Gareth's last blog

On the day before Gareth's accident, of which I am sure anyone reading this is now aware, Gareth and I were driving from Las Vegas to Moab, for the final few days of our US road trip before heading back to Vancouver for a flight to Thailand and the next part of our adventure. It was a full day of driving, and so we took it in turns to do 2-3 hour stints. In the time when Gareth was the passenger, he compiled the next part of our blog, covering the time we had spent in Joshua Tree and Red Rocks. It was the first time he had actually wanted to write for the blog so I was happy to let him get on with it and choose the pictures to accompany it. The plan was to upload it when we got to Vancouver, and obviously circumstances dictated that that never happened. 
It has been saved as a document on our laptop since then, and every so often I go back and read it and let myself go back to those last few weeks we spent together, remembering those and all the other happy days of our trip, in what seems now like another lifetime. It would be a shame not to publish Gareth's blog, and let everyone read and interpret from his words that he (and I) were continuing to have the time of our lives......

Greetings from Utah!  We’re heading North East from Vegas towards Moab for a very brief trip for biking and climbing, we’ve spent the last 2 weeks after Yosemite climbing in the deserts of California and Nevada.  First stop was Joshua Tree which was a welcome break from the concrete jungle and 8 lane super highway of LA.  We spent a day on Laguna beach with a quick visit to Crank brothers for a free pedal rebuild and my first hair cut for 3 months before picking up Joe and Anna from Sheffield for their 3 week holiday.

Joshua Tree is one of the most serene, beautiful places to climb. The camp site is amongst huge granite boulders and towers in the middle of the desert with obligatory picture perfect sunsets every single night.  We thought Yosemite was chilled out but this was even more peaceful.  The climbing is on very rough granite mostly in cracks necessitating the building of tape gloves to protect your hands, it takes a while to get between climbs as the desert is one gigantic boulder field, the first few days were spent chasing the shade to get out of the 30 C+ heat.  We had a day getting lost in the ‘wonderland of rocks’ with the appropriate nickname the wander land of rocks getting used to the granite which on the less climbed areas of rock exfoliates in big sheets of rock.

Setting up camp

Just another sunset

We steadily became more proficient at jamming various body parts into the cracks ranging in size from finger to full body parts making use of the monster set of 50 cams that we had between us (after 3 days of carrying round the Yosemite rack I realised it was slightly overkill)

A great 5.8 offwidth on intersection rock. Nobody would follow me claiming various poor quality excuses

The desert is home to various amazingly well protected cactuses the most common of which have  inch long spines backed up by clumps of hair like barbs which as soon as you brush against them leave about 30 of them stuck in various body parts taking the next 5 minutes to remove.

Joe sensibly avoiding cactus spines

Yet another spectacular sunset

The baking sun didn’t last long though and the nights started getting colder with ice appearing some mornings, soon we were chasing the sun and looking for crags in the sun to stay warm and even having to don trousers during the day (I suppose it is Autumn)

Baseball cap pointing backwards for leading mode on a great 5.9 at Crazy horse buttress

Anna enjoying a 5.9 at Crazy Horse buttress

Joe on ‘Taxman’ a 4 star 5.10 finger crack at Lost horse, Joshua tree

We all felt that we started to improve over the course of the week with Julia leading her first 5.9 and me reaching the dizzying heights of 5.11b with a route called Course and Buggy, a great finger crack/ layback route.  With the arrival of the colder weather it was time to head across the desert to Las Vegas and red rocks where it was surely far warmer.

Amazing colours in the evening

The optimism proved to be false as we travelled further East the weather deteriorated into showers and high winds, as we drove into Las Vegas it was proper grim! Setting up the tents in the wind we lashed them down to some handy tie downs and departed for Walmart and Cici’s pizza emporium.  What followed was total gluttony; for 5 dollars you could eat as much pizza as you could physically manage, I stopped shortly after 10 plates and between us we definitely got our money’s worth.  After pudding (all you can eat too) the inevitable sugar high hit and as we shopped in Walmart, Joe and I added various oddities to the trolley including a 10lb frozen turkey only to be sensibly vetoed by the girls. I swore never to eat as much ever again.

The next few days fortunately involved plenty of climbing to burn off the calories at some fantastic crags of the appropriately named sandstone ‘Red rocks’.

Julia leading a 5.8 in the sun at Red Rocks

Unfortunately it was too cold to climb some of the fantastic looking multi-pitch routes in the canyons, so apart from one day climbing an easy 5 pitch route, we stuck instead to single-pitch mainly bolted climbs in the sun, which were all still great. Julia managed to flash several routes between 5.10a and 5.10d, and finished the week with a flash of her first 5.11a. I was really enjoying getting back into steeper, juggy routes and tried to climb a 5.12d, unfortunately forgetting to warm up properly first and pulling my shoulder on the steep overhanging “California 12a”. It did give me chance to take a rest day and get some good climbing photos of the others the following day, mainly from above which often is the best way to capture climbing “action” shots, but something we rarely make time to do.

It was Julia’s 30^th birthday whilst we were in Red Rocks, so in the absence of any usual 5^th November bonfire night celebration, after spending the day climbing in the sun, we headed to the Las Vegas strip for burgers, beer and to experience the city. I hadn’t imagined that a place so neon, tacky and vulgar could possibly exist. The amount of money going up in smoke, lights, water and passing through the casinos is unbelievable. We ventured through a couple of the seedier casinos, before leaving, feeling disgusted by the smell of smoke (yes you can still smoke in the casinos there) and the sight of the croupiers who were dressed in leather bikinis and chaps, and some of them really shouldn’t have been. Walking down the street there were men and women handing out cards every few metres for “hot girls to your room”, and let’s just say some of the women handing them out were not the best advertisement for such a service! We left (after witnessing police on horseback arrest one of said men in front of us while we ate ice cream) feeling glad that we could escape to the campsite and away from the hideousness of the city.

Driving along the Las Vegas strip…..neon and vulgarity in the extreme

Huge burgers and beers on Julia’s 30^th birthday

Footloose on “California 12a” 5.12d

Joe looking cool on a route in the Black corridor

Stretching for a hold on a 5.10c in the Black Corridor

So today we’ve left Joe and Anna at Red Rocks as we had to Moab on our way back north. Trying to work out how to fit several weeks worth of biking and climbing routes in the area into just two days is proving difficult. Oh well, perhaps we’ll just have to come back here next year.

This time next week we’ll be soaking up the sun and cranking on steep limestone off the beach in Thailand. Apparently there are routes which can be done with the belayer sitting in the bar, sounds like it might be alright. Later, dudes!  

It is hopefully evident how much Gareth was enjoying himself. I don't think I ever saw him quite as relaxed and happy as the time we were away this summer. We really were "living our dreams" and making the most of every day, something which given what happened, makes me very glad that that was how we both chose to live our lives....at the moment unfortunately that makes losing Gareth seem even harder, as there was so much more we would have done together in the future.

At some point I'll write down the story of what happened on the day of Gareth's accident, and the subsequent chain of events in the hospital. I'm not quite ready to do that yet, and as that day and the days that followed will forever stay in my head as clear as if they were yesterday, I don't think I need to worry about forgetting.

The Leaning Tower, Legends of Stone, and the Lost Arrow Spire

Yikes it’s been ages since our last blog! Time flies when you’re having fun J Since the last entry we’ve been pretty busy, so this one will cover our adventures up until the end of October.

In our second week in Yosemite, we decided we were ready to get on a Big Wall. For those who are not climbers, this is essentially what it says on the tin…..a wall that usually takes multiple days to climb due to it’s size. This means that you must take everything you need for that length of time with you, i.e. water, food, sleeping bags etc. and haul it up the wall with you. You generally sleep on small ledges on the wall (or take a portable ledge with you if you’re rich), and must carry out all your waste with you as you go….necessitating the use of a “poop tube” (yuk). The climbing on most Big Walls is either all Aid climbing (ascending by placing pieces of gear and then basically pulling on them to get higher) or a mixture of Aid and free climbing, and this means that you need more equipment than normal as well.

After some advice from fellow climbers on Camp Four, we decided on a route for our first Big Wall that would take us roughly 2 and a half days to climb, and be fairly straightforward in terms of approach, difficulty and descent. The wall we picked was the West Face of The Leaning Tower.

It took us a morning to sort all our kit out and pack it into the Haul Bag, and when we then tried to lift the bag it was frightening! We had calculated on 4 litres of water per person per day for 3 days (in retrospect this was more than we needed!) so this alone meant there were 24 kg of water, and along with ropes, climbing gear, sleeping bags, emergency clothing and food we estimated the bag weighed close to 65kg! Although the approach to the route was less than a mile, it involved over 1000ft elevation gain by scrambling up a boulder field……it was never going to be fun carrying that much stuff L

Putting some of the stuff into a rucksack for Gareth to carry to share the load, we set off, slowly…..and then stopped 10 steps further when I realised I couldn’t move on the flat with this much stuff on my back, let alone scramble up over boulders. Even after dumping some stuff for a second trip up, the bag weighed more than half of my own weight and progress was slow and painful. I spent most of the way up swearing and telling myself I would never do a Big Wall again (and that was even before getting to the start of the route). When I eventually made it up, it was a case of dumping the bag then heading down to collect the rest of the stuff before going back up again whilst Gareth fixed ropes across to the start of the climb to protect the exposed traverse that would take us below the Wall.

Amazingly, despite the route’s popular reputation, we were the only team planning on starting the next day, and therefore were able to “fix” the first couple of pitches that afternoon to save us time in the morning. This essentially means that Gareth climbed up the first part of the route, fixed the ropes to the belay, and then abseiled down taking out the protection on the way, so that the following morning we could get on with “jumaring” (mechanical ascenders with a foot loop attached that allow you to move up a rope without sliding down) the ropes to that point, hauling the bag up, and then starting the next pitch. As Gareth abseiled down that evening, it struck me how steep the route was….he ended up 15 metres out from the base of the wall after coming down from the top of the pitch!

We slept at a comfortable spot at the base of the wall that night, although I think both of us were fairly nervous and didn’t sleep that well. The next morning the fun started. Whilst Gareth had me to hold the bottom of the ropes whilst he started jumaring up, I had no such luxury. After getting my jumars as high up the rope as possible whilst still stood on the ledge, I then had to close my eyes and step off, letting the rope swing out a looooong way from the wall and leaving me hanging in space above a very big drop……I’m not embarrassed to say I was pretty scared (an emotion that stayed with me for most of the route!).

Then the hard work of jumaring up started and I was able to forget for a while how scared I was. The third and fourth pitches were difficult to aid, and Gareth took several hours to climb them (I’m glad I wasn’t leading them!), which meant several hours for me hanging in my harness belaying, trying to shift my weight every so often as one leg after another went numb. Gareth had the fun job of hauling the bag after each pitch though, which I didn’t envy at all (although apparently it was easy as the route was so steep so the bag was being hauled through the air rather than dragged up over slabs and roofs etc).

Eventually we reached our ledge for the night (a 10ft by 4ft ledge and fairly flat….a rare luxury in Big Wall climbing!) and after Gareth had fixed the next two (tricky) pitches ready for the next day, we were able to get some food cooked and set up the mats and sleeping bags (with everything attached to stop it being dropped).

 I was exhausted and still not convinced I was enjoying the experience, although my fear had subsided slightly at least. However, lying on the ledge, warm and cosy in my sleeping bag, sleeping under the stars far above everyone in the Valley, watching headtorches flicker from climbers high on the walls of El Capitan, I started to realise we were enjoying a situation that few people are lucky enough to experience. We saw masses of shooting stars, and it was an incredibly peaceful and still night, and I didn’t even wake up once thinking I was falling off the ledge! (I had imagined this might be a problem)

The next day involved hours of equally hard climbing, uncomfortable belays and steep and scary aiding and jumaring, but we finally topped out early in the evening, only to realise there was no way we would  complete the multiple abseil descents down an awkward chimney in the light. Hence we found ourselves another small flat spot and settled down bivvying for the night, relieved to be off the wall at least.

At least on the descent there was less stuff to carry as the water and food were gone, and the abseils passed fairly quickly. Our return to civilisation (and a shower!) was delayed slightly when we had to assist two American climbers who were retreating from the first couple of pitches, and hadn’t worked out how they would abseil down the steeply overhanging wall without ending up hanging in space! Fortunately we were able to throw them a rope and pull them onto the ledge. After promising we wouldn’t tell anyone they knew the tales of their incompetence they gave us some beers…bonus J

It was strange getting back to the Valley, and both of us had a feeling of not belonging, after spending 3 nights bivvying and being completely self sufficient high on a big wall. Gareth had a slightly surreal moment whilst queuing to empty the poop tube into the pit toilet in the car park, and hearing two women walk past talking about having their dogs’ claws manicured at a doggy beauty parlour!

Over the next couple of days I heard another climber sum up perfectly a description for the type of experience we’d had. He called it “Type 2 fun”…..meaning the kind of fun where it doesn’t seem much fun at the time, but then you realise it was after you’ve finished. Retrospectively enjoyable would be another way to put it! It was certainly an adventure, and despite being scared, uncomfortable and exhausted for a lot of it, neither of us will ever forget it J. Roll on next year for another Big Wall!

We were lucky enough to have timed our visit to the valley with the 50^th Anniversary of the First Ascent of Salathe Wall, one of the first and most famous routes on El Capitan. First climbed by Tom Frost, Royal Robbins and Chuck Pratt, the route runs up some huge features on the southwest face of El Cap, and took 9 days to climb on the first ascent. It is incredible to think of the feats of the climbers of this era, considering how hard the routes are still considered today, despite the lightweight modern gear available now. Robbins, Frost and Pratt climbed with big boots, heavy hemp ropes, and hundreds of iron pitons that had to be hammered into cracks to protect the route, and then removed by the follower and carried up for the next pitch. We managed to meet Royal Robbins and Tom Frost whilst they were doing a book and autograph signing, and it was hugely inspiring to be able to talk to two such legends of rock about their climbing experiences and even the routes they remembered doing in the Peak District on trips to Britain! That evening they also ran a slideshow of pictures from their first ascent, and a question and answer session in the valley auditorium, which was packed with climbers, including many famous American climbing legends from the 60’s through to current day. It was a brilliant evening and we couldn’t believe our luck to have been there by coincidence at the same time as the anniversary.

A few days after getting down from the Leaning Tower, after only climbing shorter routes for a few days, we felt sufficiently recovered to be able to have another adventure J

The objective was to climb the Lost Arrow Spire, an amazing pillar of rock high up near Yosemite falls. The route we had chosen was only 2 pitches of aid climbing, but combined with a 3 hour walk-in, and the complex logistics required to get to and from the climb, it was going to be another long day.

Arriving at the top of the cliff just after sunrise, we were greeted by a fierce and freezing cold wind that made me question whether I had enough clothes with me to stay warm on the route! However, once we had abseiled down into “the notch” between the main cliff and the spire, we were out of the wind and baking in the sunshine. The abseil was tricky, requiring passing a knot on the way, something I hadn’t done before, and Gareth had to talk me through it from below as I did it!

Once the climbing started, we were treated to awesome views and fun climbing the whole way. The top of the spire has to be one of the most fantastic places in the whole of Yosemite valley. You can see people on the main cliff but feel like you are miles away on your own isolated little pinnacle. Getting off is the next part of the adventure. We had trailed up the end of our abseil rope behind us, so at the top, after threading it through some bolts, we pulled it tight, tied it off, and Gareth set off hauling himself across the tyrolean traverse Mission Impossible-style! It was an incredible position to be in when you were half way across, hanging from a rope between two bits of rock, high above the valley floor, with lots of tourists staring open-mouthed and taking pictures…….very cool! (Although it definitely didn’t look as smooth and professional as on the films…it was hard work as the traverse up the rope was uphill!)

The long walk down the hundreds of switchbacks got us back down just as it got dark, in time for another evening of sitting round the fire sharing stories of our adventures and hearing those of our friends….good times J

So then we left the valley and headed south, well in need of a few days rest from climbing, and keen to find some warmer weather again! We managed to hit the outskirts of Los Angeles at rush hour, and culture-shock is not a strong enough description of what we were feeling as we queued on the 8-lane highway, surrounded by the urban sprawl of houses, hotels and shopping malls that is LA….a very different place from our home for the last two weeks! We had arranged to meet Cynthia (who we’d met in the summer whilst biking in Whistler) for a day’s biking on her local trails in Orange County, so thankfully were able to pass straight through LA to the much more pleasant area to the south. After a night’s camping on the beach at Dana point, we met up the following morning for a ride in the San Juan hills. Cynthia had kindly brought the early birthday present I had ordered and had delivered to her house……my new Rockshox Reverb hydraulic seatpost J, and after some mandatory technical faffing (no ride can start without this!) Gareth had installed it and we were ready to go. The trail we rode was fantastic….dry, dusty and a lot of fun the whole way round. It felt like we were riding in the desert as we climbed our way up the switchbacks, and I kept expecting to come across snakes around every corner (I didn’t see any). The air was incredibly dry compared to Yosemite, and the scrubby plants, scattered rocks on the hillside, and sandy/dusty ground gave the trail a completely different feel from any trails we had ridden before.  My new toy (the seatpost) was even better than I thought it was going to be, and it will be hard work keeping it on my bike and not Gareth’s judging by the jealous looks I was getting from him!!!

We camped that night at a great site in the Casper’s Wilderness area near the trail we had ridden, and spent the following day chilling out at Laguna Beach, and mooching around the shops, including a trip to Crank Brothers (a bike shop) where Gareth was super-happy to get some parts he had been after for a while (so easily pleased….. J ). Joe and Anna, our friends from Sheffield, were flying in to LA the next morning, so we treated ourselves to a luxury outdoor shower (platypus drinking bladder and hose suspended from a tree!) to ensure we didn’t smell too bad to greet them, and spent the evening rejigging the contents of the car and wondering how we were going to fit two extra people in!

Road Trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our final week in Whistler was awesome…..we were able to get out on the bikes every day, both on the xc trails and in the bike park.

 We even cycled up 11 km and 1100m of height gain to reach the snow-line of the first new snow of the year.

The temperature had dropped noticeably from a couple of weeks previously, so we were ready to head south and find some sunshine and warmer weather!

After an epic sorting of kit to decide what we needed with us and what could be stored, the car was eventually packed and ready to hit the road. It felt strange to be leaving Chalet Edelweiss and all the guys from Ticket2Ride who we’d spent the last 2 months living with, and like the first part of our trip was at an end. Pete and Mark both kindly offered to store some of our boxes of kit and as they’ll be around over the Winter we’ll hopefully be able to catch up with them for some winter adventures J.

The drive down past Vancouver and across the border was wet and one of those days where you don’t mind being sat in a car as it’s too grim outside to think of doing anything else! The border crossing was surprisingly straightforward and quick, and didn’t even involve a grilling as to why we were entering the US. (I did have to supress my laughter as I filled in the form asking whether I intended to assassinate the President or become involved in terrorist activities, or whether I had been involved in Neo-nazi activity between the years of 1939 and 1945…..do they really think anyone will answer yes to those questions ???!!!If only catching the bad guys was as simple as getting them to fill in a questionnaire!) Gareth was more amused by the size of some of the border guards….definitely fitting the stereotype of an American cop….they might not have been able to chase down criminals but they all had guns so I guess they reasoned they could just shoot anyone trying to run away!

Anyway, the drive continued, over the wet and wild Snoqualmie Pass through the northern Cascades and into the drier, fruit and wine producing area of southern central Washington, and the Yakima River Valley.

We had set off with no real idea of where we would stop for our first night, so needless to say, when we came across a quiet, scenic and free campsite on the banks of the river, complete with picnic tables and fire pits, we were pretty happy! It was a clear and cold night, and the sky was absolutely filled with stars. I love camping in places where there is so little light pollution that you can see as many stars as this, probably because there is nowhere in the UK where you can find a sky like this. There were loads of shooting stars, and I could have spent the whole night sat by the fire just watching the sky and thinking how amazing it is that the light you see from distant stars actually left that star billions of years ago, and how small and insignificant we are when you start to think about the size of the universe…….(and no I hadn’t been smoking any illegal substances! Skies like that just make you sit and think a lot!)

The next morning we were back on the road, heading down to the Columbia River Gorge and the Washington Oregon state border. Just over the (huge) river is the town of Hood River, home to some great Mountain Biking, and a bike ride seemed like a good opportunity to stretch the legs after a day and a half’s driving. The trails here are fast and flowy, not particularly technical like the riding in B.C, but a lot of fun all the same! It was great to be back on dusty trails and riding in the sun, whooping round switchback corners and sliding down steep dusty chutes J

From here it was south again over a wet and cloudy Mount Hood (home to Timberline lodge where The Shining was filmed…..it certainly felt like the setting to a horror film with the low cloud drifting through all the trees!). Our second night camping wasn’t quite so idyllic as the first, as we found that most of the campsites near our destination of Bend were catered for RVs, with prices to match, and there was nowhere we could find to pitch our tent away from a campsite either. Eventually we came across a spot in the town of Sisters, and with hot showers and a fire pit, it wasn’t too bad J

We had intended to do some biking around Bend, but after discovering that Smith Rock, one of the most famous climbing areas in America was only 10 miles away, and the sun was out, it seemed rude not to go climbing! 

Despite feeling weak, my thumb was fine and we managed to climb several great routes, enough to convince us to spend another day there! The rock at Smith is Volcanic Tuff, but seems similar to climbing on limestone, with lots of sharp edges and pockets. There are thousands of routes there and every one of the routes we did was fantastic, it’s definitely an area to go back to!

There is an excellent cheap climber’s campsite 10 minutes walk from some of the most popular climbing areas, (full of lots of climbers who seem to have been living there for months!) which is a great place to meet people and find info on routes to do. Unfortunately, Gareth’s plan of cycling round to the far side of the rock to find a different climbing area back-fired on our second day, as the weight of a heavy climbing rucksack on his back affected his balance and he fell off his bike, taking a big chunk of skin off the end of his left thumb (what is it with left thumb injuries this year?!). Despite feeling lightheaded at the site of the blood initially, we managed to patch it up enough for him to be able to climb again, but I think he gained a small glimpse of how difficult it is to do things without using your thumb!

After Smith, we headed West to the Oregon coast for the drive south, spending the first (wet and windy!) night in the Oregon Dunes. This is a 50 mile long stretch of coast line with up to 500ft white sandy dunes between the highway and the ocean. It is a beautiful and amazing area but unfortunately spoilt by the fact that only a few small sections are reserved for hiking, and the rest is open access for motorbikes and jeeps to tear up and down L

From here the drive along the southern Oregon and Northern Californian coast was incredible. It took us ages as we kept stopping at all the amazing viewpoints and beaches!

We ended up camping at a place called Flint ridge, right on the edge of the ocean with the sound of waves crashing beneath us all night. Being right on the West coast meant we were also treated to a pretty spectacular sunset.

The following stretch of coast down to San Francisco takes you through Redwood National park, home to some of the world’s biggest and tallest trees, and we (well, Gareth) couldn’t resist the once in a lifetime opportunity to drive through a tree! We only just fit through the Chandelier tree, which is 2400 years old and 21ft in diameter, and that’s not anywhere near the biggest tree there!

Next stop was San Francisco, where after a couple of hours of unsuccessfully searching for a campsite on the outskirts of the city, we decided to treat ourselves and splash out on a dodgy cheap motel for a couple of nights….luxury J. This was in Sausalito on the opposite side of the Golden Gate Bridge to the city, so we were able to cycle across the bridge the next morning. As is apparently common, it was really foggy until mid morning, at which point the fog lifted and the sun came out.

It couldn’t have been a better day for cycling round and seeing the sights, and we were lucky enough to be there on the weekend of the annual “Fleet Week”, where the US forces are celebrated with all the navy warships coming across the bay, and a huge airshow with the Blue Angels (US equivalent of the Red Arrows) and lots of different fighter jets. The city was packed, but there was a great atmosphere, and we had a fantastic day just being there and soaking it all up.

From San Francisco we drove East to our current destination, Yosemite. There aren’t really any words that can do to justice to describing Yosemite, quite simply, it rocks! It’s a stunning place even to a non-climber, but when you have spent years reading books describing epic ascents, learning about the history of climbing in the valley, and looking at amazing pictures of the climbs there, it holds a special place in your heart, even if you have never been! There is a ridiculous system of getting onto the climber’s campsite, Camp Four, involving queuing up for a place at 5.30am, but actually this is a good place to meet people and share road-trip stories and aspirations of routes you want to climb. Camp Four is the ultimate climber’s campsite. There are famous boulder problems within the site, and you are surrounded by towering granite cliffs, and dozens of friendly climbers from all over the world. It has soon started to feel like home, and we’ve only been here a week!

The climbing in Yosemite is brilliant, but brutal, and certainly not a place to come to boost your ego, as all the climbs are hard in one way or another. Once you get over this fact though, there are more than enough routes to last a lifetime!

 We’ve been steadily ticking our way through classic routes, and planning for a Big Wall route sometime next week (Big Wall = sleeping on the route, hauling gear up with you, general misery and suffering until afterwards when you’re celebrating your success with a cold beer and your feet on solid ground!)

My favourite day so far was yesterday, when we got up at the stupidly early time of 3.30am to go and climb a route on Half Dome called Snake Dyke. There is a loooong walk-in involving many miles and several thousand feet of elevation gain, and lots of bushwacking through shrubs that rip your legs to shreds. But it is worth it for the route. It is without a doubt one of the best routes I have ever done, climbing an amazing dyke that runs up the southwest slabby face of Half Dome. The climbing is fun and not hard, but on one of the pitches you climb 70 feet from the belay, clip one bolt for protection, and then climb another 80 feet to the next belay without any gear. Anyone who climbs will know how scary that is, and for anyone who doesn’t, well it basically means if you fall off you will go a loooong way, and that thought plays on your mind the whole time you are climbing. Despite most of the pitches being like this, the route is awesome J

After you finish the route there are endless calf-pumping slabs to walk up to reach the summit at 8860ft, and then the scariest part of the day, the descent down the cables. Basically this involves grabbing onto thick cables and walking your feet down a steep slippery wall for what feels like forever. It is incredible that anybody can use these cables given how potentially dangerous a situation you are in, and thousands of walkers do every year. It is also amazing that more people are not killed on them, give me climbing any day, it is way safer!

After the traumatic experience of the cables it’s another long but beautiful walk down to the valley past several massive waterfalls, and hundreds of huge pine cones beneath the towering trees. All in all a long but rewarding day.

So that’s what we’ve been up to in the last few weeks, hopefully we can find some more wifi soon and update the blog with the next part of our adventure J