right, the Creek! Way back in November!) We were joined by Max, who we met in Utah and now lives in Tahoe, and Eric and Fabien the crushers from Reno.
Note: the following is a very long description of a climb. If you would like to skip it, go past all the blue text.
On Friday, Max, Chelsea and I decided to do Serenity Crack (5.10d) and Sons of Yesterday (5.10a). Serenity is three pitches and leads up to Sons, which is another five. I hadn’t looked into the climb too much, but I knew that it was one that Chelsea was always talking about and really wanted to do. I also knew that the first pitch was a bunch of pin scars that are notoriously hard to protect until you are about 30 feet off the ground. Needless to say, we gave the first pitch to Max.
Max cruised up easily and then brought Chelsea and I up. I loved the pitch! The pin scars created weird vertical pinch type holds and I motored up to the belay with a smile on my face. I led the next pitch. It started out pretty mellow and about halfway up there is a tricky traversing face move. You have to leave one crack and do some delicate movement on a hold-less slab to get over to another crack. I happen to love slab climbing and found the section to be a very satisfying challenge. The upper crack was a bit harder and I had to push myself and my trad climbing abilities to make it cleanly up to the belay.
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| What's going on up there? |
As I was climbing, I was feeling very happy with myself. I was leading a 5.10a, on gear, IN THE VALLEY! If you have ever climbed in the Valley, you know that everything is hard, hard, hard. You don’t take Yosemite grades lightly. In almost any other place that you climb, you would think nothing about running up a 5.8 or 5.9, but in the Valley even 5.6 can be serious business!
Anyway, I reached the second belay very happy with myself for leading my hardest trad climb to date in the Valley. My happiness soon vanished as I struggled heartily with rope management. Bringing two people up a climb at the same time on two different ropes is hard work, especially when you have a normal ATC and not one of the fancy ones that clips into the anchor and makes your life much easier.
Not to worry, there was tons of fun climbing to be had! We went up the third and final pitch of Serenity, which finishes with an awesome finger crack that pumps you out quickly.
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| Chelsea coming up the last pitch of Serenity |
On to Sons. We hustled up the 5.5 ramp and I decided to lead the next pitch. One of the first moves involves reaching around a slabby bulge to get into the crack. I found that scary, as I hadn’t placed any gear yet. I started up the crack and threw in a .3 camalot. I climbed up a couple moves and suddenly the crack got very greasy and before I could do anything about it, I was falling. Ack! I took a decent sized whipper! Good thing my gear was bomber.
I continued up, did a funky mantle over a tree that was growing out of the crack and about halfway up the pitch I decided that I didn’t seem to have the gear I wanted. We had only brought singles of most sizes and I had placed my .5 and .75 and looking at the crack above it seemed that I would want more of those. I was definitely at my limit in terms of what I can lead on gear and not having enough pieces to feel really comfortable was a roadblock in terms of me finishing the pitch. I contemplated for a while and then decided that in the interest of time I should be lowered back to the belay and have someone faster and more confident finish the pitch.
I wasn’t discouraged though because I had survived a whipper on gear and pushed myself in my abilities. Chelsea took the sharp end and cruised up the pitch with her mad jamming skills.
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| A dorky picture of our first time in the Valley together |
When it came time to follow up the pitch, I realized that I was very tired. It was a pretty committing move to jump on an eight-pitch climb, at the highest grade in the Valley I had ever attempted, on my first time back on a rope in four months. I pressed onward and struggled up the pitch. Many grunts later I arrived at the belay. We still had three pitches to go!
The next two pitches were pretty awesome hands, but at the point my hands were feeling sore and my feet were in extreme pain from jamming them into cracks all day. Nevertheless, I made lots of noise and thrutched up the pitches. Despite the pain, fatigue and general struggle, it felt really good to be at both my physical and mental limit. Every fiber in my being was completely exhausted but I kept pushing it.
We made it to the bottom of the final pitch and since we would be rappelling down, I decided to wait at that belay station instead of climbing the last bit. It was a very short pitch with a cool zig-zagging crack that becomes a wide off-fists crack at the top. That size is horribly hard for me so I was glad to sit it out.
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| Chelsea loaded up with gear and smiling on Ejesta (previous trip) |
Soon we were rappelling down the climb and into the sunset. What a glorious day! It was super sunny and warm, NO ONE else was on the climb the entire day (which is good because we were moving very slow and they probably would have been angry with us), and the climb was dry. Chelsea and I simul-rapped the route, which is always entertaining. On one pitch we both rolled around a bulge and ended up in a tree. Eventually we made it back down to the ground and to the car.
The next day I woke up extremely sore (mostly in the calves) and sunburned. Chelsea and I decided we deserved ice cream for breakfast and got mint Its Its. Yum! I was fairly lazy that whole morning and Chelsea had to leave to lead a hike with a group from school, so I mostly sat on a rock in the sun and tried to stretch.
Eventually Max, Eric, Fabien and I made it up to Cookie Cliff where Eric and Max both flashed Cookie Monster (5.12), which is an awesome bolted line that follows a thin crack up a corner. I did the climb on top rope and absolutely loved it! Then it was back to Camp 4 for a bit of bouldering and then off to sleep.
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| Camp 4 bouldering is great! |
The following morning, Eric and I got up early to climb Nutracker, a super classic 5.8 that takes you up five pitches of excellent climbing. The first pitch was slightly wet and I was surprised at how tired I felt on it. However, once the sun hit me I felt much better. We leap frogged pitches with Eric taking 1, 3 and 5, leaving me with 2 and 4. Pitch two is super cruiser and before I knew it I was taking the sharp end at the bottom of pitch 4. The pitch started out with a bang. I got to go over a small 5.8 roof and then climb thin cracks the rest of the way up. I felt really good on this pitch.
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| The view from the top of Nutcracker |
The last pitch starts with the crux of the route, a scary and very tricky mantle move. I was really glad that I didn’t lead this pitch! Moments later we were on top of the climb eating peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches. We had finished all five pitches in less than three hours.
Long, moderate trad routes are definitely my favorite type of climbing so I was in an excellent mood. I finally felt like I was back in the right mindset for climbing. Lately I have been so caught up in this competition series (blog coming on this, I promise!) and more recently with training and stressing out about Nationals that I forgot what it feels like to be truly happy while climbing.
This weekend in the Valley could not have come at a better time. I am so glad to have finally made it out there, to have pushed myself, and to be able to walk away with a better understanding of who I am as a climber. I finally got a taste of trying things above my ability, of really testing my limits, and at the same time sticking true to my enjoyment of climbing for climbing, not for grades or for glory.
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| Chelsea on Jam Crack |
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| So beautiful |
