Chilling at the Awahnee

When I broke the rush hour traffic in Fresno, I knew I would get to Yosemite National Park around sunset. It was going to be close, and I didn't want to miss driving into the park with El Capitan and Half Dome in splendid soft alpenglow. So I was cruising the winding roads leading into the park. I missed out on El Cap by probably 15 minutes, but when I exited the tunnel Half Dome and the Sentinal were all lit up in yellow orange color. (I took some photos, and I will upload them later.)

I got into Camp 4, the historic climber's camp, and only walk-in campground in Yosemite, around 7 on Wednesday night. I wanted to get in during mid-week since I didn't have any reservations. Fortunately there were about a dozen open spots. Each site in Camp 4 has 6 individual (as in persons) spots. I signed up for site #3, as I noticed a solo foreign name had already registered in one of the spots for the site. I figured a solo foreigner arriving the same day I was would be a good candidate for a climbing partner. When I went to the car to get my camping gear, I met Jason and Jodi, who were intrigued by my Scony (Wisconsin) plates. It turned out they were also in site #3, and Jason was looking for a partner Saturday-Tuesday as Jodi was taking off on Friday.

To find a partner for Thursday I signed up on the message board in camp and I met up with Ted, an engineer working for the park this summer. We climbed Nutcracker (5.8, but we did the 5.9 start variation) and After Six (5.7). Ted climbs very fast and is comfortable on the granite. We climbed 12 pitches in about 6 hours! This is including the descents for both routes. I'm a fast climber, but this guy was way above me. Of course, he had climbed these routes before, so that helps.

Today it is raining, so I slept in, made breakfast sausage (yeah Tandi, breakfast sausage), and am just hanging out resting my muscles. Right now I am sitting next to the fireplace at the Awahnee Hotel and enjoying the free WiFi and the concept of being dry.