Back in Canada, and a little sunburnt

After the Redwoods we headed back to the big highways and across the border. We'd seen a lot of cool things in the US, and had a lot of fun, but we were pretty happy to be back in Canada. Our first stop was Penticton, for some swimming, some sport climbing, and a winery tour. And, since it was the May long weekend, we both got sunburnt. It is a Canadian tradition, after all...

For Megan this was slightly unusual, since she's religious about wearing enough sunscreen. Dave is a bit more relaxed about sun exposure, so this wasn't the first time he'd been a bit toasted this trip. Dave does have a habit of stenciling the day's activity into his burn, by leaving a few uncooked bits. We both had a pretty good sandal-tan by this point, but Dave had also done some more creative stenciling with various bits of climbing gear:


Harness and rack, North Carolina


Harness and radio, Yosemite


A more even burn after swimming and cragging, Penticton


Thanks Geri!

Redwoods National and State Parks

After spending a few weeks with the big rocks, we headed north to see some big trees. We’d both had about enough of huge driving pushes, so spending a few days hiking and relaxing under 250+ foot trees sounded like a great way to break up the drive back to Canada. Unfortunately Dave had a bit of a cold, so there was more relaxing and less hiking, but it was truly a magnificent place to spend some recovery days.


Chillin' under a tree


Treehugger!

The national park includes a number of former state parks, and (oddly) some of the land between them that was clearcut a decade or two ago. This is described as "future old growth". There are still quite a few state parks in the area, and we actually camped in a state park just down the road from the national parks.


There were some smaller plants, too

The park is also home to a herd of elk – we thought it somewhat ironic that we came to California to see elk, but there you are…

Yosemite

One of the major attractions of heading back west when we did was the opportunity to climb at Yosemite. After Dave’s success on the Nose last year with his partner Brock he was itching to return for more long and fun granite. Megan had only climbed one day during our trip here in 2006, due to blisters, injury and one lost approach trail. So we had lots of climbs on our tick list.

We started off staying at Camp 4, traditionally the climber’s campground in Yosemite as it is the only walk-in campground and all other campgrounds were reserved. The night we arrived it sprinkled a bit but the rock was dry by midday and we were climbing at the VERY popular Swan Slabs by late afternoon. Swan Slabs is the Yosemite version of Burgers & Fries cliff in Squamish, with packs of guides swarming the place with their clients during the weekend but during the week the climbs are worth doing, with lots of fun moderate crack climbing on offer. On our second day we headed for the classic 5.6 Munginella, originally named for being a bit, well, mungy and dirty. The climb is excellent with lots of fun moves and some requisite dirt and sand at the top. We also met an English couple on the route who had just arrived in the US, bought a car and are off for a 6 month climbing road trip. They became our friends in Camp 4.

The weekend in Camp 4 became less like a climber meeting spot and more like high school hell, with a pack of drunken teenagers monopolizing the place for the weekend. US Parks budget cuts (hey, I guess they need more firepower abroad?) mean that Camp 4 was not on the Ranger radar until May… quiet hours what? On Sunday, we climbed an amazing 2 pitch crack route- Jamcrack – and were fortunate enough to learn from some nice locals about getting a campsite through the cancellations lists at the other, much nicer campsites. We lucked out and got a site for a full week at Upper Pines and so we able to leave Camp 4 after a week. We convinced Helen and Lewis, our new English friends, to come and live with us in the plush new site. They were good fun and were teaching us ‘cheating’ Scrabble and other useful things!

Installed in our new site, surrounded by trees and the occasional motor-home, we were much happier and got down to some more demanding climbing days. We finally climbed Nutcracker, a historical 5.8 multi-pitch on the Manure Pile Buttress (a great piece of rock), which was apparently the first route in the Valley first led on ‘nuts’ (a new type of climbing protection). However, there was still a multitude of piton scars (an older type of protection, now frowned upon in places) on the route, which was a mystery to us.


Helen about to top out on Nutcracker

Over the next few days Dave climbed a few extra days with first Helen and Lewis, on the Central Pillar of Frenzy, then with Lewis on Selaginella, a wild 5.9 offwidth. For those non-climbers in the audience: offwidths are cracks that are too big to jam hands or feet in, but too small to fit the entire body in. Climbing them involves techniques that few climbers can apply gracefully, and usually a lot of grunting and sweating. The climbing experience can also vary greatly depending on the size of the climber.


Fun chimneying for some


Hard offwidth for others

Rather than ‘enjoy’ any more wide cracks, Megan and Helen took advantage of the free art classes offered daily at the Yosemite Art Activity Centre. The technique the day we went was ‘travel sketching’, which seemed very appropriate for our situation. Yosemite’s landscape pretty much inspires even the most art illiterate to try their hand and Megan really enjoyed the experience.

For our final day, all four of us went to climb Royal Arches, a classic and very long (15 pitches up and 12 rappels down) route. After our 9 hour day on the wall we pretty much scarfed food and were in bed by 8.30! We left the next day after spending about 2 1/2 weeks in the Valley, wishing our new friends good luck and hoping to see them later this summer in Squamish…


Lewis leading, Helen belaying, soloist sunbathing - Royal Arches


When you're traveling in a big country, you need a big map!

Zion National Park

A year or so ago, we visited Zion for just one day as a day-trip during a trip to Vegas. After seeing the canyon, we put Zion on our ‘definite’ list for our long trip. Zion is a sandstone canyon, carved by the Virgin River and part of the Colorado Plateau/Grand Canyon basin. Basically, it has cliffs on the scale of Yosemite’s granite only in a seemingly never-ending palette of red, yellow and orange rock, skirted by a lush forest of deciduous trees. Zion is famous for ‘hanging gardens’ of plant life high up on the rocks, life that exists because of the constant, slow seepage of water through the porous sandstone. Zion is also a very well managed US National Park and includes a free, required, propane-powered shuttle to get around the park – private vehicles are not allowed!

The amazing cliffs make Zion a world famous climbing destination, however, there is a pretty big catch – Zion is, as described in a gift shop poster, not for beginners! The walls are big, intimidating and of a generally serious level of climbing difficulty. Compared to Red Rocks, which is the moderate mecca for climbers, Zion is in a different league, with mostly hard aid climbing. For non-climbers reading this: aid climbing is a somewhat esoteric branch of climbing that involves the climber ascending the rock weighting their technical equipment (i.e. rope, camming devices, stoppers). This is in contrast to free climbing where climbers ascend using their own hands and feet and use the equipment solely for protection. Aid climbing therefore requires a lot more equipment and moves MUCH slower than free climbing.

In Zion, a few easy aid ‘trade’ routes do exist and Dave took me out to learn some Aid climbing techniques on Touchstone, a classic easy Zion route. The plan was for me to try out seconding the first few pitches, and, if I was having fun and not too tired we would continue up the wall. However, after one long first pitch, my arms were burning and I came to realize that aiding is more physical than expected and the 90 degree heat wasn’t helping! We decided to call it a day and eat ice cream instead.

For the rest of our time in Zion we decided to try and relax and get a few hikes in. Angel’s Landing is a famous hike, winding up an incredibly exposed ridge line to the top of a formation. With the wind howling in our ears, it was even more exciting at the top - definitely not a picnic stop!


Soft Zion sandstone, eroded by the chain handrails on the Angels' Landing trail



Hanging on for the photo-op, on top of Angels' Landing