How to be a Super Slacker Yosemite Climber

It. Has. Stopped. Raining!!! For nearly the first weekend since December, it was no longer raining in California so we could get out and climb. It is very snowy in Yosemite Valley, but Down Canyon is warm and mostly dry. Time for some awful off-width and super slacker knobs.

The Wide Warm Up

Reed’s Pinnacle area has a ton of wide stuff (Chingando, Reed’s Direct, Reed’s Left) in addition to some awesome fingers (Lunatic Fringe, Stone Groove). Given its my first weekend back in the valley, I didn’t want to get on anything above 10a so we went up Reed’s Pinnacle Direct.

The first pitch was cruiser. The second 10a hands was super weird and kinda large. Definitely used the #4 on that lead.

The last pitch was a PG-protected chimney to a super hard 10a off-width. The walls were not super featured for upward mobility and I had to aid through the hard ow section. I took one fall where my #5 popped.

The rest of the day we tried to get up Independence Pinnacle, Center but found a mossy mess that I wasn’t feeling. Also, Flatus which I would have preferred at least three wide cams to zip up for a narly 5.9 off-width.

Finally, we reached success for a super enjoyable romp up Stone Fist splitter.

You Lead, You Bleed, Hopefully You Don’t Get a Head Injury

Another adventure this day was walking past Stone Groove and seeing a couple cams in the crack. “Booty!,” I shouted… and then I saw all the blood. Two dozen wet blood drops, all over the base. Just down the trail we saw the source. One person spotting his wobbly partner down the trail to the road. A red gash of blood from his head and on his leg. We walked down after them and I gave them a bunch of materials from my first aid kit since they forgot theirs. Always remember to bring a kit! Shout out to my prior climbing partner William Buchanan for getting me to bring mine again.

Super Slacker By-way

On Sunday, we spec’d out a lot of climbs in the 5.9 range trying to just get a lot of climbing in but found mostly wide stuff. I wasn’t super pumped at leading four pitches of ow and chimney after the prior day so we decided to bypass the first 10b trad pitch on Super Slacker Highway, go a few pitches of 5.9/10a and see how we felt on the 10b/c sport moves above.

The. Climb. Was. Amazing. My partner Lukas said the middle 10a pitch was the best pitch he has climbed in Yosemite. Almost every pitch was interesting and enjoyable. It was the most modern bolted climb in Yosemite I’ve been on. Just enough bolts to protect people, but none where there are trad placements. Cruxes are just off belay and bolt protected.

It took me several attempts to get through the 10 b/c sport moves, but we made it all the way to the top! After getting shut down Saturday, this was an amazing accomplishment that we were super proud of. It was super cool mix of crack and face, with knobs unlike anywhere in yosemite valley.

Its climbing season y‘all!