I’ve been meaning to write a review on the foldable bowl and cup I own for some time now so here it is.
The Orikaso Bowl
“What is that?” a fellow camper asked me.
It’s a question I’ve gotten a lot on various backpacking and camping trips. It comes up because someone sees me using my Orikaso foldable bowl.
It’s just what it sounds like, it’s a piece of plastic which, when folded origami style along pre-bent lines, becomes a bowl. I love it for a few reasons:
It’s lightweight – 1.3 oz
It can pack flat and you can even use the plastic packaging envelope it came with to store it in
It is flexible and fairly durable
It’s reasonably priced
I’ve been using mine for a few years now, I mainly use it for oatmeal but have also put soup in it. It holds a lot, I can fit two packets of oatmeal in it easily with room to spare (it’s bigger than it looks in the picture). The thin plastic doesn’t insulate however so when I put something hot in it I am sure to hold the bowl carefully. However I’ve never been afraid that the bowl would come apart, just that my hands would get warm or if I held it by one side it might spill.
Some fellow Orikaso bowl owners I have run into also complain about it being hard to clean because food gets stuck in the folds, however I don’t find that much gets stuck in there (a few instant oatmeal flakes but nothing bigger for example). I unfold the bowl when it’s time to clean it and have no problem.
Orikaso Cup
I found the Orikaso cup on sale and bought it to try it out. I wish I could say I love it as much as the bowl but I find it much harder to put together. There are more folds to it so it takes longer, something that you don’t look forward to in the morning if this is the cup you want to use for your morning coffee (or hot cocoa in my case). I also found it hard to put together as the instructions were hard to follow. I thought it might just be me but I ran into another cup owner who said he had given up and his friends had to do it for him.
It still has the same pros as the bowl though, but to me the weight savings is not that signficant when you compare the cup to what I normally use, a plain brown plastic camping measuring cup with a small handle.
So there you have it, my Orikaso review. I highly recommend the bowl (which I also use as a plate occasionally, I just unfold it and though it won’t lie completely flat on its own, its serviceable if you’ll be eating on a flat surface). I’d say the cup is worth a try, especially if you also get it on sale and if you don’t need to fold and unfold it multiple times in a trip. Otherwise, just get a regular cup.
If you’re interested in the Orikaso bowl, here’ s my Amazon link to the Big Bowl (the one I have). The cup can be found here.
I was giggling. So was Tali. We were in a tent at Devil’s Lake State Park, Wisconsin and it was late at night. We both had traveled pretty far that day, she from Colorado and I from California so maybe we were overly tired. Or maybe we were having flashbacks to being in Girl Scouts.
It’d been awhile since I’d been on a chicks only trip, and it was my first women only climbing clinic where all the participants and staff were females. What were we giggling about? Something silly involving bikes and buses. It doesn’t really matter, it was fun and we were excited to be a part of the inaugural Chicks Rock clinic put on by Chicks with Picks, the folks who have been successfully bringing the Chicks with Picks Ice Climbing clinic to Ouray, Colorado and had decided to branch into rockclimbing as well. Tali (aka @cupcakemafia on Twitter) had won a contest from Pembaserves for her spot with the clinic, she’d submitted an essay on why she deserved to win and about Access issues. Her essay mentioned her volunteer work with women’s outdoor programs and I think she was a fine choice for the prize. My part at Chicks Rock was as an event / promo photographer first and a climber second. I “knew†Tali from Twitter (I’m @rockgrrl there) so the trip was also a fun chance for us to meet in person. We were getting along well, “too well” some of our nearby sleeping tent mates might’ve said. We soon quieted down though, we had a big day ahead.
And what was in store? Climbing of course! So far the Chicks Rock clinic had been very well organized. Participants arrived by 5pm to a nice big group campsite with provided tents and sleeping bags already set up for us. There were 8 total participants with varied climbing backgrounds ranging from a complete beginner to girls with years of experience. After an initial meeting we were assigned to our groups at a 4 to 1 participant / guide ratio and then we had dinner with them. Tali and our new friend Amanda (who had driven both of us from the airport) was in the first group with Marmot sponsored, Angela Hawse and I was with the second group with Patagonia sponsored, Kitty Calhoun. Kitty instructed our group to write down our long term and more immediate climbing goals. We were to bring a climbing journal (a piece of paper would suffice) and would read our goals the next day as well as keep notes of our own throughout the clinic. From the meeting I could tell that this wasn’t going to be a handholding group, Kitty wanted specifics from us and was willing to give them to us as well. I could tell the clinic was going to be good.
Tuesday, September 8th
Day 2 started with breakfast at 7:30AM. There was also a lunch and snacks spread where we packed our own food, though we also had a wonderful goody bag of things which included several Luna brand food items. Soon we were off on the approach hike to the cliffs. It didn’t take long, maybe 20 minutes, but it had some elevation gain which we surmounted by stepping up huge stone steps put in by the Civilian Conservation Corps decades ago. Though the weather was great (mid – high 70s), I had worked up a sweat by the time we stopped and was definitely glad for the shade cast by the many trees around the area.
The first stop turned out to be a small boulder where Kitty demonstrated a no hands warm up. Each of us went up and got a good feel for the rock and then Angela demonstrated a few crack climbing techniques which we also tried. The two groups split off after this, for mine it was time to review our immediate and long term climbing goals. The other three girls in my group were from the Madison area and were looking to expand their outdoor climbing experience. They also wanted to learn more about setting their own anchors at Devil’s Lake since it was their local crag. Two of them were still getting over a fear of heights which sometimes still plagued them. I could relate to the conflicting emotions of a fear of heights andlove of nature because that’s what spurred me into signing up for my own first climbing class.
My immediate goals were to work on strength conservation when climbing and to take photographs. My long term goal was to lead a 5.11 climb. I had a particular climb from my hometown crag in mind. It’s an overhanging route (in fact it’s actually a 5.11c in the guide book) so I knew strength conservation was going to be a part of achieving that goal. After our goal review we then started climbing on Two Pines Buttress.
Prior to the trip I’d looked up the Devil’s Lake area and saw the routes there being described as “slick” and “stiff”. I’d agree with the stiff rating as the first climbs we got on were rated as 5.7’s and 5.8’s but felt one grade higher to me. I later heard that they’d been rated in the old school way, probably similarly to how Yosemite, Tahquitz & some Joshua Tree climbs were. Fortunately I didn’t find the rock to be as slick as I had feared it would be. That’s not saying that the rock was as sticky as the quartzite monzonite at Joshua Tree, but for the type of rock it was I didn’t find it to be excessively slick. It felt a little like limestone. What I had feared was that it’d be like the ultra polished granite of some Yosemite climbs.
For me I was happy to take pics and also focus on footwork and technique, in fact Kitty insisted that my group work on footwork this day, and told us to recite out loud what we were doing as we did each route. I found out through this process that even though I do use my feet, I have a tendency to want to pull on my arms more than I thought and by knowing I was going to say what I was doing out loud, it made me switch to using my feet instead. It was an excellent drill to do onthose routes because there was always a choice of using your foot instead of your hand so one had no excuse to crank on a hand hold. Climbs we did included “Full Stop†and “Vacillationâ€. We then moved onto “Chicago†and “Brinton’s Direct†which we each did twice for drill purposes. The other girls in my group also worked a little on learning about anchors.
On the photography side of things, I was happy to see that I could get some decent angles on climbs by just a little hiking up on nearby slopes. This was also fortunate because a local reporter and photographer had come out to do a story on Chicks Rock and I didn’t want to get in the way of the paper’s photographer since it was a great opportunity for the program to get some local exposure and I didn’t want to impede that.
After a good day of climbing and an excellent introduction to the area, I’d done 6 routes despite my scrambling between the two groups to get shots of everyone.
After the hike back to camp we had time for showers. Yes, I said showers. Right near our group campsite was a bathroom with showers, running water and even electrical outlets near separate mirrors. It was quite luxurious though at times you had to trust your luck on which water temperature you’d get with which shower. My luck wasn’t very strong because I got a cold shower but after I adjusted I thought it was refreshing.
For dinner we all carpooled into downtown Baraboo, Wisconsin. Amanda, Tali and I were in Amanda’s rental car together, as we pulled into the town square area Tali exlaimed, “It’s Back to the Future!”  There was a white building with a clock tower that was eerily like the “Back to the Future†town square. There was even a movie theater across from it. Upon closer inspection though, we found that the theater was named after one of the Ringling family, and when we parked we found a plaque explaining that the Ringling Bros. Circus had been started in Baraboo. Who knew? Dinner was great, I tried a cheese soup for an appetizer, since I was in Wisconsin afterall, which turned out to be excellent. After that I had a salmon dish since their Walleye (a local fish) had sold out.
Wednesday – September 9th
Kitty had asked if I wanted to go up with the guides and one of the camp managers to help set up anchors and see the view from there, I’d agreed so I had an earlier morning than usual. After the hike up, I saw a slightly misty view of the trees and lake, quite pretty. I set up a chimney climb that Angela’s group was going to do (it looked like a lovely introduction to chimney climbing) and in doing so I had her double check my bowline knots. It’d been a long time since I’d anchored to trees using ropes and I wanted to make sure I had everything set up right. It was a reminder to me that one should try to refresh all skills every now and then even if you’ve been concentrating on other types of climbing. Cams and cordelette had made me lazy. Angela declared my setup “perfect” and I was good to check out photo opportunities from the tops of the anchors.
Climbing went well. We were still concentrating on footwork but now adding in other elements such as working body tension and using our hips, we were instructed to rest at every rest spot we got to, shake out both arms and either chalk up (or pretend to chalk up, thus taking more time). My group started on a climb called “Ironmonger” then went on to “Birch Tree Route”, a nice crack climb. Kitty also had me try “Ironmonger Direct”, a 5.10 variation which was fun though short. I spent a lot of that day at the top of the cliffs and going back and forth between them using a trail path and an access gully. I had some time to do this as the rest of my group practiced top rope anchor set up.
At the end of the climbing day, after the hike down, Amanda, Carrie (one of the ladies in Angela’s group), Angela, and I drove a short distance to the Lake so we could get a quick swim in before dinner. The water felt great and was really refreshing. I noticed rental canoes on shore, I think one could have a really fun rest day just doing water sports.
Dinner was catered Mexican food, quite yummy, and afterwards, around the campfire night we had a surprise desert of s’mores. Campfire time was also when Kim Reynolds, owner of Chicks with Picks, encouraged anyone to ask questions about climbing. Camp manager, Anne Hughes, started it off with a question about sending consistency, sometimes she could do it, sometimes she couldn’t and it wasn’t about not feeling ready. She got answers with training tips and mental tips and it set the conversation up for a thoughtful tone. The talk also moved to non climbing topics and we learned about some of the incredible stories the women in the group had gone through: some with relationships, some with children, and one having survived a boulder falling on her left side, leaving her with only gripping mobility for her thumb after much surgery. This trip was her first time back on the rock since her accident.
Listening to the women around me I was struck by several things. One, they had all been through so much, good and bad. Two, they were strong and unique. Lastly, I think I understood the draw of an all women climbing clinic for some of them, from the beginner just wanting to get out and do something for herself to experienced climbers wanting to get back on the rock but in the nurturing and structured environment of a guided clinic.
Thursday – September 10th
It was another early day for my group, the others in my group were going to set their first top rope anchors and I also went up to check it out. The climbs looked like they were gonna be great. Back at the base of the climbs we had another guest, podcaster, James Mills from the Joy Trip Project, who I had also chatted with on Twitter. Aside from interviewing folks, he was also taking photos and so we had another “one ledge, too many photographers” situation. I took a few runs on the climbs instead. We climbed “Chicken Delight†and “Chicken Tonightâ€. Anne Hughes had also set a rope up on a nearby 5.11 climb called “Beginner’s Demiseâ€. At one point another girl in my group asked if she could see Kitty climb it, as we all found watching her technique really informative. She did so, narrating as she went up and it looked like a hard but fun climb. As the day was winding down (it was to be an early climbing day to have time for a final meeting before everyone left) I asked if I could try the 11. Anne and Kitty were there to give me a spot (it was a swing out situation) and beta so I gave it a go. It was pretty hard, it needed precise foot placement and body positioning right from the start and I only got up a few moves before it was time to take it down. Still it was fun and the feedback I got was that I had made a good try at it, not flailing around mindlessly. They also said the climb was a sustained 11, right from the first move. I’d love to try it again some day.
Back at camp we had a final meeting in which the guides presented each of us with a certificate and in turn we were asked to say what we would take away with us. One woman’s story made us all tear up, she had come to the clinic partly to get away from an ugly divorce and she told us how great the experience had been for her and how she found all of us to be great women, going through little things about us. Of Tali and I she said, in her fairly thick Wisconsin accent, “And look at you two, all grown and you vote and allâ€. The woman who had had the boulder accident also made me tear up. She said, “We have a bouldering room and everyday my husband asks me if I want to go in with him and I say,’No’. Now I think I will go in.” My turn came last and I felt very humbled by all who had gone before me, these women who had such rich life experiences, the clinic just seeming to be an addition to already full lives. I told them they had inspired me, because they had. We had executives, business owners, stay at home moms, educators, a scientist, a politician, and survivors in our group.
After the certificate giving I gathered everyone for group shots, sad only that Anne Yehle, a member of Kitty’s group had had to leave already to catch her ride home. Then we all parted ways, but not before an email list was promised to us all and more than a few hugs were given out.
Amanda, Tali and I then headed off to Madison where Tali had graciously offered to let us stay in her hotel room for the night. We checked in then went to a place recommended to us as very Wisconsin, a place called “Old Fashioned†which turned out to be a fun bar with many local brews. Amanda and I split a Bratz sampler platter while Tali had the macaroni and cheese. We also ended up meeting with Daren (aka @canoelover on Twitter) and afterwards we went to an ice cream parlor we’d passed on the way. Unfortunately the carousel was shut down by the time we got to it, ice cream was still available though.
It was a fun end to the night.
Friday – September 11th
Waiting for the first of the planes that would take me home, I reflected on the trip. I had thought I was going as part of my re-invention of my self, with my new focus on adventure photography. Instead I came away with much more. I realized that though I had a lot of climbing “book learning” I was not applying as much of it as I thought I was; and on the flip side of that, even though I instinctually did many things correct, being made aware of it was also helpful in letting me learn from every climb, no matter what the grade. Meanwhile I found discovering the incredible stories of these women of different ages and experiences was really touching. They shared personal details, triumphs and defeats in a way that was open and non judgmental. The trip was a reminder that you can always learn something new, whether about climbing or life and you should take neither for granted.
That was the number one question I got from people when I told them I was going to The Gorge as part of an extended weekend trip in August.
The answer is, it was, but not necessarily where we went.
Climbing Day 1
The first full day of climbing started early for me, too early since Thursday night we’d pulled into our camping spot around 12:30 in the morning. The guys had graciously let me sleep in my friend’s Honda Element while they slept on the ground. I might have been on track to be the last one up the next morning except that at 6:00 AM I heard a loud, “Bzzz, Bzzz, Bzzz” going off simultaneously while an overly happy tuned also played. It was my friend’s phones. Yep, he owns two of them. I groggily tried to pinpoint them and got as far as a backpack with seemingly endless pockets before I really had to pay attention to find them. I managed to quiet both of them and lie back down. Ten minutes later, “Bzzz, Bzzz, Bzzz”. The darn thing had only snoozed.
Anyway, I got up and took pictures and waited till the sun woke the guys up.
And that was how I started my first day of climbing at the Gorge.
The Gorge turned out to be a lot prettier than I thought and had remembered (I’d seen the top of the Gorge once before but it was before they had let the water run in). I paused on the steep, but not that long, hike in to take a few pictures, we could tell it was going to be a hot day but right then it wasn’t so bad and at the bottom we were greeted by the small but fairly swift stream we had seen during the descent.
What we ended up doing was climbing on one side of the Gorge while it was shaded, having lunch in some shade near the creek during midday, and then moving to the other side of the Gorge after that. By our count there were three other parties there that day, a situation my friends told me was very rare. One group of guys included a fellow who told us he’d just put up a new route up the canyon (unfortunately it was in the sun so we didn’t do it). Another group consisted of two girls who said their goal was to do 22 routes in a day (I didn’t meet them but I’m guessing it was for a birthday challenge). The last person we met was a lady who turned out to be have come down just hoping to find some one to climb with, she had come up from Joshua Tree and had also spent time recently in Yosemite. Since we were a party of three this worked out great and we ended up getting more routes in then we otherwise would have and we hiked out in the dark.
All total we climbed routes on “Great Wall of China”, “Warm Up Wall” and “Negress”. We found the ratings to be hard, though my impression was influenced by the length of the climbs (very tall) and my incredibly painful shoes. I am hereby giving up on the idea that my Moccasyms are going to stretch any more than they have. I’m going to only wear them for gym climbing I think. I really regretted leaving my Mythos in the car as soon as the very first climb of the day!
Climbing Day 2
After a nice Mexican dinner, we spent the night at the same campground again, Horton Creek. Day 2 started for me waking up to the buzzing again but this time it’d been re-set to 8 AM. I could handle that.
The guys woke up and we all agreed to drive onward and make and have breakfast at the next stop where it would be a higher elevation and thus cooler.
We ended up at the parking lot for George Lake in Mammoth. We made breakfast, ate, and then took off for Dike Wall. We went a little bit too far on the trail around the lake so we had a bit of extra hiking and scrambling for us all. We saw a deer and her fawn though so that helped make up for it.
At Dike Wall we came upon a memorial which we later realized was John Bachar’s. It was sobering and touching, with an unopened can of Pabst Blue Ribbon, incense, flowers which had obviously dried since they’d been left, and two pictures of John.
There were two other parties climbing when we got to the wall. A local couple and a visiting one. The local couple admitted they had gone off trail arriving as well so we didn’t feel too bad though I’m sure they hadn’t done it as badly as we had done. The wall is mostly sport though it contains a few trad routes and one mixed route, unfortunately we hadn’t brought any trad gear so we were left with the sport climbs. The lowest of these was a 10a so we picked that for warm up. Again I found the rating hard, but the climb we did was a lot of fun, I used stemming, a drop knee or two, a hand jam, edging, and smearing on it. The view was great, we saw Lake George and the surrounding mountains, some of which sparked outdoor adventure stories from both of my friends. Each of them had lived in Mammoth before but they didn’t know each other then and one was more of a snowboarder than a climber at the time. We lapped the 10a and then only did one more route at Dike Wall, it was a tricky arete / slab / friction 10b climb. We had fun chatting with the other climbers though.
I got slightly chilled in the shade that day, I noticed the visiting couple, two Germans who lived in Britain, pulled on their jackets so it wasn’t just me.
After dinner at a place in Mammoth my friend had been raving about for their onion rings (they were indeed good), night was spent in Big Horn Campground, which had free camping. As a bonus someone had even left firewood near our fire pit so we had a campfire going for short while. We didn’t have any s’mores this time but we did have “fun with photography”.
Fun with photgraphy! Slow shutter & Self timer let me get in on the Magic
Climbing Day 3
“Bzzz. Bzzzz. Bzzz,” I couldn’t believe it was 8AM already. I decided I’d just let the phone keep going. I let it go 3 times and then my friend opened the driver’s side door. I told him, “It went off again”.
“Yeah, it’s 6AM.”
“What!?” I said.
Turns out AT&T does something strange in that area and his phone thinks it’s in a different time zone. So the phone went off at what it thought was 8AM but it was really 6AM.
I went back to sleep but woke up again at 8AM when the now correctly zoned phone did its wake up duty. I was tempted to throw it out the window. Turns out my other friend didn’t sleep at all, noisy neighbors had kept him up all night. We were a sorry bunch.
After eating we drove off to an area called Al’s Garage, which was close to Clark’s Canyon. Our original plan in fact was to go to Clark’s but our waitress at the onion rings place had told us that Clark’s would be too hot to climb so we’d chosen Al’s instead. She’d seen our guidebook so had volunteered information. I thought it was cool that one could get onion rings and climbing advice in a local bar.
I think it was a good call because fairly quickly after the hike up to the volcanic tuft cliffs, it got pretty hot if you were in the sun at all, though it was nice in the shade. The ratings at this spot were more like I was expecting, though the length was again on the tall side. We met only one group of climbers that day. They were really nice and gave us beta on the routes available but they left not that long after we arrived since they’d been on the rock since 8AM. After a few climbs we headed out too since my friend (who was driving us) wanted to get home at a reasonable time. I thought it was a worthwhile crag, though I did regret that the view was a little marred by smoke from the Yosemite fire.
Wrap Up
I had a lot of fun on our kick back exploratory trip around the Bishop / Mammoth area. Though I usually just pass on by the area on my way to Tuolumne, I learned that it was definitely worth stopping and that free camping with facilities could be found. It was fun to meet mostly local climbers rather than other visitors like one usually does in places like Tuolumne or Joshua Tree. I also learned that you can climb in August at the Gorge, even when the rim must have been quite hot since some unprotected apples left in the car seemed to have been baked to brown mushiness by the time we hiked out in the dark.
I also learned that lack of sleep can really mess you up for wanting to onsight climbs in a new place and that I’m going to insist that my friend sleep with his phone next time.
Photo shows the Orange flavor in a 12 oz mug, a box showing the Tropical flavor design, and a packet of the Cran-Raspberry Flavor
Ever get tired of drinking plain water? I do. Ever get tired of swallowing vitamin pills? I do too, so when the opportunity came up to review Ola Loa multi-vitamin mineral drink supplements I took them up on their offer.
What is Ola Loa? Basically the product is a packet of powder which you can add to water (or they say you can add it to juice) which then fizzes up and turns your drink into a flavorful, healthful concoction with added Energy (or Repair) benefits. Or so they say. I was curious to try it.
When I received my box I found they had thoughtfully mixed up the flavors in the box so I got to taste all three flavors available as an Energy mix: Tropical, Orange, and Cran-raspberry. Over the course of a little over a week I drank at least one of these a day (they suggest 1-3 packets daily but I averaged 2 a day), trying to see if it made any noticeable “energy” difference.
My conclusion is: inconclusive – on the energy front. If I had my drink in the morning I think it did seem like a slight “pick me up” but nothing like a Monster Drink — which in my book is a good thing as so called “energy drinks” sometimes affect me too much and definitely don’t feel particularly “good for you” overall. Those drinks seem to contain a lot of sugar plus caffeine, a combination which often makes me crash after taking them. Ola Loa’s ingredients read more like a vitamin to me, Vitamin C, B Vitamins, Potassium, Vitamin A, Calcium, Zinc etc. Overall calories are listed as 5 and sugar per serving is listed as 1g (see full ingredient list for the Cran-Raspberry flavor). I never felt like I had a crash after drinking Ola Loa.
Though my crude energy test result is “inconclusive” I did feel better just simply drinking more liquids each day. I have terrible tasting tap water at home so don’t drink as much as I should, having flavor to my water that wasn’t just sugar made it easier and even pleasureable to drink more.
Ola Loa flavors were great too, of the three I tried I liked their “Tropical” flavor the best, but don’t find any fault with the other two. The instructions said to use 4-6 ounces of water but I found that my drink still had sufficient flavor for me if I used 8 or even 12 ounces of water.
If you’re a fan of Emergen-C, I’d say Ola Loa is comparable in flavor and effect so if you find you get an energy boost from Emergen-C I’d say you’d get the same from Ola Loa’s Energy formulation.
Overall, even though I say the energy effects are “inconclusive” I still think this is a great product. Even if the energy pick up I felt was just because I drank more water, in my opinion that’s always a good thing. Plus by using Ola Loa I also was able to consistently get vitamins and minerals I needed into my diet without having to swallow pills. When out climbing I also liked that I could drink some of my water as plain and then dump a packet in my water bottle in the remaining water to give myself a nice flavor boost.
Contest – Win your own box of Ola Loa!
Intrigued by Ola Loa? You don’t have to take my word about its benefits, you can win some Ola Loa for yourself!
Simply leave a comment on this post for a chance to win (no pressure, you can simply say “I’d like to try it”). You can also get an additional entry if you post about the giveaway on your own blog and link back here (a trackback).
A winner will be chosen at random. Deadline to leave a  comment is midnight PST, September 11th, 2009.
The Parade of climbers continued on Wednesday. Peter, Jamie and I started off by getting a Wilderness permit and going to Ellery Lake to do a 5.9 there but had to leave early to meet up again with the rest of the gang and new arrivals. We rendezvoused with Cliff and Vina and also met Brook and Monica who had arrived that day. While at the parking lot for the Tuolumne Meadows store (where Jamie and I snuck away to each buy an It’s It cookie and ice cream sandwich) Peter spotted our friend David and his friend Tony driving by – the two guys Peter and I were going to the backcountry with to climb Cathedral Peak and Matthes Crest (a first for them).
After a slight change in plans in regards to the backcountry plan we all ended up going over to East Cottage Dome for some sport climbing. Cliff and Brook set up topropes on three 10ds there and we all settled in to climb and/or be a part of the Peanut Gallery as it were. I was happy to get to the top of the first 10d (they were all pretty tall) as myfingers were feeling pretty worked. It was a sustained climb for sure. Tony went up on a route called, “Edging Skills or Hospital Bills” a route John Bachar used to solo so we paid our respects to his recent passing in our own way.
Perhaps because thoughts of John were going through my head but it struck me how varied our groups had been so far for this trip, representing many life phases of a climber. We had at least one person in each of these age ranges: early twenties, late twenties, 30s, and 40s. And we had one person turning 50 and one person in his 60s.
As a person at neither end of the spectrum it gave me something to look back on and to look forward to. Looking back I remembered the thrill of discovery, at being able to see a place for the first time again.
Looking at where I was at I realized that though I did get tired faster than I used to, I was still able to climb several days in a row, though I might be better off talking it easy on some of the days. I also realized that I had progressed farther than I had thought (and that I should stop being down on myself for not having the same sort of grade spurt that all the “young ‘uns” seemed to have these days).
Looking ahead in the spectrum I took heart to see that folks were still climbing, still having fun, and that though they seemed to need more rest, they were still pulling hard.
Thoughts from the peanut gallery indeed. I’d definitely like to go back.
Day 7 & 8 – 7/16, 7/17 Backpacking and Climbing
Thursday, very early in the morning, David and Tony took off for Cathedral Peak. Peter and I followed after we made sure to extend our campground stay (Peter had gotten the date wrong when getting the pass the first time – remember that was the day of the Bear Wake Up Call).
This was the third time I was setting out for the backcountry carrying backpacking gear, climbing gear and photography gear. I wasn’t looking forward to it. On previous trips this part had come early in the week, when I was fresher, now I was tired from climbing and hiking. But at least we were only going to be out one night instead of two so the food load was a tiny bit lighter (well, one freeze dried dinner, one oatmeal & one lunch for lighter anyway).
The hike up is pretty though we almost missed the turn off from the main trail to the more direct route. If you go out that way there is a turn off pretty close to the start of the trail (after the first “flight” of stone steps) and then another one much further along the trail marked by a very large cairn. I like to get off the main path and the horse manure the sooner the better though.
We made much better time than the last time out (when we got hit by a thunderstorm that included a thunder and lightning pairing that was less than “one one-thousand”‘ away from us). In fact we did so much better that we were very close to the base of Cathedral and it was before 3pm. Peter asked if I wanted to do it but I saw the parties on the rock already and thought we should pass. It was a good call as hours later after we had set up camp and I checked out the base of the climbs to try to find David & Tony’s packs (while Peter went to get water) the climbing parties still had not moved and I found an additional party at the base still waiting their turn. I chatted with this couple and eventually left them at 4pm with an encouragement that they start as soon as they could (one of the partners had been taking a nap after they had missed the hike turn off and gone all the way to Cathedral Lake and then back around).
Unfortunately I hadn’t found David and Tony’s packs, though I did leave word with the couple at the base should they see them. Peter and I had dinner then went to sleep. Around 9pm I saw two headlamps coming directly at our tent (which was just a mosquito net teepee type tent). “David, Tony?!” I asked. No answer. The lights just kept coming directly at us. Peter woke up, “Tony, David?”. The headlamps spoke this time, “Nope. Sorry for going through your camp”. We said it was OK. I’m betting it was the couple I’d seen start at 4pm though I couldn’t figure out why they’d be going back our way since we were on the opposite side of the ridge from the climber’s Cathedral Peak trail. Perhaps they were going out that way because it was the way they had come in (though it was the much longer way around).
Matthes Crest
The next day dawned still without sight of David or Tony. We went forward with our Matthes plan anyway. We struck camp but left our packs (sans any food) hanging in a tree and hiked over to Matthes, a fair distance with many ups and downs. We had the advantage of having done it before though and made good time. At one point we saw two people ahead of us on the boulder strewn portion of the approach to the base of Matthes but they didn’t stop when we called out. Arriving at the base of Matthes around 8:30AM we found out that it was a couple from Norway and not our friends. They had bivied near Echo Peaks but had almost been eaten alive by mosquitos since they didn’t have netting. We lined up to be next but a couple of guys showed up who proceeded to make a sling belt and a swami belt of sorts for themselves. They wanted to solo the first pitch so we let them go ahead since we were waiting for more room at the first belay.
David and Tony had still not shown up and we figured at this point that they had turned back and not stayed the night, so we decided to go on without them for our second run on Matthes. Peter led the first pitch and I did the second, turning it into a harder climb than it needed to be by going a little “off route” (there’s more than one way to do the second part). The swami belt guys had roped up for the second pitch but even so we didn’t really see much of them the rest of the day. I had to cut my 2nd pitch short as I ran out of slings (which were necessary with all the drag going on) so Peter finished it off and then we were on to a lot of simul-climbing. We’d done the crest before minus the North Tower so we knew what to expect. We shortened his 70 foot rope and each carried coils with us. He “led” most of the way though it being a traverse 90% of the time we were really both leading if you will.
Peter seemed driven to go fast, he apparently really wanted to be able to hike out in time to go to the “Woah Nellie Deli” (a restaurant at a Mobil gas station outside of Tuolumne near Mono Lake). I didn’t argue with him, we’d both done Matthes before and the real reason I’d been interested in doing it again was to share it with the newcomers. There was a change of plans from last time we did it though. Last time the guide described a 5.2 ramp with a 5.6 stem to get from one side of Matthes to the North Tower. Peter had started that part and ended up very off route. I had followed it as a down lead and found myself doing a hairy move in which a foothold had broken off. This was also after another “adventurous pitch”. It was quite a nerve shaker let me tell you. Well this time I went down first. I started down one ramp and then to another then realized it was the same wrong one we’d done before so I climbed up, removed a piece then set one again for the way I had spotted. Shortly before this a few sprinkles had started to come down from the sky. I was actually surprised enough by this (being positioned that I only saw blue sky ahead of me) that I asked, “I’m getting wet, where’s this coming from?” To which Peter laughed and said, “It’s rain”. I looked up in the opposite direction and saw darker clouds. I was a little nervous then because I was at the traverse part of the climb and wasn’t sure if the rain was going to get worse quickly. After Peter followed me over he congratulated me on the route finding as at first the ramp looked like it wouldn’t be easy at the stem part but once you did it you realized the holds were solid and it was indeed the way to go.
The sprinkles stopped and the Norwegians had come down off of North Tower by then so I looked at it with an eye to climb it too but Peter said he wanted to skip it and I was fine with that, particularly since the sprinkles had started again. Perhaps next time, but really the airy traverse is what most folks think of when they think of Matthes Crest and we’d done that twice now. We rappelled down, the last rappel put me at a place where you still needed to downclimb for a bit but then it was the long slow boulder strewn descent to a meadow floor and to the scenic hiking beyond. This time when we passed a green grassy area we’d come through in the morning the mosquitos were out en force. Tired as I was I practically ran through that portion. I ended up eating 3 mosquitos total during this backcountry trek. We passed large patches of snow which also had some mosquitos near by but in general it was a nice enough off trail hike. We got back to our bigger packs, put them on and then hiked out. The last portion of the trail I ran out of steam and Peter got to the car twenty minutes before me. But… we still made it down to the restaurant.
While waiting for our food Peter asked me what my plans for Saturday were. I told him, I’m not sure, Rick was coming up (he knew Rick as one of my “Twitter friends”). I sighed and said, but I’m going to feel bad because I don’t think I’m up for a multipitch tomorrow. Peter agreed, “I don’t see how you have the energy to even talk right now”. Then he suggested I give Rick a call to judge what he wanted to do. So I did (we were out of Tuolumne so I had good cell reception though not much battery power). I basically told Rick I was pretty beat and would understand if he didn’t want to make the 3 hour drive just to climb something easy with me. Fortunately he had also done some strenuous work and was agreeable to just calling it a rain check for next time. We still chatted a while though. It was fun to hear someone’s actual voice versus just reading their “tweets” and I definitely look forward to climbing with him.
When we got back to camp we found a note from David and Tony, they hadn’t been able to find our camp and had lost their guide book for Matthes Crest so had decided to hike all the way out.
Day 9 & 10 – 7/18 , 7/19
Saturday Peter asked how I felt about going home early. I was reluctant as I wanted to at least hang out more with our friends who had come up Wednesday so instead we had our first real rest day, no uphill hiking, no climbing. Instead we did a leisurely hike up the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne river which went right by the campgrounds. Peter fished and I took pictures until my SLR battery died and then I did some much needed creek splashing. Action Wipes had worked great for me during the trip but a nice river dunk is hard to beat and let me get the dust out of my hair as well. It rained on us off and on throughout the day but it felt rather nice. Peter ended up catching a number of Golden Trout and so that helped him decide to stay and join the campfire with Cliff, Vina, Brook and Monica (they had gotten their own site). That night we had a real feast. We had the fresh fish and Brook and Monica had brought up home grown vegetables. Brook made an enchilada of sorts with the vegetables, some cheese, red sauce and tortillas and Peter made a type of Spanish rice, again using the fresh vegetables. Beer and wine topped off the evening.
Sunday Peter and I left early, stopping only to get breakfast at the Tioga Inn and talk a little bit of climbing talk with the staff there. We stopped in Bishop so I could buy some Chili Cheese bread from Schatt’s to bring home to my husband since the poor guy hadn’t made it out to Tuolumne even for a weekend. It was a poor substitute for climbing but I couldn’t bottle Tuolumne for him.
Epilogue
Sometimes I feel bad for going to the same places to climb over and over again, I think to myself, I should go out of state instead. But this trip reminded me that it’s not just the location that matters or even the routes you do. I’m very grateful for my climbing friends, old and new. Even though I went on the trip without a trad rack or even a rope I was able to climb and lead, and even former strangers entrusted me with their gear and their lives. Tuolumne reminds one of the nitty gritty. The backcountry and multi-pitch routes (even the ones not marked “PG” “X” or “R”) still require a certain type of commitment. And yet, as I told Nina when we viewed the rose colored panorama seen from the top of Daff Dome, “This is why we climb Trad”. And for me the whole trip — with the new friends and old friends, and even my understanding husband trusting me out on a 9 day climbing trip — was also a reminder of why I climb at all. I do it for and because of the Outdoors, the challenge, the beauty and the people.
It was around 4 in the morning but I knew what that yelling meant — a bear.
That’s how Sunday started. With a mighty shake of the truck and a bang of a box (the bear was scared off quickly and didn’t get anything luckily) at a crazy hour in the morning after a late night the night before. And since we were up we then drove into Tuloumne to get in line for a campsite (amazingly there was already one person in front of us). After procuring a campsite (you have to wait in two lines by the way, one to pay, one to get a site assigned) the day then turned into fruitless searches for a Wilderness permit (“You’ll have to come back, we can only give them out up to one day in advance”);Â a non windy Ellery Lake climb; and Maria’s (aka @marialy on Twitter) climbing group. It did however yield emails sent to appropriate parties with our campsite number, one extra long nap for Peter in his truck, and a group of friendly climbers for me as I took photos around Puppy Dome while waiting for him to wake up. We each did a grand total of one unknown but fairly fun toprope climb on said dome once Peter felt awake enough and before we figured we should head back to camp in order to meet up with a friend and the first “stranger” due at camp.
I'm a rockgrrl cowgirl!
Climbing with Strangers
Stranger? Yep, another Twitter friend! First it was Maria aka @marialy offering to share a site without ever having met me and then it was Katie aka @katiebeth saying she wanted to meet up. Katie’s plans coincided nicely, Sunday daytime she was climbing in Yosemite Valley with Rick aka @rikray for her first trad climb and was going to join our campsite for Sunday night & climb with us Monday. I’d never met her or Maria in person though I’d “chatted” with each of them via Twitter and seen their respective blogs and/or websites. Additionally Nina aka @nsmonkeygirl and Rick also said they’d be willing to climb with me.
Crazy people. I mean, who schedules a climb in Tuolumne with someone they’ve never met before? Oh yeah, me.
So it was back to camp for Peter and I and soon Peter’s friend Jamie showed up. All three of us were sitting around planning the next day when a car pulled up.
The guys looked at me, “Is that your friend?”
I couldn’t tell because there was glare on the windshield but I thought I saw brown hair. “I think so,” I said, “I’ve never actually seen her in person before”.
Sure enough it was Katie, she’s got just as effervescent a personality in person as she does online and gave me a hug once she got out of the car. She’s taller than she looks in her profile photo though, and she doesn’t carry a frog around either. I asked if Rick were on the way but wasn’t surprise to learn he wasn’t. It would’ve been a long way out of his way just to hang at camp. After an initial round of “Twitter” talk that I’m sure the guys were amused by, we ended up eating snacks, applying bug repellent (this trip had the worst mosquitoes I’ve ever seen in Tuolumne’s main campground), talking climbing & setting up a slack line which Jamie, Katie and I tried unsuccessfully to do in the dark.
I let Katie share my “2 person” backpacking tent with me after deciding she wasn’t an axe murderer (and vice versa). Monday morning we woke up and I said something about it having been noisy (I had had trouble sleeping in the night due to neighbor’s noises).
“Yeah, the birds are twittering really loudly,” Katie said.
I bust out laughing. I don’t know if she meant to make a Twitter reference but she started laughing too. We got out of the tent for breakfast and even did a little slack line while waiting for hot water. Katie even got all Cirque du Soleil on us and did the splits on the slackline.
The plan was to go out to Medlicott Dome. Jamie and Peter would climb a 3 pitch climb and I would lead a 5.7 trad
Katie
route called “D’oh” and set up some 5.10 top ropes from the top of the trad climb. We piled into Katie’s rental car and went off to start our adventure. About 30-40 minutes later we realized we had hiked to the wrong dome. We had gone to Lamb Dome. It only sunk in that it was the wrong dome when the final part of the approach turned out to be too short and easy to match the “steep” description in the book (and Peter’s and my memory of the approach).
So it was into the car again and off to another parking pull out. This time we got it right. It was a very steep approach, but at least it was an actual trail (unlike Candlelight Buttress’ approach had been). Unfortunately I realized I’d made a miscalculation on climbing plans. The guys wanted to do a route called “Excellent, Smithers”. I wanted to lead “D’oh”. The problem is that they share the first pitch. So Katie and I had to wait for the guys to start up before I could lead and she could clean it. Not the best use of time but Katie didn’t seem to mind so much (or she was good at hiding it). We met some other climbers in the area, including a guy with toes painted “Strawberry Delicious” [see photo in the thumbnail gallery at the end of this post].
Peter leading the D'oh pitch of Excellent, Smithers
Eventually I got to lead the trad route, a nice crack that lets you cheat if you want to use edges or the face instead of
@katiebeth & @rockgrrl
the crack. I rapped off and belayed Katie up to clean the route. She had no problem despite being new to cracks and I was left thinking I should’ve put her on something harder. I later learned that her gym had 3 different cracks in it so she had been practicing. After that Katie was at first reluctant to try the 5.10 face climb but I told her she’d do it no problem and I was right. Jamie did the routes too (there was a 5.10 and a 5.10c) but by then we had to leave in order to get Katie back at home in time. It was a fun day though I got really sunburned on my shoulders, having neglected to apply sunscreen. Katie dropped us off at our campsite and had some coffee before heading home. We both thought it was too bad she had to leave.
Back at camp the guys and I had dinner and waited for some friends of ours, Cliff and Vina. I wish I could’ve set up a camera on our campsite, we’d have had some funny comings and goings of people and cars through the week, like those stock video shots of Grand Central Station.
Day 5 – 7/14
Cliff and Vina had arrived late Monday night and Tuesday morning probably came a little too early for them. Morning however was when I expected my next Twitter friend, Nina aka @nsmonkeygirl. Nina had said she’d be waking up at 4 o’crazy in the morning to drive out and be at our camp around 9am. Now, Nina I had actually met once years before Twitter. For those who don’t know, I am a geek as well as a climber, and I go as a vendor/guest to some video game conventions. She had come to my booth at one of these conventions but I hadn’t known that when I’d re-met her on Twitter so it was funny when we both realized it. She even has a picture of me apparently.
Well Nina was true to her word, she got to our camp pretty early in the morning and I did the introductions all around. By this time Jamie and Peter were used to this strange “Twitter friend” idea though I think Vina and Cliff may have been a little confused. We hatched a plan to all go to Daff Dome and climb in pairs. Jamie and Peter would do the West Crack / Blown Away route, 5.10a, 4 stars. I would lead Nina up West Crack 5.9, 3 stars (with her taking lead on some pitches if she felt comfortable). And Cliff and Vina would do West Crack last or find another climb.
In this situation it was fortunate that West Crack and Blown Away shared the first two pitches because on a 5.7 pitch
Eileen & Nina waiting our turn at West Crack
the guide book indicated that one would need a number 5 and number 6 cam. Which only Peter owned. Peter said he’d leave those pieces in for us. “You just want us to carry the weight right?” I joked. Of course having no rack of my own anymore, I was in a beggars-can’t-be-choosers situation and was already in debt to Nina and her climbing partner for using their combined rack for our climb.
We all set off for Daff and this time we found the dome without incident but when we got there we found a wait line of two parties ahead of the first of ours. After some discussion it was decided we’d all wait it out. The base of this climb had a nice mix of sun and shade at least so we were able to snack at the base in relative comfort.
West Crack
It was finally Nina’s and my turn at West Crack. The only problem was that even though I’d been watching three other climbers start it, when I got up to the slightly bulging start with a crack to it, I literally didn’t measure up to what I’d seen the others do. I suddenly felt rather short. There is one bolt on this climb and it’s at this start. I couldn’t get to it though I tried a flip-you-out-backwards sort of boulder start to get to it with Cliff and Nina spotting me. I saw a possible friction way around it but felt a little wigged on it too (the start isn’t on the ground by the way but on a little ledge). Finally Cliff offered to climb up and clip the first bolt for me. I took him up on the offer. It was my first stick clip of sorts I suppose. Once it was in I did the friction move to the right of the crack and was up… only to realize why Jamie had said that part felt a little heady. There wasn’t much there. I think the bolt was to protect this part, not the start really. I believe the guidebook even designated where I was at as the 5.9 move of the route. Well, I got up somehow and was more in a crack, I got to a certain point and announced, “I feel a bit better now”.
Of course then the crack ran out. The last 15-20 feet or so it became just a seam, you couldn’t place any pro into it and had to run it out. I went for it and was happy to get a decent hand hold right before the bolted belay. At this point though I was faced with a mysterious bulge in the rock and I thought ahead to a pitch the book had called 5.7 “thin fingers” which also included a 5.8 section with the same. What were the feet going to be like? Was there more run out ahead? I thought about bailing since the belay we were at was the last chance to do so without leaving gear behind. When Cliff got up near me (declaring he didn’t like the run out section too by the way) I asked him about bailing. We decided he’d bring Vina up and meanwhile perhaps we’d like to go up over the bulge to the alternate belay station just above it?
Nina on a West Crack belay
Right around here is where Nina saved the day in my opinion. She had been looking at the bulge –Â it was a protrusion of rock that at first looked like a funny roof from below but was revealed to be sections of rock with different cracks in it once you were up there. She then announced that she’d like to give it a shot, “at least the first moves”. We were at the bolt anchors so quite secure so we got her on belay for it and she gave it a go. She smartly got her foot behind her on another rock, creating a nice wedge the length of her thigh and allowing her to place more gear in. After an exciting moment or two she got up and over and set up the alternate belay.
I followed and was surprised to see she hadn’t clipped a piton right in the rock (though she’d placed a really nice cam at the same level, just in the other crack). Once we were over, I had gotten my lead head screwed on correctly again and we were good to go. Nina finished off her pitch (since we had stopped at the alternate belay right after the bulge she wasn’t quite done yet). It was described as a 5.7 wide crack where you could use face features and I think I agree with that. I cleaned it and in the process picked up Peter’s number 5 cam (he hadn’t placed the 6 afterall). Then Nina stopped at a point before the thin crack pitch. There was some confusion over where the actual belay was supposed to be but after a bit we got that sorted out and then I was on lead again.
The pitch I’d worried about looked pretty steep from the belay and indeed it was. I started up wondering if I had enough pieces and moved up a bit. “Are you going to place anything?” Nina asked.
“I was going for that nicer stance,” I replied, “But point taken,” and I put a piece in. The pitch was long and got fairly steep in several sections. The hands were mostly beautiful though. I managed to get a few wrist jams in but it was
Cliff nearing the finish of the 3rd pitch
mainly finger crack as described. My feet hurt a bit but I was happy to have them jammed in. When it finally started getting less steep (the last roped pitch was to be a 5.2) I decided to build an anchor while I still had a crack and gear to make an anchor in it. It was a beautiful pitch if you like crack climbing, the rating on it was 5.8 to 5.7 but it was just plain 5.fun to me (especially after the no-so-nice run out section of that first pitch) and I was doubly glad we hadn’t turned back.
Nina led the last pitch and then we celebrated with bread and cheese while we waited for Cliff and Vina to come up. To my slight surprise, Vina came up first (she hasn’t climbed in awhile so I thought Cliff was going to do all the pitches) so briefly it was just girls on top of the dome which amused me since I usually climb with guys. I got Vina in on some gear and then took off to explore the 4th class ascent to the top as she belayed Cliff up.
There was one “move” on the 4th class section which did need a hand hold (and was thus technically not 4th class) but it was cake and we all got on top quickly. The view was awesome, we were just getting that wonderfully warm near-sunset light.
We snapped a few photos and then it was time to find the rappel. It wasn’t too hard to find — go towards a boulder, look
Panorama from the top of Daff Dome near sunset. Click on this picture in the Gallery to see it bigger.
down a bit and see a huge cairn built next to a tree — and we all got down and Peter was kind enough to have brought Nina’s pack to the bottom which contained our approach shoes so we wouldn’t have to walk too far in our climbing shoes.
We all headed out and learned that Jamie and Peter had also done West Crack, having missed the turn off for Blown Away. I’m sure it was a disappointment for them but it was fun to compare notes since we’d all done the same multi-pitch climb.
Unfortunately Nina had to head home as she was already going to be back much later than her husband expected but it was great fun to have climbed with her at least for the day.
By the way, I got two holes through the leather in my Mythos, one I had noticed before the climb (it was near the ball of my foot and I noticed it after Candlelight Buttress) the other was at the toe. Ah well, like I said, that pair had been resoled twice already so I guess it served me well, and at least I brought my second pair with me on the trip.
All things told, I’d say it was a Good Day and a Good Climb.
Woman climbing on Puppy Dome
Some climbers on the descent from Lembert Dome
I’m a rockgrrl cowgirl!
Peter leading, Jamie on belay
Peter leading the D’oh pitch of Excellent, Smithers
Dan’s toe nails painted Strawberry Delicious compliments of his kids
Lady bug on my pants
Dan & Chris, two climbers we met. Dan’s got the painted toes.
Katie
Katie’s got flowers on her toes
Jamie on belay
Sawyer, 13 years old!
@katiebeth & @rockgrrl
Eileen & Nina, waiting our turn at West Crack
Nina on a West Crack belay
Cliff nearing the finish of the 3rd pitch
Nina at the top of the last roped pitch
Vina on the last pitch
At the top! Nina & Eileen
Panorama from the top of Daff Dome near sunset
Stay tuned for the final installment of the “Less Rack but Extra Friends – High Sierras / Tuolumne Trip 2009″ saga where our intrepid heroes meet up with more friends, climb sport climbs, find their way into the backcountry and finally get a real rest day…
Despite a stomach sinking prologue to my trip, I was excited to go out to Tuolumne again and this time to add a stop to climb near the Whitney Portal. The Plan was pretty complicated, aside from two nights outside of Tuolumne, Peter and I were in charge of procuring a campsite for a number of climbers who would be coming and going throughout the week, including some people I had never met before but had chatted with via Twitter. Climbing abilities of those involved were also going to be varied so the route tick list was not set in stone as well. Sounds like a recipe for fun doesn’t it?
Day 1 & 2 – 7/10, 7/11
We drove out to Lone Pine and ended up sleeping in the Alabama Hills. I had never been out there, though I’d of course seen it while driving on the way to the Whitney Portal. We ended up right next to the rock formation called the “Shark Fin” and at sunrise the next morning I looked longingly at it, wanting to climb it instead of just taking pictures.
Peter had slept on top of his truck’s shell on a mattress while I slept inside of it with the tailgate down, surrounded by a lot of camping stuff. He has a homemade shelving system in there which leaves room for one person to sleep in a narrow space.
We took off without breakfast and drove to Whitney Portal, parking near the bear boxes for the Meysan Lake Trail head. Then we hiked through the campground and onto the trail itself. We stayed on the actual trail for about 10 minutes before turning off to pretty much go straight uphill, an approach Peter had described as “like Tahquitz but steeper, longer and off-trail”. I learned it also apparently included some slab soloing. We stopped in some of the sparse shade to eat a little before getting to the base of the climb, I felt a little winded from the high altitude exertion.
Candlelight Buttress on the right. Photo by Peter Bozek
Our goal was “First Responder”, a 3 pitch bolted friction and knob climb with pitches rated 5.10a, 5.9, and 5.8. The buttress is visible from the road up to Whitney Portal and looked impressive from the bear boxes. Peter had set his eye on it because another climber had talked about it on one his previous climbing trips.
Peter set off on the first pitch. It was soon evident that it was going to be a tough one. He fell a few times (fortunately not before the first bolt) and a knob broke off on him. I really knew it was hard when I heard him say, “Damn it, where’s that bolt!” I don’t think I’ve ever heard him curse before, even something as mild as that.
View from the base of "First Responder" on Candlelight Buttress
When my turn to climb came up I had my own issues, I could feel my shoes buttering off of the knobs, particularly the quartz ones. The weather was hot so perhaps my shoe rubber wasn’t cooperating. I was wearing my tighter fit Mythos shoes but I’ve had them resoled so I don’t know what kind of rubber I have on them. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to like quartz and/or the hot weather. I was also breathing hard, still not used to the altitude I guess. When I got to the “damn it” part I unashamedly weighted the rope a little.
The 5.9 section contained similar climbing but was a little more straight forward (the 10a had veered a little to the right). Seconding it, a hold broke off in my hand. I had asked if I could lead the 5.8 pitch but when I finished the 5.9 I was so winded (and a little perturbed at the hold breaking off) that I told Peter he could just finish it if he liked. He did want to, though he said later that he didn’t think the climb got easier and he felt the 5.9 and 5.8 pitches were the same.
Then we were at the rap anchors and rap rings on top. This is where the real drama began.
Peter had said his guide book mentioned a 30m rappel. We had a 70m rope with us. Peter set off to rappel first, which included going from the rap rings over a rounded edge before getting to the steeper part of the rappel. He was about 15 feet short of getting to the hanging belay station. He had to ascend back up.
Peter doing the first rappel of the day
About now I started feeling extremely sleepy. So sleepy that I rested my helmeted head against the rock and fell asleep while in a partial hanging belay. I’ve never done that before. I only woke up when I heard a loud rushing sort of sound that made me think of an avalanche. Fortunately it was just the wind.
Peter finally made it back up and set up a single rope rappel, extending the “pull side” with cordelette and slings as he went down to the next station. I followed and we got on the hanging belay.
Then it was time to pull the rope. Peter heaved on it and it slowly moved. He looked quite winded so I told him I’d take a turn and let him rest. He was so tired that he called me, “the most wonderful woman in the world”, once I started pulling I understood why he’d said that.
Picture this, I’m at a hanging belay. I stand up to grasp the rope as far up as I can (we had a t-block to help grab the rope) and then I use my arm muscles and leg muscles and eventually my entire body weight (ending up nearly upside down) to move the rope down — 6 inches. This wasn’t just drag, this was incredible, old-days-of-wizened-sailors-hauling-ropes, line pulling. I kept at it for awhile as Peter tried to catch his breath. It was frustrating because you could see the knot moving ever so slowly and meanwhile my body was getting wracked.
Peter eventually took the rope again but after a few more pulls from him announced he was going to ascend again and try to get the carabiner to at least get over the rounded edge (his theory was that the carabiner and/or knot had been catching on knobs).
And so he went up again as I caught my breath on the hanging belay [by the way I want a comfortable harness, any suggestions?]. Eventually I could see Peter coming over the edge. He told me to secure the cordelette/sling end of the rope to the anchor “as if for a fall”. I was a little confused as I wasn’t sure what that would do but did as he said. Turns out he had just adjusted the rappel to be a double “rope” rappel and was coming down on both ends. It was a tricky preposition though I don’t see what other option he had. He got to the station safely and we were able to pull the rope this time.
“Yes!” Peter yelled as it came down.
I took the next (last rappel) and discovered the rope didn’t quite make it to the start of the climb, however I was able to walk it to the left (uphill) and got off rappel.
Peter came down and we hiked back to the car, this time skipping the “solo slabs” having spotted a safer way to go down. By the time we got to the car we calculated we had spent 11 hours on the three pitch climb (including the approach and descent).
We drove away from the Portal and had dinner in Lone Pine, after which we went on towards Tuolumne, parked in a day use area (where other vehicles were also parked) we were both exhausted from the day and got to sleep around 12:30 at night.
Peter doing the first rappel of the day
Stay tuned for the next installment of the “Less Rack but Extra Friends – High Sierras / Tuolumne Trip 2009” saga…
“I’m sick to my stomach,” K was telling me. Mine wasn’t doing too well either.
It was Thursday, July 9, a day before my departure date for a 9 day climbing trip and I was just getting the news that our trad rack of gear was possibly donated to a local charity who would have then sold it at their local thrift store.
What!?!
Yes, that’s what I’d be saying right now if I were you, dear reader. Well, we had known our rack was “missing” for a few days but naively thought it would show up as stuff sometimes did within our small but crowded place or within our circle of climbing friends. I had not been planning on bringing the rack on my trip as I had already arranged to use friends’ gear and leave the rack at home for K. We hadn’t used the trad rack in a while due to K’s knee surgery & the business of getting married & going on a honeymoon. However we had just done a big purge of the garage which included boxes of stuff for donation that we had formerly kept in the apartment.
K had called the charity’s headquarters and someone there said the manager of the thrift store had recalled seeing the blue bag of gear (we kept the trad rack in a blue freebie nylon bag). If that was so then the rack had been gone for about a month.
I went down to the local thrift store. I’d never been there before and the amount of people shopping mid-day on a weekday made my stomach sink even farther. If the rack had been put out to sell it would surely be gone by now. I talked to the manager who was a very nice guy but he didn’t remember seeing a blue bag. He told me that they put things out for sale the very next day after getting them. I could see the “back room” and the very efficient sorting going on there, this really did not bode well. I spent the next few hours searching the store, checking the sports equipment area (things were very efficiently bagged and tagged), the electronics area, the toys, the knick knacks and clothing… basically everything, even a basket of belts. I checked the entire store twice, and was very methodical about it. I was hoping I might see just one cam though it was explained to me that they would have clear plastic bagged the whole set and sold it as one unit.
I eventually called K, hoping that since the manager I talked to did not recall seeing the blue bag that there was some kind of mistake. K called the headquarters again and was told the female manager was the one who remembered it. She came in on the weekends. The male manager told me he wished we had called sooner as they sometimes were able to locate things up to a week after getting them but generally things sold very fast.
I thought that even if a person didn’t know what a trad rack was they might buy it just because it looked neat. I didn’t let myself think of what it might have sold for but small working TV’s were going for $25.
I still needed to prepare for my trip and after talking to K and him saying he’d check with the weekend manager while I was gone I left to distractedly go food shopping.
This was terrible news. K was talking about giving up trad climbing (partly due to his knee though but that’s another story). I didn’t want to give up trad climbing but…Â well, the first rack was partially built with pro deals and we didn’t have that option anymore.
What a way to start a trip. We should’ve called the charity right away. We should have double checked the donation boxes, but we didn’t. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
July 20th, 2009 – My trip did get better from then so please continue reading for a more uplifting tale, but I am back from my trip & our rack is still missing. If you know anyone who bought a rack from a Ventura, California Thrift store, please have them contact me. We’ll pay them whatever they paid for it, plus a reward and our humble gratitude.
August – September 2008
This was to be my second time at the summit of Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States standing at 14,505 feet.
Was I nervous? Not really. I was a little apprehensive about the part where I’d be carrying not only my climbing gear but my backpacking gear and an SLR camera as well. The first time I’d summited Mt. Whitney I had done the popular Portal hike which is done on one long day of hiking and I had only brought the smallest of cameras then.
This time I was part of a party of five. We were divided into two climbing groups: K, Cliff, and I; and Matt and Peter. Matt had been the one to get permits for us months before the trip.
The plan was to have one day of travel, camp up at Horseshoe Meadows (elevation just slightly over 10,000 feet) and then backpack into Whitney beginning from the Portal and ending up at Iceberg Lake (elevation 12,640 feet). We’d then take technical rockclimbing routes to the summit (everyone would get pitches to lead) then come down the Mountaineer’s Route back to camp, spend one night there, do a nearby route the next day and then hike out.
It all went perfectly as planned. The end.
Right.
Day one goes well, we get up to Horseshoe, quite a bit of extra driving but worth it for the price (free at that time of night) and for a day of acclimation. All of us live basically at sea level and in fact Peter lives quite literally at sea level on his boat.
In the morning Peter and Matt were to get the permits and meet K and I at the trail head (we got to eat the delicious breakfast at the portal. You can’t miss this, seriously).
K and I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally Matt shows up and it turns out all these months he had the wrong permit. However he was able to stand in line for a lottery for permits and was able to get the correct permit… but we couldn’t leave until the next day.
This put a damper on our plans of course but we figured we’d just cut out the extra day of summiting the non-Whitney peak. Also we had not heard from Cliff who was supposed to have arrived so waiting another day would give him a chance to show.
We all went on a day hike up part of the John Muir trail instead then spent the night at Horseshoe again.
The next day K realizes he’s forgotten to pack our rack. We really hope that Cliff is showing up now as we need his gear. Matt and Peter set out ahead of us, knowing that K and I will bail if Cliff doesn’t show.
We wait at the portal long enough to for it to be hamburger time & fortunately Cliff shows up sometime after and we are overjoyed!
We all get on the road and set a fast pace as we hope to make Iceberg Lake before the sun sets.
The Hike
You follow the portal trail just a few miles before taking a fork that heads steeply up a hill. There’s a big boulder to the right of the trail and a sign that points that way. Then it’s quite a ways up a picturesque trail.
The going isn’t too hard and then you get to the famous Ebersbacher ledges. This is 4th class, and you need to watch your balance if you’ve got a backpack on that’s a little top heavy (like I did unfortunately).
After the ledges it’s more trail. Vegetation eventually gets sparser and boulders get bigger though the trail does take you through the easiest path to Lower Boyscout Lake.
After Lower Boyscout Lake the trail becomes scrambling through small boulders. Towards the top of this portion of the trail route finding becomes more difficult because you get to a granite slope with wide streams. You need to cross over but of course this makes the granite rock quite slippery. There are many cairns but I think some were made with different water levels in mind. The trick was just to stay very vigilant and just keep going uphill though you definitely want to end up to the right of all the water.
After the stream crossings and more hiking you get to a ravine where you can see some of the peaks next to Whitney, you can travel along the bottom, cut across mid way, or take the high path which leads up to a small run off water fall. At this time there was a lot of moss on those rocks. This was the way K had gone before so we went that way again.
I had my own crisis here. It came to the point where there wasn’t any dry rock to step on. You had to do a smear move on wet rock. I was wearing my old Adidas hiking shoes. They are ok shoes, I bought them on sale a long time ago from Sport Chalet. The bottoms however leave a lot to be desired in the grip department. Five Tennies these are not. Vibram they are not. Add to this that I was using an old North Face pack with a broken strap which was top heavy. I felt that if I had even the smallest wrong angle on me the pack would pull me backwards and I’d slip and slide my way down the steep slope we’d come up. I stuck my hands into the mossy, muddy muck trying to find a handhold around some crevices. It didn’t help. The guys were holding their hands & even feet out to me but I needed to step up just to get a good grasp on even K’s foot. So, I finally did step up.
I made it and took two steps to a semi flat area (this was still all on a steep slope) and I let out a sob. An actual sob. You may not know me very well nor my climbing/adventure history but trust me when I say that I am not only not a person who sobs much but even tearing up is rare. Tease me if you will but that little portion was scarier to me than many lead climbs I’ve done. The sob was one of relief. We weren’t done yet, there was a bit of boulder problem to get up to a much flatter area. I watched Cliff do it and when he said don’t go that way I knew not to (he’s a heck of a strong climber). I found another way and was up. We crested the ridge and saw a boulder strewn valley, and further on got our closest look at the east face of the Day and Keeler needles and Mt. Whitney yet.
We marched on. I saw some figures ahead, one stood up hesitantly. As we closed in on them their body language changed, “Wow you guys made it! You did good time!” It was Peter and Matt. And indeed we had made good time, we still had about 30 minutes of sunlight left.
The wind, which we would get all too familiar with, had started to kick up. It was strong enough to blow small rocks around and you had to lean into it a bit. There were pre-made rock walls mostly set up against larger boulders scattered in the valley. There was another party with tents set up on the opposite side of the big boulder where Peter and Matt had staked his tent. K and I and Cliff set up near them as well. After a quick look around and water pumping at Iceberg Lake we went back to the tents.
The wind had picked up enough that I was having trouble walking. If I only had one foot on the ground and another in the air I was sometimes spun around.
By night time the wind had gotten worse.
Sleeping at altitude is sometimes hard to do. When your tent is constantly being buffered by winds and small rocks, it’s even harder. Our tent, a Mountain Hardwear freestanding tent, was sturdy but its walls were being pushed in far enough to hit us in the face.
K tried to arrange things a little better but it didn’t help. Finally we realized one of the tent poles had broken.
It was pretty much a sleepless night.
In the morning the wind was still going. When it didn’t ease off by 8AM we started to worry. Peter decided he’d make an exploratory trek up some of the Mountaineer’s Route to see if the wind was better there. It looked warmer there at least (more sun). He came back to report it was just as bad.
Meanwhile Cliff wasn’t feeling very well. He hadn’t had the benefit of being able to acclimate at Horseshoe before hiking in like the rest of us had. Our party of three decided we’d wait a day to summit. The wind was so crazy you didn’t really want to walk around, you’d get sand blasted, or worse, pebble blasted, since the wind was strong enough to carry small rocks and not just sand. Cliff tried to make a makeshift splint for our tent pole. We studied the guidepages and the rock face. We got water when we had to.
Peter and Matt went up again to carry their gear at least some of the way up. We thought maybe they’d summit. But they came back. We knew then the wind must’ve been really strong.
We all spent another cold and windy night near Iceberg Lake. The other party of folks left. Another couple camped a little further from us but they left during the day too, we never even got to talk to them.
This second night the wind must have died down a little bit. At least I know that I got a few hours of sleep anyway.
The next morning the wind was gone. The sun was out and it was gorgeous! Of course there were still breezes though, which were quite chilly from going over the snow at the bottom of cliffs or along the glacier up the Mountaineer’s Route.
We all set out up the Mountaineer’s Route. I was wearing my down jacket but about half way up the scree and boulders to the base of the climbs I took it off and stashed it, feeling it was too bulky to carry with me anyway. Cue music now.
K had decided he wanted to do the East Face. I liked the idea though it was supposed to be around 13 pitches. From descriptions in the guidebook and discussions we had read online it seemed like we’d be able to string pitches together or simul-climb them so I was hoping it wouldn’t be too tough. Peter and Matt set out for the East Buttress, a much more straight forward route. We all planned to go down the Mountaineer’s Route back to camp. Because of the permit mix up Peter & Matt had to leave tonight as they had to work the next day, K however had built in an extra vacation day to recover from our trip at home so we were instead planning on using it to spend one more night in the Whitney area (maybe we’d go down to Lower Boyscout Lake) and then hike out the next day depending on when we got down from the summit.
All five of us set out. K was the primary leader and found the base of the climb. However Cliff decided to bow out, he hadn’t had a restful night sleep since he’d arrived and I think he thought he’d let us go faster as a party of two, he’s a very considerate climber and would do things like that.
Climbing the East Face Route
Our gear.
We each brought an insulating layer, K brought his Patagonia R1 and I brought my favorite jacket of all time, a Sierra Designs Windstopper jacket with zipper vents. We also had gloves and our “emergency gear” as we called it: a fleece beanie, a headlamp and a lightweight rain shell. Additionally we had water, bars, some granola, and I had brought my SLR camera with a wide angle lense and a protective case. I carried gear in my Black Diamond Bullet Pack. It’s small and fairly sleek and I’ve found it very handy for trad climbing.
We pretty much brought a full rack which means a full set of Black Diamond cams, plus nuts. We also had slings and cordelette.
We climb.
Pitch 1. No problem. It’s the type of climb which you can approach in whatever way you want, use some cracks or just do edges or even face.
Pitch 2. More of the same.
Pitch 3. Nice looking crack, almost in a dihedral. After I watch K finish though I’m already thinking, this isn’t a 5.8. When I get on it I think, “Either I have regressed drastically in my crack climbing ability – which is a possibility – or this is NOT the climb we are supposed to be on”. When I get to the summit and realize it’s just a tiny point of a pinnacle and the side opposite of the one I was climbing on doesn’t lead up to anything – well that’s when I knew we had definitely gone off route. Not only that but I also knew that getting down without leaving gear was going to be a bear.
I’m pretty tired from this pitch and having to balance on the top of this pinnacle is getting into my head a little. From this vantage point we see that we were probably just supposed to go up about 4 feet from where we last were and traverse over to the next pitch. It would’ve been easy.
Oh well, now we have to get down. Time and energy are running on the low side, remember we’ve had very little sleep the past two days.
K gets down and thinks he can lower me, I can rap on the side we didn’t climb up. I’m fairly certain I’ll take a bad swing and we’d still have to come back up to clean stuff. So eventually I get lowered to a ledge which I then downclimb while roped and K leads back up and gets the gear. This takes up a good chunk of time. I think we should bail. K thinks we can make it. The next part is the Fresh Air traverse. I’m kind of eager to do it and for some reason think that we won’t have that many more pitches left after it.
Pitch 4. Fresh Air Traverse. It’s aptly named. You have to traverse and if you look below your feet you’ll see a very tall drop off. The air feels very thin as you go across. Not technically hard at all. K put in two pieces max I believe.
Me building an anchor after a lead on Whitney's East Face
Pitch 5. I lead this. As I do I think we should’ve simulclimbed it. In fact K pretty much does that when he follows as I can’t keep up with pulling in the slack.
Pitch 6-10 More mixed climbing, cracks, edges, smearing, stemming, some chimney even (for me anyway). We go through these pretty quickly.
Pitches 11-? Around here the “face” is more of a stack of big boulders. A number of times I suggest we just unrope and climb but K is being extra careful with route finding ever since that first off-route so we stay roped and continue up. Sometimes I go under rocks sometime I stem or chimney along side of them.
Final pitch – I end up going up first somehow. As I summit, the sun is still up and a guy dressed in black and yellow with a hood is talking on a cell phone. I hear him say, “Someone just climbed up the cliff!” I smile and wave and belay K up, he is in shadow until the last 5 feet to the top. We summit and celebrate.
Turns out the guy on top has been backpacking and hiked up the portal route way, he was planning on spending the night at the top and was prepared. The sun was heading down already. I was not looking forward to the Mountaineer’s Route in the dark. As I understand it, it’s a treacherous enough hike that for many people that’s their whole Whitney adventure. K presented me with a choice, we could head down and be caught on the route in the dark or we could spend the night in the shelter. Now, the “shelter” is a rectangular stone walled building. Â It was originally made by scientists as a lightning shelter. The metal door was open to one of the rooms which contained a wood floor, a low, skinny stone bench built next to a wall, a dirty window and a lot of graffiti.
Though from the outside of the shelter it almost looks like there should be a woodburning stove or heater in one corner, there is in fact nothing there.
Still, I thought about going down in my extremely tired mental state and having to go down the Mountaineer’s Route in the dark. The Mountaineer’s Route is also known as the “Bowling Alley” by the way and also had a large ice patch on it that we saw on the way up. The estimated time of descent on it is 2 hours to Iceberg Lake, I figured with my mental and physical state it would take me more than that, and then we’d have to spend the night in our broken tent anyway. The shelter when we checked it actually felt warm inside due to the stones collecting the sun’s heat. I opted for the shelter.
The guy at the summit was named Gil. He had been talking to his wife on the phone. He gave us some of his water. We asked if he wanted to sleep in the room too but he had found a nook amongst the boulders strewn all over the top of Mt. Whitney to sleep in and had already set up before we summited.
I took a picture of the shelter with the setting sun in the background. I figured this would hopefully be my last chance to do this. We went inside immediately after that, it was cold and the wind had picked up just a little.
What followed was one of the longest nights I’d ever experienced and certainly the coldest.
There was no light inside the room and the moon was not up. Faint starlight  that got through the dirty windows on the door or the side window wasn’t strong enough to do more than show us the location of said windows. The door was held shut by a weighted pully. We hung a waterbottle on this to make the door seal tighter. However we couldn’t do much about the large gap between the door and the ground, since the door didn’t meet the wood flooring. We stuffed some gear there anyway though. By the way, set in the floor there’s a plaque that says something like, “Do not burn floor boards. They are essential for lightning strike safety”.
We thought it’d been hours since the sun went down and K checked his watch. It was only 8pm. Someone knocked on the door. K opened it and I heard something about taking a picture. K said, “Sure,” and stepped out, closing the door after him. Then he opened the door again saying, “You’re the photographer do you want to take it?” “No!” I said, “and close the door!” All I could think of was the last of our warm air escaping. K came back and that was that. We at first thought we’d just pace the floor all night to keep warm. I tried jumping jacks but didn’t do more than 5 I think. We didn’t have any more bars so we ate a little of the near powder granola (Bear Naked brand by the way, healthy but nothing but granola – no sugar, no nuts, nothing). It tasted like sawdust. I don’t remember when I started shivering. It might have been after we’d coiled the rope on the floor and we tried to sit on it for the first time. It wasn’t enough rope to lie on, even if it was just me curled in a fetal position.
I was still shivering. I would only stop if K physically held me tight. But he was of course also cold and tired and eventually his arms would fall off. He tried tying them together with a sling but it didn’t work. I remember falling on my side from being so tired but the floor was cold and I’d get back up. My muscles hurt from all the shivering. K apologized more than once to me. That scared me a little but really I was so tired and could only think about things like, “I wonder if we burned all the papers from the summit registry would it be worth the ashes & smoke?” I thought often of my down jacket stashed way below us. Eventually it seemed to get slightly lighter outside. I think I fell on my side one last time then because I know I woke up and it was slightly brighter.
I stood up and tried to look out the grimy windows. The sun wasn’t up yet but it was definitely brighter. We stayed inside awhile knowing that though the outside was brighter, the sun’s rays weren’t going to hit our area of the summit for sometime yet because of the angle so the air outside the shelter was still colder than inside. Now that I think about it though I don’t think I was shivering then at least.
When we could see sun hitting a distant cliff, we couldn’t help it but went out. The sun was up though its warming rays still weren’t hitting us. It was still nice to see the world was bright. Eventually I looked longingly at the cliffs with sun on them though. We walked over to where we figured the sun would hit first.
A couple came up from the hiking trail side. They were surprised to see us. They apparently had tried to make it up to watch sunrise but had missed it. We told them we’d spent the night and they offered us food. I wasn’t that hungry but thought of the Mountaineer’s Route and the long day still ahead. I took an apple and some of their trail mix. The apple was the best breakfast ever, of course.
Gil was out and about and took a summit photo of K and I. We survived.
Gil didn’t want to go down the way he’d come up so he followed us to the Mountaineer’s Route. The descent was to the right of the large ice patch and was in the shade. I took care to go slow as I could tell my brain wasn’t thinking very well. The guys outpaced me but I didn’t mind. I kept repeating, “Better safe than sorry” in my head. And when I successfully crossed a very small ice patch I was happy I went slowly. It took a long time to get down, we knocked a minimum amount of rocks down, but us spreading out at least helped us not endanger each other in that way. It definitely took a long time for me to even get to where I had my down jacket stashed, and by then, since I’d made it to the sunny part of the descent, I didn’t need to put it on. When I finally got to the tent it had taken me over 2 hours. I felt ok though, good enough that I didn’t stop to rest but instead pitched in with breaking camp. K and I still had to hike all the way out to the portal and even then we’d have to hike down the road a little way to my car.
Gil had waited for us and said he was planning on going to Lower Boyscout Lake so we all set out together again. We didn’t go down the waterfall way, but went around to the right of it (right meaning if you were facing it from a descent stand point), this way was slightly longer but much less dangerous. I was in my “tortoise” hiking mode, which means I never stopped to rest so would catch up the to the guys who were faster but needed to stop and then when I caught up to them they would go off again. After awhile though I could tell K wasn’t feeling good because I was catching up to him too often. After the Ebersbacher ledges, which seemed a little harder to get down than go up (always the case though isn’t it? Even if you aren’t tired?), he stopped and told me to go ahead.
His stomach was hurting. His knees were already hurting as well. He has a “bad knee” which he has since gotten worked on. I was down in the scrambling portion above Lower Boyscout Lake when I decided to backtrack to check on K. Â He was sleeping on a rock. I woke him up and he told me he had thrown up. This was not good. We continued on. Eventually we passed a narrowing on the trail which went by a boulder, Gil was there, happy to see us. But K felt like he couldn’t stop or he’d not make it out. We apologized and continued on, though I did get Gil’s email at least.
We made it to the portal I think around 6pm. We still had to hike down the road to the car, Once we got in I drove to Dow Villa in Lone Pine where we’d previously decided to stay the night, no way we’d make the drive home in our present condition. K passed out in the car. I barely got him into the motel room. I walked across the street to the Pizza Factory.
When I entered folks turned around and stared.
What? People have surely come in looking like I did after Whitney? I mean the first time I’d gone up Whitney, doing the day hike thing, we all ate pizza here afterwards.
Maybe I had an extra hungry air about me though.
I got my pizza and managed to cross the street. K was still passed out. It was the best pizza ever, of course.
Epilogue
Climber specific tips
If you have one, bring a cell phone, they work at the summit and you can reassure other friends that you don’t need a rescue but will just be coming out the next day
Bring a credit card, we thought of hiking out the long way and just crashing in a motel in town & then hiking back to Iceberg for our stuff but we didn’t have a card or ID.
If you have a space blanket, don’t take it out of your pack the day before just because you’ve never used it ever before. You’ll need it that trip for sure.
Study the route (entire party should do this). East Face is a little odd in that it meanders but keep in mind you shouldn’t feel like you’re on a 5.9+ trad climb at any point.
Bring bail gear. Hexes or old nuts & “leaver biners” might give you ease of mind.
Remember that you are at altitude. The highest in the lower 48. You will get tired more easily. You will not necessarily be thinking clearly. You may think you don’t need to ask for help. For example, Gil had a large backpack with him that he didn’t use that night, I could’ve fit my legs into it as a sleeping bag of sorts but I didn’t want to “bother” him to ask to use it.
Make sure your permits are in order. Even when it was more lax, we got stopped for a permit check on the way up the Portal hike.
Don’t forget your WAG bags (given when you get your permits)
There aren’t any bears at this altitude but if you end up camping lower, be prepared.
If you can, spend a night or two acclimitizing. When I first hiked Whitney my group only spent one night at Lone Pine, which isn’t technically high enough. Of a party of 8, I think I was only one of two of us who didn’t have some signs of altitude sickness (others got mild headaches, etc).
When on the East Face route, remember that it’s a long one with many pitches. If everyone in your party is confident, try simul-climbing.
When going up or down the Mountaineer’s Route it’s a good idea to wear a helmet and always keep an eye out for rocks from above or rocks you might knock down.
When approaching Iceberg lake, if you don’t want to go up the waterfall area go to the left of it, it’s longer but much easier.
Wear sunscreen & bring sunglasses. The ground at Iceberg Lake is very white, there is also snow around which also reflects the sun.
Hydrate. But try to sip constantly rather than gulp a lot in one sitting, you don’t want to pee out all the excess. Water stops on the hike we did: 1. At the portal. 2. At Iceberg Lake. No problem with water availability. You can also get water at Boyscout Lake or even from some streams (assuming you filter your water)
Lastly, reward yourself with a burger from the Portal shop, they are really good, but watch out for the birds who like to nab things.
Well we wrapped up the contest portion of the #climberpickup. Judges weighed in with their top three choices (and some listed Honorable Mentions as well). Our judges were:
@cjedmonston @cragbaby @cupcakemafia @katiebeth @theclimbergirl and @rockgrrl (that’s me!).
We all thought it was very hard to choose so each judge chose her own top three picks and we let any overlap determine the winners.
So here we are:
3rd place goes to @paukku with “If I was a boulder problem, would you flash me?”
2nd Place goes to @bittabuffalo for “You know, I’ve always found bruised legs, short nails and three days without a shower dead sexy” #climberpickup
And in 1st place…
@Nathanwind with:
Would you mind giving me a spot? I think I'm about to fall for you.
@Nathanwind wins a t-shirt with his quote on it!
Other #climberpickup shirts are available in the rockgrrl gift shop, and a portion of the proceeds of each shirt sale will be donated to a climbing related charity which will be determined. See what’s currently in the growing collection here!
I’ve been meaning to write a review on the foldable bowl and cup I own for some time now so here it is.
fingers were feeling pretty worked. It was a sustained climb for sure. Tony went up on a route called, “Edging Skills or Hospital Bills” a route John Bachar used to solo so we paid our respects to his recent passing in our own way.
We made much better time than the last time out (when we got hit by a thunderstorm that included a thunder and lightning pairing that was less than “one one-thousand”‘ away from us). In fact we did so much better that we were very close to the base of Cathedral and it was before 3pm. Peter asked if I wanted to do it but I saw the parties on the rock already and thought we should pass. It was a good call as hours later after we had set up camp and I checked out the base of the climbs to try to find David & Tony’s packs (while Peter went to get water) the climbing parties still had not moved and I found an additional party at the base still waiting their turn. I chatted with this couple and eventually left them at 4pm with an encouragement that they start as soon as they could (one of the partners had been taking a nap after they had missed the hike turn off and gone all the way to Cathedral Lake and then back around).
did a leisurely hike up the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne river which went right by the campgrounds. Peter fished and I took pictures until my SLR battery died and then I did some much needed creek splashing. 
