![](\"http:\/\/mxi2000.net\/photos\/p070404\/spiderman0.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSpiderman at Matthes Crest<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n
<\/p>\n
I have not been to Tuolumne Meadows (TM) this year, and I can sense
\nthe itch inside me. But knowing that TM is a popular tourist
\ndestination at this time of the year — the July 4th
\nweekend — I am about to settle for somewhere else. However, on
\nFriday night when we hear a voice mail from our friend Bill saying
\nthat he was going to TM and might be able to bag a camp site, the hope
\nrises up in me. Though without a confirmed camp site, we decide to
\ntake a chance. So Saturday, we get up as early as humanly possible
\nand pack into our car as fast as we can. We finally manage to get
\nout of Allen’s apartment in Sonora at noon (He just moved there from
\nthe San Francisco Bay Area). It is probably 100 degrees Fahrenheit,
\nand the scorching sun almost melts the asphalt pavement.<\/p>\n
It takes us one hour to get to the Yosemite gate. I start to see the
\nadvantage of living in Sonora now. As we drive towards TM, we see the
\ndark clouds blanketing the high mountains. What is in front of us
\nlooks like a monster with his mouth wide open waiting for us to feed
\nourselves into it. And so we did. Soon after we pass Tenaya Lake, we
\nare inside the thunderstorm. The heavy rain does not stop us, but the
\nhail and snow eventually force us to pull over like every other car
\ndoes. It is a white out around us now. The windshield fogs up
\ninstantly and the ice is accumulating under the wipers, which is
\nmaking a weird sound while working hard to scrap the pouring icy hail
\noff of the windshield. Allen has to brave into the storm in his shorts to free the
\nwipers. Not wanting to get stuck in the storm for too long, we move
\non slowly on the slippery road, with the heater turned to it’s full
\ncapacity. It is not long before we arrive at the meadow where the
\npolice has stopped all the cars from the other direction. It is quite
\npeaceful here although wet. Obviously the storm did not show its scary
\nface here. We pass by about 30 cars on the other side of the road,
\nwhile they stare at our snow covered car with ooh and ahhs. I feel like
\na hero returning to her hometown.<\/p>\n
When we get to the camp ground, the storm is already behind us. Not
\nseeing a note from Bill on the bulletin board (we missed that small
\npiece of paper), we circle around the gigantic TM camp ground on its
\nhundreds of loops. If Bill’s car had been a Toyota Camry or Honda
\nAccord, I would have given up. But how many red Odyssey can there be
\nin the midst of those hundreds of camp sites? After who-knows-how-many loops,
\nthere it is, a red Odyssey in camp site E4! We have a place to call
\nhome for this weekend. Yeehaa!<\/p>\n
Allen wants to do the traverse from south to north on My alarm clock goes off at 4 am. It’s still pitch dark, but it’s not We follow the direction given on the Supertopo and soon arrive at a Allen disappears behind a boulder while I busy myself with putting my There is no protection in free soloing, so we free solo within our Spiderman leads up the pitch to North Summit, where we find the Next day, every muscle in my body is screaming at me. We plan to do
\nMatthes Crest<\/strong><\/em> tomorrow. That’s a
\nback country climb with 3 hours of hike in. The climb is along 1.5
\nmiles of ridgeline of Matthes Crest. I’m a bit concerned about the
\nweather since it’s been a pattern to have an afternoon thunderstorm in
\nthe high country during the past few days. But I try not to
\ndiscourage him too much with my worries.<\/p>\n
\nraining. We get out of the tent and I can see some stars above us,
\nwhich is a good sign. It’s cold, so we make some tea and heat up some
\ncereal. The time is 5:20am when we leave our car at the trail head.
\nYesterday, I told him that if we could not be on the trail by 4:30am,
\nI would not do the climb. It turns out to be another wishful thinking
\nof mine.<\/p>\n
\ncreek crossing. Confused with the description, we cross the creek on
\nthe wet and slippery log only to be turned back by the sloppy trail
\ncovered by hard ice. Actually, at this early hour of the day, most of
\nthe ground is covered by ice from yesterday’s storm. We come to an
\nagreement that we will just follow the easiest path on this (west) side of
\nthe creek and see how far we can go. Matthes Crest will always be
\nthere, and we can just go for a hike today. So we push on carefully
\nalong the creek. Cathedral Peak pops out behind the trees to our right,
\nwhich gives us an indicator that we are on the right track in the
\ngeneral direction after all. With the help of those unmistakable landmarks such
\nCathedral Peak and Echo Peak, we arrive at the base of the climb at
\n8:40 am, 3 hours and 20 minutes after we left the car. I am more than
\npleased with our speed even though my hard breathing keeps reminding
\nme I am at a high altitude that my body is not used to.<\/p>\n
\nclimbing shoes on and racking up. However, a few minutes later, when
\nI look around, I don’t see Allen any more, I see Spiderman!!! Obviously,
\nafter Spiderman and his buddy (from Spidermen community) defeated
\n
\nIncredible Hulk<\/a>, he has decided to come and chill out here. There
\nis a woman following up the first pitch above us, and when she looks
\ndown, she can’t stop laughing. I don’t know what has happened to Allen,
\nbut climbing with Spiderman sounds just as good to me. Shortly after 9 am we
\nboth start free soloing up and soon pass the woman and her partner on
\nthe first two pitches. As soon as we pop up on the ridge, I can
\nimmediately see why many people have been fascinated by this climb.
\nImagine, there you are with hundreds of feet of drop on your left and on
\nyour right, and thousands of feet of granite wave extending in
\nfront of you. You have to be a stone not to be impressed.<\/p>\n
\ncomfort zone. After about 3\/4 miles at a section that looks
\nsketchy, we rope up. Then we mostly roped solo (with only a rope between us)
\nand occasionally simul-climb (with a few pieces of gear before us
\nwhile moving simultaneously). When we stand on top of South
\nSummit, it has just been 2 hours after we started climbing. We have
\nbeen moving in a good pace.<\/p>\n
\nregister box. We sit down and have our lunch while
\nreading through the scrambled notes in the box. One page of photocopy
\nof the Croft guidebook catches our attention, on which reads that
\none morning Peter Croft decided to run up Matthes Crest really early because he
\nhad to be back for work at 8:30 am. He was no Spiderman; He was
\nSuperman! I lead the pitch after North Summit because there are a
\ncouple of scary down-climb sections (one of them could have been
\navoided if I had chosen the right path). Belayed climbing slows us
\ndown quite a bit, and I watch a couple of free soloists pass me. Inspired, we
\ndecide to put away the rope and free solo the last 0.5 miles
\nof ridge after North Summit except for one more exposed down climb section
\nwhere we use a cordelette
\nto protect ourselves. Sometimes, I’m down climbing;
\nsometimes, I’m hopping from one rock to another 2 feet apart with great
\ndrop in between; and sometimes, I’m traversing a long way with my
\nhands on the knife-edged ridge and feet on granite knob extrusions.
\nThat is the wildest experience in my life. We start heading down a
\nlittle before the north end of the ridge to cut our way back to the
\nplateau where we have come from. There is no more snow on our way
\nback, and we get back to our car at 4:50pm. The sun is still out and the sky is blue.<\/p>\n
\nsomething really really easy before we are headed home. But somehow,
\nwe end up at the base of Crying Time Again<\/strong><\/em> (5.10a R, 6
\npitches) on Lambert Dome.
\nThe first pitch has a very heady slab section, and my feet
\nare hurting tremendously in my brand new Mythos (this is the first
\ntime those shoes see lights). I almost consider backing out. But I can’t
\nbecause Allen is already up there and we only have one rope — there is no
\nturning around. I try
\nhard to ignore the throbbing pain that comes from my toes, and pray
\nfor not slipping every time I shift my weight onto a new slopy hold.
\nWhen I get to the belay, it is almost my crying time again<\/em>. But I
\nguess I finally get used to the pain, because the climb just seems to
\nbe more and more fun. When we top out, my heart is again filled with
\njoy despite that I can’t even stand up. The thunder clouds are
\napproaching us, but that does not worry me any more, because I have
\nhad a fun weekend of climbing, and I am getting out of here before the
\nclouds dump their first rain drop on me.<\/p>\n