By the time we reached the upper ledge, another party was on the second pitch of Serrated Edge (5.10b). From the noises they were making, we inferred it was hard. They also said they had two #4 camalots and a #5 camalot and used the big gear for the crux second pitch. We didn't have anything beyond #3.5, and since the roof looked really hard, we figured we'll do Middle Earth (5.10a) instead, which is just to the right of it. Karén had already done it twice and said it was nice. He remembered the second pitch being scary, so gratiously offered to lead it before we even started.

I started the first pitch and gladly placed the #3.5 we had to protect the sweet diagonal fist crack. After following the crack for 10 feet, it looked really hard (wrong way) so instead I went straight up (which seems to be the way to go, but the topo was confusing). Then I gained another ramp that went up and right and gained a belay stance, directly under the bulge that marks the start of the second pitch. There is a rap station 8 feet to the right from the correct belay stance.

This bulge was hard (5.9??), and unprotected. Karén dispatched it on the left side looking solid, clipped a piton and gained the lone bolt further up, finishing the remaining of the pitch without much trouble. Then it was my turn to deal with the bulge on toprope and I tried it a couple of times, backing down. Third time I fell, which resulted in a short pendulum. Hmm, damn. I didn't want to repeat the pendulum and cheated through this section - it was the hardest part of the climb for me, even on toprope.

The next pitch was mine and I gave it a couple of tries, but kept downclimbing (again, it had a few hard moves to gain 2 bolts higher up, but the beginning was unprotected). I was mentally fried at this point and when Karen offered to do it, I happily accepted his offer. He got to the bolts without any fuss, and then did a few really hard moves to gain the upper ledge - on toprope, I was very glad to have accepted the earlier offer - it was pretty terrifying to be climbing above sketchy old bolts. The upper 5.10a traverse also had a single rusty bolt with a home made hanger which looked like it was made from a rusty tuna can.

After admiring Karen's lead, I headed up pitch 4, which was much better protected but I still found it heady. The first 1/3 is sketchy but then it gained a beautiful crack with very enjoyable climbing, which took me to a cave-like feature with a comfortable belay stance. Karen quickly joined me, and took the last pitch to the top: rated 5.8, it had a short section that felt harder too, which was the common theme for this climb.

By the time we were on top, the smoke from the Mariposa fire was pretty crazy, as you'll see in the picture. We happily hiked down and treated ourselves to dinner at the Mobil station in Lee Vining before calling it a night.

	Looking up Euro Trash and then Middle Earth up there	closer up of the upper routes	Looking down the first pitch of Euro Trash

		Looking up the second pitch

	Karén on the second pitch	A party on Serrated Edge	Closer up of the intimidating Serrated Edge roof

	Middle Earth goes halfway up this crack and then goes up and right above it

	Karén high on pitch 3	The start of pitch 3

		Karen coming up pitch 4

	pitch 4 anchor in the cave (most bomber belay on the climb)	looking right, Hobbit Book goes somewhere there	this is the last pitch

	Karen on the stellar crack on pitch 4	The smoke was getting crazy

		styling	Karen finishing the pitch 4 crack

	last few moves to the belay :)	at the crux of the last pitch (stiff 5.8 move)

	the smoke prevented the beautiful panorama shot	never seen anything like it...	Solar eclipse, smoke induced

		don't need those sunglasses anymore	Wow

	Fairview Dome	Fairview Dome