I began this adventure with a 3 day class (work-related) in San Jose, CA. This is where the old friends come in.. It was here that I met up with a former co-worker (entirely coincidental) and we head into San Francisco to eat seafood downtown and hopefully meet up with a high school friend of mine. Chris unfortunately never makes it. You see he's a recently graduated attorney and as all new attorneys are, being worked to death, he's in a trial all day, then a deposition until 8pm. His girlfriend locks herself out of the apt. and we never get the chance to meet up. As he said.. "The day from hell!" This is the second time I've been in the bay area this year and last time I was too busy to meet up with him.. oh well, maybe the third time will go?

I finish off my class the next day then it's off to John's house after swapping rental cars. "So you have a coupon for a double upgrade?".. yeah right try to get a double upgrade with a coupon on a holiday, world cup weekend, the people at the counter just look at me like I'm from another planet and give me the picked over scraps of Detroit steel left in the rental lot. John and Sabine are great people, and are letting me stay there Thursday night before Karen comes in Friday for our trip to the Valley. I get to John's house without too much trouble and pretty soon two more guests arrive. They are friends of Johns colleague in Munich. So John and I are going out to dinner with three rather attractive women this evening. "Great vacation so far!" I think to myself as we head to dinner in Los Gatos, where the Brazillian soccer fans are headquartered.

The town is pretty crazy, but everyone keeps telling us "You should have been here last weekend!" We get a table after a short wait and order dinner. One of the women in our group speaks Portuguese (Int'l Marketing/Business) and she strikes up a conversation with the table of Brazillian ticket scalpers next to us! :) Here I am with two women speaking German, one Portuguese and all John and I can do is look at each other kind of nod in agreement. (He speaks French, but no one's using that language at the moment) Our 'friend' from Brazil says he'll sell the ladies tickets for the US vs Brazil match at the low low price of $100 a piece. At the same time his buddy is attempting to hawk the same seats to a table of Italians behind us for $200+ a seat. The whole thing was pretty amusing. We head home after dinner and crash around midnight. John is phoned in on some conference call and ends up working until 2am or so.

The next day John's off to work and I spend a good portion of the morning visiting with Sabine. She's a freelance writer for a German Personal Computer magazine. She met John while he was in Munich and it MUST have been true love as he eventually invited her back to the states. She is working as a foreign correspondent over here now and has a PhD in Meteorology. She said she used to be a "Weather Person" on television in Germany, but "all they care about" she said is the "length of your skirt and how you're hair looks..! Not if you know that much about the weather" :) We head over and meet John for lunch then I take off to do the shopping for a weeks worth of rations for Karen and I. The prices in the store are half again what they are in Arizona.. go figure, welcome to Silicon Valley I guess? So with the shopping completed I'm packed and ready and off to the airport in record time.

Karen arrives a bit late and we're off to Yosemite. This will be a first for us. One of our first big climbing trips together and in fact one our first long vacation together. Will she be able to stand me for 10 days? Will we get many climbs done? what about her knees? Will I be able to get her to sleep outside for 7 nights in a row? In Camp 4? Will she be able to handle going 8 days with only 2 showers? The drive to the valley ALWAYS takes to long,.. must be the anticipation of the event and all, I don't know but 3.5 hours later we arrive at the "Secret Spot" (no more than a wide spot in the road) just outside of Yosemite National park.

Saturday... Glacier Pt. Apron and El Cap:

Next morning.. we're up and into the park by 7 or so, and we stop at the pullout across from Curry Village. I've never climbed at Glacier Point Apron so we've picked that as our first destination. We find the trail up to the wall just past Happy Isles with a bit of backtracking, then slog up the hill. It's already getting hot.. hmmmm

We want to get on "The Grack" a nice 5.6 route. I figured this would be a good warmup since neither of us had been climbing for a couple of weeks, and besides it has 3 stars to boot! After getting our bearings and running back and forth around the base for awhile we finally decide where the route is and I head up the 3rd class stuff to the start of the first pitch. The crack is great, some good pro, a nice angle, to a sloping, uncomfortable hanging belay. Guess you cant have everything. Karen comes up, then I head up the next pitch. This one is a bit harder, still not bad, but we're both baking now as the sun reflects off the rock. Karen's a "warm weather" climber but this is even too warm for her! We arrive at the rap station at the top just after a couple from the UK, who had climbed the 5.9 version of The Grack. Nice folks, Steve and Catherine, were on their honeymoon and on their first route in the states. They mention something about Snake Dike a 5.7 route on Half-Dome and I mention that we are planning on doing that climb the following day. "So are we!" Catherine exclaims.. "What time are you getting started?"

Oh no.. already the one question I NEVER like answering.. somehow I manage to tactfully get her to tell me THEIR starting time without divulging ours. ;) I say.. "Why yes that is a good time.. it's a long approach and I would start no later than that" ;) Thank goodness their time is an hour after ours! You see, Karen is not blessed with the best knees in the world and I'm sure we wouldn't be surpassing the time of last years approach, (3.25 hours) or descent (2.5 hours) when I bagged the same route with Greg Opland. Once the other party is off the first rap we descend. On the way down from the rappel, I hear this.. "Hey.. is that Tim Schneider?" booming up from below.. It's Eric Coomer. (you cant swing a dead cat these days...!) He's down from a successful solo 4 day ascent of The Prow on Washington Column and taking the day to climb with his girlfriend before heading home. He tells me he has managed to hook up with another partner for the following weekend for an attempt at Lurking Fear (another wall route) on El Capitan. We talk for awhile longer, then we head out as the suns reflection from the Apron's polished granite is taking its toll on our thirsts and our motivation. We hit the car for some cold drinks, then head over to the base of El Cap. I've never walked up to the base of this huge chunk of granite before, so we picked out a couple of routes to do just to say we "climbed on El Cap". Karen kept staring up at the walls, a bit overwhelmed by the size of the enormous cliff. We reach the base and look up, immediately spying a party just above the Boot Flake and another on their way up Freeblast. We watch them for a bit then start up Pine Line a nice short 5.7. The route proves interesting for 5.7 , not too bad, but it just looks so whimpy and small compared to the size and scale of El Cap. It appears that I only climb 40 feet when in fact the route is nearly 75-80 feet long. I bring Karen up then we rap back off, collect our gear then head out to the Arch Rock entrance where we make dinner, organize the car and all our gear (for an early start in the morning) then drive out of the park and FINALLY get to bed, (not so early), for our next days adventure.

Sunday... Half Dome/Snake Dike:

Up at 3:30am so much for sleep eh? This hike is long, with a steep final section up to the base. It will be physically challenging for both of us and I want to make sure we have enough time to enjoy the route and NOT have to hurry or come down in the dark. We're at happy isles and hiking about 4:15 to 4:30. Immediately the trail steepens and we slow to a comfortable hiking pace. The hours tick by and soon we're at the turnoff just before you drop into Little Yosemite Valley. Up, Up then over and back down.. circling around Lost Lake, we loose 15-20 mins when I go to far and we have to backtrack back and up to head below the massively arched south face of half-dome. At this point Karen starts to run out of energy and has to stop for a bit to eat.. Whats that? I hear voices! It's our friends from England again! Damn.. now it's a race and my partner is in no condition to hike fast! We move up the slabs in a vain attempt to stay in the lead. Karen is a bit dizzy as her carbs haven't kicked in yet and asks for a belay across one particularly tricky section. I uncoil the rope as we loose the lead to the English couple.. I get a bit impatient at this point, but begin feeling better as I see them head up the wrong direction then begin to backtrack. Alright! we're in the lead again.. but not for long as we come to another section with a bit of low 5th class. We take our place in line on the way to the base. Karen and I stay lower than the other party circling around before heading up to the base. This strategy works well as they hike right on past the route! We're back in the lead again! I get to the base and holler for Karen that I'm at the route. The other party can only watch from 100 yards away with a dismayed look on their faces as we drop our packs, first ones there! :) But now I have a dilemma.. Karen needs more food as she's still feeling a bit dizzy so it will take us a bit of time to get started. The English couple were pretty decent climbers (as evidenced from the prior day on the Apron) so as I was pointing out the first pitch to him (Steve) I said.. "How about you all going first.. Karen would like to eat something and there's no sense waiting on us! Think of it as a wedding present." Steve was quite suprised by this considering they had hiked by us twice and we still beat them to the base (prior beta), but graciously accepted. They headed on up as we took our place in "the queue" (we were to learn more 'proper' English this weekend :) behind them.

This first pitch was as I remembered (except this time I got to lead it!) A nice early morning wakeup call on a 5.7 friction move with your last piece a good 30-40 feet below you. This was over quickly and I headed up to the belay. The next pitch I did differently this time and after clearing the fixed pin and bolt, I traversed straight over to the dike. This was a bit easier then before and I ran it out to the belay (like I had a choice?). Here that I should have read the topo because I belayed too soon at a double bolt anchor. This got us off sync with the rest of the pitches and screwed us up later when I ended up downclimbing a third of one of the upper pitches (6th?) in order to belay at a single bolt mid-pitch.. duh? Karen followed up the second pitch, still moving a bit slowly. The long approach had taken it's toll. We would be fine today, but what about all the other long routes we intended to do? I was getting a bit worried about this, but kept these thoughts to myself. This was her second day of climbing in Yosemite and her first ever trip up half dome. The rest of the climb went well as we worked our way up the dike, hitting the final 5th class pitch when all of the sudden we heard voices from down below! No way.. that party had just started only two pitches ago! This couple from the SAR team was out for their afternoon jaunt. They had belayed the first 2 pitches, but stared simul climbing soon after that and caught us in under 20 minutes. Karen was quite amazed with this (first time it's ever happened to her on a route) We left our SAR friends there eating their lunch at the last ledge as we stared our own "simulclimbing" on the upper "2nd class friction forever" pitches.

This is the longest most tiring part of the day.. this stuff goes on and on and on..! If you look at half-domes SW face from Glacier Point Overlook, you see that Snake Dike only gets you half-way up the SW face of the dome. You do the majority of the distance on the upper 2nd class friction. We simulclimbed it with me placing and occasional piece and stopping every once in awhile to bring Karen up to me and collect gear. Awesome.. we're on top! We wander around for awhile and I head over to the very most overhanging edge of the vison, place a couple of cams and lean over the edge to take in the exposure of the steep NW face. WOW! I can see the thank God ledge down there.. a party way below.. pretty cool, the exposure is very unnerving. We pack up our stuff and head down the cables with hikers are still coming up.. it's late in the day, hope they have lights! We trudge and trudge all the way back down past the falls, down the endless steps of the Mist Trail and hit the valley floor before it gets dark. What a long approach/descent! I feel so tired every time I've done this.. (twice now) We desperately want showers in Curry Village, but the lines are just too long and I'd rather just crash then face a 45 minute wait in line so we head to the park entrance, cleaning up a bit in the bathrooms, then drive back out to the secret spot for a good nights rest and a chance to sleep in the next morning.

Rest Day - July 4th:

Ahhh.. rest day.. we doze until past 7am before we toss our bags and thermarests in the car and head into the park. I know we are up late this time as we're greeted at the Arch Rock entrance by the friendly ranger. Yep it's after 7am, I think to myself as I whip out my Golden Eagle Pass and he waves us on through. This pass is definitely a good deal, I would pay $50 for it and still not blink an eye. This trip alone we would save $10 not to mention the times it has been used at the Grand Canyon this year ($20) and at least once at Joshua Tree ($5), once at Walnut Canyon National Monument ($3). For $25 it has been money well spent.

Showers! Finally it has calmed down (somewhat) in Curry Village and we take our dutiful places in line. After 3 days the warm water feels great! We then proceed to the Yosemite Lodge cafeteria where a huge breakfast awaits, then onto some shopping, well okay much shopping.. we hit every store probably twice looking for just the right t-shirt and or other tourist trinkets, and post-cards for friends. This is followed by an ice run then a trip up to Glacier Point for some great views and a beautiful sunset.

We head back down into the valley as it grows dark then wander into the Mountain Room Bar for some coffee and a sandwich. Jo Croft (Peter Crofts ex) waits on us. She sees my FISH gear sweatshirt and asks me if I know Mr. FISH (Russ Walling) himself (you cant swing a dead cat...) I say well er uh.. "Yeah, but only electronically".. then explained that we've exchanged email a few times. She said "Well tell him hello.. We haven't seen him around here in ages." All this, as Karen works on postcards to send to relatives back in Tennessee and Florida.

Goob goes to Camp 4:"

Where to sleep tonight? We are growing weary of the drive out every night so I talk Karen into heading to Camp 4 (Sunnyside) to check out open spots there. It's Monday and the sign-up roster is pretty empty, as we arrive and make one trip through, walking around in the dark. A couple of spots look good and uncrowded so I convince Karen to just crash here for the night, (a bit of coercion helped here (i.e. handing her the car keys :-)

We wander through Camp 4 like a couple of homeless people with our sleeping bags, thermarests and pillows until we find the site we spied initially. Fortunately it's pretty quiet in Camp 4 as we quickly fade off to sleep, dreaming of the coming days up in Tuolumne.

Camp 4 arises sleepily, slowly.. a group behind us looks like they've just gotten down from El Cap, possibly the party we saw 2-3 days earlier? I grab the camera to get the classic shot of Karen in Camp 4 waking up with the pile of gear and haul-bags in the background. (it didn't turn out that well, she wouldn't let me make a print from the slide, go figure? :) We organize the Buick Century (our home for the week) what a piece of crap car! The seats didn't recline, one of the AC vents broke, guess that's what happens when you try to get a double upgrade on 4th of July/world cup weekend. We pile in as newcomers arrive and wait in line in order to stay at the "Sunnyside Hotel" and we're off to Tuolumne!

The Meadows:

Karen occupies herself with the Tuolumne guidebooks as I do my best Mario Andretti impersonation on The long windy drive up 120. Soon we start seeing the large slabs and quickly are greeted by the view back down the valley from Olmstead Point. Yes! the Meadows.. we're here!

We try to pick out the various domes as we make our way towards the main part of Tuolumne. Past Tenya lake, past Fairview dome and the Meadow itself. We cruise past the Tuolumne meadows store and see a fellow sitting out front that looks strangely enough like a local Arizona climber (John Ficker) It's good we decided to get up here early as we stop in and get a campsite in the main campground. $12 per night is pretty steep for nothing more than a dirt site with a bear proof food container, a picnic table and a fire pit, but we take it, glad for a place to actually call "home" for the next few nights. We get our assigned spot and listen to the obligatory lecture on "DA Bears!" by Miss Michelle Millet rangerette extraordinare. The tent goes up quickly in the only level spot in the site, two departing climbers (in the next site over) from Seattle 'will' us the rest of their white gas and a box of firewood before leaving, so we stash that and we're off. Our objective, Stately Pleasure Dome.

I've wanted to check this dome out ever since I watched that Yosemite Climber video... the one with Johnny Woodward and Herman Wing? Where they warm up on South Crack, a nice 5.8 which overlooks Tenya Lake and sits across right above the highway, from Tenya Peak. We follow this other fellow up. He is from Austin, Tx. and is climbing with this gal for the first time. (I think they hooked up via the bulletin board in camp or something) We wait for him to get well on his way leading the second pitch before we head up. The first pitch starts out great, then quickly turns to nice thin fingers. It's a bit awkward and the Tuolumne glacial polish seems quite slick at first. I try to relax as I find myself placing pro at close intervals through the crux section. A few more moves and it eases up and I find myself upon a pin in the crack and what looks to be the best (not that great) spot to belay. I fix the belay at the awkward stance and bring Karen up. She gets a little beta from above through the crux section then does is without a hitch, soon joining me at the belay. From here I'm not exactly sure where the route goes. Up and right? or Up and left.. Right looks easier, topo appears to point to the right so off I go, a little bit thin but not too bad, I gain the crack and it soon eases off some into more moderate climbing. This pitch was way cool (not quite as hard as the first, those guys in the video made it look so easy) and now I'm really starting to enjoy myself. Such a great place after the heat and the dust and the crowds in the valley.. I want to run up this thing, and go sunbathe on the shores of the lake when we're finished! Karen makes it up this pitch faster and then I cruise up the 5.6 section. This portion reminds me of a route here in the Phoenix area.. in fact it's nearly identical but it's rated 5.5! From here I'm faced with the 5.7R portion of the route.. oh boy.. I wasn't ready for friction with a 40-50 foot runout above the okay but not "bomber" belay stance. I cast off and soon I'm 15 feet, 20 feet 20 feet out. The climbing is not that hard, just a bit unerving as I cast my fate to the the gods of the glacial polish and Spanish (boreal) rubber. Welcome to Tuolumne! I wander over and clip a long runner to a 1/4" bolt, this confidence booster? gets me quickly to a good cam placement and ready to face the final runout before the next belay. I'm getting used to this now and the last bit goes well.. "just move slowly and no one will get hurt, right?" The next pitch says "4th class" This is somewhat a misnomer as towards the top there is a solid 5.6 friction move if you don't pay attention to wandering around and taking the easiest line.. oh yeah did I also mention that there is no pro on this pitch? The final pitch to the top (there were 6 in all) only has a 25 foot runout above the belay to some crack systems. These you follow all the way to the top.

We made it! great climb.. great introduction to the area, with just enough difficulty to keep it interesting but not so hard that it scared the s**t out of us. Now for the descent, 2nd and 3rd class friction slabs. Oh boy! After seeing how the 2nd class friction on Half-Dome made Karen nervous I was worried about getting off this thing. We headed on over and around and down, taking a fairly easy way, but not the shortest way back down to the ground. From here we just followed the road back to the car. Not bad, 6 pitches in about 3 hours. Not record setting by any means, but a good warmup for the following day on Fairview Dome.

We head back to our campsite.. "Hey did you hear about the bear?" as we waited in line (new people arriving), the campground host told us all about the bear that chased the poor folks out of camp that day. Seems they were eating dinner and had their food storage locker opened. The bear quietly came into camp and started rummaging through the cooler and other items that were sitting in the storage container (not locked). All this while the group was preparing dinner! Then the bear had to be maced not only once but TWICE to get it to run from the camp.

Interesting story which helped pass the time while we waited in line. So we get to the entrance booth and Michelle Millet.. (rangerette in training) says..

MM: "Did you guys hear about the bear?"

Us: "Well, yes we did!" (in our best bud light voice :)

MM: "Seems that this bear came into camp and...[long bear story deleted] (me thinking to myself.. "Hello McFly is anyone in there?")

"And of course they were cited for improper storage"

What a crack up...! I know it's a real problem, but geeze please tell us the bear story again? We want to hear it for the 12th TIME! By the way.. didya hear about DA Bear!?

Anyways, after a bit of delay we got to camp, and made our spaghetti dinner. We were careful to follow proper food storage procedures in fear of being "cited" :-) We finished off the bottle of 'vino' then did dishes and sort the gear for an early start in the morning. I had heard so many horror stories about waiting in line for this route and I wanted to be first in the "queue" the next morning. We set the alarm for 6am and planned on starting hiking from the parking area for Fairview Dome by 6:30am at the latest.

The Regular Route on Fairview:

Well, the best laid plans... you guessed it, the alarm fails to go off and its already 6:30am! It's also COLD outside. (we found out later that the evening low was 28 degrees!) So we sleep in a bit longer until 7am. A quick pop tart some water.. brrr it's cold out! and we head out of the campsite, arriving at the parking area around 8:10am. Well, looks like we're not first on the route. A large white van is parked there already.. great I think to myself. It's a class or an outing or something. I expect to see a group of 4-6 when we arrive at the base. We make it up to the base after about 20 mins. of hiking and we're the second ones there with only a party of two above us! I quickly flake the rope out at the base of the slabs as we get ready to go. The party above is just finishing the first pitch and moving rather slowly. We end up waiting until they are well on their way to the second pitch before beginning. About this time 2 other climbers show up. They turn out to be really cool, and offer to run some of Karens extra clothes and water back down to the base of the slabs for her. The one guy put it this way.. "What else do we have to do?".

I finish the first pitch (actually we skipped the first belay stance and made it to the tree at the ledge (actually the second belay). To do this you need at least a 55m rope, a 60m rope would be even better. For some strange reason, as I near this ledge, the leader above informs me that it's a terrible belay, there's no pro there except a crappy flake and a loose tree. Hmmm.. I decide to take my chances and I head up anyways. The tree is totally solid and the flake is okay too? I can't figure out why the party above suggested that the belay was poor? We're they sandbagging us? Were they trying to slow us down? It didn't really matter as they started speeding up at that point and we never came caught them again that day.

Karen follows up the first pitch, having a bit of difficulty due to the pack which has both pairs of approach shoes some extra clothes and our water. She arrives at the belay pretty quickly though and I start off on the second long pitch. The plan is to run all the way up to the hanging belay. With a 55m rope this is possible. The party below us decides to break up the pitches as their rope is the standard length (50m) This is good, it gives us a bit of breathing room now. The hanging belay is quite cramped and it's hard to organize the rope and the stance well. Karen comes up and we get switched over and I start off again, but unfortunately, the rope snags up a bit and it takes a good 5 minutes to get it straight.. I'm glad this is the last hanging belay! Karen does a great job of straightening out the mess and soon I'm at a nice ledge and bring her up.

The climbing is getting easier now, belay ledges are nice and big, ahh comfy. From here, I move up past the block for a move of 5.8 to another ledge, here we've gained the huge crescent that takes us up for a couple more pitches. The party behind us is catching up again. Karen gets to spend a few minutes at each belay in conversation with them. Paul and Terry were great. They did have to wait probably a total of 15-20 mins on us, but neither seemed to mind. Paul had climbed the route over 12 years before. I was impressed by the size (small) of his rack. Hexes and stoppers only.. , I felt like I had an El Cap rack on in comparison! Both were quite good climbers. Paul was a painter who worked at a nearby ski area (Badger Pass?) and Terry was a gardener who sold produce in Lee Vining and other nearby towns.

I head up on the final 5.7 pitch, bring Karen up, then rerack and head up and across the 5.5 traverse. This is kind of sketchy in spots (harder than 5.5 in a few places and not great pro to safegard the second on the traverse) but goes okay, and Karen follows after a bit of hesitation (she hates traverses!) It was here that Paul finally catches up with me and sets his belay up and off to the side. It was neat to talk with him finally and put a face with the name, I'd been hearing the entire route. (he'd been hanging out at the belays with Karen for the last few pitches) Paul commented that the route hadn't changed much in the last 12 years. He said he was involved with several of the original first ascents of some of the Meadow's routes in previous years of but now most of his old partners don't climb anymore. (due to getting old, kids, wives etc:) He and his partner were really laid back, you couldn't of asked for a better group to be in front of. Now that we had hit the 4th class, you pretty much could climb anywhere, so I headed off and Paul followed on a slightly different line. We kind of leapfrogged for another pitch until they passed us for good about 250 feet from the top. As I brought Karen up for the final pitch, Paul looked over the top and waved before they headed down. Great guys, one of the reasons I really like climbing, you get to meet some really cool people. Karen and I finish the final pitch, take a few moments to relax on the summit then head down. Oh boy.. another Tuolumne 2nd/3rd class friction descent! We pick our way down slowly and are soon circling around the backside of the dome, back around, toward the base of the route. A short run back up, to pick up our stash at the base, then we're headed to the car. Not a speed ascent by any means, but pretty respectable. Karen has bagged one of North America's 50 classics and her longest route to date.

Back in camp we make dinner and decide that we want to stay another night, but what to do? We want to try Cathedral Peak the next day, but we need to extend our reservation for another night and also do some laundry in the next day or two. We opt for a rest day (although we are still both jazzed from the Regular Route.. and don't feel that tired), so with our plans set, we get some sleep.

Rest day:

Next morning we're up early to stand in line for the campsite we're already in. With that chore out of the way, we head down to the Visitors Center for a look around. One the way back we stop in at the Mountaineering School's Climbing Shop and get some beta on Cathedral Peak. From here it's to the lodge for showers and to make dinner reservations for that evening (hey we're on vacation! :) Laundry time, oh boy. We head up over Tioga Pass and down into Lee Vining and promptly start pumping the Maytags full of quarters. A few hours later we hit the Tastee-Freeze for some ice cream and then down the hill a bit more to the Mono Lake visitor's center. We look around there for awhile then head back up, over the pass, flip the ranger "the bird" (Golden Eagle pass), then cruise on into Tuolumne Meadows Lodge for dinner. We end up sitting at a table full of "lodgers". A nice congenial atmosphere (sort of like the Phantom Ranch dining hall down at the bottom of the Grand Canyon) By the end of the evening, everyone knows everyone elses business and the talk keeps coming back to climbing. We don't want to dominate the conversation and try to steer questions away but in a way it's kind of cool to talk about climbing and our plans for Cathedral Peak the next day. The fellow beside me keeps saying... "You can get up on top of that?" "There's room up there?" questions along those lines. Sometimes it seems as though we're from a different world, when you get questions like, "You're going to do that in a day?" "A 2 hour hike?.. THEN climb?" They just seem amazed. Anyways, dinner is good, but not worth the $40 bill. If you go, order the burgers instead, which are more reasonable (under $10). We just went more for the experience and to check it out (first time and all) don't know if I would go back as it is overpriced for what you get, unless you stick with the burgers, then it's only "moderately overpriced".

We leave the lodge and head back to camp. Our plan (this time I have the watch set correctly!) is to be up no later than 5:30 and hiking by 6am from the Cathedral Lake trailhead. The weather is warming up and the temperature should be no problem.

Cathedral Peak:

Uuggh! 5:15 comes early as we roll out of the north face firefly 1.5 man tent. 4 nights of sleeping side by side in this thing is starting to wear on us a bit. No matter, we have a "peak to bag". We get ready in record time and we're at the trailhead just before 6am. Upon arriving we find another party leisurely sipping their hot choc. and coffee. Their gear is a bit strewn, there are stoves sitting out on the ground. They eye us suspiciously as we get out. I've already determined they are climbers and they are scrutinizing our every move as we pull our small packs out of the car to see what our motives are. As soon as Karen reached for the Mountainsmith Tyrol, the two fellas spring into action. The stoves are put away, the cups rinsed and they are putting their packs on in a frenzy as we close the trunk lid on the Buick Century! I've *never* seen 2 guys move so quick in my life!.. Of course we have to walk right by them so I ask if their headed for the SE Buttress on Cathedral. They are, so I reply... "Cool we'll follow you on up, do you know the approach?" This relieves some of the tension, as I know Karen is not going to want to 'race' to the base of the route and I've just implied that they aren't in for a "race". (seemed like we were letting people go "first" alot this trip) The one guy answers that he's done the route before, but his partner hasn't. This works out well and he explains some more of the route, descent and approach as we head up.

Now I didn't think we were moving that fast, but Karen says that we were moving at a "Tim and Greg" pace at 6am at 9.5k feet! I look back to see Karen really huffing and puffing. I urge her to keep up until we get to the Bud Creek trail cutoff. We get there and it's obvious that we'll have to slow down some. I catch up again and get them to pause for a minute or two as I get the rest of the beta on the approach. From there, they take off and we enjoy the rest of the hike in. This is a beautiful approach! A bit steep, but it winds along an easy to follow trail (a cow path) which travels right beside Bud Creek. The crisp morning air adds to the hike and soon we're crossing the creek and heading up towards the route. I can make out where the other party is starting (they're about 20 mins ahead by this point) and we trudge up the final steep section to the SE Buttress.

From here, one could pretty much climb anywhere, but we opt to take our time, and follow the party up nearly the same line. They seem to be going slowly at first, but then I realize (as soon as I'm on lead) it's for a reason. While the climbing is not particularly hard, the rock at the bottom of the peak is somewhat rotten and crumbly/grainy in spots. We make short work of the first couple of pitches and begin closing the distance between us and the party above. As we near the pitch before the chimney (the crux) we see the party above for the last time. They were moving more quickly now and would not be a factor. To their credit, they did an excellent job in not knocking off the myriad of loose rocks on the upper ledges (last couple of pitches) If I were to do this route again, I'd probably bring a helmet as I spent a good 5 mins at one belay stance, moving rocks away from the edge and the line of the rope.

The chimney pitch! I'm not climbing no "steenking" chimney pitch with a pack on! Nooo problem mon, when in doubt, face climb! I cruised up the outside of the chimney, just reaching inside of it for good protection placements. This was the most fun pitch of the climb (except for topping out on the summit block) I set the belay, but before I can bring Karen up, a free soloist arrives at her ledge. We let him climb on through and he's quickly on past us, up and out of view. Karen has to do a bit of fancy manuvering as her pack is a bit larger than the one I'm carrying, but she cruises on up and joins me at the belay. >From here it's pretty easy climbing, with a few 5.5-6ish type moves here and there to the top. I think we do 3 more pitches before I arrive just below the summit! I stop just short of the final summit block and bring Karen up. From here its down and around a ways, then straight up some double cracks. Viola! I set several pieces, plus tie off to half of a "sinker mold" (I don't know how else to describe it.. anyone know just what the heck this thing is?) It's an aluminum plate that is just bolted to the summit, strange. Karen climbs up to join me on the summit. The view is awesome as we look over towards Eichorn pinnacle, Cathedral lake, Bud lake, and DOWN on Fairview Dome. A great day with excellent weather! There's some great exposure on the summit, wind's not too bad either... a beautiful day!

I lower Karen off and then tie a sling around the "sinker mold" and thread the rope through. I downclimb the pitch protected from above, then take off around the corner and down. Karen follows and then I belay her down and across the next set of steps. I follow. From here it's kind of confusing which way to go. We know we need to head to our right, then up and back over to whence we came, but there doesn't seem to be a good way to get there! I spy some rap slings and rings around a tree so we opt for that route. In hindsight I don't know if this was the right choice, but rappel we do and then traverse across (not bad I would say 3rd to maybe 4th class in spots. I bring Karen over then drop down once more. We're almost all the way over to Eichorn Pinnacle now, but at least we're below the slabs. Now we hike back across and then up and over. We feel that obviously we missed the "easy" way down, but this gets us there. Now we're back on the correct side of the ridge and the trail becomes apparent, so we stop and change shoes, get out of our harnesses and pack up for the trip down.

The hike down goes more quickly then the approach and soon we reach the stream. At this point we consider heading up to Bud Lake, but nuke it in favor of getting back and cooking dinner before dark. We cruise back by the Meadows store and decide to just go "cold" so we stop and eat at the picnic tables there. We finish up dinner and are just hanging out watching some way honed, 4% body fat, I haven't showered in 3 weeks Sierra backpackers load up, while they discuss the merits of mosquito netting and how the mosquitos in and around the campground are nothing compared to some of the areas that they've just hiked through... what to do? Karen and I are having such a great time here, we don't want to go back. Our original plans were to head back to the Valley, then get up in the morning and do "Nutcracker" before heading back to San Jose. The thought of an hour+ drive then trying to find a place to sleep doesn't thrill me. We just hanging outside the Meadows store when I spy a familiar face... It's our Englishman friend Steve! with a sixer of Budweiser? I thought an English climber would have better taste in beer than that, espescially with the selection available at the Meadows store, but I won't hold it against him :-)

We walk over, exchange the usual greetings then immediately the conversation turns to how the weeks climbing has been going. After awhile he invites us back to their camp to have a beer and more conversation. We walk back through the woods (a good 1/4 mile or so) and reach their campsite in section "C" of the campground) Catherine is there making 'lentil burgers' or some such and attempting to grill corn on the cob. They tell us the story of how they hooked up with some folks from Ireland while they were camped at Lower Pines? in the Valley. The Irish had turned them onto BBQ one night, so the next day they immediately went down to the store and picked up some charcoal and a small wire grate and had been grilling out every night since.. Hmmm all those horror stories about English cuisine must be true eh? 8^)

We have a great evening.. sitting around swapping stories. Climbing is great in that you get to meet the coolest people, and there is always this common thread of experience that each shares. Steve works in the UK for an importer and distributor of climbing equipment primarily as the rep for Entreprise (climbing holds). He also is a climbing wall designer/builder. Catherine is a dietician, they make for a great couple. They are primarily cavers, (wish I was as good a climber.. maybe I should take up caving!.. nah) and we trade stories, getting to hear some wild stories about exploring caves down in Haiti and other places, while I entertain with tales of epics (Wind and Loathing in Lost Wages) and Karen and I answer with questions about life/climbing in the US. We got to learn all sorts of new words such as Abeseil? Abseil? "The loo", stripping down, queue, petrol, flat, and others. Catherine was quite animated and fun to talk to, Steve was a bit more reserved but seemed to warm up more as we got to know them. They had climbed some shorter 1-2 pitch routes on various domes and were headed for Fairview the next day. We also recommended Cathedral Peak to them if they got the chance before they headed back to San Francisco Sunday. Catherine was enjoying the trip but ready to get to a nice hotel in SF and visit the town some. We gave them some hints on things to do there, for their last week in the states. Finally with 11pm rolling around, they offered to let us set up our tent there then they went to bed.. Karen and I headed back up to the store, then drove on in. Seems some others had the same idea as they arrived in the vacant spot across from us and just tossed down their bags.

(Steve, Catherine if you're out there on the net, thanks again!)

The next morning was our last in the Meadows. I got up early and moved the car outside of the campground, then walked back in from the road (about 100 yards) with the stove, coffeepot, water and tea. Quietly set breakfast up and got the water to boiling. Steve and Catherine were soon up and she was really delighted when I offered a warm cup of tea (those English love their tea). We exchanged addresses and they were off headed up to Fairview Dome to take their place in line (er uh, the queue) at the base of the Regular Route. Karen and I headed off to Lembert Dome.

We wanted to bag one more three star climb before leaving. SW Books on Lembert Dome looked pretty good. Karen was feeling a bit tired as we hiked up to the base so 5.6 seemed to be a good level to finish off with. I hear voices.. wait, no those guys are on the next route over.. What's this? a quickdraw? Just then I hear "rock!" as a shiny steel object hurtles down towards us at the base of the crag. The three guys above just dropped some more gear! I yell up...

"Hey if you have any cams, toss em on down!"

The biner is one of those heavy oversized standard military issue steel jobs. The guys are wearing olive drab green t-shirts and look a bit clueless.. yep some army blokes out for a day of climbing!? :) I just hang both pieces in the tree at the base of the route and flake the rope and I headed up. I bring Karen up the first 3rd/4th class pitch, then I head up the first pitch. It involves some 5.5 ish face climbing, easy mantles, then goes up into this really nice 5.6 layback/corner thing. About this time I notice the other group is coming towards the same crack system we're on! I start climbing faster, running it out a bit in order to beat them to the belay. There are 3 of them, they're hauling some kind of stupid overstuffed duffle up the route and I haven't figured out just exactly what they're intentions are yet. I set the belay and explain that Karen and I will be out of the way shortly. She cruises it and joins me at the belay. About this time we notice that of the three, one guy is definitely in charge and ordering the others around. It was also at this time we noticed that the other two were proceeding up towards our belay and had pulled the rope from their "commander" and left him about 20 feet above them lashed to a tree with a long runner, but no way to get back down to the ledge and no rope in sight? >From here I could read their t-shirts..

"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"

Okay whatever.. I grab the gear from Karen and decide to attempt the 5.9 variation. This starts up a corner which goes pretty well, then all of the sudden gets weird. I place my last solid piece, stem up high, then lean way over and swing around to the right. Here, the only placement is a small stopper to protect the final face moves.. it probably wont hold a fall, but I place it anyways and head up. 10 feet of climbing gets me to the ledge where I anchor in and prepare to bring Karen up. I felt kind of bad at this point because Karen was feeling so tired and didn't really need something so strenuous today, but she did great! Cruising all the way up to the crux, where she had a bit of trouble and popped off. When she fell, the small wire that I placed also popped. Of course the "men in green" were taking all this in at the time, you should have seen their eyes pop wide open at the sight of the wire pulling! Their fearless leader wasn't quite so fearless as before (He'd been talking about doing the 5.9 corner) and opted for the 5.6 version. Karen tried to offer some encouragement, but at this point (with their leader still securely anchored to the tree, which was now half a pitch away) they probably shouldn't have even been on the 5.6.

From here it was a long easy pitch up to the shoulder of Lembert Dome where we unroped and headed down another "classic" (steep) 3rd class Tuolumne friction descent. This one required a bit more zig-zagging around and some backtracking to find the easiest, least steep path to the slabs below. Unfortunately we didn't stick around to watch the "mountain troops" finish the climb and descent, perhaps the leader is still anchored into that tree? We arrived at the car and after lunch in the Meadows Grill we said one last goodbye to the Meadows.. it was sad to be leaving. Unfortunately on the drive out, the smoke from a forest fire (near Mt. Starr King) obscured the views somewhat. This had been a problem much of the previous week in the Valley, but had not affected the Meadows until today. We arrived back in San Jose at John and Sabine's to find no one home, so we sacked out in the car until they arrived. Showers at last! and beds to sleep in. It seemed strange to not be wandering around in the dark, setting up camp and crawling into the sleeping bag, We felt a bit like strangers, adjusting to the "real" world after being gone for so long. The next morning we slept in. John and Sabine fixed us breakfast and we watched a bit of the World Cup game (which to Sabines dismay, the Germans lost) and just relaxed by the pool. A few beers and an early dinner at the local brewpub in San Jose and we left our friends and headed to the airport, back to the heat of the desert, neither of us ready to face the world on Monday. The last 8-10 days had been simple and wonderful... climbing, eating, sleeping, hiking. Adjusting to work would be hard.