An Encounter with Spiderman at Matthes Crest

Spiderman at Matthes Crest

I have not been to Tuolumne Meadows (TM) this year, and I can sense the itch inside me. But knowing that TM is a popular tourist destination at this time of the year -- the July 4th weekend -- I am about to settle for somewhere else. However, on Friday night when we hear a voice mail from our friend Bill saying that he was going to TM and might be able to bag a camp site, the hope rises up in me. Though without a confirmed camp site, we decide to take a chance. So Saturday, we get up as early as humanly possible and pack into our car as fast as we can. We finally manage to get out of Allen's apartment in Sonora at noon (He just moved there from the San Francisco Bay Area). It is probably 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and the scorching sun almost melts the asphalt pavement.

It takes us one hour to get to the Yosemite gate. I start to see the advantage of living in Sonora now. As we drive towards TM, we see the dark clouds blanketing the high mountains. What is in front of us looks like a monster with his mouth wide open waiting for us to feed ourselves into it. And so we did. Soon after we pass Tenaya Lake, we are inside the thunderstorm. The heavy rain does not stop us, but the hail and snow eventually force us to pull over like every other car does. It is a white out around us now. The windshield fogs up instantly and the ice is accumulating under the wipers, which is making a weird sound while working hard to scrap the pouring icy hail off of the windshield. Allen has to brave into the storm in his shorts to free the wipers. Not wanting to get stuck in the storm for too long, we move on slowly on the slippery road, with the heater turned to it's full capacity. It is not long before we arrive at the meadow where the police has stopped all the cars from the other direction. It is quite peaceful here although wet. Obviously the storm did not show its scary face here. We pass by about 30 cars on the other side of the road, while they stare at our snow covered car with ooh and ahhs. I feel like a hero returning to her hometown.

When we get to the camp ground, the storm is already behind us. Not seeing a note from Bill on the bulletin board (we missed that small piece of paper), we circle around the gigantic TM camp ground on its hundreds of loops. If Bill's car had been a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, I would have given up. But how many red Odyssey can there be in the midst of those hundreds of camp sites? After who-knows-how-many loops, there it is, a red Odyssey in camp site E4! We have a place to call home for this weekend. Yeehaa!

Allen wants to do the traverse from south to north on Matthes Crest tomorrow. That's a back country climb with 3 hours of hike in. The climb is along 1.5 miles of ridgeline of Matthes Crest. I'm a bit concerned about the weather since it's been a pattern to have an afternoon thunderstorm in the high country during the past few days. But I try not to discourage him too much with my worries.

My alarm clock goes off at 4 am. It's still pitch dark, but it's not raining. We get out of the tent and I can see some stars above us, which is a good sign. It's cold, so we make some tea and heat up some cereal. The time is 5:20am when we leave our car at the trail head. Yesterday, I told him that if we could not be on the trail by 4:30am, I would not do the climb. It turns out to be another wishful thinking of mine.

We follow the direction given on the Supertopo and soon arrive at a creek crossing. Confused with the description, we cross the creek on the wet and slippery log only to be turned back by the sloppy trail covered by hard ice. Actually, at this early hour of the day, most of the ground is covered by ice from yesterday's storm. We come to an agreement that we will just follow the easiest path on this (west) side of the creek and see how far we can go. Matthes Crest will always be there, and we can just go for a hike today. So we push on carefully along the creek. Cathedral Peak pops out behind the trees to our right, which gives us an indicator that we are on the right track in the general direction after all. With the help of those unmistakable landmarks such Cathedral Peak and Echo Peak, we arrive at the base of the climb at 8:40 am, 3 hours and 20 minutes after we left the car. I am more than pleased with our speed even though my hard breathing keeps reminding me I am at a high altitude that my body is not used to.

Allen disappears behind a boulder while I busy myself with putting my climbing shoes on and racking up. However, a few minutes later, when I look around, I don't see Allen any more, I see Spiderman!!! Obviously, after Spiderman and his buddy (from Spidermen community) defeated Incredible Hulk, he has decided to come and chill out here. There is a woman following up the first pitch above us, and when she looks down, she can't stop laughing. I don't know what has happened to Allen, but climbing with Spiderman sounds just as good to me. Shortly after 9 am we both start free soloing up and soon pass the woman and her partner on the first two pitches. As soon as we pop up on the ridge, I can immediately see why many people have been fascinated by this climb. Imagine, there you are with hundreds of feet of drop on your left and on your right, and thousands of feet of granite wave extending in front of you. You have to be a stone not to be impressed.

There is no protection in free soloing, so we free solo within our comfort zone. After about 3/4 miles at a section that looks sketchy, we rope up. Then we mostly roped solo (with only a rope between us) and occasionally simul-climb (with a few pieces of gear before us while moving simultaneously). When we stand on top of South Summit, it has just been 2 hours after we started climbing. We have been moving in a good pace.

Spiderman leads up the pitch to North Summit, where we find the register box. We sit down and have our lunch while reading through the scrambled notes in the box. One page of photocopy of the Croft guidebook catches our attention, on which reads that one morning Peter Croft decided to run up Matthes Crest really early because he had to be back for work at 8:30 am. He was no Spiderman; He was Superman! I lead the pitch after North Summit because there are a couple of scary down-climb sections (one of them could have been avoided if I had chosen the right path). Belayed climbing slows us down quite a bit, and I watch a couple of free soloists pass me. Inspired, we decide to put away the rope and free solo the last 0.5 miles of ridge after North Summit except for one more exposed down climb section where we use a cordelette to protect ourselves. Sometimes, I'm down climbing; sometimes, I'm hopping from one rock to another 2 feet apart with great drop in between; and sometimes, I'm traversing a long way with my hands on the knife-edged ridge and feet on granite knob extrusions. That is the wildest experience in my life. We start heading down a little before the north end of the ridge to cut our way back to the plateau where we have come from. There is no more snow on our way back, and we get back to our car at 4:50pm. The sun is still out and the sky is blue.

Next day, every muscle in my body is screaming at me. We plan to do something really really easy before we are headed home. But somehow, we end up at the base of Crying Time Again (5.10a R, 6 pitches) on Lambert Dome. The first pitch has a very heady slab section, and my feet are hurting tremendously in my brand new Mythos (this is the first time those shoes see lights). I almost consider backing out. But I can't because Allen is already up there and we only have one rope -- there is no turning around. I try hard to ignore the throbbing pain that comes from my toes, and pray for not slipping every time I shift my weight onto a new slopy hold. When I get to the belay, it is almost my crying time again. But I guess I finally get used to the pain, because the climb just seems to be more and more fun. When we top out, my heart is again filled with joy despite that I can't even stand up. The thunder clouds are approaching us, but that does not worry me any more, because I have had a fun weekend of climbing, and I am getting out of here before the clouds dump their first rain drop on me.

The thunderstorm monster is waiting for us to enter its mouth.
Before we are eaten by the monster, we look back to the blue sky over Tenaya Lake behind us.
The windshield dutifully prevents winter from falling onto my two little duckies.
I love those mini vans. And every does.
Since we can't go anywhere in this rain, we might as well learn something. Today's lesson: figure 9 knot.
Guess how long does it take two blonds to put up a tent? Oh, two beautiful and smart blonds after some scotch and beer. I even got a movie!
I am hiking in with Cathedral Peak in the back.
Spiderman starts floating up the wall.
Spiderman needs to carry a backpack too so he can look cool.
Can you see me? I'm carrying the rope in mountaineers' coil on my shoulders and I've come a long way.
Spiderman is traversing a knife blade.
Spiderman is everywhere.
This photo shall testify that Spiderman and I, Mei, have been on North Summit of Matthes Crest.
I cannot get the whole ridge in the viewfinder without using the panoramic mode.
We are both down on the ground safe and sound.

As usual, we took lots of photos from the trip (thank my Canon Powershot 200). Above is just a small section of the collection. To see all the photos, please visit my Ofoto Album.