Ramblings of a Monkeygirl I laughed, I cried, I fell down…

Yosemite Valley Trip Report, May 2009: Day Two

Psyching myself out and the nature of my fear

I popped awake on Saturday morning about an hour before the alarm was due to go off at 6. Despite the full day of climbing the day before, I was supercharged and ready to go. Jer and my other regular climbing partner, Jeff, and his wife Kelli had met up with us at the campground the night before so we were a full complement of four for the rest of the weekend. We hit the ground running and were at Church Bowl by 8:30.

Church Bowl Tree

Jeff decided that he wanted to try Church Bowl Tree, a 10b, single pitch climb that we thought was only 10a. I had my reservations given the difficulty of the runout part of my second pitch on Friday (nevermind that I was off route and not really on the 5.6 at that part), but I had faith that Jeff would nail it since he’s pretty much never failed to impress me.

Racking the gear for Church Bowl Tree (Photo by J. Shapiro)

Yosemite Valley Trip Report, May 2009: Day One

Wherein I learn to love Yosemite even more, and I lead my first multi-pitch trad climb.

The idea of waking up at 3:15am on a Friday for a four hour drive after only two and a half hours of sleep would probably seem crazy to most people, and I confess, a few of my brain cells might have been screaming at me to be reasonable. The rest of my whole being, however, was humming with excitement! I mean, I was headed to Yosemite to spend the weekend climbing with friends - who needed sleep!?! Sleep is for the dead, they say, no?

Despite a panicky moment of lost keys, I managed to get out the door to pick up Jeremy, and we headed for the hills. After securing a campsite at Sweetwater Campground, we hit the Valley floor around 10am. On the drive in I had the pleasure of seeing Jeremy’s amazement at the gigantic, gorgeous, and glorious granite cliffs (whooh! alliteration!). Yosemite is one of my favorite places on the planet, and I love seeing people’s awestruck faces when they see it for the first time.

First views of El Capitan (Photo by J. Shapiro)