Yosemite - Cookie, etc. - 12/10-12 - Paul Friberg

Paul made his annual December visit, prior to the 1-week conference
of geophysics folks in SF.

Friday - we dropped by Jailhouse on the way from the airport to Yosemite.
Paul led the warmup to the second to last bolt, at which point a key hold
was too wet to go any higher.  I toproped to this hold also.
Paul led Soap on a Rope to the move to the letterbox hold, then bolt to
bolt, to the last bolt.  It's too long between visits to remember the moves!
Following, I did not make the letterbox move first try, either.  I then
went roughly bolt to bolt to the kneebar rest point and lowered.
Paul took a final toprope attempt in fading light, to the letterbox move.
We ran into Rob from SF who recognized Paul from his previous annual visits!

Saturday - Cookie, in nice weather and pretty much perfect conditions.

We hiked up to the roping up spot at the base of Bev's Tower, where we
commenced to donning shoes and harness, paring down the rack, etc.
Paul looked around and asked where the lead rope was; I then realized
I had forgotten it back at the car.  He volunteered to go and get it,
and he was back quickly after a somewhat tiring uphill run.
I led up Waverley Wafer, but could not get very fresh at the "rest" at
the top of the pod.  So I aided up the final corner.  Paul had problems
in the pod itself, not being used to dealing with such strange wide
obstacles.  He liebacked the upper corner with no problems.
We were a bit dehydrated already, but after a short rest, we kept going.
Paul led Wheat Thin nicely, and I followed.  Paul toproped Butterballs
with a couple of falls, in his loose shoes.  He felt he could lead it
when in shape.
After some food, Paul led Outer Limits and I followed.  We finished the
day by toproping the lower part of Stigma to the small roof.  Paul climbed
nicely to about 6' below the roof before falling.  He then did the moves
to the roof and to the flake jug above with a few falls.  I took several
falls in the face climbing reaching the crack, but restarted each time,
and then fell at the same hard move where Paul fell.  I then took several
more falls and occasional helpful tension to reach the flake jug.

Sunday

We began at Five and Dime.  I led Five and Dime with no problems (I fit
it well and have led it before).  The hand jams just keep getting better
and better above the crux, so I found it helpful to run it out a bit on
the excellent jams.  Paul followed free, clearly having his jamming
technique down.  Paul then led Antichrist (a bolted 5.11d knob and
thin face climb) with a couple of falls.  I enjoyed the 5.10 lower
section, but after one move into the 5.11 section, I realized the holds
were not large enough for me to use!  So I batmanned up about 35',
bolt to bolt.  I was able to do the last few moves to a jug, and the
final traverse.

Back to the Cookie, where I led Anathema, getting a decent workout
on this slanting crack.  Paul followed nicely.  We finished the day
by toproping Catchy, with the toprope generously offered by Dan Rampe.