Frustration (and Loathing the US government) in Las Vegas

We were somewhere on Highway 120 on the way out of Yosemite when reality began to kick in: due to the US Federal Government shutting down we were being kicked out of the Valley. Our dreams of climbing El Capitan over, at least for the foreseeable future. We don't seem to have had much luck on this trip. When we we arrived in California it was on fire, which prevented us from spending as much time as we wanted in Tuolumne Meadows. Our original plan was to spend seven week in Yosemite but because of the fire we decided to hire another car and head to Colorado, which then flooded the day before we set off. So we headed to Smith Rock which was okay, but who flies across the Atlantic to go sport climbing, when I could do better climbing in France or Spain for a fraction of the cost.

We finally made it Yosemite with the aim of spending our remaining five weeks in the States there. Arriving in the Valley we drove down to El Cap meadow and saw the Captain for the first time. I don't think I have been so inspired, psyched and excited by a piece of rock. In the days leading up to our arrival Ollie and I had been had arguing about which wall we were going to climb first. As soon as we set our eyes on El Cap we knew it had to be the Nose.

That evening we climbed Nutcracker, a great but quite tricky 5.8 on Manure Pile Buttress. The next two days were spent driving back to SF to return our hire car. Back in the Valley we aided the first pitch of Cosmos at the base of El Cap and practised jugging a fixed rope to get in the swing of things. The next day we soloed a fun 5.6 called Mungenella and climbed the Central Pillar of Frenzy, which was totally brilliant and one of the best Hard VSs I've ever done.

The next day Duncan needed a rest so Ollie and I soloed Royal Arches as our active rest. I founded it to be a little more tiring than I'd anticipated - the pendulum is brilliant. That evening we sorted our rack for the Nose. The next morning we got up early and fixed our ropes to Sickle, which was uneventful apart from the short fall I took on the first pitch when an overtaking party's cam ripped out. (Rather embarrassingly I've taken more aid falls than trad falls this year.) We also saw Mayan Smith-Gobat and Stan Leary set off to break the mixed record. When we got down to El Cap Bridge after fixing they were already there having climbed the whole route (3:30) and descending the East Ledges. Very very impressive!

Our plan was to pack the next day, then jumar up the ropes the following evening and spend the night at Sickle, before climbing the Nose over three days. Originally we were going to do this regardless of the Shutdown. However although the Park Service said they weren't going to arrest climbers who were descending if they changed their minds and we did get arrested it would make re-entering the US very difficult to impossible. And as much as I dislike America and would never want to live here there is some very good climbing here and I don't want risk never being able to visit again for the sake of one route, which will always be there.

We managed to get a lift out of the Valley to Las Vegas, which is surreal. We had one bet on the roulette wheel and lost. I'm never doing that again.  Watching people sit in a darkened room, surrounded by flashing lights, gambling all their money away is depressing. We are staying in a cheap Hotel - it's nice to sleep in a bed for a change and we had no real choice as the official campsite is closed and the only free camping is frequented by Methheads. We climbed at Black Velvet Canyon yesterday, which although very good isn't Yosemite. Hopefully the Republicans and Democrats will sort themselves out before we leave for Patagonia on Nov 1 and we'll get to climb El Cap.

The team and the Captain - I don't think I've ever been this psyched before.

Nutcracker - Duncan seconding and Ollie leading.

Duncan enjoying Central Pillar of Frenzy. 

Ollie with his hand looped through the A0 pendulmn on Royal Arches. I was a big scardey cat and clipped in. 

Duncan leading pitch 4 of the Nose.

End of dream...

Vegas baby!

Paris baby!

Venice baby!

Red Rocks baby!

Smith Rock

After the Hulk we drove south to Tuolumne. The smoke had mostly cleared mostlyup by the time we arrived but it came in most afternoons. Due to the road being closed it was pretty quiet. On the first day Mark and I had a good time climbing the three classic routes on Fairview Dome: Pumpkin (5.8), Lucky Streaks (5.10c) and probably the best of the three Regular Route (5.9). The second day was less sucessful. Ollie and I failed to even find On the Lamb. Though we did a fun Bachar-Yairianesque (except it was five grades easier and the bolts were closer together - so nothing like the B-Y!) 10a called Darth Vader's Revenge, which was a good consolation, before the afternoon rain. The next day I was pretty tired so Ollie and I soloed Cathedral Peak and Eichorn's Pinnicle. Both routes were super fun but I was glad we took a rope as I wouldn't have fancied down climbing Eichorn's Pinnicle.

We then drove back to San Francisco to return our hire car. The plan was to get a new one and head to the Black Canyon of Gunisison in Colorado for two weeks. Unfortuantley whilst browsing the web in the queue for the hire car I noticed that Colorado was underwater.

Instead we drove north to Smith Rock in Oregon. For the first couple of days it was unbearably hot, as far as I was concerned the best thing about the crag was the free showers at the campsite! Thankfully the weather cooled down after a few days and I started to enjoy the fingery sport climbing more, though I'm pretty rubbish at it.

One afternoon Dunc and I decided to climb the Monkey's Face. A cool free standing pinnicle which looks like a monkey. The easiest route is 5.8 A0 so we didn't anticipate any problems. I lead the first two pitches, which brought us to the base of the A0 bolt ladder, which Dunc frigged his way up like a monkey up a drainpipe. By the time I'd frigged my way up it was dusk. I stepped out onto the final traversing pitch, dubbed the Panic Point and apparently the most exposed 5.7 in North America. I don't know about that but in the half light it felt pretty damn exposed. Halfway along I got gripped and clipped in to a draw. At the top it was dark, with no head torches the abseil off was going to be interesting. Thankfully there was a full moon.

I set off down and went too far. Hanging in space in dark I tried to remember how to prussik. After a couple of false starts I got a vaugely efficent system working and soon was back up with Dunc. We managed to locate the correct bolts this time and four abseils later we were back on the ground. Thanks to Mark and Ollie for slogging up the hill to check we hadn't come to greif. The next day we went to the Misa Verde Buttress and I did an awesome 10b called Screaming Yellow Zonkers.

Almack on The Pumpkin.

Ollie on Cathedral Peak.

Burrows on Darth Vader's Revenge.

Me signing the register on Echihorn's Pinnacle.

Smith Rock

Duncan about to back off fording the river. The water went over his head.

Caveman's cheat stick

Duncan on the Monkey's Face.

Me on the bolt ladder.

Duncan leading the bolt ladder - harder than it looks.

Duncan topping out on The Monkey's Face.

Me about to abseil into the abyss.

Back on the ground

The Incredible Queue

We arrived arrived at the entrance to Tuolumne and it was smokey. The park ranger let us in without paying and we contiued into the smog, feeling like charrecters from The Road. After messing around driving the hire car agianst the portaloo door so Ollie couldn't get out, we sacked it off and drove north to Lover's Leap.

We spent the next four days at this Tremadog-esque crag (it isn't as good mind) ticking our way through the classics: The Line, Hospital Corner (very Tremadog), Traveller's Buttress (overrated) amongst others.

We then had a cool morning at the very windy and rattle snake infested (not cool) Phantom Spires. I lead Fear of Flying, a really hard 5.9 up a blank groove. In the afternoon we headed to the Sugarloaf. I was pretty tired though so I just top roped and seconded the others.

The next day we drove south, via some hot springs, to Bridgeport, the nearest settlement to the Incredible Hulk. After spag bol for tea we had an early night ready for our early start the next day.

I slept badly and was woken in the night by horns hooting and people shouting. I went back to sleep assuming it was just Americans being Americans. When we woke at 5 Duncan asked if i'd heard the bear which had brushed past their tent. After a quick breakfast we set off towards the Hulk. The walk in wasn't too bad except for the scree slope to reach the base of the crag.

There were two parties ahead of us as we neared the route. the first of which was moving incredibly slowly. Impatient as ever I soloed up to the base of the route and waited in the cold. I coaxed Burrows up and we waited for an age, while the chummers in front frigged their way up the Red Dihedral, which they split into two pitches. Eventually they got to the top of it and Burrows set off. Cold and wanting to get a move on he pulled on a few pieces. I followed suit on second. I then lead the next two pitches, where i was able to overtake on of the teams in front by climbing a 5.9 variation. Ollie lead the two remaining pitches that brought us to the summit ridge, where we caught up with Duncan and Mark who had climbed the Falling Dihedral varriation.

While we were waiting I heard a girl's voice ask if we had any spare water. I turned to see this little girl. It turned out she was twelve and had climbed Positive Vibrations (5.11a so E4ish) with her mom and dad. We climbed up to the summit and then rapped down (all seven of us using the ropes of the of party who had held us up all day). We got back to the car just after dark and rewarded ourselves with a meal out in the campground resturant. We are now in Tuolumne where it is a little bit smokey. Hopefully we'll get some good routes done over the next few days.

Trapped!

Bad scenes in the Meadows.

The Line - not a shit line

Ollie nearing the top of The Line.

Naming one's cams - needless to say alcohol was involved.

Al-man-ack crushing Candyland at the Phantom Spires.

The Hulk

A cold and angry hulk

A slightly warmer and less pissed off hulk

Team on the summit

The team and the Hulk

More Needles and the High Sierra

The last time I blogged I was supposed to be on a rest day, but right after I posted some other climbers told us thunderstorms were forecast for the next day. A quick check of the forecast confirmed this so we hiked back up to the Needles to collect our stuff. As we were going all that way is seemed rude not to do a route.

Ollie and I headed up Imaginary Voyage, a 5.9 on the Warlock. I lead the first pitch, only 5.8 but a pretty wide crack. At the top it went shallow and I had to make scary smearing moves to reach a bolt and then more smearing to reach easy ground and the belay. A rope stretching pitch.

Ollie ran up the next pitch, which lead to an intimidating chimney. I set off fully expecting to hand over the ropes, but thankfully the climbing wasn't too bad - tricky bridging with lots of helpful face hold. Ollie than climbed the wrong crack, lowered off and stepped right to the right crack, which lead to tricky face climbing, and a point of aid, to the summit.

The sun was setting now and with one head torch between us we needed to get back fast. We rapped down The Howling and walked back to camp by the light of Ollie's torch.

It didn't rain the next day but I felt pretty spent so Ollie and I had a proper rest. We went in search of a shower while DC and Mark went climbing. We managed to blag a shower from a kind lady called Rosie at Camp Nelson.

We had one more day at the Needles where we climbed a scary 5.9 and i frigged my way up Fancy Free (I guess it is probably a good idea to lead 10a before you try 10b!). We then struck camp and headed to Bishop. It's hot here. We spent the afternoon chilling out in the hot springs before a Denny's diner (Mark's favorite) and bed by the side of the road.

This morning we climbed the West Face of Cardinal Pinnacle, a fun four pitch 10a with a Cromlechesque walk in. Tomorrow we are going to head down to Loan Pine to try and get permits for Mount Whitney.

Ollie on Cardinal Pinnacle.

The team - psyched for hot springs.

Me bridging up the intimidating chimney on Imaginary Voyage.

Why you should go to the Needles.

Scary forest fire.

Ollie on a scary 5.9 pitch.

Some chummer.

The Needles

We've been climbing in The Needles for the last couple of days. The climbing is intimidating. The rock is immaculate. The scenery is out of this world. The hour long walk in and lack of guidebook means there are hardly any other climbers.

There are a lot of forest fires in California at the moment. By the sounds of things Tuolumne and the Hulk have been badly affected so we might have to head to Red Rocks instead.

Me on Airy Interlude.

Forrest fire!

Don't climb flares in shorts kids.

Duncan and Mark on Thin Ice.

The walk in.

Ollie seconding Igor Unchained.

The Beautiful Southwest

You know the weather’s been good when all you seem to wear is the same two pairs of shorts and you haven’t been to Tremadog for months! For the last three weeks the weather in the UK has been near perfect. It feels like a proper summer - I can’t remember the last time the weather was this good for so long.

Highlights from North Wales included, Cloggy's incomparably good Shrike (a strong contender for the best E1 in the UK) and Western Slabs followed by Slow Ledge Climb (jaw-dropping exposure for VS) after work, with my Dad, in the evening sun. Just magic!

This photo of Ed really doesn't do Shrike justice, but it is very very good!

Dad at the top of Slow Ledge Climb on the Mot.

I’m writing this driving back for a weeks holiday in South West with my family and girlfriend. Strictly it wasn’t a climbing holiday but I seemed to have got a fair bit done in addition to the amount of time spent topping up my tan.

On day one, Dad and I got up at six to squeeze in a quick route at Carn Kennerjack before breakfast . After faffing around trying to find the place - it turns out the old fashioned words in the CC guide are a tad better informed than the flashy desktop publishing of Rockfax - we eventually located the abseil at the top of the crag. At which point Dad opened his bag to find a second rack, not the two half ropes he was expecting. Thankfully all was not lost as my abseil rope is old climbing rope not a static. Smug at his incompetence I upturned my rucksack to find no rock boots!

Thankfully we didn't knock this critter off when our ropes landed in his bedroom.

Saxon.

We abseiled in anyway (the rest of our team wouldn't have appreciated being woken up at eight). Dad lead a Hard Severe called Gneiss Gnome, which I followed in my fell shoes. We then rapped back down and I did the classic Hard VS Saxon, made more interesting by wearing Dad’s two sizes two big rock shoes. Thankfully the footholds were massive and unlike Leo Holding I wasn’t on Master’s Wall!

The next day I visited Bosigran Great Zawn for another quick hit. This time with Dad and my sister Caitlin. We climbed Variety Show a pushy Hard VS with a three star first pitch a bobbins second. This was first pitch of granite I’d climbed since Lofoten last summer. It reminded me how fun a rock type it is to climb on and got me psyched for ten weeks of it later this year. Caitlin did really well to second it clean considering how infrequently she goes climbing.

It was Nikki’s birthday the next day so we all trooped back to Bosi and made an en masse ascent of Commando Ridge - one of the best easy routes I’ve ever done, but long and tiring in the baking sun.

Nikki, Dad and Caitlin savor the "lustful" holds low down on Commando Ridge.

Lunging Commando...

The climbing highlight of the trip was Astral Stroll on Carn Gloose with Dad. Like Grey Panther this is one of the few E1s in Extreme Rock. The route is brilliant, like a cross between The Moon and A Dream of White Horses but with better rock than both. A pretty wild adventure, right at the top of the grade. I swung leads with Dad and was impressed with his lead of pitch two, especially considering that he rarely leads E1. The third pitch was hard work, soapy holds made the climbing slow. I was glad to reach the belay after what felt like the longest twenty metres of my life. Dad nipped up the final pitch and we slogged back up to the car in a dehydrated haze and in big trouble because we were three hours late for our one o’clock lunch.

The Old King leading Astral Stroll pitch 2.

The Old King doing his thing seconding pitch 3.

That evening we were joined by my old friend Andy Mitchell who is doing a Master’s at Falmouth. We headed back to Bosi and I made an Alzeheimers ascent of Nameless, which according to Dad’s guide I had seconded him up in 2004. However I had absolutely zero recollection of this. Unfortunately Andy wasn’t psyched for seconding Suicide or Bow Wall (my two remaining Hard Rock ticks in the South West) so we soloed Alison ‘s Rib and Commando Ridge which was much more fun without a rope. After lunch we climbed Anvil Chorus, which again I had climbed with Dad in 2004. I could vaguely recollect slapping my way up this desperate corner, which was still there but thankfully nine years later it felt slightly less so. Feeling pretty baked after our ascent in the midday sun (good practice for Yosemite hopefully) we retreated to the shade of the Count House.

Team Cornwall: Andy, Dad, Nikki, Robin, Caitlin and Nic.

We drove up to Birmingham on Saturday and I spent Sunday supporting Nikki in a triathlon. Thankfully for the competitors the weather was cool and cloudy so they didn’t all fry. Driving back into Wales now, the weather is glorious once more. I wonder how long it will last?

Nikki approaches the finish...