putnam@gatech.CSNET (William O. Putnam) (09/24/85)
[neither rain, nor snow, nor heat, nor excess chalk, nor bozo climbers ...]
Well, I made it back from the Valley OK, in spite of the above mentioned
hazards. We arrived in Tuoulomne Meadows on Monday (9/9) after a 48 hour drive
from Atlanta and found ourselves in a raging snowstorm. It seems that there
were these three (count 'em) hurricanes stalled out in the Pacific feeding
moisture to a big Arctic air mass... Anyway, we proceeded down to the Valley
where we found many climbers in a blue funk since the rain (the Valley is
~5000 feet lower than the Meadows) had been falling for over a week.
Fortunately, we arrived at the tail end of the bad weather. We were able to
climb some every day, though it did rain some for the first three days. For
the most part the weather was nice (70's days, 40's nights) and a little
cooler than normal (so they told me). Camping was no problem during the week,
but we were not able to get a place in the Valley over the weekend. This
prompted a move up to Tuoulomne Meadows for the rest of our stay.
In the Valley, we climbed a lot of short, moderately easy routes. Due to
unstable weather at first and a surplus of under qualified climbers later,
we were not able to attempt any multi-day routes as hoped. In the Valley, we
climbed mostly on the Glacier Point Apron and at the Manure Pile Buttress.
I won't list all the routes, but among our favorites were Chouinard Crack (5.7),
Jump For Joy (5.8), Nutcracker (5.9 var), Book of Revelations (5.10), After
Seven (5.7), and After Six (5.6).
There were indeed too many climbers, at least in the areas offering easy routes
or easy access. We found that if you are willing to walk a little further
(10 min < t < 30 min) you can easily find areas to climb without others around.
Avoid Glacier Point and the Manure Pile Buttress if you seek solitude.
Abundance of chalk was not a real problem, though it was disconcerting to find
chalked up holds on 5.6 and 5.7 climbs even after a week of rain. That stuff
takes a long time to wear off! We really didn't see much abuse.
We spent some time watching groups on El Capitan one afternoon. I counted six
(6) parties (including one solo climber) on the Nose. There were about 5 other
groups on other routes including the Salathe Wall. One new route was in
progress on the west end of the wall. We hiked up to the base of the Salathe
examined the first pitch. We are now starting to plan an attempt on that route
next September.
We also watched some international groups (Germans, Koreans) doing a couple of
5.12 climbs in the Cascade Falls area. The climbs were Fish Crack and Crimson
Cringe. It was most enlightening to observe. We found a note stuck to the base
of an established aid climb at the Cookie Cliff proclaiming that the climb,
called "The Stigma" had just been done entirely free two days earlier at a
grade of 5.13b. Apparently a group of hardmen (hardfolks?) spent a couple
of days and many falls working it out. It certainly looked intimidating. It
was also absolutely covered with chalk. It would appear the the free ascent
was made possible by the numerous piton scars which provided fingerholds.
In Tuoulomne Meadows we climbed routes on the Stately Pleasure Dome, Daff Dome,
and Pywiack Dome. Favorites were South Crack (5.8), West Country (5.7), The
Dike Route (5.9), and West Crack (5.9). There were far fewer climbers and the
scenery was magnificent. Unfortunately, the weather was rather windy and cool.
One night all our water froze.
Another 48 hour drive (I love my Passport!) brought us back to Atlanta in time
for the First Annual Southeastern Bouldering Championships, where my climbing
partner, Susan Zazzali, won first prize in the Novice Women's division.
In summary - it was great and I can't wait to go back. Next time I'm going
to be sure and go in a group of more experienced climbers so that we can
tackle some of those long routes.
Good climbing,
Bill
--
Bill Putnam
School of Information & Computer Science, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet: Putnam @ GATech ARPA: Putnam.GATech @ CSNet-Relay
uucp: ...!{akgua,allegra,rlgvax,sb1,unmvax,ulysses,ut-sally}!gatech!putnam