Rock Climbing in Yosemite

Going to Yosemite is always amazing…. The plate tectonics or God, or whatever else is responsible for that area’s formation has done an absolutely fab job.  It’s just gorgeous.  You feel tiny, compared to the canvas of mountains that surrounds you.  Being with friends is even cooler.  Being with great friends that you’re really close with because you’ve couch surfed & traveled with them for 6 weeks is even better…. and them being ex Yosemite employees, experienced rock climbers, and in possession of good rock climbing gear and experience… that’s even cooler!  So… check out our little adventure.The reason we went is because Craig and Suzanne were supposed to get Married on the 12th.  The thing is, they postponed the wedding.  I may have even had a thing or two to do with that, but don’t think I’m evil… the decision was theirs, and they are pretty dang happy with the way things are going. Since they had already rented this 3 bedroom house, I went with them and Suzanne’s brother, Kevin.

We arrived late at night, on the 10th.  The drive was very scenic, and we saw some wildlife right away.  Here’s a trick: when you enter the park, go in the right lane, and waive at the guard.  They’ll waive back, and you get in without paying the $20 per car fee.  We went through a few (through-the-mountain) tunnels, and found our way all the way to the house.  Kevin chose the upstairs bedroom, and Craig & Sue of course took the largest bedroom.  I took the remaining one, and it had a very comfortable bed.  They had already planned which climb we would do the next day, and had packed up all the gear. Since we stopped at a co-op, we had plenty of healthy food. I was the only one remaining who’s doing 100% raw.

**Action starts here** The next day started with the usual superfood smoothie.  We then went to one of the areas you can pull over to take photos in… put the bags on our backs, ditched the cars, and started walking along the road.  We pulled off at this small path that I hadn’t noticed before.  It was a descent.  It was a hike.  The path got stepp quickly, and was a bit slippery in my tennis shoes.  It had lots of trees, moss, dirt, rocks, and even poison ivy..  I was in the back, and had my camera around my neck.  Since the camera kept swinging, I kept having to hold it with one hand.  This slowed me down, as I only had one hand to balance with. I got far enough behind, that I wasn’t sure if I was on the same path, or taking a shortcut when I went down a really steep portion, instead of around the lengthier gentler winding path.  I held on to a tree branch to let myself down, when *crack* the branch broke and I went tumbling down a bunch of rocks.

My left leg had a big gash and was bleeding.  My right leg was bruised, and burning as the air started infiltrating the new wounds.  My arms didn’t really get hurt (until later), my head hit a rock fairly hard, and my collar bone was bruised or fractured (I’m still not sure which… but it hurts when I touch it). More shocking than that, my lens was in pieces!  That’s right!  My Canon 16-35mm F2.8 lens was now in about 3 pieces… though, the glass had not broken… just the assembly separated somehow.  I put it back together, took a test picture, and was content that all was fine with the world.  While everyone was concerned that I hit my head, I was just concerned that my camera still works.

We put the camera in Kevin’s bag, and kept on hiking down the slope, until we reached the climb.  Now, I am not an experienced rock climber.  I went once with one of my awesome couches, Miah, near Ashevulle, NC.  While Miah knew his stuff, his climbing shoes did not fit me, so I had to rely on the rope a lot, and I felt pretty incompetent.  That was an 80 foot climb.  This one was a 90 foot climb, rated 5-8 **** (That’s not me trying to get attention to this sentence… it’s rated on difficulty, and quality of climb)- which is not a beginner course.  It’s not the most advanced, and it’s a single-pitch (you go up, then down.  Multi-pitch is when you go up,  pull up your gear, then go up again from there.  Rinse-and-repeat.  Then eventually down).  My legs were on fire from my wounds, but I didn’t care.  I watched as Craig harnessed up and “Top-roped” it.  Meaning, he took the rope, and was the 1st one up the mountain.  He fastened the rope to the rock so we could follow.  Once he came down, Suzanne went up.  She has the most climbing experience of all of us- more than 10 years.  She made it look fairly simple.  Once she came down, I went up.  I fit into Craig’s shoes and harness, and Suzanne Belayed me (meaning, held onto and ballaced the rope, so I could fall if I wanted to, and not die, but rather stay suspended in the air).

At first it was easy.  My muscles were not tired.  The initial slope didn’t seem so bad.  I could do pull ups from rock to rock, push my leg against the mountain, and keep ascending.  I heard “Good job!  Wow!  You’re a natural!” After a very short while, I kept saying to myself “Wow”- because logic would dictate that I should slide off backwards to my death… and yet, the shoes kept me gripped on to the tiny pebbles that protruded from the rock.  I could hold myself up with very little grip of my hands.  It was pulling up that required more grip.  There were times I would do splits, then try to stand.  There were many times where I had to reach upwards, and grope around with my fingers… letting them try to find a crack, a crevice, or a bump.  The people below (mostly Craig) were trying to tell me where to go (People love doing that :p ), but I was quickly getting the hang of it, and figuring out my own direction.

My own direction took me too far to the right.  I had to navigate left, closer to where the rope was. There was less grip where I was, and the difficulty kept increasing as I got higher.

When you’re going to fall, you’re supposed to say “Take!” and your Beleyer will pull up the slack, so that when you dangle, you don’t fall far.  When I felt I was going to slip off, it was more like “Take Take Take Take Take!  Take! TAKE!!!” I didn’t fall.  I was informed that if I wanted to rest my arms, I could just let go, dangle, and then resume.  I refused.  It felt like it would be cheating.  I yelled at myself, “You can do it! Come on damn it… don’t be a pussy!  Keep going!”  That… and my self-whimper of “Oh my god… there’s no grip.  I got nowhere to put my feet.  I got nothing to grab!”  I was having an ongoing debate with myself, and still not believing that I hadn’t fallen… Despite knowing that the rope will probably hold, you still don’t think (at least when you’re a beginner like me!) that falling will be a good thing… Not from 50 or 60 feet up!  I could see Suzanne below me, looking pretty small.  And then I finally got to that point where it was slippery, there was very little place to put my hands, my left bicep was getting lactic-acid buildup, and I lost it– take take take take take take take!  The rope tightened, and sure enough, as I suspected, I fell!  I fell a foot, and my left ankle started bleeding.  Oh well.  I wasn’t dead.  That wasn’t so bad at all.

I let my arms rest fot a bit, and then resumed.  I’ll fast forward to the part just beneath where the end of the rope was anchored in.  My arms were tired, my legs were tired, and I had this one ledge that I could grasp.  I only had 8 more feet or so, but I could not get past this one ledge!  My arms were burning, and I even tried using my chin to pull myself up with.  I kept trying and trying and not succeeding.  I’d rest, I’d breathe, I’d try to force the energy out of me… no luck.  I cursed at myself outloud.  I tried to psyche me out…. and then I heard “You want to maybe come down,  grab lunch, and try again later?”  My response “Fuck that!  There’s no way!  I could spit at the end of the rope if my mouth wasn’t so damn dry!  There’s no fucking way that I’m giving up that close to the goal!”  (Sorry for the language folks, but that is what I yelled.  When you’re 85 feet up, hurting, frustrated, and trying to force one really good pull-up, you may curse too).  The response “Well.. give it 2 more tries, then come down… it may rain, and we’re getting hungry!”

That’s all it took… an insult.  It wasn’t intended as one, but that’s how I took it.  That, and Craig and Suzanne had both been up this and made it… why can’t I do it?  The rage kicked in, and I managed to swing my leg up, where before I couldn’t.  The extra leverage made my pull-up more doable, and I started ascending, one inch at a time.  I couldn’t feel the burn in my arm anymore… I was just gasping for air quickly, and finally made it to the top.After posing for a photo it was time for the easy part: coming down.

I rappelled down… meaning, I kicked off the wall, fell a short distance- rinse & repeat.  Suzanne asked me to just walk down the wall, so I don’t burn her hand.  Rappelling was more fun, but I wouldn’t want to injure a friend… especially one that just kept me alive where I felt I would die.  I made it to the bottom, gave her a big hug, got out of the gear, and joined them for lunch.

It was day 22 of my 30 day raw challenge, and we ate avocado, tomato, as well as some Kale salad.

It was Kevin’s turn to go next, and he climbed up the same track so quickly!  Darn those skinny muscular people.  Kevin weighs about 135.  Craig is about 170.  Suzanne is close in mass to Kevin, and me… I weigh 190 (thank God I lost those 25 pounds, eh?).  So… yeah.. I had more mass to carry up with me.  Kevin climbed that like a spider monkey.  He hauled ass, rapelled down, and then Craig went again, and then Sue… then I tried, and decided after about 20 feet, that I’m just not feeling that coordinated, and my arms are on fire, and maybe the reason I’m not coordinated is because I  hit my head on a rock before we even started….. “Take!” and I fell 5 feet…  I got much more banged up than on my 1 foot drop. No worries.  A few cuts and scrapes never killed anyone

I rappelled down, and watched all of them go up again, and then do another route which was rated a 5-10.  I lay back on a rock, enjoyed the scenery, and listened to Atlas Shrugged on my Ipod Nano.

After they finished all their climbs, we hiked back up to the road, got in the car, and drove back to the house.  We got our laptops, and went down to Yosemite Village.  There’s a hotel there that has wi-fi, and while Craig worked… I just emptied spam, caught up on my tweets, and then rested.  I was pretty darn tired!  We then went to the grocery store, and I got “Yosemite Bear Poop” for my niece and nephew that I’d be visiting the next day.  The bear poo is actually chocolate…. they eat way too healthy, and I try to corrupt them once in a while by providing the stuff that (now I don’t eat / drink – since I’m on my raw food diet) tastes good.  I made a salad, but everyone else had vegitarian patties…. which were cooked, and smelled amazing.  Oh well… 1 more week, then I can pig out… though I probably won’t.

Despite the humor in it, we did not watch any  movies on the VHS deck that was at the house.  We got some sleep.  The next morning was sad… we packed up, and actually had to part… after 6 weeks of seeing each other basically every day.  I’ve had girlfriends that didn’t last that long with me!  I got to meet both of their parents!  I know their bosses.  I traveled with their dogs!  I was really sad to say goodbye after our last superfood smoothie together.

I spent a good chunk of the day thinking about them, but I also spent a good chunk driving to San Francisco where I got to go see my own family.  Mom and Dad had flown in to visit Barak (my older brother), to see his new house.  I got another 4 hours of Atlas Shrugged in while driving, and even stopped to get a haircut, so I look nice when I see my folks.  They were totally surprised. Anyways-  I could tell you about the music performance we saw, or how shocked they were to watch me eating a salad…. but this post is about rock climbing!  So… yeah… sorry I hadn’t written.  A post about my Burning Man experience is coming up soon.  Meanwhile… I can check “Rock Climbing” off my to-do list.