by Debby

My good friend Mei and I decided to go climbing together for the weekend. As was typical, we agreed on the weekend, but didn't bother to finalize any details about location, time, or anything else. Thursday night, we decided that we should go up late on Saturday (so we could have more time to relax and prepare on Friday night), and we picked a location (Tuolumne Meadows) and a tentative hit list: West Crack & Lucky Streaks.

Saturday morning we set off around 9:15 or so, and we reached Daff Dome at 2:45pm. We were concerned to see a long conga line of climbers headed up it (since we had gotten skunked on it before), but when we got to the base we saw there was just one person waiting, and her leader was almost at the first belay. It turned out that they had reached the climb at 11am and were only starting the climb now! It was perfect timing for us, and our first "lucky" of the weekend. We set off at 3pm, swinging leads all the way, and made it to the top by 5:45 or so, and only had to wait at one belay for the conga line. The descent took us right past the South Flank of Daff Dome, where we ran into what appeared to be almost the entire Rock Rendezvous crowd. They were here for a group bbq/climbing weekend, and welcomed us into their group campsite for the night. Lucky #2. Especially lucky, because we had no plans for where we were going to camp.

The group campsite was jam packed with tents and people, but we found a spot to set up. Mei cooked another delicious dinner (salmon with zucchini and onion, couscous, and kale), ably competing with the many varieties of food on other people's tables, and winning hands-down from everything I sampled. It was heavenly to sit around the campfire afterwards (I think this was the last weekend the campsite was open, and it was quite chilly), and wonderful to meet so many new climbers (some new to me, some new to climbing). We went to sleep late, knowing that there was no point in getting up before the sun warmed up the rock…

In the morning, we woke up late, and Mei cooked another delicious breakfast, featuring scrambled eggs with scallions, "thai-style" baked tofu (which I skipped), and toasted bread. I supplemented mine with leftover bacon and grilled vegetables from other tables, but made myself skip the other options (french toast, pancakes, etc), in the hope of not being too bloated to climb.

After much debate and hard thought, we decided to do Lucky Streaks. We weren't sure if we could do it (Mei had climbed it before, but had only led the "easy" pitches; I had never been on it before; the sun doesn't hit the climb until at least noon, and there were high clouds in the sky), but eventually we decided to go for it. We drove to the lot, started packing our gear, and two Canadians drove up a few minutes later. They were also headed for Lucky Streaks, and we had just barely beat them to the climb (were we lucky or what?).

Although the sun still hadn't hit the climb, the temperature seemed relatively warm, and we were anxious to start (it was already after noon). Mei talked me into leading the first pitch, which is not run out, but the protection is not "bomber" at the 5.9 move. It took me a looong time to commit to it, but once I did it went fine. I then proceeded to get my shoe stuck in the crack while walking on the ledge to the belay, which took a couple more minutes to free. All in all, it was a very slow pitch for me. Mei blazed up to me, and then led the next pitch (10a) with barely a pause, placing gear when appropriate. I followed it, after much deliberation at the 10a move, and felt very impressed. As we had agreed, she took the third pitch (10d) as well. It looked hard while she did it, but again, she had no difficulty. I followed the pitch cleanly, but I think I ended up using some of the places she had placed pro for jams, so I'm not sure I could have led it cleanly…

At that point I was exhausted, but she claimed the next pitch (described in the topo as "sustained 5.9 fingers") was easy, so I led it. She was right, luckily. The fifth pitch (5.9) was hers, since we were back to swinging leads, and she dispatched it rapidly. The sixth pitch (5.8) was mine, and although the moves felt really easy by then, moving was painful. Nevertheless, the pitch went fine, and we reached the top by 4:45. We wandered down, picked up our packs, and went to the car where we had a much deserved snack of a peach and ginger granola in soy milk. With that in our stomachs, we decided to hold out for good Chinese food for dinner, and headed to Milpitas in the hopes of finding a late-night restaurant.

At 10:30, we reached the McCarthy Ranch area of Milpitas. The Shanghai-ese restaurant we wanted to eat at was indeed open, and was actually serving dinner until 1am, so we managed to stuff ourselves. Yum.

Delicious food, climbing, conversation, unexpectedly meeting old and new friends, near perfect weather, what more can you ask for?

Mei's Notes: Thanks Debby for the trip report. On Lucky Streaks, you were not that slow and I was not that fast. But you sure have the humbleness of a Chinese. Oh, I want to add our Lucky #11: My fuel ran out while cooking breakfast. If we hadn't been taken in by the RR group, we would have ended up drinking raw eggs and eating cold bread. We were caught in action while unscrewing Simon and Amy's fuel bottle from their stove by Amy on her way to the bathroom (she was really supposed to be asleep at the time). That changed our status from fuel thieves to fuel borrowers (with generous permission).

Photos from West Crack

Jesse and Allen have been talking about doing the classic Tuolumne Linkup: Tenaya Peak -> Matthes Crest -> Cathedral Peak. I've always wanted to do it because it sounds challenging — long hikes, high altitude, high exposure, and long routes. I have no doubt that they can do it because they are two competent and fit climbers. But now that I'm joining in, a party of three will for sure moves slower than a party of two. Also, if we do it, how do we arrange the car situation with Chris and Casey? So, are we going to do it? Oh well, we'll see.

(Switching to past tense, because I don't know how to continue telling the story in present tense.)

We pulled into our secret camping spot outside of Yosemite around 11:30 PM on Friday night. I proposed to get up at 4 AM next morning for the big day, but the proposal got rejected. Ok, how about 6 AM? I didn't hear any feedback — everyone had passed out. My alarm clock went off at 6 AM dutifully. I switched it off and didn't hear any sound around me (didn't bother opening my eyes) and decided to go back to sleep thinking "forget about the linkup. I need more sleep." At 7 AM, there started to be activities around me. After throwing pine cones at each other, we packed into the van. First breakfast stop was the parking lot at the West gate of Yosemite. Then we drove to the Tenaya Lake Parking Lot (mainly for its bathrooms) and had our second breakfast. The linkup came up occasionally in our conversations, but I thought it had become a joke. Well, that was until Jesse and Allen started to pack up their camel packs. It was not a joke after all! I stuffed a few cliff bars into my camel pack. We each carried three liters of water. No rope, because we might end up using it if we carried it (a pretty logical thought, wasn't it?). We each wore our waist belt from our harness, onto which we clipped our climbing shoes and a cordelette. Among three of us, we had three tricams, a few hexes, and set of nuts. We left our car at 10 AM. Here is the timetable:

We probably over did our climbing quota for the weekend. Although we set off to do another classic linkup in Tuolumne (Oz + Gram Traverse + Hobbit Book) on Sunday, between a late start, a 2.5-hour wait at the base for a party in front of us, a 2nd pitch that was still too hard for me, and a planned rendezvous with Chris and Casey in the afternoon, we ended up doing the standard Oz route. That's probably better — I have an awesome linkup to look forward to for the future.

Photos

Please see following slideshow of 25 photos. It Refresh every 5 seconds, or you can hit “Stop” and use “Prev” and “Next” links to manually navigate.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed every moment of the day, including the approach, the climb, and the descent. We did the variation posted in Supertopo Route Beta and it was indeed an awesome route. Taking it slow also gave me the opportunity to lead the first, second, and fifth pitches at my leisure and gave me the option to back off that 5.10b lieback when I didn't feel secure. The approach and the descent were really mild even when we lost the trail on the descent. This climb had officially made to the top of my favorite list along side with the Sun Ribbon Arête at Temple Crag.

That night, we got a rare 10 hour sleep out on the east side of the park. On sunday morning, feeling refreshed, we stopped by our friend, Bill's campsite to hang out and make breakfast. Socializing is always an essential part of climbing culture.

Sunday's climbing destination was Crescent Arch on Daff Dome. We had the entire route to ourselves when we were up there. By setting up belay according to Bill's recommendation (consistent with Supertopo's Beta, later I found out), we did the real climbing in three pitches where I led the second. The climb was one of a kind — very awkward almost the whole way up, but there was not really a move that was very hard. I liked its unique character. Not wanting to getting back home too late, we ran up Great Circle and It is Finished on the South Flank of Daff Dome on our way hiking out. A couple of heady face climbs compensated our crack climbing weekend perfectly.

Photos

Dana Plateau in the morning light. The picture was taken from the road where we camped.

A stunning view of the Third Pillar of Dana on the descent to the start of the climb

Mei belaying from the slings on top of the second pitch.

Mei negotiating the 5.10b finger crack on Pitch 5. Route setter, is the arete on?

Allen at the end of the Crescent Arch.

Beta for The Variation of Third Pillar of Dana

• Do not be sucked in to the slings for the 2nd anchor! Instead, set up anchor down low — below the 5.10a hand traverse.
• The 5.9 step left on the 2nd pitch is very heady, especially for a short person who cannot gain a good hand hold while making the move on the exposed face above a ramp. Slinging the tree above the ramp (shown in the topo) can protect the leader better, but you need to watch the rope drag after you make the move stepping left. I moved a yellow TCU up with me when I climbed the crack above the 5.9 move until I was high enough that the rope drag was no longer an issue, which worked out really well.
• The 5.10b lieback section on the third pitch of the variation was a bit tricky to protect because the crack is flared. It takes experienced eye. That was the crux for me on the whole route. (The 5.10a "wild hand traverse" felt hard too, but was short and very well protected.)

Beta for Crescent Arch

• The first couple belays in the published Supertopo suck! Follow the suggestions in the Beta page. There will be only three pitches of real climbing with all the belays on comfy ledges.

It was only lunch time, but Allen was ready to call it a day. My high spirit failed to arouse him, so we retreated to Tuolumne Meadow. He pulled out his ridgerest and pillow as soon as we parked and disappeared in the meadow. I pulled out my map and compass, took a bearing with my compass towards a bush and walked towards it (about 127 steps). Then I walked 127 steps following the back bearing. Guess where I was? I was back to my car! That was a big achievement in my navigational skill! (Yeah, I agree, a car is a little big for such test.) Sitting in the middle of the open meadow, I also tried to use two bearings from two known peaks (Lambert Dome and Fairview Dome) to find out where I was on the map. After drawing two lines, I found out that my current location on the map–the intersection of the lines–should be in the middle of Tenaya Lake. I was a little lost. Allen woke up and timely reminded me that I was not in Tenaya Lake, but rather in Tuolumne Meadow.

We drove to our camp site and pitched tent. Allen immediately went to his second round of napping while I made soup with ham and real vegetables. Kirsten and Karl, whom we would share the camp site with, showed up around 5:30 pm. Although their proposal to go to the famous Mobile station for a delicious meal sounded appealing, I felt too much lack of climbing to resort to dinner yet. So I convinced Allen, rested and stomachically satisfied by now, to go climbing with me. We jumped into the car and drove to Low Profile Dome. After a 5 minute approach, we were at the base of Darth Vader's Revenge (5.10a) (150'). We started climbing at 6:50 pm and by 8 pm we were back in our car. It started to get dark.

Loving the short approach and the large comfortable ledge, we returned to Low Profile Dome on Sunday. I wanted to lead Darth Vader's Revenge which I followed yesterday, but someone was already on it. Allen said matter-of-factly, "why don't you lead Shit Hooks (5.10b)?" I thought he was joking, but was eventually brainwashed by him to believe that I could lead it. And I did it — I led the 150' climb in one pitch. That was my first 5.10b onsight. Another milestone after Little Sheeba (5.10a). Allen then led the 190' Orange Man (5.10c) in one pitch. We moved over to the "Steep, burly, and pumpy" Memo From Lloyd (5.11b), which Allen onsighted and I followed clean. Oh, the Reid's guide had it rated 5.10d. I agree this climb is a bit soft for 5.11b. If you are looking for a confidence booster, this can be a good one for you.

There is another popular route, the 180' Golfer's Route (5.7R), which stayed crowded whole day. Instead of waiting, I decided to lead another not-so-popular route to its left, Family Affair (5.9R). Not paying close attention to where I should go, I ended up being 20 feet left of its first of the only two bolts on the route. Having placed protection in the crack below, rope drag would become unavoidable as soon as I made the traverse, but I didn't want to bother myself with back cleaning. On the last 50 feet of the 195' climb, I regretted this decision with every step up I made because it felt as if I was carrying a 40 pounds load on my waist. It was a great relief when I reached the anchor.

Allen got the turn to lead the sweet Golfer's Route. Before he stepped on the route, I said to him, "go set the speed record". He finished leading the 190' route in 12 minutes, but he didn't really take my challenge seriously because he even took his time to place a huge nut in a flaring pocket in a funky sideway right above the last bolt (in the 5.4 terrain) just so that I would laugh at it later. When it was my turn to climb, I looked at my watch. 3:10 pm. I yelled up "climbing", and started windmilling my feet up the wall. Seeing so many extruded knobs on the wall, I casually placed my feet on one knob after another without checking. 10 feet off the ground, I suddenly slipped on a slick foot hold and started sliding. With 9.5' (5% of 190') of rope stretch, I decked softly on my butt. I stood up shocked and yelled up "climbing again." This time, I made sure every foot hold I used was a good one, and when I reached the anchor, it was 3:18 pm. In my rush, I didn't get Allen's nut joke tho gh.

P.S. I don't have more photos for this weekend. That is because Allen managed to fill up the 128 MB memory card in the digital camera on his Sawtooth Ridge Traverse trip the previous weekend. To him every photo is a masterpiece and should not be deleted to make room for new photos..

P.P.S. When I told Allen on the phone that I was working on my trip report, he asked "what can you write about? We only did a bunch of short climbs!" I then told him that I already wrote it and I was working on making it shorter. It's midnight now, so I'm giving up. You must be a person with abundant patience reading thus far. Thank you for reading.

Mei clicking the first bolt on
Black Uhuru 5.6(R/X)

Sunset I witness on my way down Darth Vader's Revenge. Mount Conness is in a distance in the left

It first started out with me driving all by myself on Friday evening after work for four hours from the Bay Area to Tuolumne Meadow Campground to meet Allen who was already there. It sounded awful, didn't it? But with a bag of Wasabi peas to keep my awake and a good Book on Tape to keep me entertained, I actually enjoyed this lonely experience.

On Saturday morning, While we were contemplating hard on what to do for the day, we overheard Hamid and his partner Adam mention Lucky Streaks (5.10d, 6 pitches) on Fairview Dome. Hahh! That stopped our struggle and we copied the idea right away. Although I felt out of shape on the short uphill approach, I felt extremely calm and confident on the entire climb. I led Pitch 1 (5.9), Pitch 4 (5.9), and Pitch 6 (5.8, full 200 feet), and followed Pitch 2 (5.10a), Pitch 3 (5.10d), and Pitch 5 (5.9). It seemed that my small fingers had given me the advantage at the cruxy finger crack section.

Back at the campsite, we met some old and new friends: Jerry, Kat, Noriko, Hamid, and Ricardo. And as usual we had a nice chat around the campfire and learned with awe that Jerry has traveled to tens of countries and knows 3 or 4 languages. Now I know when I go back to China and travel around in the back country, whom I should go for information.

I gained so much confidence on Lucky Streaks that I proposed to do On the Lamb (5.9, 5 pitches) next day. That was a climb I had always wanted to do but had always dreaded doing. The climb follows a horizontal crack near the top of the Lame Dome (aka The Lamb). The climb is equally hard for the leader and the follower because the rope goes sideway and a fall means a nasty pendulum. When we pulled into the parking lot, three climbers (I later learned they were Ed, Gary, and Steve) were about to leave for the same climb. Ok, there was no rush for us to rack up then, and we spent some time chatting with our friends, Nina and Volodya, who suddenly appeared in the same parking lot.

We had been warned about the confusing approach of the climb, but we were lucky (or thanks to Allen's navigation skill and determination in stopping me from going too high up) to find the start without much detour. The party of three got lost on their approach though and ended up way above the climb. By the time when they got down to the beginning of the horizontal crack, I was racked up and ready to go. They kindly offered to let us go first. I led this 5.8 180' pitch and enjoyed every bit of it. We had planed to swing leads, but forgot to make adjustment when we free soloed the first pitch listed on SuperTopo, so Allen ended up leading the 5.9 crux pitch. (Note: On a traverse like this, it's recommended that the weaker climber do the lead.) Oh well, the crux felt easier than I had expected, so it was no big deal. I finished this amazing route by leading the last 5.8 pitch. We spent less than 2 hours on the entire climb, and topped out a little after noon. On our way back, we made a small detour to Little Sheeba (5.10a, 1 pitch), which was described in SuperTopo as "one of the finest single pitch cracks in Tuolumne". I led it onsight, which was a milestone for me because this climb was the first 5.10a trad I had ever led.

To further perfect the weekend, I even had my swimsuit in the car! We dove into Tenaya Lake on our way out. The water was at perfect temperature. I immerged myself in the peaceful view surrounding me, and could not find a better word to describe the weekend than PERFECT.

Oh, did I ever mention I do not use the word "perfect" casually?

Adam at the crux of Lucky Streaks. I bet he practices yoga.

This seemingly blank section is the crux of On the Lamb. You can see Gary hanging out at the belay before the crux pitch.

Depending on how you position your camera, The same spot can look either really hard or really easy. This is the beginning of the last pitch of On the Lamb.

This is a perfect example how a digital camera can be easily abused.