On Thursday night, our crew assembled at an apartment in San Francisco with well laid plans for a night of revelry before an alpine start up to the Valley on Friday morning. We went out, had a few drinks, a few laughs, and then headed back for a fitful night's rest - all of us reporting the next morning that our Quake City bivy had been difficult due to the rumblings of excitement we were all feeling.
We awoke, had a quick breakfast of bagels and coffee, and hit the ground running at 0' dark thirty.
Our friends Jeff and Mandy (see Stinson Beach and Tahoe trip reports), were joining Thuy and I for a weekend of climbing and picking up trash as part of the Yosemite Climbing Association's 9th Annual Yosemite Facelift, where climbers and friends work to rid the Park of waste. It would be Jeff and Mandy's first Facelift, and Thuy and I's second. And while Mandy had been to Yosemite before, this would be Jeff's first pilgrimage to what is one of, if not the, mecca of world rock climbing.
Passing the turnoff for Foresta, I began to pay close attention in the rear view mirror to Jeff's facial expressions. I knew that he would soon get his first glimpse of the Valley, and being that he is a climber with a deep love of crack climbing in places like Joshua Tree and Cochise Stronghold, I knew he was about to recognize this granite paradise for the Shangri-la that is is. Sure enough, he began hyperventilating at Tunnel View and caused one of our group to earnestly suggest to him he take deep breaths and try to avoid panicking!
We ditched the car and made a beeline for the Penthouse Cracks, a row of four cracks that begin off a large flat granite balcony thirty feet or so off the Valley floor at the far edge of Camp 4. We took turns top-roping each of these lines, repeatedly exclaiming how incredible the rock quality is, offering perfect hand and finger jams, difficult and thought provoking foot work on glacier polished granite, and having that special characteristic of some climbing mediums and routes that offer up holds or stances exactly where necessary but seemingly no where else...As if the geological process had taken place with future human climbers in mind!
Climbing in a light sprinkle, we thought we heard some thunder and decided to pack it in and run a few errands before the great Jim Donini's presentation in the East Auditorium that was one of the week long Facelift's evening events.
We arrived early and after wandering around star struck by many of the luminaries of Yosemite's amazing climbing history, we took our seats and listened as Jim Donini told us about first ascents in Patagonia and Alaska, his epic with Jeff Lowe, Michael Kennedy, and George Lowe on Latok I, and about his most recent adventures to Tajikistan and Iran. We also noted how unique and interesting it was to hear about his first ascent of Torre Egger in Patagonia with John Bragg and Jay Wilson, where they had found much of Maestri's gear on the way up, but how it stopped short of even the Col of Conquest, and how therefore, Donini, once a Maestri believer (more it would seem out of a standard ethic of believing another climber at his or her word, rather than questioning everything and becoming embroiled in the ensuing controversy), could no longer accept the Italian's original reports of successfully summitting Cerro Torre.
The next day we went to Sunnyside Bench where we found the classic two-pitch Sunnyside Jamcrack (P1, 5.7; P2 5.9) route jammed up with a queue of waiting climbers. Instead of waiting idly, Jeff jumped on the lieback flake route, Lemon (5.9), and set up a top rope. Thuy, Mandy, and I each climbed this less somewhat less popular route and loved every second of it. If it was only longer I'm certain more climbers would find this route to be a classic!
We then climbed on the .10d and .10c cracks between Lemon and Sunnyside Jamcrack, where Thuy turned in an awesome performance by hanging in there and completing the difficult lieback section at the end of the .10d!
We took turns on Jamcrack and then packed up and went to check in at the Facelift stand as volunteers.
We were armed with our litter sticks and trash bags just before a violent lightening storm and heavy rain hit the Valley. We waited out the rain and in the evening went for a short hike to the Indian Caves and the nearby boulders before turning in for the night.
We awoke Sunday morning and spent a few hours scrambling around in the Lower Yosemite Falls amphitheater and drainage finding hats, water bottles, food trash, steel cables, and even two shoes! We had a blast doing this and as a group hauled out 16 pounds of trash. We were disappointed that we weren't able to volunteer more, as in 2009 when we volunteered for five full days, but felt great that we were able to participate at all and each of us related to the others the psychic bounty our efforts bestowed upon us. I for example, while staring deep into the meadow grass along the road looking for trash realized suddently how beautiful these meadows are in their own right, whereas on all these trips over the years, I'd overlooked them (quite literally) as my gaze was affixed higher on the Valley's towering walls.
We dropped off our haul, and went to Camp 4 for one last bit of climbing where Jeff made short work of Grant's Crack, a fun, thin 5.9 set of parallel finger cracks that curves up and right to an anchor at a tree.
Jeff and I headed back and got into the car to head home, but not before giving serious consideration to the idea of sending Mandy and Thuy home with the car, forgetting our more urbane responsibilities, and staying in the Valley until further notice. Prudence got the better of us this time, and we settled for plans to come back in a week.
Many thanks to Ken Yeager and the rest of the Yosemite Climbing Association and Facelift volunteers for working so hard to keep the Valley clean and beautiful and for the incredibly special evening programs. Thanks also to my companions for such a wonderful trip!
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