At this time last year, I had just joined the local rock climbing gym, Mission Cliffs. I started going a few times a week. At the end of July, 2008, I went with Justin and his friend Zennard to Yosemite. Still too novice to climb with them, I hiked to Echo Lake while they climbed Cathedral Peak.
This year, I was ready to climb. Our trip started with a traffic jam leaving San Francisco on Thursday evening, but after we crossed the Bay Bridge, traffic had thinned, and we made good time to our camping spot that evening.
We woke up early on Friday and drove into the park. By 9 am, we arrived at Tenaya Lake. We walked up some low angle slabs to the beginning of Hermaphrodite Flake on Stately Pleasure Dome. I led the route--my first trad lead! The highlight was shimmying up the chimney that formed behind the namesake flake on the second pitch.
I also led the first pitch of the route above it called Boltway. The second pitch had a 5.8 slab move right of the belay ledge, so I turned the lead reins over to Justin. We topped out around noon and rapped/walked off the side of the dome.
After a nap on the beach of Tenaya Lake, we dumped our stuff at our campsite (Tuolumne Campground) and headed back out to Lembert Dome. We climbed Northwest Books, which started with a fun mantle move followed by an awkward lieback. Three people flew by us free-soloing the whole thing. Oh well, so much for being hardcore! The second pitch began with a two parallel cracks in a corner and mellowed out at the end. We topped out by climbing up some 3rd class slabs and then walked off the northwest side of the dome.
That evening, we organized our packs for the main event of the weekend--Cathedral Peak (10,940 depending on who you ask) and Matthes Crest. At 5 am on Saturday, we got up and drove to the Cathedral Lakes Trailhead. I'm guessing our packs weighed close to 40 pounds, loaded with our camping gear, two ropes, and a full rack of climbing gear.
We followed Budd Creek and reached a patch of pine trees below Cathedral Peak around 9 am. We dropped our big packs, took our climbing gear, and scrambled up a steep slope covered with scree and small boulders. We could see a few other parties on the upper pitches, but nobody was at the base. We began climbing almost immediately. Justin led the first pitch. He ran the rope out, and then we simul-climbed for about 15 feet until he reached the top of what was marked the second pitch on our supertopo map.
From there, we climbed variation routes to the summit, making four more pitches out of it. The highlights were a chimney, a splitter hand crack and another outward flaring crack that were all lots of fun. The summit was about nine square feet in area. We took pics and then downclimbed around the back of the spire to 4th and then 3rd class rock. The path wrapped back around to the east face, and we descended on a trail from there. With the help of Justin's GPS, we walked straight back to our stashed backpacks.
We started off the slopes of Cathedral and headed southeast towards Echo Peaks. Snowfields were still melting, and we crossed meadows that were oozing with water. We walked south up into a saddle, which Justin aptly named Echo Flats. We followed the shoulder of Echo Peaks first to the south and then southeast until Matthes Crest came into view. The imposing razorback of granite towered over the backcountry bowl. I doubted my abilities for a minute.
At this point, I felt like I was crashing. I had a bad headache from being in the sun all day, my throat was sore for some reason, and I was really sugar-low. It was after 6 pm; we had been on the move for over 12 hours. I made it clear that I needed to stop. Every step was jarring to my entire body and exacerbated my headache. Call me weak, but I needed food, drink, and rest. I proposed that we stop and hike to the climb from this point in the morning. Justin sensed the urgency (desperation?) in my voice, and agreed.
We stopped, pitched our tent, and ate chili and rice for dinner. I was laying down by 7:30. I faded in and out of sleep and tried some restorative yoga moves. My headache lingered on. I got up after a few hours. The moon was rising over Matthes, and the evening alpinglow on the mountains was spectacular. We heard two people walking by who had presumably come off the crest. Justin ran after them and got some route beta. We had been concerned about a snowfield that appeared to be at the base of the last descent rappels, but we learned that there was room to pass around it.
We packed out bags for the next day. A climbing rope and a tag line, a full rack of gear, some food, and two liters of water each. We planned to go on belay to gain the ridge and then simul-climb over to the south summit. I set our alarm for 5 am and went back to sleep.
The sky was just turning pink with morning light when we woke up. We boiled some water for oatmeal, took down the tent, stashed our big packs under some rocks and headed crosscountry towards to the south end of the crest.
It took us about an hour to get over there. The last 15 minutes, we scrambled up steep slabs to a notch marking the south end of the crest. The sun was not yet on us, and the wind was blowing. My teeth were chattering as we started climbing around 7:30. Two pitches, and we were on the top of the ridge. The climbing was incredibly fun. Knobs, cracks, corners, all combined in a haphazard, choose-your-own-adventure fashion.
Once we gained the ridge, we each wrapped about 50 feet of rope around us from our respective ends so that only 100 or so feet of rope remained between us. Justin began advancing along the ridge and placed pieces of protection when possible. When the rope was taut, I began climbing and removing protection as I came to it. We continued in this manner for a few hundred horizontal feet before we came upon a sketchy downclimb. Instead of proceeding forward, we went down a south facing ramp, which dumped us out on another north-facing ramp. There, we had to traverse north and pull a roof move to gain the ridge again. We were definitely off route, but it was fun! Except for the part where I fumbled and dropped my belay device off the side of the cliff...not good for morale.
The exposure was as mind-blowing as the guide book said it would be. In fact, I only took brief moments to absorb the spectacular surroundings; I focused mainly on my feet and the rock. Another party passed us. We continued to simul-climb the undulating granite until we came to the South Summit.
We took a breather and then planned our descent. There were slings and a rap ring on the South Summit, so we decided to rap off the east side into the notch below. We had two ropes, which we joined together to make one long rope and hoped for a single rappel. We managed to not get the rope caught in the maze of flakes and cracks in the rock. Once in the notch, we crossed back over to the west side of the crest and scrambled down to a pine tree with slings around the base. We rappelled from there to one final rappel station. Since I had lost my belay device, Justin went first and then tied his belay device to the rope, which I then pulled up to get the device. I then lowered the rope and rappelled down.
There was a snow field below us, but we were able to scramble to the north of it. We scrambled down the last scree field of the trip, and then booked across the bowl to where we had camped the night before. A brief rest, a bite to eat, some water, and then some repacking of our big packs, and we were all loaded up again for the walk out. We had to climb a few hundred feet to get back around the shoulder of Echo Peak, and then it was a smooth three miles back to the trailhead...downhill all the way... The mosquitos were enough motivation to keep the pace up. We reached the car at 7:45 pm. The smoke from the fires had gotten a lot thicker; the smell of smoke was obvious and the air scratched my throat.
We turned on Doc Watson and hummed to some Banjo music as we drove out of the park. No traffic to speak of. Most everything was closed as we drove home. We made one quick gas stop in Oakdale, and made it back to San Francisco in about 5 hours.
Once we gained the ridge, we each wrapped about 50 feet of rope around us from our respective ends so that only 100 or so feet of rope remained between us. Justin began advancing along the ridge and placed pieces of protection when possible. When the rope was taut, I began climbing and removing protection as I came to it. We continued in this manner for a few hundred horizontal feet before we came upon a sketchy downclimb. Instead of proceeding forward, we went down a south facing ramp, which dumped us out on another north-facing ramp. There, we had to traverse north and pull a roof move to gain the ridge again. We were definitely off route, but it was fun! Except for the part where I fumbled and dropped my belay device off the side of the cliff...not good for morale.
The exposure was as mind-blowing as the guide book said it would be. In fact, I only took brief moments to absorb the spectacular surroundings; I focused mainly on my feet and the rock. Another party passed us. We continued to simul-climb the undulating granite until we came to the South Summit.
We took a breather and then planned our descent. There were slings and a rap ring on the South Summit, so we decided to rap off the east side into the notch below. We had two ropes, which we joined together to make one long rope and hoped for a single rappel. We managed to not get the rope caught in the maze of flakes and cracks in the rock. Once in the notch, we crossed back over to the west side of the crest and scrambled down to a pine tree with slings around the base. We rappelled from there to one final rappel station. Since I had lost my belay device, Justin went first and then tied his belay device to the rope, which I then pulled up to get the device. I then lowered the rope and rappelled down.
There was a snow field below us, but we were able to scramble to the north of it. We scrambled down the last scree field of the trip, and then booked across the bowl to where we had camped the night before. A brief rest, a bite to eat, some water, and then some repacking of our big packs, and we were all loaded up again for the walk out. We had to climb a few hundred feet to get back around the shoulder of Echo Peak, and then it was a smooth three miles back to the trailhead...downhill all the way... The mosquitos were enough motivation to keep the pace up. We reached the car at 7:45 pm. The smoke from the fires had gotten a lot thicker; the smell of smoke was obvious and the air scratched my throat.
We turned on Doc Watson and hummed to some Banjo music as we drove out of the park. No traffic to speak of. Most everything was closed as we drove home. We made one quick gas stop in Oakdale, and made it back to San Francisco in about 5 hours.
