Tuolumne and Yosemite weekend (and Natalie's bday)
Eichorn Pinnacle, W face direct (5.10b)
Glacier Point - Apron Jam (5.9), Haley Daley (5.8)
October 22-23, 2011
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Getting thunderstormed off of Eichorn Pinnacle last year was NOT
fun... but this time the weather gods smiled upon us - despite it
being late October, it was gorgeous! We started climbing around
1:30pm after the West Face had gotten in the sun - which made for
tshirts all the way to the summit! At one point I was so warm at
one of the belays, I was seeking shade by putting my head in the
chimney... hard to believe it was October! I stratched the rope in
the upper parts and we did the climb in 4 pitches. Of course,
rappelling down the other side we found snow and contrasting
temperatures... the car thermometer showed 38 degrees when we
arrived just after it had become dark. The coolest part is that a
couple of guys had scrambled up to Cathedral Peak just as we topped
out on Eichorn, and they got a bunch of really cool photos of us on
the summit. And because it was a calm, windless day, I shouted my
email address to them... and James gratuitously emailed me the
photos the next day - thanks man!! This is the type of stuff that
you couldn't plan with such timing even if you tried!
We rushed to the valley and had dinner/drinks at Natalie's birthday
celebration party... eventually crashed in the group sites in
Upper Pines (has to be one of the worst campgrounds ever...)
On Sunday, we slept in and wanted to do Serenity/Sons, but of course
the prospect of waiting in line was not appealing. After breakfast
at Church Bowl where we ran into Will (cool!), we motivated
ourselves to go to Glacier Point Apron which we somehow had never
been to before. We did Apron Jam, a stout 5.9 and then walked over
to Haley Daley while eyeing some of the extremely difficult slab
climbs in the vicinity... yikes! We finished the day by relaxing
with the El Cap layback before driving home, an end to another
beautiful Fall day in California.
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Hiking up to Eichorn, with Cathedral Lakes in the background. It's 1pm... alpine starts are important in late October :) |
Eichorn W face, from the base of the route |
Geared up and ready to go |
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The route follows the obvious wide crack for the first pitch |
Cathedral Lakes |
It's not really an offwidth, as it's possible to stem around on Tuolumne granite knobs |
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Finishing the first pitch. Tank top in Tuolumne on October 22nd! I was sweating... |
The next pitch has two choices. We went left, up 5.8 cracks leading to an awesome 5.10 roof/finger crack. |
The ridgeline |
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Second to last pitch |
Still warm! |
Summit register |
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Chris Chan memorial |
Cathedral Peak. If you zoom in, you can see the two guys who took our pictures! |
Tuolumne. |
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Budd Lake |
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Cathedral Peak with Budd Lake in the background |
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Topping out on Eichorn, photo from Cathedral Peak |
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Thanks so much for the photos, James! |
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Unicorn Peak basking in the evening light |
Starting up Apron Jam, a strenous 5.9 at Glacier Point Apron |
After laybacking the lower section, there is a rest and it gets a bit easier |
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Finishing the pitch |
Starting up Haley Daley that we had never done |
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The upper pitch is all sweet jams |
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Half Dome, with the Zig zags and visor visible perfectly from this angle |
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