Sunspot Dihedral was on the list for a while (ever since doing Positive Vibrations next door), and James and I made plans to go check it out! We went to Bridgeport on Friday afternoon to get permits (we saw a really cool V-22 osprey take off from the airport while there) and hike in. The hike in was absolutely gorgeous, as usual! Little Slide Canyon is a really special place.

We didn't wake up too early since the mornings are chilly and there was no real rush for time (we weren't planning on going to the summit). Hence there were two parties ahead of us - a party was already on the 2nd/3rd pitch of Positive Vibrations when we showed up at the base. We were also sharing the Sunspot with Mark Hudon and Max Jones, famous old school climbers who put up many of the climbs at Donner Summit. They were climbing the first pitch and it was really fun to chat with them!

Anyway, as for the climb - it's indeed absolutely amazing! The 5.11 pitches on it are higher quality than Positive Vibrations. That said, we both read others' trip reports talking about how much harder and more sustained the climb is than PV, how the stemming pitch is harder than the Enduro Corner on Astroman, etc. - for what it's worth, we both agreed that this was not the case. Neither of us has "done laps on the Rostrum" or casually cruised Enduro corner and we really enjoyed this climb. While it certainly has some technical sections and interesting moves, there were plenty of rests and it felt more technical than pumpy. The stemming pitch 4 was one of my favorite pitches anywhere - stemming on Sierra granite is basically about as good as climbing gets, as far as I'm concerned (and yes, small nuts are nice in the beginning!) Pitch 5 opens up with the crux moves - long legs help to stem to the left wall as long as you can, and then it's a short but powerful crux next to the 2nd bolt. The orange dihedral (the actual sunspot) following the crux moves is fun 5.10 corner climbing, more goodness! Ditto for pitch 6, which opens up with a section of 5.11 liebacking and eases off to easier 5.10 climbing. In fact, all of pitches 4, 5, and 6 were some of the best anywhere. Great climb! We had an 80m rope for the raps, which was great and made for a quick way back to lounge in camp the rest of the afternoon and enjoy being in this place!

On Sunday we were hoping to do Positive Vibrations in the morning and hike out / drive home, however in a semi-waken up state at 6am I heard a yell of "Off belay". We slept for another hour and when we woke up there were 4 parties on PV/Sunspot - by the time we hiked up there were 11 people either on Positive Vibrations or at the base (with two parties doing Sunspot!) We considered alternatives but with a single #3 camalot, Polish/Escape from Poland was off the table (a great climb I did last year), we didn't feel up to getting on Tradewinds given the tight timeline and supposedly much harder climbing. Instead we cragged and did the first pitch of Tradewinds a couple of times and then James did what we thought was the first pitch of Eye of the Storm. Not 100% clear whether we were on the right climb, because it was really chossy and unpleasant.

By this time, the winds had really picked up and smoke was rolling in from a fire in Yosemite, so we hiked out and went home! What a fun weekend... can't wait for the next Hulk adventure already!

		Boeing V-22 Osprey. Cool bird! :)	V-22 lifting off

	And away he goes...	Oh Hulk, I've missed you!

			James stoked to be here!

		James starting up the first pitch of PV/sunspot	Max Jones on the 5.10c traverse pitch. We shared the climb with him and Mark!

	James starting the traverse pitch	Traverse fun!	Lots of no-hands rests, the feet/legs get tired though

			Stemming on sweet Sierra granite - it doesn't get any better than this!

		Lots of rests that come in useful!	Looking down at the sustained pitch

	James coming up the stemming pitch

	James psyching up for the crux moves	Past the crux!	James enjoying 5.11b face moves

	The shooting star pitch, 5.11a	Whoohoo, rest

		The rap anchors on top of pitch 6	Vlad on Solar Flare, 5.12+

	The rest	The rappels go by very quickly with an 80m rope	James enjoying Pad Thai for dinner

	Parties on PV and direct start of Sunspot		The Hulk is a busy place on this Sunday morning

		Tradewinds first pitch	Cute!

			Tradewinds

		James starting up Eye of the Storm, first pitch

	Two parties on Sunspot, both days!	James vs. choss

	Her name was Autumn (according to the tag) :)

	Hiking out as the smoke is pouring in	Will be back!

			Smoke from the Little Yosemite valley fire!

	Paragliders over Lake Tahoe (Kings Beach). Looks fun!