Quick update from Road trip land...

Well, we made it to Yosemite, finally.

First hit was the Slocan Valley for a week of maintenance before the snows at VMT (video to follow) and some family time. Then we hit Smith for a day, or 3 pitches, as we drove south to Lake Tahoe. But that is where we detoured to skip out on the big fall storm that closed all of the High Sierra road passes. Well, it was easy to decide on a few days of hot springs and sport climbing in the Owens River Gorge as we waited for the weather to clear up. A few pitches a day between rain storms, and before we knew it the weather had cleared and it was time to take the hound to the kennel and settle in to Yosemite.

Sad times as we dropped off Benny for two weeks, but so it goes in Yosemite. Since we got here we have tackled 'The Crucifix' IV 5.12- on our first day - amazing - then the Rostrum via what I call the excellent alien adventure...the first half of the excellent adventure, make a belay and then the Alien Roof variation. That adds two SOLID pitches of 5.12 trad to ye ol Rostrum, good times! I managed to not send the Alien that day, but we came back the next morning so I could send, nice to have some success on such a classic line I have looked at for years and never thought I could do...a wild and inspiring pitch for sure.

Now we are racking up for bigger lines, but lets see how the bodies and minds hold up.

Enjoy a few photos.

Family hike near June Lake while we wait for the weather to clear


I have driven by Mono Lake for years, but never stopped before...this is what I have been missing!


True Love in the Camper with an 80lbs lap dog.

Blinding light in the East Side hot springs...oh wait that is just my white thighs

Storms and light on the East Side

Oh ya, we have been climbing too...the 50m '5.10c' big hands pitch on the Crucifix. The regular NEB route is behind us.

Fall Road Tripping - Part 1 El Cap

Okay, so I have been a slacker with blogging. September came and I actually had to work a bunch. Well if you call teaching a bunch of keen 20 year olds how to climb in Squamish and the Coast Mountains Work, then so be it. But it was all in the name of 3 months of no work and all play before the winter snows have me pounding out the vertical on the skis.

Part 1 of my journey has taken Jasmin, my wife, and I down to Yosemite, where we are just super psyched to climb as much as possible. After a few days of cragging, we decided that what we really want to do is get up on El Cap again, but this time with no aiders, trying our best to free climb it via the route 'Freerider'.

Freerider is no walk in the park, and it checks in at around 30 pitches, with most being hard 5.10 to hard 5.12. Neither of us are expecting to send it on this trip, but we both want to check it out to see if it is possible to ever do the unimaginable: free climb the most iconic big wall in the world. It has always been a dream of mine, and will likely be a multi trip endeavor but who cares! It will be a lot of fun trying!

But free climbing big walls is HARD work. Day one we climbed the first 10 pitches, and rapped back down to the valley floor via some fixed lines. Yesterday we packed up our haulbags and got prepped to be on the wall for 4 days. Today we jugged back up and hauled our 100+ lbs bags up about 1200' - a third of the way. Tomorrow we get down to business and drag our butts up El Cap trying to free climb as much as possible. Stay tuned...I will keep you posted on how it goes, as well as the rest of the road trip, which will include Smith Rocks, Indian Creek and Spain (I guess that is a flying trip not a road trip!)

The first 100', only 3,300' more to go!

Jasmin soaks up some intense CA rays 1000' feet above El Cap Meadow

Jas heads out on pitch 11 of Freerider