Erik and I went to Swan Slab for some moderate climbing. We needed that because it had been so long since we did any serious climbing last time at Yosemite. Erik led up Grant's Crack. I thought I heard him grunt. When I got on it, I could not believe how hard the 5.9 crack felt. My feet hurt, and I couldn't trust my hand jams. Oh boy, I felt like a beginner all over again. From the same anchor, we also TR'ed Unnamed Thin Crack (5.10a) and Unnamed Seam (5.10c). I almost gave up on the first one because I couldn't make myself commit to a move off of some friction stance. Erik led up Lena's Lieback (5.9) before we retreated in order to get ready for the wedding, which took place near the Lower Yosemite Falls. They put together a beautiful wedding and later, a very nice reception at Cedar Lodge.

The next day, it was Erik's idea that we went cragging at Schultz's Ridge Base, Dan and Jerry's Playground. We were surprised how fun the climbs there were (my first time there). We worked our way from right to left. First, a 5.8 crack, and then a 5.7 offwidth. Erik tried to led a 5.11a super stem route, but did not feel too comfortable with the awkward move before getting to the 2nd bolt so he bailed. Back to the moderate stuff. Up Second Throughts (5.10a), and TR'ed Just Do Me (5.10d) and Are You Hard Enough (5.10d). By that time, our friend Ron Skelton (owner of Yosemite Blue Butterfly Inn) joined us after church. We went up New Suede Shoes (5.10c) just because there was a note from the day before taped to the base saying there was a rattle snake in a crack above. The snake was gone already. The day ended on Warm Up Crack (5.10a). It was great climbing and chatting with Ron.

On the way back when we drove through Oakdale, Mike spotted us and we had a brief shouting match in two moving cars side by side before retreating to a phone call between his wife and me since we were the passengers. With a flashy color and a custom license plate, Erik's car is easy to spot. Later we got any email from our Debby asking us if we knew of this license plate she spotted in Yosemite. We knew it too well.

On the Saturday morning of this Labor Day weekend, we drove out of the bay area and headed straight to the Rostrum. Recently, our friend had tried to remind us that there were other climbs in Yosemite. It's not that we had forgotten that; rather, the Rostrum had become a project of ours. It offers almost every element of challenges that a climb can offer, so we can use it to gauge our progress: how are we doing with hand crack, finger crack, lieback, and offwidth, and how is our endurance? As a result, this time when Erik did well leading every pitch clean from the ledge, we both felt happy. (We skipped the first three pitches because we arrived late, and plus, we had always done those pitches every time we got on the route this year.)  I didn't do very well on the 11c crux pitch, but I did a little better on the rest of the route.  Still, when we topped out, I was a little let down because I had expected to do better, especially remembering that I managed to top rope that crux pitch clean twice last time we were on it.  But I had to admit that I was not carrying anything on my harness when we cragged, while I had all kinds of extra weight, such as water and the big pieces needed later, on me when we aimed at topping out.  The latter is the real thing that I need to learn to deal with. That crux pitch remained my nemesis.

We did not have a plan on what to do the next day. Partly, we just wanted to sleep in and relax — in Erik's words, sit by the river and eat ice cream whole day. But part of me wanted to do something long. We had Monday off, so we would not need to be concerned about heading home early for next day's work. But what should that "something long" be?

It was Blaine who put the Northeast Buttress of Higher Cathedral (NeBoHC) in my head when we met him on the Rostrum a few weeks ago. Last time I climbed it was almost five years ago (wow, time flies!) with Allen. It was epic. We progressed nicely on the climb until we came to a grinding hault after five pitches when we caught the party in front of us. It took them forever to do the seventh (crux) pitch when we watched from a big ledge. However, none of us had done the route before and when they assured us that the pitches above looked like cruisers, we pushed on behind them (impossible to pass up high without causing the other party great inconvenience). It turned out that the upper pitches were not cruisers as they had hoped after all, and eventually, Allen led the last pitch for them so they did not have to bivy in their harnesses 150' below the top as they had thought about doing. But by the time when we all topped out, it was dark. We ended up getting lost descending on the wrong side to the top of Bridalveil Fall, which I learned later is a fairly common mistake that climbers make, and had to shiver bivy the night. In the morning, exhausted, I stepped right through a yellow jacket nest and got stung by a dozen of the bees when they got trapped in my helmet and wind breaker. Man, it was epic!  So, when Blaine brought it up, I found myself thinking it would be nice to get back on it and descend the route and get back to the car in light on the same day. The route is a gem in the valley, long, strenuous, and above all, of a modest grade, something that fits me now since I'm not feeling particularly strong these days. The idea got me excited. Blained says he will do it with me in the fall when it's cooler. Okay, it sounds good, but I want to do it now too!

However, every time I talked about it with Erik, he didn't sound very interested. He had done it a few times before, albeit years ago. He would prefer getting back on Kor-Beck to go to the top. Every description I have read makes the upper part of Kor-Beck sound unappealing, loose, dirty, and meandoring with lots of 4th class. Plus, the notorious kat walk at the top is not something I would seek out for.  I guess, not having another long route we both wanted to climb also attributed to us keeping getting back on the Rostrum. Anyway, on Saturday night, when Erik muttered he would take me up NeBoHC, I appreciated his good intention. It was our anniversary weekend. He had been behaving exceptionally kind, from the cards, flowers, and chocolate on Friday, to this sacrifice he was willing to make. I thought about being a good wife and offering to follow him up Kor-Beck, but decided against it immediately.  I set the alarm at 5:30am before we went to sleep.

I don't sleep well when I'm away from home, so, when the alarm went off, I didn't feel the urge to get up. Erik was grunting too. But after tossing for about half an hour, we decided that neither of us could fall back to sleep so we might as well get up and get on with the day. When we left the car with our packs on our back, it was 7:10am, not as early as I had liked for an epic route like NeBoHC, but I'd better take whatever life had to offer — we weren't really getting any younger and friskier.  One hour and fifteen minutes later, we were at the base. I must give Erik credit for his navigational skills because whether we were on the trail or not, he always maintained his cool and always managed to get us where we were headed. Oh, my heart sank a little when we heard voices coming from above on the route when we were still hiking up the talus field — oh no, there was a party in front of us! But my heart immediately recovered its position when I rationalized that they would be way ahead of us since we were not at the route yet and it usually takes me forever to get ready. At the base, I dumped my pack, stretched, answered the nature's call, clipped my toe nails, and taped up. Seriously, it took me forever to get ready. What's a little disconcerting was the voices above us did not seem to pull away from us. Oh well, maybe it was just the acoustic effect — they had to be moving up, right?

Finally, it was quarter after nine that Erik started leading. Last time on it, I led some pitches of the climb, but today, Erik was my rope gun. I was doing the best I could to help prepare him for climbing with his buddy Steve in mid-September. Also interested in our times on this climb, I started my watch in chronograph mode. I set a lap split every time Erik left a belay for the next pitch. Shocked, we caught up with the party in front of us at the second belay. They were two nice fella from San Diego, Phil and Bart. They kindly let us climb by them with some careful maneuvering from both parties. Luckily, that was still a possibility on the lower pitches. They started arriving at the ledge for the 5th belay when Erik was already leading away the seventh pitch. The sixth belay is, to most people, the point of commitment — you just have to keep going once you go beyond it unless you are willing to leave your expensive gear behind. As soon as I pulled over the roof on the seventh pitch right above the slick groove, I could no longer see them, at that time, Phil was leading up to the sixth belay.

Despite various options available for the last few pitches as suggested on the internet (I only read about those afterward), the route we did was what Supertopo had laid out. To me, it seemed the most straightforward way. However, this variation means there is either chimney or offwidth, or both, on every pitch above the sixth belay.  Having done some other variation before, and not remembering the route very well, Erik was surprised by how much wide stuff there was on this climb. I remember on our way driving back to Ron and Liz's B&B, I asked Erik if he had a pen in our room and he asked me what for. "Oh, I wanted to mark my topo." "Are you going to write wide, wide, wide, and wide?" His remark made me chuckle for a while, but I realized there was some truth to it. I just wanted the pen to write down our split times and some comments about the belay stations for future beta purposes.

The climb took us a little over seven hours. Having plenty of day light, we took our time hiking down the (correct) gully back to the base, eating, packing up, and hiking down the talus field back to the car (exactly twelve hours car-to-car).  The progress of Phil and Bart kept coming up in our conversations. We were a bit concerned about them and were grateful that they let us pass. While we were hiking down the talus field with our packs, we stopped to check on them whenever we had a line of sight. Erik found a little compact telescope on the hike and it became very useful when we tried to make out where they were and what they were doing up there. Last time we saw them, Phil was belaying Bart up Pitch 8 (Supertopo). Phil was inside the chimney and we could see his arm from time to time. We could hear Bart cursing and laughing (often almost in the same breath).  It did not look like they would make it before dark. We hoped that they had head lamps with them and hoped that they found their way down safely. It would not be a comfortable night, but they would have an incredible tale to tell afterward. "Be safe up there," I said a silent prayer before turning around the corning and loosing sight of them.

(Update: I got in touch with Phil and Bart afterward to send the photos I took of them.  After reading the report, Bart pointed out that he dropped the mini telescope probably on their first attempt a couple days before. I mailed it back to him. Thought it was really funny how things coincide like this.)

Someone on Supertopo asked about climbing the route late August. Having just done it, I'll say it can be very pleasant. Or, maybe we got lucky. Although it was still a hot weekend (Hi 92 in the valley), there was some breeze on the wall. I remember only one place where the rock was a bit hot to the touch, and that was at the first traverse on the face (p5). Other than that, it was very comfortable. Also, when we arrived at the big ledge (belay 5), where the real climbing starts on the route, a little after noon, the upper part has gone into shade. I wore a tank top on the route. At times, while belaying up high, I was even a little chilled when the wind picked up a little. But, it was perfect when Iwas moving.

On Logistics:

We made a few choices before we got on the route:
* No helmets. I know many people might think this is a stupid idea, and I am not going to argue with anybody who believes a climber should always wear a helmet. I'm just speaking from my personal experience. I wore one five years ago on this route, and I still remember how I couldn't move in the squeeze chimney because my helmet got stuck. I was happy without one this time.
* No hiking shoes. I offered to carry our two pairs of hiking shoes up, but Erik convinced me not to. I was glad he did because when you are inching along up a chimney or offwidth, anything on your back or harness can be a big hassle. The hike down the talus field back to the base in my Mythos was not bad at all.
* No camelpaks. I know this could be a tough call. Especially because the route is long and known to have benighted many people, it's natural to want to carry extra just in case, and next thing you know, you'll need a camelpak to store all that stuff. I wouldn't say it's a bad idea to do that, but you do pay the price in a chimney and offwidth. I carried a fanny pack in which I put two headlamps, my compact camera, and Erik's light weight vest (I forgot my windbreaker at the car). I was able to move it around my waist depending on which side of my body I needed to shovel into the crack. It was still an annoyance to have to move it back and forth in those wide cracks, but I was happy that I had that option.

On Making it to the Top or the Bottom in Light:
It seems that the route has exceeded its fair share of benighting climbers on the route. I believe it has something to do with the layout of the pitches on this route. The first six pitches are typical of many popular multi-pitch climbs in the valley of the same grade in that the climbing is familiar to most climbers — hand jams, finger locks with good feet, and blocky face features. So, it is fairly easy to maintain a good speed on those pitches, and it makes one believe the rest of the climb will go just as easily. But what many people have not expected is the awkwardness of the wide cracks above. One might be fairly comfortable with wide cracks such as those on Reed's Direct, but still could be surprised to find him/herself out of ideas on how to move up the slick groove or the squeeze chimney on this route efficiently. One thing everyone needs to know on this climb is, even if the crux (7th) pitch is over, there is still a bit of awkward climbing to come especially if you stick to the Supertopo version for the upper pitches. So, already tired and spent, one should not expect the rest of the route will go any faster. The sixth belay (per supertopo) has many rope loops and slings with one metal screw-gate link. Above that, I've seen many fixed pieces (throughout upper pitches) and even massive cordellette rigged ready to offer a rappel (on p7), but it looks like one needs two ropes and needs to leave gear behind for bailing. So, in my opinion, the sixth belay is the point of commitment.

Of course, once you get to the top, there is always that question of how do you get down. I followed Erik who has some inner compass built-in, so I unfortunately do not have any fool-proof beta to provide. The only thing I tried to remind myself to do was regularly looking over to the gully where we were supposed to go down to re-orient myself, so that later, I could get a sense which general direction I should go toward.

If it helps at all, this dead tree says, "go that way." And seriously, it's pointing to the right, and that's where you should go.

On the Route (with pitch by pitch photos):

The route we did is exactly what has been laid out in supertopo; however, we skipped a couple of belays but set up belays somewhere else. We still did the route in 11 pitches and can probably make it 8 next time if we do the same variation (unlikely just because we want to try something different) again. There has been some discussions on the internet as to what the variations are for the last couple of pitches. I will talk about that below where I post pictures I took on all the pitches. One thing I really like about this route is with the exception of the 6th (hanging) belay, there are good stances or big platforms at all other belays that we took. I could even sit down at many belays, which was a real treat.

(Move your mouse cursor over the picture, and the description will show up.)

P1: 165' to a big flat platform

P2: 130' to a broken ledge with a tree where you can sit down

P3: 140' to a big ledge, or you can go 20' higher for another nice ledge. Erik set up belay here because we climbed past another party (they kindly let us).

P4: 100' to a huge platform. Erik stopped here so that the party we just passed could get moving sooner, but it would have worked better to skip this belay and head left for the traverse.

P5: 70' traverse to a broken ledge where you can sit down. There is only one bolt (not two as suggested in supertopo).

P6: 80' to the most uncomfortable belay on the route — a hanging belay. This is almost the last place where you can retreat with one rope without having to leave gear behind. Below is moderate climbing, and above is continuous wide and awkward climbing — the real deal.

P7: 185'to a very good belay stance. Erik went further than what supertopo suggests. It looks like the belay suggested by supertopo (20' below) is a hanging belay, but we could be wrong. This is the crux pitch on the route with a slick groove followed by a very awkward squeeze chimney.

P8: 100' or so to a big broken ledge below a tree (belay #9 as suggested in supertopo as Erik skipped #8) after the traverse left and down-climb. The leader really should skip this belay and continue to climb up and belay from above. But when Erik did it, he over-did it in protecting the second by placing a few pieces on the traverse which caused too much rope drag when he tried to move up. The truth is each piece needs to be removed before the downclimb, so the second is not really well protected with the extra pieces anyway. Well, we learned. The chimney before the traverse is a bit awkward too.

P9: 160' to a broken ledge (it is belay #10 as suggested by supertopo, but it's not as big as implied by the drawing). It comfortably stands two climbers, and I could sit on the higher rock after Erik left the belay. This is the only pitch up high that I do not remember any serious wide crack climbing.

P10: 90' to a stance (in the ride side wall) inside a chimney where you can comfortably lean your back against the back wall. This is not a belay in the topo, but Erik has placed his big pieces down low and did not know if he would need any for the last chimney, so he stopped here. This is right before you traverse left (to a tree) for that 5.8 chimney in supertopo. If you go straight up (instead of traverse), it is supposed to be 5.6R chimney. It looked fairly dirty when I looked up. This pitch is pretty much wide and awkward the whole way. Supertopo is a little misleading as it says" 5.8 awkward hands, fist and lb and 5.9 hands. It's really an offwidth.

P11: 70' or so to the top. Short pitch, but it still has a short (20' or so) section of chimney climbing. Above that was basically blocky rocks that lead you to the top of the climb. Vuala!

We headed out on Friday leaving Erik's work around 6pm. By the time we pulled in to Ron and Liz's B&B, it was past 2am.  There was an accident past Pecheco pass that turned eastbound Hwy 152 into a long and narrow parking lot. Cars inched forward a few feet at a time with a long period of standing still in between. People were losing their mind in the agonizing traffic and it was not unusual to hear a car honk purposelessly.  Erik exhibited tremendous patience and did not swear once during the three long hours covering a mere 20 mile distance. We owed our thanks to a 13-CD audio book, Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan, a book detail oriented, thoroughly researched, and informative.

Originally, Erik planned on doing one day of climbing to return to work on Sunday. After the physically taxing long drive, he changed his mind — we had to make the trip worth it. Since we climbed only half way on the Rostrum [ur=http://www.mudncrud.com/forums/index.php?topic=799.0]last time[/url], it seemed like a natural choice for us to get back on it and finish it.

After a lazy morning hanging out with Ron and Liz, we did not get started on the climb until afternoon. Although we slept in by climbers' standard for we didn't get up until 8am, still it was only about 6 hours of sleep. No enough. The valley was hot, and with the cloud coverage, it felt muggy too. Due to the heat and lack of sleep, I was not in my brightest mood. Instead, I was feeling heavy the moment I started climbing. Erik took all the lead. Neither of us climbed very well. I fell at places I'd never fallen before. My first time on the route was way better than today. We were both fatigued and dehydrated and our climbing was not graceful. Fortunately, there was not another soul in sight. Despite the opportunity to escape from the big ledge on top of the fourth pitch, we stuck to the climb and it was a good feeling finally when we topped out in light. When we got back, we could barely drag our bodies over the door steps of Ron and Liz's B&B. That night, we crashed hard.

I expected after a good night of sleep, I would feel renewed and energetic. It did not happen. When I woke up, every muscle in my body hurt. My knees looked terrible with bruises all over. That was from thrashing around in the offwidth. Although I did not fall out of it, my form was poor because my feet hurt in the climbing shoes and I was extremely tired and desperate. Erik was in no better shape than me. He grunted just to get out of his sleeping bag. So, when we drove off towards the valley in the late morning, he had one plan in mind — eating popsicles and swimming under the bridge by El Cap meadow. It was not until the very last second that he swirled into the right lane for Hwy 41 leading to the top of the Rostrum when I prompted him that he should get the trip's worth of climbing. We decided to just do the bottom few pitches on the Rostrum.

When we arrived at the base, there was one party of two guys high up at the Gold Corner (10d) pitch and a young couple from Salt Lake City starting up. The guy looked solid leading the first pitch. The girl looked impressive for she was wearing shorts and a tank top.  Erik and I expected to watch her style the climb. However, when she picked up a mid-sized backpack stuffed full with whatever and commented that she did not have her chalk bag, I felt nervous for her — it would be hard to climb the route with such a pack and the weather, though cooler than yesterday, was still sweat inspiring. She did end up having a hard time on the first pitch and had to break out her jumar. So they repelled on a single rope from the first pitch with our help and left us alone on the climb. Well, not exactly alone because we could hear the two guys cheering loudly after they tackled the offwidth pitch.  They must be decent climbers having made good progress on the climb and might even be nice people in life. However, they left behind an empty glass bottle (for nectar juice from TJ's) right at the base — the bottle was not there yesterday and it didn't belong to the young couple — so, "poor form" is all I had to say about those two guys.

Erik and I cruised up the first four pitches to the big ledge without any incidence, again he leading everything.  Wanting to end the weekend on a pleasant note, we called it a day. On the climb, Erik had been staring at the swimming hole below, so that's where we went afterward.  The snow melt water in Merced river was chilly, which felt really good when I dipped my throbbing feet in. Erik, a few feet away, screamed when he attempted to lower his body in. Needing to wear his down jacket all year around whenever he is outside at night, he had hoped for water of a higher temperature. Instead of swimming around like what he had dreamed whole day, he splashed water on to his body quickly before retreating to sunbathing. Again, luckily, there was not another soul in sight. He, spreading widely on a rock platform, contently ignored my laughs.

Maybe we are getting old because getting an early start seems to get harder and harder. When we arrived at the top of the Rostrum at 8am, I thought for sure I would see a line of cars. After all, the bird closure had only been lifted last weekend, so people must have been dying to get on it. I was astonished to find the climb empty. Well, that worked well for us because we were not particularly fast. Unlike three years ago when I did it with Erik last time, he actually took his time on the first four pitches that led to the big ledge right below the crux pitch. Last September, he did the Rostrum with Steve on the morning of our wedding day (and still made it to the wedding in his tux after a shower), but he has not been climbing much at all other than that. So, when we got to the ledge, we decided to leave the top half for another time. Just then, Blaine from Fresno and his friend Tevase from Colorado showed up on the ledge. They came here just to crag the crux pitch on the Rostrum and the first pitch of Blind Faith right next to it. We teamed up by putting our two ropes up the climbs. Erik and I each ran four or five laps on the Rostrum and two laps on Blind Faith. By the end of the day, every fiber in my body hurt. My fingers were raw and tender and my feet screamed everytime I jammed my toes into the thin crack. But I was happy because I figured out the move at the crux on the Rostrum and managed to climb without hanging on my last two laps. We also had a good time chatting with Blaine and Tevase.

Feeling defeated on the Rostrum, Erik decided to do a moderate climb on Sunday. Kor-Beck was the choice. This climb has the reputation for being a Yosemite old school. Most people do the first six pitches because after that it's mainly fourth class leading to the notorious Kat Walk, which had no appeal to me. So, we brought two ropes with us for the rappel. I read in Supertopo that the climb gets morning sun, so if we had been sensible, we would have waited to start in the afternoon. When we started climbing around 9am, the climb was already cooking in the full sun. The climb is rated 5.9, so it is not very technical, but there are some sections of climbing in a groove or an awkward chimney. Because all of Erik's shoes were in need of resole or beyond resole, he was wearing a pair of new Anasazi Velcro (bought mainly for the face climbs at Pinnacles) and he was audibly in pain. We had a full view of El Cap on the entire climb. The sun was warm on my back, but the gentle breeze kept the temperature pleasant. We had a little conversation that still made me laugh to this day. At one point, feeling content, I looked up smiling and shouted out to Erik who was up grunting in a Chimney, "Honey…" "What?" "I love you!" I expected to hear "I love you too" back; instead, after only a very brief pause, he responded, "You say that to everyone right before they are about to die." The unexpected response made me chuckle for the rest of the climb. When we reached the top of the crux (5th) pitch, Erik couldn't bear the pain in his feet any more, so we started our rappel down. By then, the climb had entered the shade. On our way down, we crossed paths with a team of three just starting up.

Although it was still early, Erik was calling it a day. On our way out of the park, we saw a car parked next to the Generator Crack boulder. We pulled over to check it out — it would be fun to watch people climb that crack. It was a young international team — one German, one English, and one American. The funny thing was they all had a strong English accent. As it turned out they all went to school in England. Seemingly strong climbers, they tried to muscle their way up the crack and one even attempted to lie back the crack, but none of them succeeded. I think Erik said something to them and I got a warm offer to the rope. I went back to the car and fetched my harness. Remembering having a hard time starting off the ground and having had to retreat to the tree start, I was feeling a bit unsure about how I would do today. But I told this little international group, in the spirit of Olympics, I would represent China if I managed to climb it. To my surprise, I had no trouble starting from the ground this time and made good progress on the climb without hanging. They were obviously impressed, which made me feel pretty good. What a good way to conclude a weekend of climbing!

p.s. I wrote this trip report while watching the replay of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. So I apologize for any disorganization and error.

The 11a crux on Pitch 2 of the Rostrum. You first down climb and traverse over to get to it.

Blaine styling the first pitch of Blind Faith.

Taken on Kor-Beck with El Cap in the background.

This time, I did not have much trouble getting up Generator Crack.

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.

Erik and Ron led the two pitches of Knob Job, and then we set up a top rope (with two 60 meter ropes) on G-Man and gave that a run. If anyone has seen a person 5'4" or shorter climb G-Man successfully, please please hook me up with him/her. I love to know how in the world a short person does the upper crux — a blank section at the fourth bolt. The Supertopo says "5.10d lunge". But my finger tips are one foot short of the horizontal ledge. I don't think I can lunge one foot on the ground, not to mention lunge off of a sloping hold. There were two moves down lower, where I was already fully stretched out and still I had to over extend my fingers by half an inch in order to touch and eventually grab the next hold. G-Man is a reachy climb for short people, that's for sure. In the end, Erik led Sherrie's Crack, a route that starts with a flaring finger crack. It felt hard as always, but I did not fall off.

Although Ron and Liz kindly offered us the last open room at the B&B, for some odd reasons, their basement had a special calling for us — spacious and quiet, and it even has a full bathroom! What a luxury that was. With our sleeping pads and bags, we had a good night of sleep. We didn't have an early start as we had hoped, but we had a relaxing morning before we headed out to Arch Rock. Erik led all three climbs: Midterm, English Breakfast Crack, and Leanie Meanie. There were fixed ropes on the latter two, so Erik made use of them with Ron's Mini Traxion. After all, it's been a long time since we climbed regularly at Yosemite, the rock almost felt foreign now. At Pinnacles, if I bump my knees while climbing, I might dent the rock and I feel like apologizing to the wall. But here at Yosemite on the granite, once I bumped my knees, ouch, that hurt! Plus, the three climbs we picked were not casual climbs by nature — all three got some wide or off-width sections on them. I struggled at the fist crack on Midterm, had an much easier time on the English Breakfast, but then again had a hard time at the higher part of Leanie Meanie, a changing corner offwidth where it was not easy to turn around. We still needed to stop by and say goodbye to our friends, so we called it a day. Offwidth climbing has a tendency to work every muscle you don't normally use. So, the next day, I was all sore — oh, such a nice feeling.

I accidentally found an old trip report I wrote more than two years ago, and I was surprised to read that I actually led Pitches 1 and 3 on Gripper and Pitches 1 and 2 on New Dimension (I have no recollection now, but that's why I write my trip reports). Obviously, I did not fall either. Wow, does that mean, at one point, I was actually a fairly brave leader?!

We didn't take many pictures this weekend.

Purr, Ron and Liz's cat. The most mellow and friendly cat I've ever met.

Knob Job at Pat and Jack Pinnacles.G-Man, a face climb, is to the right of the right-side crack.

Erik leading Midterm. I think he is at the crux, transitioning into a chimney.

A local climber making the finger crack on Leanie Meanie look casual.

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 Sunday, we went cragging at Cookie Cliff with Allen, Jesse, and Chris. Between a late start and an early departure, Erik led me up Outer Limits, Hardd, and Crack-a-go-go (one fall). All are hard in their own ways.

Beta: (added three and half years later in response to a friend's questions)

We went extremely light when we did it both times. A few things I remember:

1) One bottle of water each. (We used strings and duct tape to rig it so we can carry it on our harness with a biner;
2) No backpack. We each wore a small fanny pack just big enough for a couple of bars, a wind breaker, a wide rimmed hat, and a camera.
3) Usually, I'm not against wearing a helmet, but on Astroman, I wouldn't wear one. Even if you drag it below you, it can turn into a chockstone in Harding Slot.
4) When I followed Harding Slot, I had everything clipped to a sling that I tied to my belay loop so they dangled below me. And I tied my knot far from my body.
5) We did not bring shoes and hiking down North Dome gully in climbing shoes did not seem to be a bad idea to me.

This photo shows my setup pretty well:

Photos: I didn't take many photos. On the contrary, Erik took a lot of photos this time, including me leading Enduro Corner, following Harding Slots, and so on. Check them out at our gallery.

Here are just a few highlights:
Mei leading the Enduro Corner.

Looking up at the Harding Slot

Mei entering the Harding Slot.

Inside the Harding slot.

One of those easier pitches higher above.

Let me make it clear: That was Erik's idea; I had nothing to do with it. I was too normal to come up with such a crazy idea — "Me, up Astroman? This weekend? You must be kidding." But he was serious, so after wiping my wet palms on my pants a million times, the time finally came. The alarm went off at 4am on Saturday morning in an Upper Pines campsite. I had read many trip reports and were always amazed that people could get ready to go in half an hour. Not me. When I finished changing clothes, packing, coffee, breakfast, and bathroom visit, it was 5:15am. Erik was patiently waiting. We arrived at the base of the climb after hiking in the dark for about 50 minutes. Nobody was in front of us. (Actually, we had the whole route to ourselves the entire day.) 6:50 am, I started leading the first two pitches. It was bright enough to leave the headlamp in the pack.

I've heard so much about Astroman (you can get the free SuperTopo for this route here ). I knew it was supposed to be a hard route, but I was still surprised. It was REALY hard. Let me put it this way, the pitches with high ratings such as 5.11a-c are hard by definition. But even the low grade pitches (5.9-10d) are either physical (e.g. the infamous Harding Slot on P7, and 5.9 on P10 that features fifty feet of handstack crack for me), awkward (e.g. 5.10c on P6), or hard to protect (e.g. 5.10d on P12). Compared to Astroman, the Rostrum is a hike. I had trouble only at the 5.11c section on the Rostrum when I followed it last time, but today, let me see if I can even count it: I fell once at the Boulder Problem; fell twice at the overhanging crack before entering Harding Slot and eventually french-freed the move; then french-freed the 5.11b awkward move on P8 (it was so awkward that even after pulling through I still couldn't see what the move was supposed to be); and grabbed a draw shamelessly on P12 where a fixed pin was almost out of reach. They say if you only climb up to Pitch 6, it's called Astroboy. Erik says if you didn't climb Astroman in a good style, it's called Astrodog. We climbed Astrodog today.

However, I believe being fairly small gave me a great advantage on the Enduro Corner (P4), Harding Slot (P7), and Changing Corners (P9) pitches. They were still hard, but I was able to get very good hand jams in the thin crack in the Enduro Corner, and the thin edges and finger pockets on the Changing Corners pitch were also quite friendly for me. For the life of me, I cannot imagine how big guys (like Warren Harding) squeezed through Harding Slot. I had to exhale to move from time to time (and no, I don't have big bosoms if that's what you are thinking).

We topped out after 10 hours and 10 minutes, and had enough day light to make it back down to our packs at the base, which was the biggest triumph of the day for me (I'm terrible at descents). Bravo to Erik that he got me (imagine, ME!) up to the top and then brought me down safe (I get lost even on well marked streets).

We stayed at the Rock Rendezvous campsite on Saturday night and as usual, there were ample interesting conversations around the campfire.

On Sunday, we slept in and had a wonderful breakfast (Ramen noodles and eggs). After the hard work yesterday, we decided to treat ourselves with the Rostrum. But when we arrived at the base after 10am, there were three parties on the route. One party was high up. The second party was moving at a slow pace on the 4th pitch. The third team had just left the ground and they did not move fast either. After waiting on the ground for a while, I started the 1st pitch. Chatted with Rob from Utah at the 1st belay when Chris (also from Utah) was leading the 2nd pitch. Then Erik caught up with them again at the 2nd belay. I led the 3rd pitch (long and super fun) and reached Chris and Rob on the big ledge. Since the party in front were just finishing the 5th pitch, the four of us decided to set up top ropes on the 5.11c pitch of the Rostrum and the 1st pitch of Blind Faith (5.11d?), both starting from the big ledge. This time, I managed to follow that 5.11c pitch clean on my first try (I'm only talking about the first try here). And the Blind Faith pitch fits my hand size so well that it felt much easier than the Rostrum pitch (I knew the guys had a different opinion). Between Erik and I, we ran about 10 laps on these two cracks. In the mean time, that party in front bailed off of Pitch 6 (the 5.10a OW pitch). Seeing them bail, the guys got excited — the leader must have abandoned a 4.5 camelot up there when he bailed. Chris and Rob offered their rope to us (since we were the faster party) to go up and score that cam (it was already too late in the day to finish the entire route). But after they came down, we learned that the leader bailed off of the single bolt on that pitch. What a bunch of day dreamers!

We then drove over to El Cap Meadow to pick up Angele who would ride in our car back to the Bay Area. Her husband Justin Sjong was there along with Adam Steck. I couldn't help but notice Adam's phenomenal eye lashes.

As usual, on Monday at work, I tried to reduce the times going to the bathroom — there is a heavy fire door on the way, and my body hurt when I open the door. After all, how many hard 5.11s can one handle in a weekend?

P.S. We got back on Astroman one week later. Big improvements. Click here for the trip report.

Photos: You can find the trip photos from both of our cameras here. See for yourself what Astroman looks like. I have the pics of Erik on Enduro Corner, Changing Corners, and Harding Slot pitches, all taken from below though.

Here are just a few highlights:
Erik leading the Enduro Corner.

Erik right below the Harding Slot.

Mei inside the Harding Slot.

Erik at the Changing Corners.

Mei on a pitch higher up.

Erik manages to protect the last pitch pretty well.

But I couldn't find any excuse to back off from the plan, so the sunrise on Saturday morning saw me at the El Cap Meadow meeting up with Scott. That was it — a big adventure in front of us. We left the car around 7:45 and 50 minutes later we were at the base, where one party of two was finishing off P1 and another party was about to start. They all spoke German. When we started climbing, it was after a near 2 hour wait. Later, two more European parties showed up behind us. At that point, I figured, if we topped out in dark, we would have eight more people to cuddle with and I could probably learn a little German and Spanish as well. But even though we had to wait at most of the belay stations, the people in front of us were moving at a reasonable speed, so we topped out way before dark. The descent was supposed to be challenging, but not so with four people in front of us. We got back to the Meadow around 6pm. We were swinging leads the whole way up, but all those sections that I had dreaded fell under my lead. And guess I had scared myself enough that they actually felt mellow. What did I lose sleep for?

Saturday night was spent sitting around the campfire with Jesse, Chris, Allen, and Casey listening to Erik and Stacey's wall stories (They just made their five day assault on Triple Direct on El Cap).

We went over to Arch Rock on Sunday to treat ourselves with some offwidth enjoyment. Allen and I climbed Gripper (I led P1&3) and New Dimension (I linked P1&2), which left me a sore body for a few days to come.

Beta: the Supertopo has the rack for Gripper backward. What you really need is one set up to the red alien and two each up to 3" plus one or two for 3.5".

Photos: I forgot to bring my camera on my climbs. Missed a lot of great shots on East Buttress of El Cap. Maybe that should be another piece of beta I should point out: bring your camera on that climb.