Yosemite - Higher Spire - East Corner, Surprise / Selaginella - 6/3-4/06 - Claire Friday: We had arranged to carpool with Nora (visiting for a week from Finland), Nicolas, Natalie, and Sam. But on Friday afternoon, I picked up Nancy from school after she had a painful fall playing baseball. The pain got worse and I took her to the ER. The trip was starting to look doubful for me, but I didn't want to leave Nora waiting out in Pleasanton for us, and Claire and Nicolas without climbing partners, so we went ahead with the trip; fortunately Renata was home to help Nancy. Saturday: We got up at around 8am and drove in for breakfast on the rim. Then on to do the hike up to Higher Spire. The mosquitoes were out and rather pesky. The hike took 1:15 (about as expected), although fortunately we slowed down a bit, so it was fairly enjoyable (if not for the mosquitoes). Nobody was on Braille Book, and we couldn't see anyone on Higher Spire, although we heard some faint voices occasionally. We split up, with Claire and I heading around and down to the East Corner, while Nicolas/Nora and Sam/Natalie did the Regular route. East Corner: p0 - we roped up for the exposed downclimbing around the corner and a short 5.4 wide crack to a belay ledge. p1 - 5.9 undercling/lieback. After a start on a fun steep flake, it took me quite awhile to jam out around the overhang to set a high cam. Then I was willing to do a few rounded lieback moves to where it got more secure. p2 - 5.8 double crack. This started out steep and technical, then Claire stemmed from the thin corner crack left to the wide hand crack. p3 - 5.10a steep flaring corner hand crack. After a nice stemming start, this was straightforward hand jamming, but a bit enduro due to a lack of rests. Claire was getting fairly pumped but got it free following. At the top of the chimney we had an incident, where there was a loose block/flake on the ledge; Claire stepped on it by mistake and it went down the chimney towards me. Fortunately I was on a long rope tether, so I just swung to the left and dodged it. Claire set up a belay in a manzanita below the next pitch. p4 - 5.9 center crack - Claire led this; it was a bit shallow at first so protection was tricky, but then opened up and had a lot of good handjams with many footholds as well. p5 - 5.6 squeeze. We had brought up a pair of kneepads, which were nice to share for this 20' widening chimney. Nicolas and Nora were already on the summit, and Sam and Natalie arrived soon as well. We took a few group summit photos, then shared ropes on the rappels as well. On the hike down, I took a detour to check the conditions in the Katwalk descent (Cathedral Chimney) - it was snow-free. We had a nice dinner at Church Bowl, with Cathy and Chloe helping Darko celebrate his birthday. Sunday: Nicolas, Nora, Sam and Natalie got up at 6am to do the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral. Claire and I got a more leisurely start at a bit after 8am. After breakfast (hiding from mosquitoes), we went over to the Yosemite Falls area. Surprise We delayed our start slightly, as parties were topping out on Committment and Surprise, and we didn't want to be in the path of rockfall. p1 - Claire led the initial corner. 5.6 in the old guide, but seemed more like 5.8 to me. Up high on the pitch there was a noisy rockfall as a small block crashed down below and right of Claire; I was happy that I belayed far to the left and was not in its path. It came from the top of the cliff, probably from the people topping out. p2 - I led the traverse, which had some loose flakes, a 5.8+ thin crack section, and then a downward dirty corner/ramp. p3 - Claire led the main crack pitch, rated 5.8 in the old guide. It had a tricky section where the crack peters out and you have to switch to the left crack. Near the top, it steepens slightly and goes to ringlocks (1") for a section, but the closest cam Claire had by then was a #2 Friend, which did not fit in very well, but she didn't fall. It seemed like 5.9 to me; I was carrying the pack with our shoes and water but the crack was also a tough size. And as Claire noted, it's clearly harder than the first pitch jamcrack start to Committment. p4 - the belay at the ledge and bolt was too high above the traverse line, which in hindsight (after talking to Sam) is probably best to combine with p3. So I led the 5.10a finger crack direct finish. This was nice and well protected, although I was concerned that I didn't have my chalkbag. I hauled the pack. p5 - Claire led this 5.7 corner, which felt hard to me (pack again?). Selaginella This route had been on our "to do" list for awhile, and here we finally were at the base, with very nice conditions (except we were getting a bit tired from a long weekend). There was a party of 3 or 4 (maybe guided?) up doing p2-p3. p1 - I led the long 5.7 handcrack corner on the right side - quite a nice pitch, with a lot of good jamming. At the top is a move around a rotten stump which may get harder or dirtier when the stump eventually disintegrates. Claire followed with the pack, which looked like a pain at times. So I took out my shoes and windbreaker to equalize the load better. p2 - Claire was getting a little too tired to lead comfortably, so I led the remaining pitches. Here I combined p2 and much of p3 in a 55m pitch to reach a great belay ledge with a bolt, pin and cam anchor. It was the same ledge I noticed the previous party using. There was a lot of yarding on big solid flakes, and some easy chimneying - lots of easy moves. p3 - We followed the previous party's trail of "industrial strength chalk" (as Claire put it), across an airy traverse on dike jugs just left of the belay, then up a steep headwall on more incut jug flakes! I had noticed the previous leader had placed no pro in the upper corner of this pitch, and it was mostly good handjams as expected. But wildly exposed, so I was happy to place gear on it. Even a fun techy move at the top, to a cool belay stance at a small corner. Claire enjoyed this pitch very much as well. And we got some flybys from a formation of military jets. p4 - the final pitch had a couple more interesting moves, then a steep flake/chimney move/jug to a move into a tree. We finished off our food and water on top, then changed shoes and hiked up to the Falls Trail. After a brief discussion of which way to go on the trail (yes, to the left, even though it's uphill for awhile), we were pleased to find some streams where we drank some more water and washed up a bit. Then we hiked up/down as the light faded and we brought out our headlamp and mini-light. After packing up, we left at 9:45 (Claire guessed the time on the nose; my guess was 10:00), after reading the nice note left by Sam, et al. We were too late for the 11pm closing of McDs in Oakdale, but Manteca has a 24 hour McDs and In-n-Out, which we took advantage of.