My alarm went off at 5am in Ron and Liz’s dungeon room. I got up to make coffee and breakfast while Erik was sound snoring — he had had a long week at work and had been sleep-deprived. However, the clicking of my camping stove and pan woke him up. He was grumpy for quite a while until we got to the base of the climb. Poor guy.

My slowness in getting ready cost us the first place in line; however, I was happy that we beat the next two parties by two steps. When Erik was reading a closure sign on the climbers’ trail, I heard voices approaching and urged him on. The people behind followed us all the way to the base of the Serenity. As it turned out, they were a bunch of really friendly folks I recognized from our local climbing gym, which made the wait at the base fun. The party in front of us were Matt and Nolan from the Bay Area. Nolan was belaying when we arrived. I quickly worked out a deal with him — we would each climb on one rope and on the way down we would share our two ropes for the long rappels off of Sons of Yesterday. This way, they didn’t need to carry their tag line up and we didn’t need to drag our second full rope up either.

Erik and I moved at a good speed behind Matt and Nolan. They were not slow climbing, but I noticed that they spent a lot more time at each belay station changing over. So, most of the time, despite our wait at various belay stations, we kept catching up with them. They were kind to mention that we could pass them, but since we would be sharing ropes going down anyway, we just enjoyed our wait. I followed Erik the whole way — just didn’t feel like leading. But this time, I felt solid on the entire climb. The finger crack at the crux on Serenity felt a lot easier than I remembered.

On a side note, I just read recently on Supertopo that someone had put a bolt back on the first pitch of Serenity, which triggered a long discussion. It was still there when we climbed it, but Erik didn’t clip it — instead, he placed a bomber red camalot (#1) in the crack at the same height of the bolt. In his word, the camelot was “belay quality.”

Higher up on Sons of Yesterday, the wind was quite strong. I got a little chilled. That’s the beta I’d like to offer to anyone reading this — bring a wind breaker even if it’s toasty at the base.

On Sunday, we went cragging at Cookie, hoping that Ron would be able to join us. But at the peak season of Yosemite tourism, the Bed and Breakfast was keeping him very busy. We took this chance to run laps on Outer Limits and Crack-a-go-go. I had trouble in my first two attempts top roping Crack-a-go-go, but after taking a break, on my last try, I managed to climb it without falling. Whooohoo!

As I had planned, we went to Generator Crack before calling the day. Having poison oak rashes all over his left shin, Erik decided not to do it. But being a considerate and supportive husband, he kindly climbed up the rock and set up a top rope for me (and later took it down). I was anxious to find out how my wide crack climbing ability had deteriorated after two years of break, so it made me happy that I was able to climb it without any trouble starting from the tree. However, I had a hard time starting from the ground — I couldn’t get my left knee over the restriction (will post picture later). Now I can’t wait to get back again because I just read my own beta that I posted more than two years ago.

We didn’t get home until almost 1am because we stopped by Ron and Liz’s place on our way out. Time flew by when we happily chatted. But hanging out with our good friends made the weekend even more perfect (correct English?).

Photos:

I forgot to put the camera in our packs on Saturday, so we don’t have any pictures from Saturday even though the view of the valley was great from Serenity and Sons.

Here are a few pictures from Sunday.

Is this the famous Separate Reality. Click on the image to see the full sized picture. You can see that fine line across the roof. Taken from the parking spot for Cookie Cliff.

On Supertopo, someone reported that a boulder rolled off the base of Generator Crack. Well, for what it’s worth, here is how it looks now. The board is still there.

The start of Generator Crack. Right in the middle is the restriction I was talking about — too narrow for my knee to fit in.

That’s me inside the crack. You can barely see me.

Oh, the fun chimney section near the top.

Yes, I did it again, and better

Remember how excited I was when I did it last time? after two unsuccessful attempts, finally I managed to get up Generator Crack. However, I had to start off the tree because I couldn’t figure out how to get up the first five feet or so. But this time, I got it, every foot of it!

Beta for Generator Crack:

Beta for small people (with skinny knees): While standing on the ground, I place a hand-fist stack high, then with the right foot frictioning in the crack — with outside of the heel and inside of toes — I lift my left knee as high as possible and shuffle it into the crack. Note that at this point, the crack is fairly narrow, so the available spots to get your knee in are very limited. Once the knee is jammed in, it’s very secure, so I can do a sit up pushing off my right foot to move my upper body higher — so high that my left leg is almost extended while the knee is still jammed in the crack. Now, it’s the tricky move — because the crack is too narrow to move the left knee directly up, you need to take it out where it went in. To do this, I gaston with my two hands on the two sides of the crack to keep my upper body upright, stick my butt out so that I have room to move my left knee, and then carefully extract my knee from the crack. A couple of these moves later, I’m able to shuffle my whole left leg in, then the battle is over — all you need to do is chicken-wing with left arm, gaston with right hand, use the right foot heel-toeing to push up, and use the left leg kneebaring to rest. Higher, once I get my full body in, it becomes sweet squeeze chimney. I do the entire climb left side in — no turning around is needed.

Beta for big people (Based on my observations when Erik climbed it): The crux is also right off the ground. Because you can’t get your knee in to stabilize your upper body, you can’t move both hands at the same time. So, the key is to find small edges and flakes inside the crack for your fingers to pull on (almost look like lieback), while the feet are doing the side-of-heel to side-of-toe jam. You do need to get the footwork down so that the feet are not thrashing around, which makes it too hard for the poor fingers to cling to the tiny edges. At any given time, you either use one hand and the two feet to keep the body stable while moving the other hand higher or use two hands and one foot for stability while moving the other foot up. A couple of such powerful moves later, you should be able to get your left leg in the crack, then it’s just typical offwidth climbing — all you need to do is chicken-wing with left arm, gaston with right hand, use the right foot heel-toeing to push up, and use the left leg kneebaring to rest. However, because you won’t be able to get your full body in until very high up, you’ll need to stay at the mouth of the crack, and when you get to jug on the left side of the crack, you pull up on it and in the mean time turn your body around. Beyond that jug, it’s a squeeze chimney for everyone.

Hope that helps.

Oh, wait, rewind… Let me start from Saturday morning. Because the weather forecast for this weekend was very iffy, Erik and I decided to leave the Bay Area on Saturday morning (it was more my idea because I really wanted to see the movie March of Penguins on Friday night). So we got out at 9am, and by 1:30pm, we were at the base of Cookie Cliff. We did Catchy, Catchy Corner, Red Zinger (two laps for each of us), Meat Grinder 1st pitch (my lead), Beverly’s Tower (my lead), and Aftershock (we both TR’ed in dark with headlamps).

We hung out with Scott and Micky at the Rock Rendezvous campsite and enjoyed a conversation around the warm campfire that Scott put up. On next morning, although I set my alarm at 6am, we didn’t get up until almost 8am. It was destined to be a relaxed (aka lazy) weekend, so it only made sense for us to arrive at the base of the Rostrum as late as 11:30am. My heart sank when I saw a rope on the first pitch when I approached the start. But it turned out to be Dan and Hamid, whom I knew from the Bay Area. They were planning to do the first four pitches only, so they generously let us pass. Erik linked the 1st and 2nd pitches and we passed them quickly. Four hours and forty minutes later saw us on top. We had a great view of the valley in the afternoon glow. We finished the day by top roping Generator Crack, which added a bit more excitement and satisfaction to the weekend.

Photos: When Erik cheerfully anounced that he had packed everything for the trip into his car on Thursday evening, I should have raised my suspicion. As it turned out, he forgot to bring quite a few items, among which was his camera. Oh well, I had mine and I did take some pictures on both days. I should finish uploading them to my album by Monday night (or Tuesday, maybe Wednesday).

On Saturday morning, I woke up to a much lesser degree of pain at that spot. I was surprised, but remained doubtful. But I set off with Allen to Cookie Cliff anyway. The pain started fading after I moved about, and it disappeared altogether later during the day. I was really thrilled. This instance alone transformed me into a firm believer of chiropractic.

Cookie Cliff was crowded on Saturday. We started on the first pitch of Meat Grinder (5.9). Allen then led Red Zinger (5.11d) with one fall, but he toproped it twice without any trouble. I also toproped it twice but had to hang both times. Liebacking is hard. I tried to lead Outer Limits (5.10c), but had to back down two thirds way up when I found that I didn’t have big gear to protect the wide section. But I onsighted Beverly’s Tower (5.10a), which was the highlight of the day for me. The day finished off with Allen redpointing Butterballs (5.11c). That was the highlight of the day for him.

Oh, when we were at Cookie, a group of women showed up and Sue Mcdevitt and Katie Brown were among them. I was lucky to witness Katie Brown onsight Crack-a-go-go (5.11c). What can I say? She made it look really easy, but I knew the truth. Sue cleaned a cam for us which walked deep into the crack on Outer Limits, and left it with our pack when we were high up on Butterballs. I didn’t even get chance to thank her.

The 7-pitch climb Hotline (5.12a) on Elephant Rock is in the shade. Allen insisted we should climb it on Sunday. I didn’t know what I was getting into until I had to pendulum the 5.12a traverse section in Pitch 2 and aid the 5.11d roof in the sixth pitch. Other than that, the route is very likeable, especially the sustained 5.10 crack on the 3rd pitch. Beta #1: the route is a rap route now. You can do it in 4 rappels with two 200′ ropes. Beta #2: The climb looks shorter in the Reid guidebook than it actually is. And the roof is pretty hard too. We barely made it back across river just before dark.

I came home with extremely sensitive finger tips and sore shoulders and back, which are signs of a good weekend — a good climbing weekend.

Saturday, we started on the Right Side of the Cookie (5.9, 2 pitches) by me leading the first pitch and Allen finishing off the rest of it where the chimney is. This climb is in the shade whole day. Then we moved on to Catchy (5.10d). It felt really easy for its grade. Confidence boosted, I moved up the ladder — I followed Waverly Wafer (5.10c Reids, 5.11a SuperTopo’s description). It felt a notch harder than Catchy. We finished off the day doing Butterballs (5.11c). I made it up to the top, but did not look pretty at all — I had to hang a few times. Better footwork and more pullup strength are what I need to do this climb.

After running into Allen’s friend Bowe at the campsite, we convinced him and his friends to go back to Cookie with us on Sunday as they were planning to practice aiding on some thin crack anyway. But when we got there, Cookie was baked in the sun and we felt lethargic. Even so, Bowe’s friends feerlessly started their aid climbing practice. Before we were about to turn to somewhere else, I discovered that The Enema (5.11b) was in the shade. Allen, Bowe and I did it in a party of three. I led the first pitch including a 5.9 squeeze chimney. “The second pitch is the business,”(SuperTopo) and it was Allen’s business to lead it. The crack is flaring and overhanging. It’s hard.

Since the notorious Generator Crack (5.10c) is only 1 mile away and I had been telling Allen about it for a year, we stopped there to give ourselves some torture. It felt like a torture a year ago when I attempted it, and it still felt like a torture this time. I made it higher than last time, but had to give up when my boney ankles reached their pain tolerance threshold. But, I will be back!

The cliff is better viewed from a distance. It seems small, but is concentrated with quality hard cracks. See that big flake-looking thing near the middle of the photo? The climb, the Right Side, is behind it — therefore, in the shade.