The following is taken from my Yosemite 2007 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).

The following is taken from my Yosemite 2018 trip report.

Valley's most accessible crag for moderate routes. A great place to squeeze in a few evening pitches on a hot day. 3 routes.

A few hours of cragging at Church Bowl with Kate. I was feeling a bit underpowered from a big day on El Cap the previous day and a cold I was fighting, but it was fun to finally climb with Kate (who I had met on the Diamond a couple of summers before). We climbed a couple of the classic 5.8's (Bishop's Terrace and Church Bowl Lieback) and a couple of ok 5.10s (Church Bowl Tree and Pole Position).

The following is taken from my Yosemite June 2025 trip report.

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.

I had an interview from 11am-noon, so we got a late start to climbing. Cragging at Cookie Cliff was a good option. I led up Meat Grinder's first pitch (5.9) and then we did a couple of toprope laps on nextdoor Red Zinger (11d). We finished the day with Waverly Wafer (11a), which I led. I was tempted to climb Butterballs (11c), but it was getting late in the day and we had plans to climb The Rostrum the next day, so we left Butterballs for another day.

A short afternoon session at The Cookie, linking Waverly Wafer (11a) to Wheat Thin (10c), with John leading and Nick and me toproping in his wake. I was psyched to be able to toprope Wheat Thin, which is a bit punchy, but a classic flake. Again, Butterballs will have to wait for another day!

The goal for the afternoon was Butterballs (11c)—a splitter finger crack running straight up the center of the Nabisco Wall. It’s vertical and sustained, with strenuous fingerlocks and the occasional tiny diorite bump for feet. A true classic. We climbed Beverly’s Tower (10a) to reach it. John flashed Butterballs, while Nate and I both toproped it clean—Nate on his first go, me on my second. We wrapped up the day with a group dinner at Church Bowl with John, Nate, Brooke, Steve, and me. A fun day all around.

The following is taken from my Yosemite 2017 trip report.

5-star climbing on the base of the most awesome chunk of rock. 4 routes.

The following is taken from my Yosemite 2018 trip report.

5-star climbing on the base of the most awesome chunk of rock. 8 pitches.

The following is taken from my Yosemite June 2025 trip report.

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.

The following is taken from my Yosemite June 2025 trip report.

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.

The following is taken from my Yosemite June 2025 trip report.

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 latter half of 2024, I made the decision to quit my job and enroll in a 6-month coding bootcamp, with hopes of upgrading my skills and moving closer to the elusive flexible remote sufficiently-paying career job. The bootcamp also gave a nice reprieve from the daily grind, and I spent my summer enjoying the additional freedom and flexibility. Fall 2024 seemed the perfect time to head to the Valley, as it would be the first time in years I had the window to do so. But the day before leaving for Yosemite, I unexpectedly came down hard on my leg while cleaning my gutters and fractured my tibial plateau. It was a minor enough fracture that I was still able to bear weight, but according to my ortho doctor, any climbing, running, etc. was out. However, he did tell me to base my activity level on pain--if I felt no pain, what I was doing with it was probably okay. So I decided to head to Yosemite anyway and promised myself that if I felt pain I would stop.....

Public Sanitation Wall seemed like a good place to test the waters on my knee. Short approach, low commitment, sport climbing on good rock.

Nate and I each climbed three routes (he led two, toproped one, while I toproped all) at Public Sanitation Wall. He did all of the leading. I managed to get up a few pitches, but was terrified by any twinge of pain and struggled upwards in imagined pain and frustration. Climbing 11c one-legged and the talus field on the approach was quite a challenge. At the end of the day, my leg ached. I suspected my attempt to climb in Yosemite was a three-pitch failure.

But with renovation work being done on my place back in Estes Park, I preferred to stay on the road and work. So out of an irrational hope for a miracle of healing, I stayed in Yosemite, bumming off Nate's Starlink, riding his bike around the Valley roads, reading books, and taking my lectures and working on homework. After a few days of this, my knee was feeling a bit better. I couldn't help it. "Let's try the Central Pillar of Frenzy", I proposed. I had climbed this clasic 5-pitch 5.9 route three times (2007, 2015, and 2017) and was happy to climb it again. Plus it was somewhere we could walk from our post in El Cap Meadow. But when we got there, there were two parties on route and three lined up at the base. The first party was hardly moving. No thanks. So we headed right and cragged for a few hours, climbing four single pitches. My knee felt better than it had a few days previous (perhaps because the climbing was a bit easier), so that was encouraging. Perhaps we could climb something bigger the next day....

----

(I almost left and drove back home after the first day at Public Sanitation Wall. My doctor had told me 6-8 weeks of no climbing on my tibial plate fracture, and I figured I had been foolhardy to try to push that limit. But Nate encouraged me to stay a few more days and suss it out a bit more. I am glad he did, because I ended up staying in Yosemite for three weeks, climbing awesome routes like Voyager (5.11c, 7p), The North Face of the Rostrum (5.11c, 8p), Jericho Wall Free (5.12a, 8p), Scarface (5.12, 9p), The Great Escape (5.11d, 4p), The Moratorium (5.11b, 3-4p), Freeblast (5.11, 8p), Central Pillar of Frenzy (5.9, 5p), and Gates of Delirium (5.12-, 10p). (See links for these climbs at the top of this page.) I didn't do much leading but I was able to follow without too much difficulty other than my usual struggles with 5.11+ and harder. By the end of the three weeks, it was four weeks post-fracture, and I had mostly forgotten about it, and I decided to add a one-day detour to do the 44-mile Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim on the drive home.)

The following is taken from my Yosemite 2007 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 (5 pitches, 5.9) on Higher Cathedral Spire . 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).

The following is taken from my Yosemite 2018 trip report.

Steep and splitter granite cracks above the Merced Canyon. 4 routes.

The following is taken from my Yosemite June 2025 trip report.

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. 

It was a semi-rest day before a bigger outing for all of us, so a mellow cragging session sounded perfect. We decided to explore Sentinel Creek—none of us had been there before.

Sentinel Creek is one of the best summer cragging areas for 5.9–5.10 leaders. It’s a relatively new development, with stellar views of Yosemite Falls and El Capitan. The climbing is moderate and enjoyable, and the wall stays shaded until mid to late afternoon.

We climbed three routes: the classic, insecure corner of Yin-Yang (5.10d), the clean crack of Mañana (5.10d), and finished on the fun sport pitch Yama Shama (5.11a/b). I led all three, onsighting the two 10d’s and pulling on a draw at the crux of Yama Shama before toproping it clean. Steve also led all three and Nate led the first two, while Brooke enjoyed some toprope laps.

A great, relaxed day out with friends.

Wade and I had climbed Wayward Son (5.12c, 13p) the day before and were looking for something shorter. Mental Block sounded like a good half day option. Mental Block is a five-pitch route that follows a corner system on Sentinel Creek Wall. The highlight is a splitter offwidth—one of the Valley’s classic 5.10 offwidth testpieces. The rack runs wide: doubles from 0.2–3", plus one each of #4, #5, and #6. An extra #5 could be useful, though we managed without. The #6, however, felt essential for staying well-protected.

Wade led the odd pitches, and I took the evens. That gave me the 5.10c off-fingers to thin-hands pitch and the 5.10c offwidth, while Wade got the easy approach pitch, the sustained 5.10a/b offwidth (Mountain Project calls it 10c, which seems fair), and the final short 5.9 pitch to the top. Wade also saved the day for the final moves of Pitch 4—an awkward and wild vertical slot—after I failed to figure out the exit from the roof (for me, a true mental block section of the route). He solved it by campusing through. 

Overall, Mental Block is a fun, physical outing with plenty of sustained offwidth climbing—definitely not one for the average sport climber.

This page includes a route overlay and pitch-by-pitch photos of the climb.

Date: June 1, 2025 (Sun)

Partner: solo

The following is taken from my Yosemite June 2025 trip report.

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.