The weather in Salt Lake has been exceptionally fickle this
year, call it global warming/Jetstream abnormalities/or just bad luck. This
winter every storm started out pushing 2 ft. and by the time it arrived we saw
maybe a few inches of white stuff, this spring however, has been quite the
opposite, no matter where we looked (Indian Creek, Zion, Wasatch) every
forecast would start out as 20% chance of showers and by weeks end turned into
positively monsoon-like conditions.
Flash forward to this weekend, where for whatever reason my
head was set on climbing. With the idiosyncrasies of sandstone climbing and
rain Moab/Indian Creek seemed like a likely choice of areas to celebrate this
Memorial Day, however, by Thursday the forecast was calling for unseasoably wet
conditions…so we scrambled. Joshua Tree, City of Rocks, skiing the reliable
Wasatch, and Yosemite were all thrown on the table…and as luck would have it,
two consecutive (albeit we had to move sites) days worth of camping were found
in Yosemite, over one of the busiest days of the park season nonetheless. The
forecast was calling for rain beforehand but tapering off by our arrival…how
could we go wrong.
Mark and I packed up our gear and bid our goodbyes for a
quick hitting weekend of granite debauchery.
The views coming in, after camping outside the park Friday
night, were breathtaking as usual…also deceptively irritating as we cursed
ourselves for not bringing ski stuff.
Disclaimer: All the photos of Mark are sadly buttshots, as
it was just him and I climbing, Chesy couldn’t make it as she was studying hard
for her board exams.
We figured we’d hit
the ground running or falling (whichever metaphor you prefer) and started on
Short Circuit (5.11d) a short overhanging tight hands to finger lock crack which
was my lead…almost got it…something to be desired I guess.
Mark on TR
The route
Skinny Indeed
Mark then took the sharp end as we headed over to Outer
Limits (5.10b) on the Cookie Cliff.
I followed and then we headed down to Catchy (5.10d) and of course 3 feet into the crux it started to rain...so I was "forced" to aid...maybe I was just tired of getting spit off by the tight finger locks.
Outer Limits
Mark about to embark on an IC like splitter
Mark following Catchy in the rain
Almost to the section of locks
With all the rain the waterfalls were in full force...
Luckily Midnight was mostly dry
The next day we headed over to Super Slide (1 mungy pitch + 4 pitches of great hand and finger cracks 5.9 sorry no pictures). Followed by a quick trip to Reeds.
Reeds Direct (5.9) two steep pitches of fantastic crack climbing, I got the first Mark finished the second easily dispatching the upper OW.
The Mighty Rostrum...next time
Ribbon Falls
Mark working on Deliverance (V8) we both executed about... 2.3 full moves
Yosemite Falls
El Cap
The End
