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ADVENTURES AND BLOG

Yosemite - July 29 to August 5, 2016

Updated: Jul 22, 2018

Yosemite National Park was a part of my first trip out west. At one point in time I thought that it would be my only opportunity to climb in California. So with less experience than stoke we decided that our major goal of the trip would be to climb Snake Dike (5.7 R) on Half Dome.

 

My first few posts here are going to back-fill the major trips that I have done starting in 2016, a few months after Gavin, Joey, and I taught ourselves to place gear.

Half Dome from Lost Lake

We started the approach from Happy Isles around 4:30 am and made the base of the route at approximately 7:30 am by hiking up the JMT from Happy Isles and crossing over the saddle to the northeast of Liberty Cap. Not very exact beta on how to get to the base of the route but that's about all I can remember apart from coming upon Lost Lake after bushwhacking for a while.

Dylan Ring on the third pitch of Snake Dike (Photo: Joey Stamenkovich)

Before setting the goal of climbing Snake Dike we had heard and read that the route was run out. Given the history and easy grade of the climb that made sense to us. With little experience placing gear it probably worked in my favor that most of what I did was clip bolts and place a few pieces the whole day across three leads including a gear anchor (pitch 7 I believe).


That doesn't mean, however, that I wasn't absolutely puckered to be on the back of Half Dome leading 60 foot run outs on unfamiliar terrain.

Left to Right: Gavin Bailey, Me, Dylan Ring, Ashley Anderson, Joey Stamenkovich on top of Half Dome

Lots of cursing and stoke to be climbing an amazing route up Half Dome got both of our teams to the top. Once there I realized that the hike down the cables, Sub Dome, through Little Yosemite and back to Happy Isles was about to be really long. But the stoke for pizza won out and we made it back to the Loft right

in time.


[Above: Gavin, Me, Dylan, Ashley, Joey on top of Half Dome]


After that week in the valley, not only was I stoked to develop my climbing for the bigger walls of the world, but the second leg of the road trip for Dylan and I was about to start. So with eyes set on the Emmons Glacier of Mount Rainier we packed up and headed north.


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