Forums Trip Reports Yosemite climbing in Tuolumne Meadows Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)Author Posts August 23, 2010 at 3:36 pm #573361 rughty 620 PostsAfter having such a great weekend backpacking in Sonora Pass with my daughter, Brooks and I decided to step it up a little and venture further south to Tuolumne Meadows to celebrate my 35th birthday climbing some of it’s classics. It was a very windy night camping out in the Lee Vining area, but we found a sweet wind protected spot and enjoyed our Arrogant Bastards watching the almost full moon race across the sky against the chilling winds. After hitting up the MoMart for coffee and breakfast, we started our ascent up Tioga Pass. Heading for West Crack we detoured to the Stately Pleasure Dome next to Tenaya Lake since the winds hadn’t died down much and south facing would provide at least a little more warmth. Our route: West Country (5.7) 4 pitch 400′ on Stately Pleasure Dome. The route goes up through the notch with the white boulder, straight up to the left side of the hanging flake (leaves a “V” shadow) traverses left to the crescent shaped lie back corner. Not in the pic, the last two pitches are a runout slab followed by another lieback and in some parts, overhanging crack which is the 4th pitch and captured on video 🙂 Don’t worry Brooks. No photoshopping today. Hahahaha Looking across to The Great White Book which is a 5.6 runout climb and a super fun route After finishing up on West Country, we decided to hit up another classic single pitch route on Lamb Dome. Brooks is getting ready to lead this perfect finger crack with some very slick polished granite. It is called Little Sheeba and goes at 5.10a. This one is for Ben. Nothing like a real sugar Dew after climbing the fun 5.6 classic Northwest Books, a 2 pitch route on Lembert Dome. What better way to celebrate the end of a perfect climbing day on Yosemite granite than to feast. Who would have thought a gas station (Mo Mart) would supply such tasty cuisine! I would suggest the mango salsa fish tacos for anyone traveling through Lee Vining. They were simply Awesome!!! I was going to take a pic, but hunger won. MoMart was packed and had live music playing. Here is the video of me leading the 4th pitch. This is kinda long, but don’t miss out on the near miss at around 6:40. It got a little slick and I almost got to go for a ride on what would have been my first lead fall. [vimeo:2ahrxpv3]http://www.vimeo.com/14354148[/vimeo:2ahrxpv3] Fun times!!! Can’t wait to go back… August 23, 2010 at 8:36 pm #629004 jbaysurfer 947 PostsCool man, I love granite. I like the helmet cam perspective of looking back at your belayer. Looks like one of your feet slipped at that near miss? Right after that I was thinking hand jam! Arm Jam! Jam! lol. August 24, 2010 at 1:36 am #629005 rughty 620 PostsYeah. It looks like a straight forward vertical flake there, but in actuality it was arching out over a big slab with no holds. There was a bit of polished granite in combination with a sloping undercling right there. Got my heart rate going since I had run out 10-15 feet from my last piece. After getting a better angle on that undercling I think I ran it out another 40-50 feet until I built the anchor at the top of the pitch. The wind made things a bit more heady, but in all the route was pretty easy.I like the helmet cam for climbing as long as it is fast moving or has a little action in it. Those harder routes are only good if they are really short. I have footage of the second pitch and following on the third, but they were not as video friendly. Can’t wait to get back out there… August 25, 2010 at 7:53 pm #629006 nothingmuch 358 PostsI had a similar close call in Wadi Rum last nov, it’s an offwidth that all us sissies climb as a layback. In retrospect I realize you’re supposed to slide up a #4 camalot, but instead I tried to put in the #3 after the #4 but it wasn’t big enough… I started getting pumped and then actually fell and caught myself. Good thing too, because I would have ended up on the ledge.This is not my photo, just something I found on flickr: The Beauty, Wadi Rum, Jordan by Niekolaas, on FlickrHe’s about 1m higher than where I fell August 28, 2010 at 8:17 am #629007 bs. 246 Postssweet! i miss granite. most of the climbing i’ve done here is on shcist. and i really miss throwback! NZ dew is sweetened with sugar, but i still miss the cool throwback cans… August 28, 2010 at 3:16 pm #629008 nickstayner 700 PostsNice photos man! I lived up in the Meadows for a couple of summers. You do a good job of capturing that late summer Tuolumne vibe. Thanks. Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
