We arrived at Yosemite on the morning of June 5 after leaving Red Rocks the evening before. We decided to begin with a Valley classic – Serenity Crack, a 3 pitch finger crack with a 5.10d crux on the 3rd pitch. We had wanted to do the link-up with Sons of Yesterday, but weather and a slow party caused us to rap down from the top of Serenity Crack.

Update July 2015: I climbed Serenity Crack again as part of a link-up with Serenity-Sons in July 2015 (click link for trip report).

For our second day at Yosemite, we decided to get some practice on wide cracks, since we had ambitions for the Salahe route on El Cap, which has a lot of wide crack. We drove over to Arch Rock at the end of the Valley and climbed Gripper (3 pitches, 5.10b) and New Dimensions (4 pitches, 5.11a).

We began our third day by climbing the classic Central Pillar of Frenzy (5 pitches, 5.9) on Middle Cathedral Rock. We then hiked up the trail to climb the Regular Route on Higher Cathedral Spire (5 pitches, 5.9). After deciding that it was not worth the effort of hiking down and then back up to climb the Lower Cathedral Spire, we headed for Reed’s Pinnacle to finish the day of on Reed’s Direct (3 pitches, 5.10a).

Update July 2015 & June 2017 & Nov 2024: I climbed the Central Pillar of Frenzy again in July 2015, June 2017, and Nov 2024 (click links for trip reports).

We began our third day by climbing the classic Central Pillar of Frenzy (5 pitches, 5.9) on Middle Cathedral Rock. We then hiked up the trail to climb the Regular Route on Higher Cathedral Spire (5 pitches, 5.9). After deciding that it was not worth the effort of hiking down and then back up to climb the Lower Cathedral Spire, we headed for Reed’s Pinnacle to finish the day of on Reed’s Direct (3 pitches, 5.10a).

Update June 2017: I climbed the Regular Route on Higher Cathedral Spire again in June 2017 (click link for trip report).

We began our third day by climbing the classic Central Pillar of Frenzy (5 pitches, 5.9) on Middle Cathedral Rock. We then hiked up the trail to climb the Regular Route on Higher Cathedral Spire (5 pitches, 5.9). After deciding that it was not worth the effort of hiking down and then back up to climb the Lower Cathedral Spire, we headed for Reed’s Pinnacle to finish the day of on Reed’s Direct (3 pitches, 5.10a).

Update June 2018: I climbed Reed's Direct again in June 2018 (click link for trip report).

The 2000 foot sheer face of the Sentinel was hard to miss as we drove through the Valley each day. We knew we had to climb it – it was just a matter of which route? We decided on the 16-pitch Steck-Salathe route, one of the Fifty Classics, feared for its daunting wide cracks and chimneys. It was quite an adventure!

After 6 days of climbing, and beating our bodies through the offwidths and chimneys of the Steck-Salathe route the day before, it was time to take a day off. I walked around taking some photos of birds.

After climbing The Central Pillar of Frenzy a few days before, we wanted to tackle the striking north buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock. We chose to climb the Ho Chi Minh Trail route, which looked like it had a fun variety of great climbing ranging from 5.7-5.10c. The route is 20 pitches, and quite a fun adventure!

A note on the descent: we chose to do the rappel route, since we were encouraged by some shiny new rap rings we had occasionally seen. However, these rap stations quickly disappeared, and we had quite an epic descent, involving loosing a 60m rope, leaving about 10 slings and biners behind, and making several blind rappels into the dark before we reached the ground several hours after we started. My advice would be to do the walk off!

After a somewhat epic descent off the north buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock the day before, and my raw and bloody fingers, we decided it was time for another rest day. I dealt with non-restful computer issues, took some more photos, and read a book in the sun by a creek.

Most of the routes we had climbed so far were awesome, but had pushed me to my limit of climbing difficulty. I am an alpine climber at heart – I love long, aesthetic routes where routefinding, weather, length, etc. pose the main difficulties rather than an actual difficulty in the technical rock climbing. So, I was ready to climb something long, but rather easy.

So we headed for Gold Wall.

Needless to say, it wasn’t easy.

We climbed the first 5 pitches on the route (out of a total of 11), and then decided to rappel down. It was pretty hot, the cracks were kind of flaring (although there was a splitter hand crack on the 5th pitch), and an ice cold pepsi was sounding pretty good, at least to me. Seems that bailing on the route is not too uncommon, based on the 4 slings, 1 quickdraw, 2 biners, and 2 nuts I collected off just the first 5 pitches! Booty, yea!

After a week in Yosemite, it was time to regroup and discuss the plan for the next couple of weeks. We decided that the next climb we wanted to do would be the NW Face on Half Dome. We planned to climb the route in a day, so this would be a test of endurance and speed. So we decided to take a couple of days off climbing, to lounge around in the beautiful Yosemite Park. Naturally, I took the opportunity to get out my telephoto lens again.

June 14: Hike up to base of Half Dome
We spent a morning in the Valley (I hiked to Lower Yosemite Falls, and took photos of course), and at 2pm we started hiking up the 8 mile Mist Trail to Half Dome. To get to the base of the NW face, we turned off the trail just before it headed up the stairs and cables. Half a mile along a climber’s trail brought us to the base of the NW face, where there is a convenient spring (flows October – June usually) and nice flat bivy spots. We enjoyed the spectacular evening views of the valley as the 2000-ft NW face loomed above us.

June 15: Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome
I had wanted to climb the 2000ft NW face of Half Dome ever since my first time in Yosemite in 2003. Ross was psyched to climb it, so here was my chance!

The Regular NW Face route is a popular climb, for good reason. The day we climbed the route, there were 3 other parties. One party was hauling and planning on staying at Big Sandy Ledge overnight, and the rest of us were attempting to climb the route in a day. The first party started off at 4am, jugging some fixed lines they had set the night before. Ross and I began climbing after them, at 4:45am (it was dark for the first pitch, so we climbed with headlights). The third party (two friendly English dudes named Ian and Matt) started up right after us, and the fourth party began soon after them, falling quickly behind since they were hauling. Ross and I passed the first party by simulcliming the 7th, 8th, and 9th pitches, and from then on had the rock to ourselves.

It took us 14 hours to get to the summit. Ross did a stellar job leading every pitch. Mostly we free-climbed (besides for a few bolt ladders), and I jumared about 5-6 pitches to speed things up. The climbing was amazing! We also got some booty: a couple of nuts, a tricam, and a new C3 camelot. Score! (Although we lost a brand new 6mm rap cord when it got stuck just 2 pitches from the top – no score!)

Here is a brief pitch description outlining our climb (Pitches as from SuperTopo Guide):
Pitch 1: 4:45am. Headlights required.
Pitches 2 and 3: 5:34am. Linked these pitches.
Pitch 4: 6:18am. I practiced my jugging on this pitch, since I had never used jumars before (what better place to learn than on Half Dome!)
Pitch 5: 7:13am.
Pitch 6: 7:33am.
Pitches 7-9: 8:10am. Simulclimbed these pitches to pass a slower party.
Pitches 10-11: 8:54am. Bolt ladder on pitch 10 (I jugged). Pitch 11 is the airy Robbin’s Traverse. Linked these pitches to make a wild pendulum (I did a cool little unplanned flip, testing the usefulness of my helmet).
Pitch 12: 10:12am.
Pitches 13-14: 11:02am. Linked these pitches. I jugged these pitches, since chimneys aren’t my forte…
Pitches 15-16: 12:21pm. Linked these pitches.
Pitch 17: 1:20pm. The top of Pitch 17 is the comfortable Big Sandy Ledge, where we stopped for a brief break. The sun had finally hit the NW face.
Pitch 18: 2:11pm. Ross aided on gear, and I jugged.
Pitches 19-20: 3:29pm. Linked these pitches. Ross aided on gear, and I jugged.
Pitch 21: 4:53pm. Thank God Ledge – exposed, steep, and 1-ft wide. But can be protected by 1-2 inch cams the whole way. We both ended up on our hands and knees, and the gear attached to my gear loops almost knocked me off when I got to the really narrow section!
Pitch 22: 5:37pm. Bolt ladder (although some bolts seem to be missing, making for some sketchy gear pulling). I jugged.
Pitch 23: 6:26pm. Class 4 traverse. The brand new tag line I had been dragging got stuck somewhere and I had to leave it behind.
Pitch 24: 6:45pm. We were both on the summit at 7:07pm, about 14 hours after we started.
Car: It took Ross 3 hours and me 3.5 hours to hike in the dark back to the car.

Update June 2017: I climbed the Regular NW Face again in June 2017 (click link for trip report).

Below is a route overlay I created using a high resolution photo by Mark Thomas. Mark has authored a Half Dome Map Project on his website, where you can zoom into the image of Half Dome and see the features in about 4x higher resolution than the image I have provided below. Check it out, it is quite amazing!

After a long day the day before, it was nice to sleep in and lounge around for a day. In the evening, we drove up to Tuolumne, since we wanted to climb Fairview Dome before we left Yosemite.

I didn’t take any photos on this day! Must have been tired!

Ross took a photo though. Classic – 2 guys with their GPS and map, standing in the Yosemite Lodge parking lot, trying to find a climb…Hope they had a fun climb, wherever they ended up going!

On our way out of Yosemite National Park, we stopped to climb a day in Tuolumne. This is a beautiful area with lots of great granite. The routes are shorter than the Valley, but there are a lot less crowds!

We had planned to climb the popular Regular Route on Fairview Dome, but this 50 Crowded Classic was, well, crowded. So we opted for the slightly more difficult but equally stellar Lucky Streaks. Fun climbing on big feldspar crystals. Pitch 5 was quite an adventure, since it climbed right over a raven’s nest, and the mother raven was none too happy.

Update Aug 2013: I climbed Regular Route on Fairview Dome in Aug 2013 (click link for trip report).
Update June 2024: I climbed Lucky Streaks on Fairview Dome in June 2024 (click link for trip report).

After Lucky Streaks, we headed over to Drug Dome to climb Oz, a fun-looking 10d we found in the Tuolumne Climbing guidebook. This was another great route, with a stellar layback/stem crack under a roof.

Update July 2015: I climbed Oz again in July 2015 (click link for trip report).

This was our last day in Yosemite National Park. I really love that place, and it was sort of sad to have to leave, although there was more climbing ahead!

We didn't climb anything this day. Ross met with his friend Eric to go climb The Incredible Hulk in the Sawtooth Range of the Sierras (California) the next day. I relaxed in Tuolumne, and ended up in Reno that night (that's another story...).

See Ross’s post on Cascade Climbers.com  for more photos and commentary from our trip.

Our Climbing Adventures Continue....
Our 2 weeks in Yosemite were over, but our climbing adventures weren't. Ross and I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park....