Crack Withdrawals

Title got your attention, eh? Well, just to clarify, crack withdrawals has nothing to do with drugs and all to do with crack climbing in Yosemite. Unfortunately, the climbing trip has come to an end, I am in Seattle job-hunting, and I don't wake up and roll out of a tent. I know it's been long since I've posted so I'll break it up into a few posts to not overwhelm y'all. But man do I want some cracks to climb (says the sport climber).

So we left off on a Friday, a rest day. Nothing fancy, just resting. Saturday, we woke up and went to go conquer Midnight Lightning. After a few attempts at the scary top-out, Aaron sent! After awhile, we went over to my project: Bear Hug Arete. I made some progress and played around with a bunch of heel-hooks. Fun time but no send. No biggie. We had an early night because tomorrow on Sunday...

Vernal Falls via Mist Trail on our approach to Snake Dike

 ...we woke up before the sun, ate breakfast in the dark, all three of us got into the Tacoma, drove over to Happy Isles, spilled out of the Tacoma, sorted gear which really means stuffing as much stuff as we could into as little as we could, and started off on the 6 mile, 2300 foot gain approach to Snake Dike (5.7 R) on Half Dome. We left with the perfect amount of light and didn't even need our headlamps anymore! We cruised up the first few miles and were rewarded with a great view of Vernal Falls. Then we continued up what seemed like a stair-master you couldn't turn off, we made it to the top of Nevada Falls. Were we near the base of the climb yet? NO. A few more miles, past Lost Lake, and cairn following on my favorite: 3rd/4th class slab, and then some. No we were at the base of the climb. By the way, I climbed in my puffy (it was cold). Anyways, Aaron lead the pitches and Blair and I followed and cleaned. The first pitch had a friction slab traverse (yay!), the second pitch was another traverse, and the third pitch you had to go to the correct bolt or you found yourself on something harder than you were bargaining for. The next pitches were 5.4 R and 5.3R climbing on dikes where the longest runout was about 75ft! At the top of the climb (800ish ft), we unroped and did what the book called: THIRD CLASS SLABS FOREVER. And let me tell you, it is third class slabs forever. You gain another 1000ish feet. Now, if you ever want to contemplate the meaning of life and how much you value it, just go do third class slabs forever on the top of half dome. Everytime I looked back to make sure Blair and I were staggered, I'd just so happen to see the edge of the slabs slope off to a drop-off and I'd get scared all over again. Aaron has some "hilarious" photos proving how scared I was which I'm sure y'all will get the honor of seeing. But, we did make it to the top and descended the cables. Since we weren't tired or anything, we had a 9 mile hike back to the truck (which we did in like 2.5 hours because PIZZA). We survived and I don't think I'll ever be scared of slabs ever ever ever ever. 13 hours later we made it back!

Blair and I hanging out at the belay station close to the top of Snake Dike. Awesome view!

Monday, I noticed my finger and other parts of my hand were super swollen and had painfully itchy bumps on them. So I rested (you know, I mean did you read what I did yesterday?). Aaron's friend Rudy arrived today!

Tuesday, I went to the doctor. One of my fingers was so swollen I could barely bend it. So I sat in the doctor's office and had 3 people scrutinize my hands. They couldn't figure out what it was. They decided it was some sort of allergic reaction to a plant or animal bite and put me on a steroid for treatment. Talk about eyes being bigger than your stomach. The first few days I was ravenous and ate twice as much as normal. Then I always felt hungry no matter what I just ate. Then I stopped being able to sleep through the night and was up for an hour or two at 3am. To be honest, I can't really remember what the guys did today...oops. I took a hike to Mirror Lake to keep my mind off my fingers and was rewarded with this view:

It's not much of a lake anymore. They used to use sandbags to keep the water backed up and create a lake but now they let the water flow naturally so it's more of a little creek but still beautiful.

Wednesday, I still took it easy because the steroid was still kicking in. I rested for most of the morning and Blair convinced us to go do Bishop's Terrace (5.8). Aaron lead the climb and Blair and I followed. It was a pretty sweet climb with double finger cracks near the top! This was also a test run for my hands to see if they would hold up for another classic route with Rudy and Aaron tomorrow. The boys went to go practice aid climbing on a boulder. Next time I'll learn. Next time.

Summit of Half Dome! Amazing climb, amazing people, amazing views.

Thursday, Rudy, Aaron, and I got up early to go lay down the law on East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock (5.9, 11 pitches) another 50 Classics of North America. Rudy and Aaron swung pitches and I did my best to climb fast despite my finger (finger jams = NO, handjams = just as painful). There was a traverse on one of the pitches and I took a nice little swing and jammed my most painfully swollen finger pretty good. That put a damper on things but I kept on climbing (through tears at one point). One of the pitches Aaron lead was a 5.9 A0 bolt ladder which had the bolts strategically placed an inch out of my reach. So that was kind of a bummer but I was able to haul myself up and continue cruising. Oh, did I mention that we had a STUNNING view of El Cap for the first half of the climb?! I'll have to find some pictures and show y'all. When we reached the top of the climb, we ate a little, unroped, and started the descent on exposed ledges which turned into a pretty good trail. We had three rappels in a cold, wet gully and then scrambled on down to the base, grabbed our packs, and aimed for camp. We found Blair on the way to pizza and picked him up.

It's okay to drool while looking at El Cap from East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock!

Friday, was a rest day for me as Rudy and Aaron left to go do South Face of Washington Column (an aid route). I also discovered I really like sorting gear and sizing up cams from different brands to get a feel for what is what. I did a lot of lazing around and read my book. Good day.

And I will leave you with that for now! Enjoy the pictures, and the rest of my climbing trip will be posted shortly. Once I find a little more time, I'll post pictures of our new apartment!!

After a 6 mile approach to Snake Dike, I got to enjoy this view for a little while :)