Just as I was halfway through boiling water to make oats for breakfast, I saw a white Sprinter van through the trees coming towards me. Kathi and Shannon warned me they would be early but I didn’t quite know if that meant this early. It was 8am when they parked up in my site and greeted me. I’d met these two vagabonds in Joshua Tree National Park only a few weeks in to my journey where we shared a site and climbed for a few days together. We’d made fast friends and Kathi had recently been in touch letting me know their plans for this round of travelling and happily, I could make it to Yosemite to meet them! Shannon came bearing croissants which I accepted after giving him and Kathi a hug. They joined me at the breakfast table and we got straight into catching up. I hadn’t heard anything about the rest of their last trip and they weren’t up on my blog so we had plenty to talk about.
After we’d figured out what we’d all been up to, we moved on to organising plans for the day. Rob was due to get into the park around lunch time so we figured we could get an opportunistic climb in before he got in. Shannon, being the expert he is about all this climbing, suggested we could get a run in on the Northwest face of Lembert Dome before lunch if the route wasn’t too busy. With that idea, I packed it up, left a note for Rob then put myself and my hiking pack into the Sprinter and we drove off to the dome. Halfway out of the campground I realised I’d forgotten my climbing shoes and harness, only the two absolutely necessary things for climbing up anything. After van life, I’m finding it very hard to keep track of my belongings and can’t pack very well.
After that short detour, we were at the Lembert Dome carpark. Almost immediately after getting out of the van, people were basically swarming around me asking for directions and advice on the hiking trails in the area. This happens all the time so I must look like I know what I am doing. I happily obliged while Shannon got racked up. He gave me the hurry up when yet another tourist came up asking abut which trail to do and I wrapped things up and followed him up the approach route with Kathi in tow behind me. He was sure the popular route would already have people on it and he’d seen climbers in the carpark so we motored up the trail in an attempt to get in before the crowds.
When Shannon spotted a pair of climbers above the approach trail, the race was on. They were off trail and we were on it so we made it to the base of the climb just before they did. There wasn’t a single person on the wall! Lucky, considering it was nearly 10am. There was a bit of discussion between us and the other two guys, but we got in first. Shannon was already harnessed up so I scrambled to get my gear together and put it on me. With everything I needed, Kathi took my pack and walked it back down to the car. She wasn’t joining us on this climb because she was giving her injured foot a chance to recover before getting into the Yosemite climbing properly. By the time we scrambled up the first diagonal feature of the dome, another party had arrived waiting for the route and by the time we were on the first pitch, another three had come by and moved on to find something else. Popular route indeed!
We were climbing the North West Passage of Lembert Dome, the big rock I’d walked to the top of yesterday. It was rated at 5.6 and followed a crack most of the way up. In true Shannon fashion, he offered me first lead and I accepted. This is just how it had been in Joshua Tree, instantly trusting of my capability even though this would be my first trad lead in ages. I climbed up the thirty meter pitch, feeling pretty comfortable with the gear placements and the climbing. Following Shannon’s instructions, after clipping the only bolt and working my way up a short piece of slab, I followed a nice diagonal crack that straightened up until it reached an inverse corner. I was looking for an obvious place to build an anchor as Shannon suggested and found it pretty easily. I sat myself down on a ledge, made myself safe with one piece of gear, then built an anchor with another three pieces.
Once I was comfortable, I called down to Shannon to follow me up and he made quick work of the 5.6 route. I could see another party starting up the climb just after he got started. When he reached me, he told me all my gear was ok, but I’d built the anchor in the wrong place. I’d gone a little too high, but it wasn’t too much on an issue. He climbed up to me, made himself safe, then we did a gear swap and he carried on, leading the second pitch. My anchor meant he started with a weird traverse, but after that he was going ok. I couldn’t hear him after I lost sight of him so I patiently watched the rope and the view in front of me as I sat on my ledge, cold since the sun had gone behind the clouds.
I chatted to a guy who’d climbed up to the anchor as Shannon was setting up a new anchor and when I felt three firm tugs on the rope, I unhooked my anchor and started up the wall, taking out Shannon’s pieces as I went. It was easy climbing with lots of gear so it was a perfect place to start in Yosemite. I reached Shannon pretty quickly and joined him on a wide ledge where I walked out to have a look at the third pitch before unroping myself. We would be able to scramble off rope to the top.
Shannon took down his anchor while I coiled the rope and made it into a backpack. He scrambled over to join me then we started making our way up. Only a few steps in, I had a look back to where the anchor was to make sure we’d picked up everything. When I mentioned the cam in the wall that Shannon had placed, he immediately knew he’d left it there. I went back and retrieved in, letting him know that I thought I was deserving of a prize for saving his $70 piece of gear.
I expected to walk back down the hiking trail I’d followed yesterday, but Shannon had a better idea. Apparently the south face of the dome was walkable. My Tevas did well bringing me down the steep slab but I did switch back to my climbing shoes when the gradient became a little too steep. It was a perfect morning climb, we were back at the car around noon and met Kathi at the Sprinter. She hadn’t seen Rob so we assumed he hadn’t arrived yet. Shannon heated up some pizza slices in their microwave and we talked about the route and how our timing had been spot on.
When Kathi and Shannon told me they were selling some climbing gear, I was interested so they brought out their bag for me to have a look. K&S have been climbing for years so they had no shortage of gear but, knowing I was already on weight and space limit for flying back to Australia, I couldn’t go too crazy. When I pulled a couple of sets of small cams out of the bag, my eyes widened. Having just purchased a set of nuts, some cams would put me well on my way to having a trad rack. It was the $70 a piece cams that always stopped me from making a purchase. When Shannon told me I could take the eight cams he had for $80, it was an instant deal. Now, don’t judge me for buying second hand gear, I know it is not advisable but I know these guys, they are experienced climbers and I know how they climb, it is very carefully and their gear placements are always in the best interests of the climber and maintaining the gear. Beyond that, the cams were also in good nick!
Happy with my bounty, we drove back to camp in the hopes of meeting Rob. When I saw his car coming at us through the campground, Shannon honked his horn and I came up to the front to wave through the windscreen. We got Rob’s attention and he followed us back to the site. Another case of good timing! Back at the site, Rob met Kathi and Shannon and we contemplated afternoon plans while Rob showed me the new cams he’d just bought (for $70 a piece from REI).
When I got into his car to follow K&S out of the campsite to our next crag, I told him about my recent purchase and he was super happy for me. I was bloody ecstatic! We drove a short way towards Tenaya Lake and parked on the side of the road. From here, K&S lead us into the Guide Crag. It was a steep walk in on an undeveloped trail, at the end of which we found a lot of climbers dispersed around the base of the wall.
Shannon, as always, knew which cracks were which and put us on a couple near each other. They were all around the 5.7/5.8 range, so nice warm up climbs for me and Rob before we tackled Half Dome tomorrow. Before we got racked up, I warned Rob that we shouldn’t climb too hard, knowing that we had some serious climbing ahead of us the next day. Shannon took the left crack and lead it with Rob as his belayer while me and Kathi took the one on the right with me on lead. Climbing mostly with my new rack, plus a few extra bigger pieces from Shannon, I jammed my hands in the crack and squished my toes in to get up the wall. The gear was good and though I had a few sketchy moments, I managed the climb ok after sitting for a little bit to find my lead head. Kathi offered great encouragement when she knew I was feeling uncomfortable, telling me to trust my feet, knowing that my soles were guaranteed to stick to the frictiony slab.
I clipped the bolted anchors at the top and Kathi offered to clean the route so she lowered me down. She didn’t know what she was getting herself into, she had to spend at least five minutes on one nut that I’d jammed exceptionally far into the crack. She made light work of the actual climb being an expert hand jammer. Rob and Shannon were having fun on their route too. I was happy to be witnessing Rob’s first climb in Yosemite and see him do it easily.
We swapped cracks now, Kathi taking lead on the left hand side while Rob took his first leading opportunity on a crack in the middle. As Kathi and I were getting organised, Rob was already at his third piece of gear. When he told Shannon he was going to rest for a bit, we all heard a couple of pings and a scrape as he fell down the wall. Shit! Of the three pieces of gear he’d place in the crack, his highest and lowest pieces came out of the wall when he loaded the top piece. He’d avoided a groundfall by only a couple of meters and ended up with a decent scrape down his leg from the friction of the slab. Shannon brought him down to instruct him on what he’d done wrong with the gear placements. At this point I focussed on my climb with Kathi, not wanting to give Rob an audience. He was straight back on the wall a few moments later. He knew that if he walked away he’d have been shaken so getting straight back into it was the best remedy for the getting over the shock of the fall.
Kathi nailed our second climb while I struggled to get off the ground during my attempt. I eventually made my way to the anchor, having an easy time with her gear. I rapped myself down, getting the rope caught horribly in a crack of the slab in the process, then failing again when I tried to bring the rope down. Kathi ended up having to free my rope when she got onto Rob’s crack climb. It was my last climb of the day since I didn’t want to wear myself out and after Kathi had ascended the middle crack and retrieved her rope, we were all happy to call it a day due to the cold weather closing in.
We said goodbye to our fellow climbers in the area then talked the whole way down the approach trail and back to our cars. We stopped for a look at Fairview Dome when Shannon asked if I’d like to climb it with him on Monday. There was a 5.8/5.9 route of 14 pitches leading up the face of it that he thought I’d be capable of joining him on if I wasn’t too shattered after Half Dome. Keen for anything, I said I was willing but couldn’t make any promises not knowing what Half Dome would be like.
Back at base, Rob set up his tent while I got started on preparations for tomorrow. We were going to have a super early start so we wanted to be packed and ready tonight. I started with the climbing gear, laying everything out on the picnic table that I thought we would need. With that sorted, we debated how much food and water was necessary for the ascent of the south west face of the dome. All of this was done under Shannon’s supervision since he’d done the climb before and we were grateful for every piece of advice he offered.
After an hour of prep, we packed everything into Rob’s daypack and cleared the table for dinner. We all sat around the picnic table talking as we cooked and ate. When it was nearly time for the fire, Shannon was determined to cut up a bit log that was sitting in the campsite to complement the small bits of firewood he’d brought with him. Using a two-handed saw, he propped the log up on the bear box and worked away at it. He employed Rob for help and soon enough, everyone was involved; Kathi sitting on the log to weight it down, me holding it steady, Rob sawing off logs and Shannon hatcheting away at the pieces to make small bits. The hive of activity made me laugh.
With a fire going, we continued our talking with some warmth on our legs. At 8pm, it was bed time for the Dome climbers in preparation for our early morning start. Before we all separated into our rooms, Rob and I wrote down our emergency contacts for Kathi and Shannon. Being out of phone service, if we returned later than planned (or didn’t return), we’d be relying on them to let the outside world know of our demise. A sobering thought before we retreated into our tents for the night.