the valley 2/25 to 2/26

headed to the valley for the weekend..

got in fri evening with the GF and setup camp around 11PM.

sat morning got up early and wandered over to mirror lake(almost) to take some pictures and hang with the GF. we then headed back to camp4 to meetup with scott and do the breakefest rituals (coffee, lots of it). after coffee, we headed to the crystals to warmup and I had a project there as well.

at the crystals, scott found a sweet warmup arete and cool (and much charder) stand start direct.

i spent a decent amount of time cleaning my project and trying to figure out the beta. the problem starts standing in a scoop that you mantle into and onto some slab. the slab either continues up about 20' left to a bold, proud topout, or bails out right to a slopey ramp.

after this, laura and I decided to head to get food. upon reaching into my bag to get my keys, I found my car key at a 90* angle. after trying to bend it back, it broke. i spent the rest of the day helplessly at the garage while they looked for a blank that fit my truck (to no avail). the mechanic recomended that I just put the broken key in there and drive it home. the rest of the evening I hung out at camp and cooked dinner. scott went and got another FA of the trip on a project that he had been around and helped clean a few weeks back. i checked it out but was toot tired and hungry to do anymore climbing.

Sunday ; we planned on making the hike to vernal falls. we were hoping to do this via the mist trail, but it was closed for winter that we found out from a ranger.

headed over to the trailhead after packing up camp and started our hike. the dog was not allowed, but we decided that since it was not busy and there were probably not going to be any rangers we would take the dog. it turned out really well.

we started the first part to the bridge and mist trail entrance, but it was locked and gated shut.. do you think that stopped us? hell no. we went up to find a somewhat slippery approach up the stairs that others had ventured up with us. we noticed that it actually got better with less snow once we started to get up to the top!

after reaching a small area blocked from the barrage of cold damp mist, we thought we were home free only to find... the next 20' of stairs were completley covered in 12" of ICE ! and to top it off, there were 6' icicled hanging above our head and saw many that had fallen in the past (some were almost 8" in circumfrance).. haha talk about a hike..

once at the top, we decided to take the 'open' trail back down witch was longer, but not as henious.

the dog loved the hike as we all did and it was quite the adventure that I will never forget.

you can checkout some of my photos at RAW.FOTO

sunday, 2/12

headed up to the valley for some photography and bouldering.. tried to get on 'crossraods moe' and failed agiain, also got on 'athletes die young' and worked all but the big throw..

headed over to the crystals and messed around there and found a cool new scoop problem that i didn't get an probably will go around v4-v5 (forgot the stick brush and trying to clean slab while smearing is, well, can you say, not fun ;) ).. then went to curry village to wander around and see whats out there.. found a cool v2-v3 problem that starts on a large 'chockstone' hence I named it 'chockstone'

Sat 2/11

Well, while wandering around in a nameless are of Mt. Diablo, I found some bouldering potential that I will be working to develop soon!