Yosemite Valley 6.8 - 6.10.14

We got to Yosemite about 2pm on Sunday and had set up camp at the Upper Pines by 3:30pm. Driving in and seeing all of the giant granite walls around us, Aaron was excited to get on the rock. We decided to head up to Glacier Point Apron which was close to our campsite. Aaron found a couple of easier multi-pitch routes and another area of easier single pitch. He wanted to get some climbing in and I wanted to get on the rock to start getting used to it. We drove to the parking lot, not realizing it would have been quicker to walk from our actual campsite, and found a spot in the very full lot. The parking lot is the same one for the hike to Vernal Falls, Nevada Falls, and Half Dome. We found a trail and headed up. When we hit the rock, we went right as per the approach instructions in our guide book. We continued hiking up along the wall, eventually getting to the trees without having found the route we were looking for. It was hot and I didn’t particularly want to be hiking around with climbing gear, but we did get a great view of the valley – including Half Dome. We hiked back along the wall in search of the other couple of climbs and eventually found the actual trail up. After all of the hiking I thought the single pitch stuff sounded better so we continued on to that area. Doing a multi-pitch on unfamiliar rock without getting a feel for the ratings made me nervous.

View of the valley from the base of Glacier Point Apron

We found The Goblet and Aaron led The Goblet Right (5.4), the only protectable route up The Goblet. He managed to place four pieces of gear as he ran up the crack - #0.75, 1, and 2 cams, and a nut. He traversed across the big ledge at the top to the bolted anchor and lowered down the face. Aaron told me the rock was nice and sticky, and it was as I followed The Goblet Right (5.4). Aaron had lowered down and looked to have little blood smears all over. It turns out it was from the tiny red bugs on the rock. They were everywhere and you couldn’t help but squish some as you climbed.

[Left] Aaron leading The Goblet Right (5.4), our first route at Yosemite and on the trip. [Right] Little red bugs all over the rock

Since I was on the rope already, I got first dibs at the face climbs and I picked a couple lines. The book described the face as having anywhere from 5.5 – 5.8 routes. I started with what looked to be the harder line, what I call The Goblet Right Center (5.8?). Some shallow divets led to lots of smearing on the way up. I had brought my old shoes thinking we were going to do a multi-pitch and I was sad not to have my stiff TC pros for edging. I lowered down and went up The Goblet Left Center (5.6), which had more divets and little ledges for feet, requiring less smearing. Aaron climbed the two routes next and we packed up to head back to camp. It was a great first exposure to the granite at Yosemite and would prove very useful in a couple of days when I was faced with some slabby face climbing on lead.

[Left] Climbing The Goblet Left Center (5.6?). [Right] The Goblet

Monday morning we got a bit of a late start after sleeping in and making breakfast. We jumped on a shuttle into the village with our packs and walked to Church Bowl. I wanted to start on something easier again, 5.5 or 5.6, to figure out how the ratings were. Aaron found Uncle Fanny (5.7), a chimney. Since it was a little more difficult I let him take the lead. We had some shade near the base of the route which was nice. Aaron geared up and started climbing about 10am. He placed one cam in the first crack below the tree, then pulled onto the ledge and got to the base of the chimney. He placed two cams in the chimney before he decided he didn’t fit. He would back off a couple of steps and try approaching it differently, each time realizing the chimney was just too small. He downclimbed back to me, leaving the gear in, and transferred the remaining gear to me. His brilliant plan was to send the smaller one up to finish the route. I made it to his last pieces and slowly started struggling up the chimney. It was small but I could face in and just fit my shoulders and hips. I made slow , physically grueling progress up, moving my feet just ever so slightly. I was mostly jammed into the crack so I didn’t have too much concern about falling. I transitioned into the next chimney section with my left side jammed. When the #2 was at my feet I wanted to place it again so I walked it up. When I got another body length above that cam I finally found placements for other gear and placed the #3 cam, then found a little crack outside of the chimney for a #0.3. I again retrieved my #2 and placed it in the top of the chimney to protect my exit.

Aaron starting up Uncle Fanny (5.7), just below the tree before reaching the chimney

I don’t know if it was the heat or what, but I had to take several breaks while chimneying to stop and catch my breath. It was a very physical climb for me! I placed a #0.75 in the corner crack above the chimney and took a break. I yelled down to Aaron that I wasn’t feeling good and needed to rest. There was a small ledge about half the size of my foot so I had a good ledge at least. There was also sort of a scoop in the rock so I crouched down into a fetal position. Aaron offered to lower me and finish the lead, but I figured it would be easier to power through the last section of the crack and finish the last quarter of the route. After a minute of resting and requesting Aaron to bring water when he followed, I started up. I placed a few cams in the finger crack. Out of pure exhaustion I pulled on some of my gear to help get up, the first time I had done that. The crack flared out at the top but luckily there was a tree there with branches hanging out so I pulled myself up via a branch. In getting to the anchor I had to climb over the branch so on my way over it I sat down, straddling the branch, and took a break to catch my breath. I made the last move to the anchor, slings around the tree, and set up the belay to bring Aaron up. Aaron hauled a second 60m rope up so we could rappel down. He climbed outside of the chimney this time, a 5.9 face climb. Unfortunately he twisted his knee along the way, but he finally got up to the anchor. Also worked and hot, we gulped down water and sat in the shade, figuring out what our game plan was. Clearly it was too hot for us to climb, so we decided to check out the visitor center. We set up the double rope rappel to get down, packed up our stuff, and walked into the village. We found a weather forecast for the day – high of 102 degrees! The rest of the week didn’t look much better so we decided to leave the Valley and head up to Tuolumne Meadows Tuesday, but not before getting one last route in at Glacier Point Apron.

Uncle Fanny (5.7) at Church Bowl

Learning how hot it got in the morning, we woke up at 6am on Tuesday to climb The Grack Center (5.6), a 3 pitch route on Glacier Point Apron listed as a five star climb and described as the best 5.6 in Yosemite, at least according to our guide book. We left camp with our gear just after 7am and walked to the rock. Having climbed The Goblet on Sunday, we had a pretty good idea of where to hike to find The Grack Center. We were pleasantly surprised to find the route open, and the first pitch mostly in the shade, when we arrived. I decided to take the first and third pitch so I geared up. The first pitch is mostly fourth class terrain, finishing with a 5.6 bulge. I ran out most of the fourth class ramp but I did place a couple of cams before stepping over into another crack. The terrain was becoming more fifth class so I started placing more gear. I placed a couple of cams in the finger crack leading up the bulge. I could see a good belay scoop up just a little but Aaron was almost out of rope. I placed a nut just below the scoop as he got ready to start simul climbing with me. He took maybe a few steps up as I reached the ledge so it wasn’t really necessary. I built a gear anchor using #0.5, 0.75, and a nut. Aaron ran up the first pitch (now fully in the sun) as fast as I could wheel in rope. He took the rest of the gear and started up the second pitch, the splitter finger-hand 5.6 crack – the money pitch. Just over half way up the pitch, he clipped a nut that had no plan for escape as well as an old solid stem cam that had been welded in the crack. It was a great, more low angled, hand crack – a lot of fun to climb. Aaron built a gear anchor where the crack split into three small cracks. He used two nuts and a #1 for his anchor.

[Left] Aaron following on the first pitch of the Grack Center, just below the 5.6 bulge. [Right] Aaron's lead of the second pitch (5.6)

I took the rest of the gear back and continued up the 5.6 finger crack. The crack was definitely not as clean as the second pitch, with large sections of it being filled with dirt and growing grass. The second and third pitches took nuts really well. I used various cracks, getting nuts and small cams in where I could. The crack eventually peters out, leading to about a 15’ section of unprotectable slab. I placed a #4 nut at the top of the crack but accidentally kicked it out as I gained the slab. Having had my slab practice on The Goblet, the section on The Grack Center was no problem. There were some divets and good features leading up to the next crack system, and this time I had my TC Pros on too. I placed a #2 in the crack, although a #1 would have been better if I had one, and climbed up to the bolted anchor with rappel chains. Aaron quickly followed and after anchoring in, started setting up the double rope rappel. One double rope rappel using our two 60m ropes brought us to another bolted rappel station. One more double rope rappel from there brought us past a large slung tree to the top of the fourth class ramp that we downclimbed to our packs. We started climbing just before 8am and made it back to our packs just before 10am. We avoided the terrible heat of the day and got to climb a really fun route, the perfect end to our stay in the Yosemite Valley.

[Left] Aaron starting up the third pitch of Grack Center (5.6). [Right] Looking down the fourth class terrain ramp back to the base


The Grack Center (5.6)