Yosemite Day Three: Redemption

If Day Two was the low of lows on this trip, then Day Three was the high of all highs.Yosemite to this point was a disappointment. The only highlight of my trip thus far was Camp Curry, and the evening of Day Two was our last overnight stay in such comfortable conditions. Because our trip had been fairly unsatisfactory, we decided that we needed one more day in the The Valley before heading to

Yosemite Day Two: Zossima's Servant

"For the world says:'You have desires and so satisfy them, for you have the same rights as the most rich and powerful. Don't be afraid of satisfying them and even multiply your desires.' That is the modern doctrine of the world. In that they see freedom. And what follows from this right of multiplication of desires? In the rich, isolation and spiritual suicide; in the poor, envy and murder; for

Yosemite Day One: Swan Slabs Prepares Us In More Ways Than One

We awoke on east-coast time, a good three hours before any sane person on west-coast time should have been slapping the alarm clock off. "PBR" and "Ratherbe" had slept well, as did I, but they had the advantage of brains that allowed them to sleep right up until the point when we all rolled out of bed. The chill in the air was surprising to me. I knew we were up in the mountains, but I didn't

Stark Yosemite: My Initial Thoughts

Note: "Orangekayak" is now named "PBR"An early morning flight from Boston touched "Ratherbe" and I down in Oakland an hour ahead of "PBR"'s flight from Dallas. We were stuffed in the car and on our way by early afternoon with the hopes of getting at least a toprope in before the sun set that evening. But the road to Yosemite is slower than expected, and we were too tired to do much of anything

Yosemite

Just a little note to tell you that I won't be posting for a couple of weeks, and the reasons why. Firstly, as I noted in the post below, due to rain on Saturday, I didn't get any climbing in at Cathedral. Also, I had friends visiting from Australia (one of my two original climbing partners) from Sunday to this morning, so we did the "Boston" thing both days (actually, it was a relief. I got a

Yosemite

I've been waiting for years to be able to add Yosemite to my labels list (to the right ->). Well, I think I'm finally getting my chance to actually go to the climber's Mecca; a place where all climbers should make the effort to pilgrimage to at least once in a lifetime.I don't need to say what Yosemite means in the history of climbing. If I had to guess, I'd say Hillary and Norgay's ascent of