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!

The following page gives pitch-by-pitch photos for the climb.