lizolas

Skyline-to-the-Sea New Year's Hike 2020

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 08:56:03 GMT

Skyline-to-the-Sea

January 1, 2020

My start-of-2020 plans didn’t go any more smoothly than my plans usually do. I planned my New Year’s activity around shadowing an ice climbing trip in Lee Vining that ended up getting postponed by over a month. In addition to avoiding the 4-hour detour that driving into the Valley would require, I wanted to keep in line with my previous vow to “have fun.” The sunrise on Clouds Rest my first year was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever witnessed, but as far as the actual hiking, I don’t like it. I don’t like traipsing through the forest alone for hours. I don’t like climbing up snowy rocks in hiking shoes. I don’t even really like snow that much. My ambitious plan for a Valley-Clouds Rest-Tenaya Peak-Valley hike seems far better suited to the summer, with more daylight and quicker hiking sans snow.

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2019 Recap

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 21:45:14 GMT

2019 Annual Recap

If I’ve learned nothing else this year, it’s to stop making climbing resolutions. Here’s a brief and embarrassing recap:

29 trad pitches 5.9 or harder (make the rope go to the top)
I did 11 trad pitches that were 5.9

10 sport pitches 5.10c or harder (make the rope go to the top)
I did 0 sport pitches that were 5.10c

3 trips where ice tools get used (because owning gear you don’t use is almost as bad as owning gear you don’t know how to use)
I did 0 (but I am going to use them this coming weekend!)

5 trips where snowshoes get used (see above)
I actually think I definitely exceeded this one, and by this point using snowshoes isn’t unfamiliar to me, so I stopped counting.

3 trips with moderately involved routefinding off-trail (climbing or backpacking)
I’m not sure Lani’s and my collective inability to find the start of routes occasionally counts for this.

3 solo backpacking trips
You guessed it: zero.

1 snow camping trip with a summit attempt (or at least an attempt at a summit attempt)
Besides guiding on Shasta, zero.

Shasta dayhike
I did this one my very last trip to Shasta this summer. 12 hours car-to-car and I didn’t summit til 11 am. Not my proudest moment, but it just felt like a long day, not a hard day. I’d started from the Bay Area after work and drove straight to Shasta, arriving at 3 am and starting immediately after throwing some food, water, and a headlamp in a backpack, which meant I basically went from sea level to 14,000’ in less than 12 hours and was slow but fine.

Haystack w/ haystacks
Tragically have still not done this despite occasional attempts to find a partner for it.

Specific Peaks (attempt, not necessarily a summit)
- Alta Peak (ok this one has to be a summit)
  no
- Mt Russel
  no
- Mt Whitney Mountaineer’s Route
  Yes, but shadowing a guided trip.
- North Palisade
  no
- Mt Langley
  no
- Mt Conness
  Another failed summit attempt
- Mt Williamson
  no
- Lone Pine Peak
  no
- Mt Clark
  no
Specific Ridges
- Matthes Crest >br>Yes, 10 hours car-to-car, but Ben basically led the entire thing. I’d like to go back next summer and do most of the leading myself, plus tag both the north and south summits.
- Saber Traverse
  Climbed a few feet up and aborted mission.
- Eagle Lake Buttress
  Never reattempted
- Torment-Forbidden Traverse
  Never reattempted
Mt Dana every time I drive by and it’s not time-prohibited (optional if dark).
I can’t decide if I failed at this, because every time I drove by, it either was dark or I was driving to a destination with a time constraint, but I didn’t do this a single time this year. I’d envisioned lots of summer Sierra trips and instead made a bunch of Shasta trips.

The 5.9 trad pitches I did in 2019

Despite how few of my goals I met, I’m not disappointed in myself. At the beginning of this year I felt pretty aimless in my outdoor-related pursuits and made a huge variety of goals to cover every possible type of activity. I don’t think there were actually a feasible number for me to have completed in a year. I like to discount things and say, “Yeah but I should have been able to do all the climbing if I just had partners.” That’s a constraint though. I don’t really have partners in my area with the same kinds of outdoor goals as mine. The few I do have are often not available on the same weekends as I am. It’s not some enormous failure on my part as a human. I spent a lot of the summer going to Shasta (or saving money to use for gas for Shasta by not leaving on other weekends), which was a situation I wasn’t anticipating when I made my original goals.

By the end of the year I’d finally started trying hard outside again. I’d practiced the not-perfect-hand cracks in the gym and led pitches outside with thin hands, butterfly stacks, and finger jams. I’d gotten comfortable enough to assess a pitch and protect it with the rack Ben had taken (which he said before I started was probably less than I’d have chosen to take), running it out in the middle where it was safe for me, protecting it adequately at the crux, and then trying until I fell rather than giving up. Instead of insisting on the #nobabysteps approach that seems to work well for Lani but just scares me away from everything, I started just taking any incremental step I could find to take, and I learned that even the easy unimpressive things are fun and rewarding to do.

I hope to develop some climbing goals over the next year and some training routines to help me accomplish those goals, but right now I have no list of boxes to check off by one year from today. Today I’m content to take the next year one baby step at a time.

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Carson Pass Skiing

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 21:24:40 GMT

Carson Pass

December 28, 2019

Late this past spring, Henrique - who I’m convinced is some outdoor fairy who appears when I need to learn a new skill - gave me a pair of skis he’d bought secondhand and never used, plus a pair of ski boots that had been passed between him and at least one other person but didn’t fit anyone quite right. It took me most of the year to finally use them, but it did happen within the year.

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Red Rocks - November 21-27, 2019

Tue, 31 Dec 2019 20:48:52 GMT

Red Rock

November 21-27, 2019

Routes Climbed:
Band Camp
Smooth Operator
Quick Draw (The photos on Mountain Project are a bit conflicting. We thought there might be some routes in that section of the wall that haven’t been added, but what we did was around 5.8 in difficulty.)
Black Coral (Secret guide route - no Mountain Project page)
Chocolate Sunday
Topless Twins
Straight Shooter

I don’t think I’m ever going to be completely satisfied with anything I do, but I sure wasn’t expecting to allocate an entire week for a Red Rocks trip only to end up leading 4 pitches of trad and 2 sport. It was largely due to the weather, but also in part due to lack of motivation.

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Yosemite Valley - Oct 19-20, 2019

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 18:38:16 GMT

Yosemite Valley

October 19-20, 2019

Climb	Grade	Pitches	Type
Aid Route	5.11b (C1-ish?)	1	Aid
Jamcrack	5.9	2	Trad (swapped leads)
Absolutely Free, Center	5.9	5	Trad (swapped leads)
Positively 4th Street	5.9	1	Trad

Ben was going to the Valley to climb with Tyler, so I asked if he’d give me a ride to climb with Lani. We left on Friday evening - for once - arriving on Hardin Flat Road about 10 pm. Ben and Tyler were doing the Steck-Salathe on Saturday, so they started at the trailhead at 5 am. After about an hour of waiting for it to be time for normal people to wake up, I met Lani at Curry Village and we slowly started our day. It was cold, and I think we’re mutually not terribly motivated to touch rocks when it’s cold.

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Mt Humphreys & Yosemite Valley

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 03:56:53 GMT

Bishop & Yosemite Valley

October 11-14, 2019

Climb	Grade	Pitches	Type
Mt Humphreys - East Arete (Strava)	”5.4”	1 mile	Solo
Super Slide	5.9	5	Trad

I’d planned to do Mt Humphreys as part of my preparation for Saber Ridge. A flat tire on my way over to Bishop put a hold on that. I ended up not making time to do the route before our Saber deadline. My idea was to take a short rope for the downclimbs, but first to try and solo them. Scrambling in the Cathedral Range the previous summer, my partner had remarked that something we downclimbed was about 5.6, to which I replied that that was impossible, as I barely even up-climbed 5.7! During that conversation, I realized that my idea of my climbing limit is what I feel I could comfortably reverse, on account of I do a lot of getting lost on long, wandering routes. Frequently on that kind of scrambling outing, I come to a short downclimb that occasionally has death-fall potential (looking at you, Matthes) and initially think there’s no way I can safely do it. After Ben patiently points out the footholds to me, I can generally do it just fine. With two short (10-foot) 5.6 or 5.7 downclimbs on blocky granite, this seemed like a good opportunity to see if I could talk myself into figuring out the beta for myself for once.

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Saber Ridge Traverse

Wed, 23 Oct 2019 03:55:09 GMT

Saber Ridge Traverse - LYD Grant Trip

September 28-29, 2019

Activity	Time (Duration)	Mileage	Elevation Gain
Approach	12:15 pm - 8:15 pm (8:00)	16.0 mi	5,100’
Climb (Attempt)	7:15 am - 1 pm (5:45)	4.3 mi	1,800’
Descent	1:45 pm - 9 pm (7:15)	16.7 mi	3,200’

At the very least, I can say I learned some things. Not so much about climbing, but about planning and about myself. There were two main factors in my decision-making process for the trip date. The first was that permit quota season ended September 21; the second was that my partner would be out of the state until late September. I chose to gamble a little on the date and plan our trip for the last weekend in September, since September/October in the Sierras is often still good weather for climbing.

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Eastern Sierra - September 21-22, 2019

Fri, 27 Sep 2019 07:39:14 GMT

Eastern Sierra

September 21-22, 2019

Activity	Time (Duration)	Mileage	Elevation Gain
Basin Mountain (turned at Horton Lake)	8:55 am - 1:25 pm (4:30)	8.5 mi	2,140’
Grouse Mountain (4th class this time)	2:15 pm - 5:45 pm (3:30)	3.3 mi	1,425’
Clouds Rest from Tenaya Lake (the far side)	10:35 am - 5:20 pm (6:45)	15.6 mi	3,280’

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Bear Valley

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 14:21:48 GMT

Bear Valley

September 14-15, 2019

For the last guiding activity of the season, I worked one (1) day at Bear Valley for a Boy Scout event. There were a few older boys who picked up belaying and rappelling reasonably well, but for the most part we just pretended that the 11-year-olds had any kind of competence while we actively backed up everything they did.

Matt belaying Sam during the Learn to Lead class ( Read More )

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Pine Creek Canyon & Bishop

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 14:16:00 GMT

Eastern Sierra

August 30 - September 2, 2019

Climb	Grade	Pitches	Type
Sheila	5.10b	1	Trad (follow)
Flame Thrower	5.11c	1	Sport (toproped)
The Main Line	5.10b	10	Trad (swapped leads)

(In which I don’t take a single picture the entire weekend)

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Tuolumne & Yosemite Valley

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 14:10:41 GMT

Tuolumne & Yosemite Valley

August 17-18. 2019

Climb	Grade	Pitches	Type
Guide Cracks 4	5.5	1	Trad (lead)
Guide Cracks 1	5.8	1	Trad (lead)
Bachar Cracker	V4	--	Boulder

Guide Cracks 4
Note that I am actually leading despite the pink rope also hanging in front of me ( Read More )

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Mt Whitney - August 10-12, 2019

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 01:02:14 GMT

Mt Whitney

August 10-12, 2019

Shadow - Whitney Mountaineer’s Route 3-Day with Neil
Clients: 2 perfectly agreeable guys and the most unagreeable woman I’ve ever been on a trip with.
Summitted with 2 clients; one stayed around camp

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Tuolumne Area Climbing

Fri, 16 Aug 2019 20:51:36 GMT

Tuolumne Area Climbing

August 3-5, 2019

Routes Climbed:

The Backbone (Ellery Ridges) solo 5.7, 1500’
Zee Tree (led crux slab pitch) 5.7, 6p
Matthes Crest 5.7, 2500’
Laurel Mountain (bailed) Easy 5th

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Mt Shasta - Summer 2019

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:45:53 GMT

Shasta “Guiding”

Summer 2019

In the interest of recording all my outdoor activities so I can remember them later, this is my summer summary of Shasta:

May 25-17 - Shadowed Scott & Alex w/ 6 clients (storm, turned around)
June 15-16 - Shadowed Adrian w/ 4 clients (turned around with 1 client)
June 29-30 - Shadowed Caleb w/ 3 clients (summitted, short-roped 1 client)
July 20-21 - Shadowed Caleb w/ 4 clients (turned around with 2 clients)
July 26 - Solo dayhike Shasta via Avalanche Gulch (summitted)
July 27-29 - Adventure Treks trip w/ 6 kids and 2 counselors (summitted with 4 people from various groups)
July 30-31 - JH Ranch trip w/ 6 kids and 1 counselor (summitted with the entire group)

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Phantom Spires, June 23, 2019

Thu, 08 Aug 2019 06:05:15 GMT

Phantom Spires

June 23, 2019

Went to Phantom Spires. Flashed YTP’s proj (largely out of spite). Now I just need to get good enough to actually lead it.

Routes Climbed:

North Ridge (P2 5.5 “trad”)
Over Easy (5.7 “trad”)
The Prow (5.10a/b sport)
Candyland (5.10c toprope)

Declined the opportunity to go questing up an undeveloped route (knowing that things always look lower angle from below than when you’re actually climbing them) after some well-meaning but clueless stranger on the ground with a guidebook told me that the anchors for The Prow were actually to the right. Cried the entire time but sent it anyway.

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Yosemite - Clouds Rest (Again) & Royal Arches

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 04:09:06 GMT

Yosemite Valley

May 10-12, 2019

I’d like to think I’ve finally learned my lesson about using Tinder to find climbing partners, but I’ll probably do it again at some point. After asking multiple times to make sure he really didn’t have any other partners he could possibly employ for the task, I agreed to attempt Royal Arches and Crest Jewel Direct in a day with Austin - 30 pitches for his 30th birthday. The thing about CJD is it’s 10d slab. I wasn’t sure if he climbed 10d slab, but having failed to get past the crux of a 10a slab (outside of the Valley) on a toprope last summer, I was sure I didn’t.

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Eastern Sierra - April 19-21, 2019

Sun, 05 May 2019 21:15:04 GMT

Eastern Sierra

April 19-21, 2019

Last year I posted a photo of myself standing triumphantly atop Mt San Jacinto with the caption, “Every now and then, bite off more than you can chew.” At the time I was sure that’s what I’d done. On Sunday as I turned around on Mt Tom, completely defeated, I realized I’d had no idea what biting off more than you can chew meant.

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Zion & Red Rocks

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 18:44:44 GMT

Zion & Red Rocks

March 29 - April 1, 2019

I’ve decided I’m not bad at plans, my plans just undergo many revisions before their final version. Originally Lani and I had the idea that if I flew into Las Vegas and she picked me up from there, the flights would be cheaper than gas anyway, and I’d save time flying instead of driving. The weekend we decided on was the weekend she was flying back to Salt Lake City from visiting her family on the East Coast and didn’t know exactly what her schedule would be, so my plan changed to flying into SLC. SLC was more expensive, but it would ensure we started from the same place at the same time and allow us to stop in Zion on the way to Red Rocks.

Angels Landing ( Read More )

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Freel Peak and Sugarloaf

Fri, 05 Apr 2019 19:40:11 GMT

Freel Peak and Sugarloaf

March 23-24, 2019

Online dating can be a great way to meet hiking and climbing partners. It can also be a great way to meet people who are less than ideal hiking and climbing partners. This one seemed to be the first, but ended up feeling like the latter. After one date at the climbing gym, Austin and I planned a trip to do a ski/snowshoe of something in the Tahoe area. We decided on Freel Peak as something that would be a long enough day to be challenging, but shouldn’t have much in the way of hazardous terrain. Since we had another day in the weekend, we planned to climb at Sugarloaf on Sunday.

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Tahoe - March 8-11, 2019

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 21:16:26 GMT

Tahoe, March 8-11, 2019

The chance to get back to pretending to be an alpeener eventually presented itself when I had a free weekend that coincided with okay weather in the Tahoe area. I of course planned far too ambitiously. There are several hikes I'd like to do that are easily accessed along I-80. Despite the good weather for the weekend, the Donner Summit Sno-Park wasn't plowed (I found out later it stayed unplowed due to a number of buried vehicles), and other access points in the vicinity seemed to be similarly unavailable. I wasn't terribly excited to do a lot of driving on unknown roads in the dark, so, for the first time in my life, I left without an itinerary. I'd spent a few minutes on Thursday writing out a tentative trip schedule, but when I found that Donner parking was inaccessible, I just gave up and decided I couldn't possibly find nothing to do in an area surrounded by snowy peaks.

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There and Back Again: Pinnacles Boundary-to-Boundary Dayhike

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 01:41:42 GMT

Pinnacles Boundary-to-Boundary Dayhike

March 4, 2019

After joking that even if Pinnacles did allow backpacking, it would be too small since we could walk across the park and back in a day, I had no choice but to actually do it. It’s actually too small even to walk across the shortest possible way. From the Chaparral picnic area to the Old Pinnacles trailhead is a mere 3.3 miles each way. Well, if I was trying to go big or stay home, what about from park boundary to park boundary? I was worried that might be a bit too ambitious, but CalTopo showed it to be 10 ½ miles each way. It would be full day with the 4 hours of driving, but not A Long Day.

East Park entrance sign ( Read More )

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Big Sur Backpacking - February 10-11, 2019

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 04:55:44 GMT

Big Sur Backpacking

February 10-11, 2019

“I don’t know why the NOAA forecast said it was going to snow here. We’re right next to the ocean and only at like 3000’.”

I think the reason my hips are so flexible is because I put my foot in my mouth so damn much. ( Read More )

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AIARE 1 - January 19-21, 2019

Sat, 26 Jan 2019 00:01:56 GMT

AIARE 1 - Decision Making in Avalanche Terrain

January 19-21, 2019

In contrast with the two other courses I’ve taken in the past year, AIARE 1 was much less stressful. At the end of their presentations, the instructors frequently asked things like “Ok, who’s more confused now than you were before the course?” I didn’t feel suddenly proficient an avalanche terrain safety, but through every step of the course, I felt like I was understanding what they were teaching, and had a good idea of how I’d incorporate that into my backcountry travel. Of course, I’m a snowshoer looking for the easiest way up and down, not a skier looking to get into steeper terrain, but overall the concepts were logical and straightforward. Not that everyone’s questions reflected my feelings.

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2018 Year in Review

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 23:21:34 GMT

#goals 2018

If I bend (ok, maybe break) the rules, I met my 2018 goals. In December 2017, I decided I was going to do more sport climbing. 28 routes 5.7 or harder in a year didn’t seem that daunting if I could do 10 in a single weekend. It turns out that sport cragging isn’t really my passion, and isn’t something I just accidentally find myself doing. I do frequently find myself accidentally going on solo hiking trips in the eastern Sierra. On December 14, 2017 I did the first of the sport climbs that I started keeping track of; on December 10, 2018, I did the last one that I’m counting toward this goal. I never actually specified whether I needed to send a climb for it to count, but after initially sending everything I tried, I was assuming all my climbs would be sends.

Top 9: first photo was the culmination of my physical and mental training for the season; second photo was a hazy picture of Half Dome from the Curry Village parking lot. ( Read More )

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Tahoe - January 4-7, 2019

Sun, 20 Jan 2019 03:14:18 GMT

Martis Peak - January 5, 2019

In an effort to not repeat my current predicament of getting to the end of the December and thinking, “What the hell did I climb this year?” I’ve decided to make at least a brief post about everything I do outside - beyond the Bay Area, anyway.

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