The previous year I had climbed Phobos (5.9, 3p) and loved it. I had wanted to climb its counterpart and the other namesake climb of this cliff, Deimos (5.9, 3p) but we had not fit it into the day. Plus, when climbing Phobos, I had noticed an amazing crack just right of it - Blues Riff (5.11b, 3p). I determined to come back and make a day of climbing both Demios and Blues Riff someday. A year later, I did.

Deimos is an excellent steep climb with a lot of hands/fists/OW crack. It has a bit of a reputation as being hard, burly, and with less than perfect protection. But Rob and I found none of these to be true. The climb is truly a bit atypical for Tuolumne, being more reminiscent of Valley crack climbs with lots of wideness and flares. But after the first 30 feet, the rock is excellent, there is pro wherever you want it, and the offwidth is pretty tame and easily stemmed or face-climbed around. The only negative is the walk-off.

I led the first pitch while Rob linked the second and third. We had an 80m rope (since our plan was to climb Blues Riff next where the 80 is handy), so Rob rappelled all the way back down the the base of the cliff with the gear, after which I dropped the rope to him and then did the walk-off while Rob shuttled the gear to the base of Blues Riff. The walk-off was a bit wet and I still couldn't figure out a way to avoid a bit of a 'schwack at the end of it to get back to the base of the cliff.

Next up: Blues Riff (5.11b, 2-3p).

The previous year I had climbed Phobos (5.9, 3p) and loved it. I had also noticed an amazing crack just right of it - Blues Riff (5.11b, 3p). I determined to come back and climb it someday. Tuolumne is not a destination for flawless crack climbs, but there are a few notable exceptions, Blues Riff being one of them. This pitch would be classic no matter where it would be. The crux is a brief section of steep fingercrack followed by several feet of awesome 5.10 handcrack on a giant flake.

From the top of the crux (second) pitch you can rappel the route with a single 80m rope or double ropes. The third pitch looks fun, but it is 5.9 and there is no anchor at the top of the route. Not wanting to do the walk-off for a second time that day, we opted to do just that. I led both pitches. I felt that the first pitch was quite sandbagged for 5.10c, but perhaps this is due to the rockfall that has made the first pitch a bit more friable and perhaps harder; the crux move is bolt-protected, but the bolt is off to the right when you are pulling a committing powerful move on friable rock, so it feels a bit spooky. Not liking the potential for a swinging fall, I aided through the crux and later toproped it (and still found it quite hard). The second pitch, though, was awesome and totally protectable. I got the onsight - the crux was quite short with locker finger-jams, and the rest was secure hand jamming. So fun! Rob took two toprope laps and I took another lap as well.

It was a great day of climbing, with some humping heavy packs uphill and some pulling hard, but pretty low stress on the climbing front with some excellent pitches of climbing. Pitch-by-pitch photos are below.

The previous year I had climbed West Crack (5.9, 4p) on Daff Dome. It was fun, but I was intrigued by the giant right-facing corner to the right: Crescent Arch (5.9+, 5p), a classic Tuolumne route with a reputation for being a bit of a sandbag for a 5.9, with super polished slabby corner climbing. A year later I returned and climbed this route. I thought the route was superb, and also quite a step up from West Crack. 

Without much thought on pitch breakdown, I started up the route, ending up with the odd pitches. Pitches 2, 3, and 4 are the meat of the route, so this left Rob with the longest two of the 5.9 pitches and me with the shorter 5.9 pitch between. I kind of want to come back and do the route again, and lead the pitches I did not lead.

Below are pitch-by-pitch photos from the climb.

The mosquito population had seemed to explode in Tuolumne in the few days we had been there, plus Rob's friends were in the Valley, so we headed to the sultry Valley for the weekend. On the drive from Tuolumne Meadows to the Valley, I stopped at the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. I did a ~2 mile hike down to the "Dead Giant" Tunnel Tree. The “Dead Giant” tunnel tree measures 120 feet in circumference. It was a 200-foot tall snag when the tunnel was cut in 1878. The owners of the Big Oak Flat Road (completed in 1875) thought being able to ride through the big tree would be good for tourism. So, they routed the road near the tree. Reference

Left of West Crack. Blown Away is absolutely classic. Greg Barnes once told me that he named this climb "Blown Away" because of the high winds the FA team encountered on the arete of the final pitch, and also because that was their reaction to the fact that such a fine route could be found unclimbed in Tuolumne in 2002. 

On the Lamb is a very unique and classic traverse across the upper face of Lamb Dome. Perhaps the only climb in Tuolumne where 95% of the holds are jugs. What makes it difficult is that occasionally the feet disappear. The feature appears to be an enormous horizontal dike that has split apart to form an incut crack.

I had climbed On the Lamb in 2015 on a week-long climbing trip to Tuolumne.

The mosquito population had seemed to explode in Tuolumne in the few days we had been there, plus Rob's friends Nick and John were in the Valley, so we headed to the sultry Valley for a bit.

May 31: On Saturday afternoon, we went cragging at The Cookie. The Cookie is a classic Yosemite crack area. It contains some of the world's best crack climbs. It was 90 degrees and the Cookie does not go into the shade until mid-afternoon, so we headed up around 3:30pm and climbed for a few hours. We had dunked ourselves in the Merced River before the hike up. I led the first two pitches of Outer Limits (5.10c, 3p) as a 40m megapitch (I almost greased off at the top from sweat, but managed to hang on and get the onsight). We had an 80m rope, so from that anchor we toproped Crack-a-Go-Go (5.11c PG13, 1p) (the start is the crux so we made sure to get out all rope stretch for the climber). Rob tred-pointed both pitches. I did a couple of laps of both. Both were excellent.

June 2: We returned a couple of days later for another afternoon session, after cragging that morning at El Cap base. The plan was to link Beverly's Tower (5.10a) and Wheat Thin (5.10c, 1p). Rob would lead the former and I would lead the latter. Rob kept up his end of the deal, leading the super fun Beverly's Tower (5.10a) and I started up Wheat Thin (5.10c) but got squeamish about the punchy flake lieback moves between spaced bolts and bailed. Darn it. It looked like a fun route! By the time we rapped down it was getting late so we decided to call it a day.

June 6: I had a job interview (via Zoom) in the morning, so this made for a good day to return to the Cookie for another late afternoon/evening of cragging. We did a two-pitch link-up of Catchy (5.10d, 1p) to Catchy Corner (5.11a, 1p), two stellar pitches of crack climbing. Rob led the first and I led the latter. Onsights and redpoints all around.

Rob had been fighting a cold and wasn't feeling too great, plus it was pretty hot for climbing, so I snatched the opportunity to hike to the top of Yosemite Falls, something I had always wanted to do in the spring when the falls are raging. Not only is the Yosemite Falls Trail one of Yosemite's oldest historic trails (built 1873 to 1877), but the Yosemite Falls is one of North America’s tallest waterfalls, rising 2,425 feet above the Valley floor. The trail also offers spectacular views of Yosemite Valley, Half Dome, and Sentinel Rock. The view from the overlook above the falls was fantastic. (Description of the hike on the nps website.)

After viewing Yosemite Falls, I decided to extend my hike east to Yosemite Point (adds about 2 miles and 500 ft gain/loss to the hike). Yosemite Point offers direct views of Half Dome and provides panoramic views of many other peaks. 

The round trip hike including Yosemite Falls and Yosemite Point took me about 4 hours and 15 minutes, including a couple of overlook stops. Temperatures were hitting 90 degrees in the Valley, so the hike down was quite hot, so I was glad I had started the hike somewhat early (7:30 am).

Below are some photos and video from this spectacular hike.

The base of El Capitan is home to numerous cragging classic climbs to cut your teeth on while gazing up at the enormous cliff above. [I had cragged at the base of El Capitan twice before. In 2017: La Cosita Right (5.9, 1p), La Cosita Left (5.7, 1p), Sacherer Cracker (5.10a, 1p), Moby Dick (5.10a, 1p). In 2018: First 2 pitches of The Nose (twice!), Pine Line (5.7, 1p), La Cosita Left (5.7, 1p), La Cosita Right (5.9, 1p), Little John Left (5.8, 1p).]

The daytime temperatures in the Valley were in the high 80's, so we wanted to climb before the sun hit the wall around 11:30am. The plan had been to meet around 7am, but Rob got suckered into breakfast with his friends, so I went on a run and we met at 8:30am. We climbed for a few hours. The goal was to climb Mark of Art (5.11a, 1p), a 150-foot lead to the right of Sacherer Cracker culminating in an incredibly sustained 1-2" corner. We decided to "warm up" on Sacherer Cracker (5.10a, 1p). I brought a #6 for Sacherer Cracker (5.10a, 1p), recalling how I had been uncomfortable in the upper offwidth in 2017. My lead went well until I hit the offwidth, and while the #6 safely protected it, it still necessitated climbing a few offwidth moves above the cam; I wimped out and Rob had to finish the lead (a #7 would have been nice to have to keep myself on toprope) and even on toprope I found the offwidth difficult. After this, we climbed Mark of Art (I led it and then we both toproped it once). By this time the wall was baking in the sun, so we quickly climbed La Cosita Left (5.7, 1p) -- left-facing so still in the shade -- and then hiked out. I drove to the Yosemite Village store to get some ice cream and yogurt.

In the late afternoon we headed to Cookie Cliff for evening session of climbing.

I had climbed Voyager (5.11c, 7p) on Fifi Buttress in October 2024 with Nate Beckwith and thought it was an excellent route. I wanted to someday climb Center of the Universe (5.11-, 7p), another comparable 5.11 on the far left side of Fifi Buttress, a touch easier than Voyager but equally high in quality. 

In June 2025, I was in Yosemite Valley cragging with my friend Rob Dillon for a bit, and while the cragging was a blast, I was getting the itch for multipitch, and getting a bit higher off the ground (and a bit further from the bugs and heat). Rob gave me the go-ahead to find a partner for a multipitch route or two. Tucker Mihalik had recently made a partner post on mountainproject; he was working in Yosemite and looking for partners on his days off. I replied to his post and within minutes we had plans to meet the next morning at 9am in the Bridalveil Fall parking lot and climb Center of the Universe (5.11-, 7p). 

Tucker and I had a blast. We thought that every single pitch of the route was super fun and protectable. We climbed in fix-and-follow style, and block lead, with Tucker leading the first four pitches of route up to the large midway ledge, and me leading the last three pitches of the route. This worked out quite well, and we were at the top in no time, wishing the route were longer (in fact, the route does go on to the top of the buttress, but the rest of the pitches are not as travelled and are mostly moderate with no more 5.11). 

On the hike out, we discussed plans for climbing again in a few days. When you're in a spectacular area and you find a good partner on the same page, you take advantage of it.

The following page gives overlay, time stats, and pitch-by-pitch photos for the climb. Enjoy!

I have a separate page for this trip report. Click here to go to my trip report for Center of the Universe (5.11-, 7p) on Fifi Buttress.

Rob and I chose Public Sanitation Wall as a good cragging zone in the shade and above the bugs and heat of the Valley floor. This is a nice sport climbing area that is home to one pitch lines on featured, slightly overhanging granite. I had cragged at Public Sanitation Wall for a day the previous year, in October 2024, when we had climbed Afterburner (5.11c, 1p), Sanitary Engineer (5.10c, 1p), Unknown But Super Fun (5.11c, 1p). On this day, we climbed three pitches: Unknown but Splitter (5.11c, 1p), Big Easy (5.11d, 1p), and Afterburner (5.11c, 1p). I led all three, but used a stick-clip on a couple of bolts on each route on my lead. We then toproped each once or twice. After about 6 pitches each of steep sport climbing, the sun had arrived but we were ready to be done anyway.

Snake Dike is one of the most classic Yosemite adventure climbs. This route climbs a wild dike feature on the southwest face of Half Dome. The climbing is notoriously runnout, but moderate. 

I had always wanted to climb this route, for the pure novelty. But even though moderate, the runnout on polished slabs intimidated me. But then I met Casey in Yosemite (I had replied to his mountainproject partner post) and he was psyched on the idea of Snake Dike. In fact, he had climbed it three times before. He was willing to do it a fourth time. Sweet.

It is a half-marathon type day with five thousand feet of elevation gain, so we decided to start hiking at 6am. When we arrived at the base of the route, there was another party starting up the first pitch. They were a party of three: a six-year-old girl, her dad, and his buddy. We waited a bit and then started climbing, but kept getting on their tail. They let us pass on Pitch 3 (they had accidentally traversed right to the wrong anchor at the top of the pitch, which worked out well for the pass). Casey led the first three pitches, after which I realized I had nothing to be intimidated about (while runnout--essentially, one bolt/anchor/cam every 100 feet-- the climbing felt secure and mostly 5.4 R with the 5.7 sections just off a bolt), and I started leading. Plus it was just pure fun juggy dike climbing, even more fun on the sharp end. We made quick time and were on the summit after a few hours. After a nice lunch break on the summit and chatting with the curious summit crowds ("You climbed up here?!"), we descended the Cables (this took awhile as there were several traffic jams) and hiked out. What a fun day!

Thanks Casey for joining me in this adventure!

I have a separate page for this trip report. Click here to go to my trip report for Snake Dike (5.7 R, 7p) on Half Dome.

Nextdoor to the popular Braille Book (5.8+, 6p) (which I had climbed in 2005 and again in 2017) is a route called Book of Job (5.10b, 6p). Book of Job is a burley and sustained, mostly thin hands-to-wide, crack system. The wide ranges from fists to squeeze chimneys to chimneys. Before beta became so accessible, plenty of parties have started up this route thinking they are on Braille Book. This route stays in the shade all day, so it is a good hot day route.

Rob and I had been doing mostly single-pitch cragging together (he has started the trip with a cold and needed to kick it); we had two days of our trip together left, so we decided to climb a couple of multipitch routes. One of these was the Book of Job. Being currently based in Moab, Rob seems to like wide, and I am always up for an athletic challenge. The route delivered. Pitch after pitch of featured and interesting crack, with some wild well-protected moves. Despite being "only" 5.10 crack, the route was quite challenging, Pitches 2 and 3 in particular. Rob did a great job leading the sustained #3-#5-sized crack of Pitch 2, whereas I struggled with the chimneys and squeezes of Pitch 3, detoured to some heads-up hard face in an effort to avoid a squeeze, and to top off the episode of gumbie goes offwidthing I got a #5 cam stuck high on the pitch (fortunately Rob managed to get the cam out). At the top, we scrambled to the summit to enjoy the 360-degree views of the Valley. We seemed almost level with the top of El Cap. Then we hiked down the long but beautiful descent.

I have a separate page for this trip report. Click here to go to my trip report for Book of Job (5.10b, 6p) on Higher Cathedral Rock.

After climbing the burly Book of Job (5.10b, 6p) the previous day, we felt like some cruiser climbing with short approach. Rob had mentioned The Super Slacker Highway (5.10, 8p) on Pat and Jack Pinnacles, and this sounded like the perfect route for the day. We started up the route at 2:40pm and were back on the ground at 6:40pm. It was a super fun multipitch cragging adventure, with cool knobs and splitter cracks and even a few chimneys. Overlay and photos below.

I was planning to climb the notoriously-burly Steck-Salathe (5.10b, 13p) the following day, so I wanted a lightweight day of climbing, ideally in the morning. So Rob and I headed to Reed's Pinnacle, which has morning shade. Reed's Pinnacle is another popular, classic, Yosemite crack climbing wall. I had cragged here twice before, in 2007 (Reed’s Direct (5.10a, 300′)) and 2018 (Reed’s Direct (5.10a, 300′), Bongs Away Left (5.8, 1p), Lunatic Fringe (5.10c, 1p), Stone Groove (5.10b, 1p)).

Rob and I climbed three routes: We started with Stone Groove (5.10b, 1p), which Rob led; then I led Lunatic Fringe (5.10c, 1p); and then we decided to race the sun and bang out Reed's Pinnacle Regular Route (5.9, 4p). The last one was a new route for me, and had a cool tunnel-through near the top of the pinnacle. By noon the sun had hit the wall but we had gotten in six good pitches of climbing.

I spend the afternoon chilling by the river and resting up for Steck-Salathe the following day. 

Unfortunately, Steck-Salathe did not happen (It was one of those partner situations that didn't feel right—I'll keep it at that). Based on this mountainproject thread posted the following week, I think I dodged a bullet. Disappointed at how things had turned out, I went on a run to Mirror Lake. And texted Rob that I was free for today and the next after all. We made plans to meet up that afternoon and plan out a yet-to-be-determined multipitch route the following day.

After my pleasant morning jog, I did a bit of touristing around and looking at waterfalls and grabbing a free book at the Yosemite library. Earlier in the trip, Rob and I had discussed a route called Bridalveil East (5.10c, 8p), but once I saw Bridalveil Falls and how the wind blows it around, I determined that this is not a good spring route. In the book “Yosemite Epics: Tales of Adventure from America’s Greatest Playground”, Peter Croft has a pretty entertaining story of an epic he and a client had climbing Bridalveil East in the spring.

Later that afternoon, I managed to convince Rob to belay me up The Tube (5.11a, 1p), a sweet-looking left-facing corner at Pat & Jack Pinnacles. The crux required pasting feet on slick rock while pressing the back into the wall and then making a big reach; the rock felt a bit greasy, and my foot popped when I made the reach (85 degrees doesn't make for great friction), but it was a short fall on a small but bomber cam. Even on toprope the crux move felt pretty insecure. After this, I led the first pitch of Desperate Straights (5.10b, 1p), which was fun geometric offwidth and stemming. Then we called it a day and finalized our multipitch plans for the following day. Thanks Rob for the late afternoon belays!

In the last year, I had climbed both Voyager (5.11c, 7p) and Center of the Universe (5.11-, 7p) on Fifi Buttress. Both were excellent routes with great protection. With a sub-hour approach, 7 pitches (although continuation pitches to the top are possible for each), and the ability to rappel the route with a single 70, they were pretty cruiser adventures. They were both put up by Dan McDevitt, Voyager in 2013 and Center of the Universe in 2015. Naturally, I became interested in another 5.11 Dan McDevitt route on Fifi, called Bird of Prey (5.11b, 5-12p), put up in 2016. The route is often climbed just through the first five pitches, which are quite good. Pitches 6-8 are dirty 5.9 climbing. But if you climb Pitches 6-8, you are rewarded with four pitches of excellent climbing, perhaps the best climbing on the route. This extension past the first seven pitches of Birds of Prey actually called "To Infinity". 

I was climbing in Yosemite for a couple of weeks with my friend Rob, and he was interested in this route as well. We decided to give ourselves the option of climbing all the way to the top of the route. This meant brining 2x#4, 1x#5, and 1x#6 which are needed for the OW on Pitch 11.

Rob and I had a great day on this route. We linked Pitches 1&2, 4&5, and 6&7. A link of 9&10 would be possible, but we chose not to since we had brought only two #3 cams. We swung leads, with me leading Pitches 1&2, 4&5, 8, 10, and 12 and Rob leading Pitches 3, 6&7, 9, and 11. He got the two offwidth pitches (Pitch 3 and Pitch 11), which was fine by me.  We felt that the main (only, really) downside to the route was the dirty pitches, most notably the top of Pitch 7 and parts of Pitch 8. But they are worth climbing for the pitches above.

I found the 5.11 pitches on the route to me more sustained and harder for the grade than the 5.11 pitches on Voyager and Center of the Universe. And the character of the climbing was wider and burlier. Add to this the fact that we climbed the full dozen pitches to the top of Fifi Buttress, and Bird of Prey was a a more full-on climb than either of Voyager or Center of the Universe.

All in all, a wonderful Yosemite adventure to cap off our trip together. Thanks Rob for a fun two weeks in Yosemite!

I have a separate page for this trip report. Click here to go to my trip report for Bird of Prey (5.11b, 12p) on Fifi Buttress.

My two week trip to Yosemite (first Tuolumne and then the Valley) with friend Rob Dillon was coming to an end. We had done a lot of fun cragging and a few multipitch adventures. Towards the end of the trip, I got a text from Kawika, who had met my sister before and knew me through my route overlays and beta. We decided to plan a day of climbing together on the last day of my trip. He proposed Teabag Wisdom (5.11a, 9p) on the east face of Mt. Watkins. This was perfect since the route starts from Olmsted Point and I was driving that way anyway on my way home.

Teabag Wisdom is a 9-pitch 1350-foot route up the east face of Mt. Watkins, put up by Vitaliy Musiyenko and Chris Koppl in 2016. The route is mostly face climbing on immaculate slab, with a few gear-protected flakes and crack systems. All anchors (except the ones at the tops of Pitch 1 and 9) are bolted and the slab sections are protected by adequate but spaced bolts. Amazingly, most belays are on pretty nice ledges or stances. The route is east-facing and receives morning sun. The setting nestled between Tuolumne and Yosemite Valley is sublime.

The route is the result of executing a great vision of a route up the slab. Here's a article on the American Alpine Club website about the route: http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201214126/Mt-Watkins-Teabag-Wisdom.

The first challenge of the day was finding the tree at the top of the route. Fortunately, there was a GPS point for this tree posted on mountainproject (GPS 37.77790, -119.51590, thanks Greg!), which I had loaded into the GAIA app in my phone. We then rappelled the route (which went pretty quickly, with the rope getting stuck only twice, the first of which was easy enough to climb up to and the second of which was on the final rappel, so we were able to lead on the other half of the rope.

We climbed the route in fix-and-follow method. We had intended to both take a block of climbing (Kawika the first half and me he second half), but I quickly realized (actually by the second rappel) that the protection was more spaced than I would like for my comfort. Fortunately Kawika was down to lead the entire route. He cruised the entire route while I enjoyed the security of slabbing on toprope. It is a really good climb on good rock, and the views and setting were spectacular. We cruised the route in a few hours with Kawika in lead.

After arriving back at the tree at the top of the route, we decided to go tag the summit of Mt. Watkins. This was worth the sweeping view of Yosemite Valley - a view akin to from Olmsted Point, only closer, so better. We then hiked out. I accidentally led us onto the incorrect trail, but it ended up being a shorter route back to the road, but unfortunately 2 miles from our cars at Olmsted Point. We put out our thumbs, and within 5 minutes (the 2nd car to pass up), we had a ride back to Olmsted Point (thanks Argen!).

Thanks Kawika for the fun day out! What a great adventure!

I have a separate page for this trip report. Click here to go to my trip report for Teabag Wisdom (5.11a, 8p) on Mt. Watkins.