Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Day One

I am sitting in the cafeteria at Yosemite lodge Larry and Harry from Long Beach, Phillip from Heidleberg and Scott.
I am enjoying my second breakfast of V8 and Red Bull -- one can of each. I had green tea and frosted mini wheats in Camp 4 as it awoke this morning.
For dinner last night Scott ate canned baked beans with potted meat and mashed potatoes -- what is potted meat? -- he said that the potted meat sort of dissolved into the beans. I ate Velveta shells and cheese with canned tuna and canned peas -- yummy! For lunch I ate one peanut butter sandwich and one sandwich made with Pecorino Romano and Yard of Beef -- Yard of Beef is a giant summer sausage that I got at Sam's Club for five bucks -- I expect it to last the entire month.
Sunday and Monday nights we slept at Camp 4 in our Coleman tent mansion -- its 9 ft x 14 ft with plenty of room for guests. I am on a queen size Coleman inflatable bed with I blew up myself -- took about thirty minutes but I saved twenty bucks.
Monday we climbed M Bishops Terrace 5.8 200ft - awesome 5 star crack climb. We continued up a short pitch to the actual Bishop's Terrace, a giant sloping ledge, and lolled in the sunshine.

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Next we climbed Church Bowl Layback 5.8. Scott led with good style, but took a twenty foot whipper doing a finger layback on wet rock -- he fell on my yellow c3. He thanked me for saving his life -- I told him no problem. As Scott set the anchor a bear ran by and scared a group of school kids -- running and screaming.
In the afternoon we decided to practice some aid climbing. So I packed up a haul bag, drank some green tea, put on some house music and we drove to El Cap. We hiked in past the Nose and up the the south-east face to the start of the Pacific Ocean Wall.

(click image to enlarge)
We saw a bear in woods so we detoured around. I geared up while Scott went on a booty hunt. I led the first pitch of Pacific Ocean Wall, C1 or 5.11c, a vertical crack, in a hour and a half -- not bad. Scott dozed in the camp chair he carried in -- me on a Cinch. So I have led my first pitch of aid on El Cap. Yeah!!

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