YOSEMITE

This place was all that I imagined it would be, but even bigger. At first the weather was bad, the rules were irritating, and I didn't like it a bit. It was late May when I arrived and it rained almost the entire first week. I had picked up Chris, the brother of a friend from Eugene, at the Bakersfield Amtrak station. He had wanted to do the Lost Arrow Tip for a long time, so after a few short warmups, we went for it. 2000' of elevation gain with fifty pound packs, a 200' free rappel and my first tyrolean traverse. What an introduction to Yosemite climbing! The veiw of Yosemite falls from the tyrolean was incredible.

For the next three weeks I climbed almost every day. Finding a climbing partner is easy, just look around Camp 4 on any nice morning and you'll find more than you need. The difficult part is camping for free. The fee at camp 4 is only $3.00 a night, but the limit is five nights and you must sleep in your tent. I didn't feel like leaving my bus full of food unguarded for the bears to rip open, so I kept the curtains closed and solved both problems at once. Free showers are also key, and the best ones are behind Camp Curry-after 9:00 PM of course.

Midway through my stay, a bunch of climbing buddies showed up from Eugene to climb the nose. I didn't have the experience nescessary so I watched and waited as they slowly ascended El Cap in the rain. I was not sorry I missed out on that climb. The almost daily thunderstorms had begun toward the end of the stay, making it hard to complete any long routes, but even getting up six or seven pitches was great.

Back to home page?

Continue to Flagstaff?