Visit the Lassen Volcanic Park for most of the day. Fantastic place! The most interesting was the ‘Bumpass Hell’ hike, which took me right up close to the active hydrothermal basin, and I had great views of bubbling mud and sulphuric water, as well as steam vents constantly spraying out super-heated gas. The smell leaves much to be desired, but hey at least here I can be myself! (Had to put that in there Kenny, before you said it!)
The volcano blew in 1915 and ever since then there has been loads of action for tourists to see and scientists to monitor.
The Sulphur Works gave me the super-closeup view of bubbling turmoil that the Bumpass Hell hike couldn’t. It was fenced off right near the tarmac road so I could literally stand a couple of yards from it, whereas the Bumpass Hell tour stayed on boardwalks and set trails which prevented tourists from falling in. Apparently people stray off-path every year and get badly burned. Bumpass himself - a mountain guide who showed tourists through there back in the day - broke through the thin crust on day and ended up losing his leg to the severe burns from the water below.
Luckily there are National and State parks and forests all the way down between me and Yosemite. I’ve had little trouble finding some old forest road to drive down at dusk and set up camp for the night. I’m far enough away from the main road that it is relatively peaceful, and the scenery is unparalleled. There are shotgun shells and 9mm casings everywhere though, so hopefully I can avoid all the gun crazy F250 drivers around!
Saturday 10 September 2011
Camp in a really cool spot in the National Forest. Lots of rain overnight, so I'm glad to be in the van! Its great that I can camp for free all through these National forests, although I can't camp within the parks. Despite the camping-friendly weather, I haven't seen that many folks out and about. Still no bears in sight, but I have seen plenty of woodpeckers, eagles and other birds.
Sunday 11 September 2011
Drive to Merced and treat myself to a night in Motel 6 - shower and real bed! Dodgy part of town. Two police cars were in the parking lot when I arrived, evicting a family who hadn't paid their bill. On the drive today I saw more American flags than usual hung up in the towns and homes, as well as many signs ("Never Forget") and even some folks camped out at street corners with signs and army fatigues.
Monday 12 September 2011
Pick up Remi in the afternoon from the bus station in Merced, and begin the drive to Yosemite. Its great to see an Aussie friend after so long on the road. I've met many great people on the trip, but nothing compares to meeting up with a longtime friend from home. We drive as far as we can in the daylight, then camp overnight in the forest before we get to the park. We aren't so far from the Valley, but trying to get a place to stay late at night in there is just too much hassle and probably impossible this time of year. Better to camp at leisure outside the park within the National Forest, then arrive in the Valley refreshed and ready to scope out the situation.
Tuesday 13 September 2011
Drive in to the park itself and get out first look at the ‘Big Stone’.
It rained in the evening that we arrived, so luckily we had the van to stay in. We had to line up in the afternoon to get a spot in the Pines campground, and we were told that tomorrow morning we have to line up early at camp 4 to try and get a spot there. Every morning we stayed, for 2 weeks, there was a huge line of people trying to get a spot in the Camp.
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| The early morning line to get into Camp 4 |
Line up early at the camp 4 booth to try to get a spot. We get a spot right near the YOSAR (Yosemite Search and Rescue) camp, which is well set up with canvas tents and countless tarps.
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Remi leads a free route called ‘La Cosita’, and I follow on jumar. I lead (aid) ‘La Escuela’, a C1 pitch that is quite awkward to aid. The route goes free at 5.11, which is crazy hard here in the Valley. We run out of time so we can’t aid the second pitch.
Thursday 15 September 2011
I aid ‘Church Bowl Tree’ C1 and find the gear and position pretty straight-forward, but I’m still very slow. Remi is a little quicker on his run, but we both must get faster at the easy aid if we hope to get up something big. The route goes free at 5.10b, but is very polished. The pin scars from decades of aiding are the only thing that make the route possible as a free climb, so really it’s like climbing a chipped route. There are many routes here in the Valley like that, but they are considered ‘classics’. Maybe its because I can’t finger lock because of my injury, but I’m not psyched on climbing such routes.
Remi leads ‘Bishops Terrace’ 5.8 in one pitch (sometimes done in 2). We are finding 5.8 / 5.9 a bit stiff here. Hard to reconcile the grading here with Aussie grades, so we give up on converting. 5.9 is hard, and we go from there!
Friday 16 September 2011
Remi and I do ‘Nutcracker’ 5.8, which is a pretty classic route. I lead the first 2 pitches and Remi leads the next 3, so we can practice ‘block leading’ and manage the ropes and changeovers. It takes us 5 hours climbing time, so not including approach and descent, so we are still too slow even free climbing.
In the afternoon we went to the Le Conte boulder across the road from the Curry Village Housekeeping camp to practice steep bolt ladder aiding. The angle is about 45 degrees and there is a line of bolts for about 6 metres for people to practice this. The bolts are far enough apart to make it tricky to reach them, but we refine our technique quite well to get up. Passing gear on jumar also goes well, although we are still slow.
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| Remi finding the steep bolt ladder less than enjoyable |
‘Rixon’s Pinnacle Direct South Face’ C2. I think this is about as hard an aid I want to do! Tricky gear placements, some rusty hangerless bolts, and shitty belays made up of many old bolts and pitons and webs of old tat. Remi has to aid off 3 bad bolts in a row before the first anchor, and I have to loop a rock horn and stand high on it to reach the anchors of the second pitch. We run some new cord through the best 2 of the 5 anchor bolts to back the whole thing up, and rap off hoping the whole thing doesn’t disintegrate. No-one seems to do this route, as its very dirty and there is no recent signs of passage.
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| Shitty anchor on Rixon's Pinnacle |
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| Quality runner! |
Monday 19 September 2011
Internet and planning for when the guys arrive. Change reservation from Curry Village to the Housekeeping Camp, because there are many factors that make it a better option. In Curry Village if you want to cook you have to go out to the carpark! Plus if we go to Housekeeping we can park the cars right in front of the tent cabin.
Tuesday 20 September 2011
Climb ‘Central Pillar of Frenzy’ on the Middle Cathedral Rock with Remi and this young stoner Mike. 5.9 and easier climbing for 5 pitches, then a long set of raps off.
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| Mike's dad John cooked us dinner to say thanks for letting Mike come along |
Penelope’s Problem’ 5.7 at Swan Slab. Remi leads a 5.9 pin scarred finger crack called ‘Grant’s Problem’, and we top-rope a 5.10a face climb in the dark. I'm already over pin-scar climbing (welcome to Yosemite!), so the face route was fun.
Thursday 22 September 2011
Glacier Point Apron - ‘Harry Daley’ 5.8 (more pin scars on the first pitch, but after that is becomes fun to climb. ‘The Grack’ 5.6 is a fun jaunt up 3 pitches of slab with a crack cutting all the way up it. We attempt ‘The Cow Centre’ 5.7 but can’t see the anchors so traverse at about 5.6R in to The Grack and finish that in the dark.
Saturday 24 September 2011
Sunnyside Bench - ‘Jamcrack’ 5.9. Remi leads both pitches and I follow, then I lead both in one long pitch. Very hot in the sun - almost 90 degrees every day. Makes it hard to enjoy climbing on the north side of the Valley in the middle of the day. I think this is not normal temperatures for this time of year. Hopefully it will cool down so we can climb some longer routes on the El Capitan side of the Valley. I would hate to be on the Nose in these conditions. The route gets full sun almost all day.
Lead ‘Lemmon’ 5.9, which is the easiest 5.9 we’ve done so far.
Hey bruv,
ReplyDeleteWhat's the good word! Where is the news at?