Yosemite National park is heaven to many climbers. With its pristine beauty, endless granite, and diverse range of climbing routes, many consider it to be the mecca of the climbing world. I never thought I would be climbing there myself. It wasn’t until my mom and I started climbing together two summers ago that the idea even seemed possible. We began by climbing together in the gym as mother-daughter bonding time. Neither of us expected to climb anything more than a few plastic routes a month. But like any gateway drug, we went from just a couple hits here and there to full on addiction. It wasn’t long before we realized we needed to get out and climb on the real stuff.
We just had one problem, neither one of us could lead, and our knowledge of technical climbing was limited to knowing how to tie in with a figure-8 follow through. We knew we had a lot to learn before we could safely climb outside so we began with baby steps. We bought a rope and took the lead certification class at Vertical Relief. Through this instruction we learned how to clip efficiently, belay safely, catch falls softly, and of course, take some big whippers! As our confidence grew, so did our goals. We had been working towards climbing on our own outside without the help of rope-guns and such. As that became a reality, we realized we wanted more.
My mom had lived in Yosemite for ten years back in the 70’s and followed my dad all over the granite there. As her knowledge of climbing increased, she began to feel a visceral pull back to the High Sierra. One day, after finishing a lead in the gym my mom confidently announced that she was taking me to Tuolumne to climb because “we were ready.” Hold your wild horses Mom. Climbing in Tuolumne Meadows is 99% trad-climbing which is a far cry from clipping draws on a single 40 ft pitch in the gym. There was no talking her out of it though, and a summer trip to the high sierras was penciled into our calendars. From what I knew of Yosemite,I thought only really good climbers who have been climbing for ages go there. For this reason I assumed I was facing certain death.
In order to increase our chance of survival, I decided to take the anchor-building class from Chris Tatum through Vertical Relief. Through this class I learned how to evaluate a crack system, place active and passive gear analytically, and clean efficiently. I also learned how to quickly build a solid, redundant, equalized anchor. We went over various knots, rope management techniques, and eventually climbed a mock multi-pitch route. With my newly acquired knowledge there was only one small thing we needed for our trip...the gear! We then purchased our rack for an un-godly amount of money (thanks mom!) and took it outside to practice. With only four months to go and not a lot of free time on our hands, we climbed as much as we could to prepare for the trip. There were many things to get used to; climbing with the extra weight of the rack, having confidence in our protection, not sewing up a route too much, reducing rope drag, becoming more efficient etc. We were learning and having a blast in the meantime! It seemed like time flew by and suddenly it was time to head to the Sierras...
Day 1:
Our first climb was the Northwest Buttress on Tenaya Peak, a 1,500ft 5.5 climb that is approximately 13 pitches long. We chose this as our first climb because pitching it out on such a long easy climb would give us plenty of time to get into the groove of swinging leads. The crux moves on this climb were 5.5 friction (super fun) with an optional 5.6 finger crack that we did at the top. We ended up simul-climbing some of the pitches in order to save some time and all in all had a fabulous first day!
The Summit! (note puffy clouds in distance....cue foreboding music..the semi-epic rainy descent just 30 minutes after this was taken)
Day 2:
After an excellent first day we drove down to the valley to dry off and check out my parents’ old hangouts...
Day 3:
Back up in Tuolumne where the weather was cooler, we set out to climb a classic; Cathedral Peak. (In the valley we had visited with my mom’s good friend John Dill who told us not to die on this because lots of people do. Um…thanks for the beta John!)
The Southeast Buttress of Cathedral is a 5.6 route that is approximately 5 pitches long. There are a lot of variations to this climb which is a good thing because of all the people who were climbing it that day.
Gorgeous surroundings!
I got pretty good at snapping photos while belaying!
(This is Eichorn’s Pinnacle as seen from the Summit of Cathedral. We were planning on climbing this but there was a wait and it was getting late in the afternoon...next time!)
Day 4:
After two multi-pitch climbs we were ready for some good food so we headed to the Whoa-Nellie Deli at the Lee Vining Mobil Mart to have some grub!
Back into Multi-pitch mode, we decided to climb Northwest Books on Lembert Dome. This is a 3 pitch, 300ft, 5.6 route, and we had an absolute blast!
(This is the view from the summit. Cathedral Peak from Day 3 can be seen right above my head.)
Day 6:
Another all-girl team we met on Northwest Books recommended that we climb Holdless Horror on Dozier Dome. This is a 4 pitch, 400 ft, “splitter crack” and we were up for the challenge!
Holdless Horror was anything but what the name implies, and ended up being my favorite climb of the trip!
Day 7:
Not ready to leave, we woke up early to squeeze in some last minute climbs at the guide cracks before we had to hit the road...
One week in Tuolumne meadows flew by and before we knew it, it was time to head home. All in all, we had a fabulous trip and accomplished all of our goals. I am so proud of the progress we made and I cannot wait to plan another mother-daughter trip. We are so grateful for the staff at Vertical Relief who gave us the professional advice and confidence we needed to make this trip a success!
Perhaps El Capitan is in our future.......?
