The weekend had a rough start as we hit terrible traffic getting out of the Bay Area... nothing surprising though, just a reminder that it's tough not to live close to the mountains anymore. We stopped by some delicious Mexican on the way and eventually pulled into Lee Vining at 1:30am. An hour was spent installing some Grivel Triggers on our tools that I had received that day... the next day it was tough to get an early start as a result.

By the time we hit the parking lot it was 10:20am and there were 6-7 cars parked there - I thought every single possible line must be taken and was skeptical. We thought we might ski in, but since the trail was broken we followed the boot track - lots of snow made for easy travelling over the talus. So anyway, I was delighted to see that everyone was on the low-angle Chouinard Wall - yay!

We started up Caveman, which is the only steep ice in Lee Vining (grade 5). It was very nice but short (brittle ice made it a bit tricky). The next pitch took us up Heel Toe, a mixed climb of some sort. Karen made it up over the first roof to a big ledge but the next move was proving tricky so he setup a belay there. Being taller and with a tight belay (fixed pin and cam placement), I reached up and got a solid tool placement, after which some really tricky moves and matching on the tool got me over the bulge. Exciting traverse over thin ice and I was on top - nice climb. We rapped down and wondered what else to do... Karen decided to do the first pitch too, so we did that again before going back. It was pouring wet and soft, a contrast to the earlier conditions - ice changes quickly!

In the meantime some folks (we later found out Doug Nidever and friend) climbed Spiral Staircase to the left which seemed cool too.

We didn't think there was enough left there to come back the following day, so after a nice sleep we headed back through Tahoe and did some backcountry skiing finding preserved powder - woot! Another excellent weekend in California.

	The power plant parking lot	Approach	Apparently this can be a horrendous boulder field. Snow makes it nice!

	Karen at the mouth of the canyon	Crossing the creek over a bridge

	Main Wall on the left, with Chouinard Wall on the right	Closer view of Main Wall.	Lots of folks on Chouinard

		Breaking trail to the base of Caveman	Looking down from the canyon

	Belay ledge at the base of Main Wall	Starting up Caveman, photo by Karen

		Climber on Spiral Staircase in the middle	Nearing the crux on Spiral Staircase

	The next pitch (or two, as we split them up). Crux was at the top, around small roof which is not visible (next to a fixed pin)

	Starting the traverse to thin ice	Looking up and trying to pick the left or right line

		Cool roof

	Karen doing another lap on the first pitch	Doug on the left side of the Main Wall