Yosemite:  Galactic Hitchhiker to Oasis, The Cobra 6/15-20/04 -
  Lin, Carissa Aoki

Lin Murphy drove out for a summer road trip, which we had planned
after her visit this spring.  On the way out, she spent some time
digging dinosaur bones in Wyoming.
On my way to the Meadows, I stopped in Livermore and bought 2 BMX
bicycles that I had purchased on eBay.  I managed to squeeze them
into my car, and then I stashed them in the woods near my sleeping
spot for pickup after the climbing trip was over.

6/15 (Tues).  I met Lin at the Lembert Dome picnic area at 8:30am.
We warmed up on Quiet Desperation 5.9 on Stately Pleasure Dome.
I had recalled this as an interesting crack climb paralleling South
Crack (I did it years ago with Phyllis).  Lin led the first pitch
to a belay below the upper bolts on Step It Up and Go.  Continuing
the traverse looked dicey, so I climbed straight down Step It Up and Go
(with decent protection) instead.  I tried traversing under the arch,
but the protection was not good enough.  So I went further down to the
top of the first pitch of Step It Up and Go.  Lin climbed down as well,
and we decided the 5.9 variation above looked wide/awkward, so we
rapped off.  In retrospect, the traverse straight right from the belay
was the proper route, according to the topo.

Table of Contents is a nice slab route.  We had both done the first
pitch several times, but not for quite awhile.
Lin led the first pitch (5.10b) pretty nicely.  The traversing moves
and flake holds after the friction crux still seemed a bit familiar
to me.  I was happy to be following on the crux, as it's pretty thin.
Lin also led the second pitch (5.10d) where the fingerholds peter out
and you have to really use you feet on pure friction.  The pitch stayed
tough after the well protected crux; Lin had to downclimb at one point
to find a better path near the end of the pitch.  I felt great to be
able to follow the pitch without falling; I'm not very solid on 5.10d
friction.
I led the 3rd pitch (5.10a), which neither of us had ever done.
It was a bit runout past only 2 bolts, but it seemed a lot easier than
the previous pitches and the upper part was only 5.7.

We had some lunch in the car, and the clouds were looking a bit
threatening, and started sprinkling a bit.  As this continued, we
realized that our hope to climb on Fairview Dome would need to wait
until the weather pattern improved, so we decided to relocate to the
Valley in the meantime.  We slept at my standard spot off of Evergreen
Road, and stashed my car near there in the morning.

6/16 (Wed).  Galactic Hitchhiker recon.  Already feeling confident
on slabs, we decided to give this a try, to see if it was wet, etc.
I had previously climbed to the top of Goodrich Pinnacle, so I knew
the route that far.  We got a casual start at about noon.  I knew the
route did not go into shade until about 3pm.  We soloed up the first
pitch, and I 4th classed the second pitch and made a belay at the
base of the white LFC.  Lin came up and led 50' up the 5.7 corner to a
bolt belay on the left.  I led the 5.8 thin crack, horizontal crack
and somewhat runout slab.  It was fairly breezy on the pitch on
the outside edge of the buttress.  Lin led a traversing pitch which
started by reaching a fixed pin.  Her traverse line was quite polished,
probably the lower line which I used when following was easier.
I led the next pitch which was a 5.9 slab past a couple of bolts, then
a long runout which was only hard immediately above the bolts,
reaching a few decent holds.  Over left to the corners leading to
the chimney on the right side of the pinnacle.  I stretched the 60m
rope to reach a decent stance partway up the chimney, just past the
narrow section.  Lin led up the chimney with a few spooky flakes
to belay on a nice ledge just above the pinnacle.  Here the Goodrich
Pinnacle route ends and Galactic Hitchhiker starts.  (Actually there
is an old route called Goodrich to Oasis which probably coincides
with Galactic Hitchhiker for most of these pitches).
We were using the topo provided to me by Matt Brooks and revised by
by Karl Baba.

p9 5.9 (C led).  Straightforward and shorter than I expected.
The first pro is a fixed pin, then a few thin moves for a well
protected moderate crux.  The first bolt is quite off the main line,
out right.  I could have spared myself some rope drag by just
skipping it, and the pitch would not have been as runout as some
of those below.  Belay at a slightly rusty 3/8" bolt, a pin down
behind a flake (a spot next to it which once had another fixed pin),
and another pin up high on the left, connected via an old sling.
The bolt was non stainless, as were all the other bolts on this route;
these pitches do get some drainage much of the year.

p10 5.9 (L led).  Out left on an easy ramp to a bolt, and then
a second bolt only about 3' higher.  Thinner moves to reach
a pin hidden up and left, then closely spaced bolts up the nice
blunt prow.  Finally a traverse left to a moderate crack system
and a bolted belay on a decent ledge on the left.

p11-12 5.8 (C).  I stepped back right to the LFC crack system, which
was moderate for a ways.  It petered out to an intermittent thin
crack with some vegetation growing back.  The 5.8 crux was found
here.  Easier again to the "Beck's Bivy" ledge.  I continued
up 4th class above the left end of this ledge, past some old
slings on a detached flake.  I reached the main LFC system
where I set up a belay at a fixed pin and a couple of cams.
There were rust spots where there had previously been more fixed
pins (the topo indicated 3 for the belay).

p13 5.8 (L).  This started tough, with an insecure lieback out left
under a roof in the corner.  It was apparently downrated to 5.6
in Karl's topo, but we thought it was worth the original 5.8.
It continued thin at times up the LFC up to a thin exit move and
a bolt belay.  There is also supposed to be a 5.9/5.10a way to
do this pitch in face cracks to the right called "The Gap".
It looked like the vegetation may be growing back there.

p14 5.8 (C).  The topo here offered a 5.6 crack on the left (downrated
from original 5.8), or a 5.9+ thin crack with fixed pins on the right
(originally 5.10b).  In retrospect the topo was a bit compressed.
I could see a possible thin face crack on the right, but I chose
the easier corner to the left, which I thought had a brief 5.8
section.  This led to a small ledge and another choice between
two small LFCs.  The one on the right had some fixed pins but looked
often closed and polished.  This was probably the 5.9+ on the topo.
I chose the corner on the left, which had some dirt and grass.
It had slick aplite rock, and I had to quickly clean out the
crack in two spots to enable protection and fingerjams.  Once clean,
I thought it was about 5.8.  At the top of the corner, easy climbing
on small ledges reached the belay sling threaded around a big block
and a fixed pin.

p15 5.7 (L).  This had two fixed pins and climbed right of
the vegetated main LFC.  Denoted "The Ramos Crack" in the topo.
After I followed, Lin asked me to pause for a bit while she
checked out a "pouch".  She had stopped at the left side of a
well vegetated ledge directly below the Oasis, and while belaying
she had spotted the fabric and zipper of the pouch in the dirt
of the ledge.  So she reached down and dug/pulled it out.  It was
quite heavy; at first she was scared it might contain a head or
something!  But she managed to pull open the zipper and saw it
contained a bunch of rusty hardware, packed in black dirt!
We sat down and separated the dirt from the gear, as stuff kept
coming out of the small pack, like clowns from a circus car.
Eventually we counted 15 badly rusted 3/8" bolts and (stainless) hangers,
4 bugaboos/knifeblads, 14 Lost Arrows, and 12 angles.  All were
marked with yellow plastic dip, like the fixed pins at the belays
on this route.  So clearly it was gear cached or lost by the
first ascent party.  But it was also definitely abandoned - they
could have come back anytime in the 9 years since they had established
the route.  We put it all back in its old pack and placed that in
my climbing pack.  We decided not to visit the Oasis proper (2 pitches
up and right); it was already plenty vegetated on the current ledge,
and we didn't feel that motivated to check it out as a future source
of water.

p16 5.6 (C).  It was getting late, but this short/easy pitch with
closely spaced bolts beconned.  I quickly cruised up it (it was dry),
Lin followed, and we took a couple of photos in the fading light.
The pitches above looked reasonable; slightly vegetated corners
with a few detached flakes, as indicated on the topo.  Not too steep,
although steeper than the regular Apron angle below.

On with the rappels.  It was already 7pm and it got dark at
around 9.  From (16) we easily reached (14).  We had a 60m x 10mm
lead rope and a 50m x 9mm rappel rope.  Easy to (13) as well,
although Lin slipped on the polished rock just right of the anchor
and I held onto the ropes to try to help out.  I went straight
down but soon realized I was not going to reach (11) with the 50m
rope (maybe with two 60m ropes a person could reach easy ground
above the big (11) ledge, but I'm not sure of that either).  So
I batmanned back up the ropes over a roof, and swung well over
left.  I had hoped to avoid this because this line put the ropes
into a couple of cracks above.  I reached the old slings around
the detached flake and anchored there, adding a new sling.  Lin
came down, the rope pulled OK, and she made the short rappel to (11).
I took back the new sling and did the short rappel.  Perhaps a bolted
belay/rappel anchor at (12) to replace the former fixed pins would
work here, although the rope pulldown from (11) still involves the
crack hazard in this case.  From (11) we could not reach (9), so
we went over left to (10).  The rappel to (9) was rather diagonal;
it might be quite difficult during rain.  From (9) it was easy
to reach the top of Goodrich Pinnacle, where I chose the original
Rohrer anchors with Star Dryvin bolt over the newer anchors with
slings and rings which was located further from the lip.

The light was fading quickly now, so I hurried down to the first
anchor on the Left Side route.
First rappel:  about 105' down and left to two bolts with chains
  in the big LFC.
Second rappel:  150' to three 1/4" rusty bolts with chains.
Third rappel:  150' to a bolt and 2 pins.  I cleaned a little of the
  dirt out from around the pins.
Fourth rappel:  170' to a low angle 3rd class area in the big LFC.
  There might have been another anchor up higher in the corner,
  but it was dark and I was unable to locate it by climbing up
  the corner.  I located the next anchor (3 bolts) 40' below us,
  and I belayed Lin down to it.  I tossed the ropes down and
  downclimbed to it.  We were using the light from my tiny LED light.
Fifth rappel:  we went down the big LFC left of the anchor, but
  I was still 30-40' above the ground when the 50m rope ran out.
  I batmanned up to a stance, placed a couple of cams, and Lin
  came down.  The 60m rope reached the ground, so we clipped it
  to the cams and rappelled single line to the ground.
It was late and we were tired, so we left the rope retrieval job
for the next day in daylight.  Lin was also concerned about reaching
her car in the parking lot before much darkness, in case a bear might
want to break into it for the food.  We drove to the Church Bowl,
had dinner, then stashed food in the bear boxes at the Manure Pile
picnic area, drove off and slept at my usual spot.

6/16 (Thurs).  Rest day!  It was sunny and warm.  I walked up with
a light pack to retrieve our ropes.  I climbed up the corner
with my feet on the rock and my hands on the ropes.  It looks about 5.8
in difficulty with some very polished sections (not 3rd class as
indicated in the old topo).  The ropes were stuck due to very rough /
frictiony rock just below the anchor.  By rappelling roughly straight
down instead of left into the corner, the ropes go over smoother rock
and also (barely) reach the ground.  I also noticed a fairly new slab
route just right of the rap line, with 11 bolts and no big runouts;
perhaps in the 5.9 range.  Back down at the car, Lin had checked
her mail at General Delivery, and called her friend Carissa (back
in Boulder).  Carissa was planning to fly out and join us for the
weekend!  (It would be Carissa's first time to the Valley, a nice
opportunity since her partner was already here with a car!).  More
time was spent resting, having some ice cream, and cleaning dirt
from the cache of pins and bolts!

6/17 (Fri).  The Cobra.  Lin and I had talked about this back
in March, and now was a good time to try it, with the rock pretty
dry and both of us in shape for slabs.  This route basically follows
Royal Arches to the Pendulum, and then heads up and right to traverse
across a big slab, then up a big LFC which is capped by a diagonal
roof/undercling.  I had read Bill Wright's 1999 trip report
on this route; he made it with a little aid, so I figured we could
survive it as well.  I had also heard that Walt Shipley once took
a huge fall from the undercling/lieback pitch.
We got a nice early start, with plenty of sleep (contrasting with
my most recent time on Royal Arches a few weeks ago with Chris Harvey -
rather little sleep).  We also carried 2 packs this time (learning again
from last time).  We brought just one (60m) rope and no descent shoes,
as we planned to use the Royal Arches Rappel Route.
Quite familiar with the Royal Arches pitches this
time, and with a very experienced partner, we belayed on the
initial chimney, then simulclimbed to above the 5.6 hand crack,
where I gave Lin an upper belay.  I ran out the 60m rope a couple
of times on familiar ground, and soon we were at a 2 bolt belay out
right of the pendulum anchor.

p11.  I took the first lead, which was noted as 5.8 "poor pro"
on the topo.  Pro was sparse but OK for the 5.7 start past a small roof.
Ready for the face above, I saw a series of big new bolts.
Somebody had retrobolted the pitch, with 6 new bolts.  I clipped
them, and I was glad to have them.  I stopped at a stance with 2
Metolius rap hangers, about 15' short of the original belay, where
I could see 2 old bolts and one new bolt.  The line of new bolts
continued up and left, following some vertical dikes

p12+.  Lin came up and led the next pitch, which was shown as mostly
traversing in the topo with a couple of 5.9 sections.  A little
crumbly rock reached the original bottom anchor, then she traversed
past 2 old bolts with weathered slings to the black wet ooze streak.
Fortunately it was possible to barely step across it without getting
her shoes wet.  There was supposed to be another bolt just past
the streak, but it was missing.  More 5.9 traversing followed, and
she reached the original top anchor, which was 2 old 1/4" bolts (one
a Star 1/4") with no stance.  She wisely kept going to a decent
sitting belay and placed a couple of cams.  This took pretty much
all of our 60m rope.  I enjoyed following the pitch.

p13+14.  At this point we had reached a vertical headwall atop the
slab, and the next 2.5 pitches traversed along this juncture.
I started the remainder of p13 by removing a fixed stopper just
above Lin.  Then I reached the headwall and clipped an old fixed
Lost Arrow.  Traversing along to the right, I clipped an old 1/4"
Star bolt.  It had a hole next to it.  This may have been the
original belay atop p13.  Traversing more, I clipped a somewhat
newer 1/4" buttonhead.  I traversed past a thin crack where I
managed to place a decent wired stopper.  Finally I reached the
belay at a flake, where I anchored with a couple of cams and
a stopper.  As Lin followed the pitch, I noticed an old bolt well
down below and left of us on the slab, but I'm not sure how it
would connect with anything.

p15.  Lin climbed down a little, then traversed almost straight
right (5.9) with no pro.  She set up a belay at the first LFC with
a fixed pin and a couple of cams, after first checking out the
larger LFC to the right.  I followed using a slightly lower
traversing line that Lin had used.

p16 (first half).  This corner is rated 5.10b, but it is becoming
overgrown with grass that blocks a lot of the fingerjams.  So after
a few free moves I was on aid.  Once it widened to hand size I made
a couple of free moves into a bush and set a belay atop the bush.
I could have probably spent 30 minutes cleaning the crack and
gone back down to toprope lead it free, but I figured I'd probably have
to aid the 5.11a undercling on top anyway, so we kept going.

p16 (second half).  The corner continues starts with 5.7 lower angle
hand jamming.  Near the top it got steep and thin again, which I
didn't expect (I hadn't looked at the topo carefully).  It looked
quite steep on the left side, or lower angle but poorly protected
to the right.  So I made a couple of aid moves up the left side.
It turns out the right side is supposed to be 5.9.  I set a belay
with nuts and cams below the big final corner, Lin came up, and
we had some lunch.

p17.  This was shown as 5.8 3.5".  We had one #4 Friend, a #3.5
and two #3s.  I used them all.  Fortunately it flared a bit, so
I could reach in deep when it was wide to get a decent jam.
I managed to use my feet OK, so it was not too desperate.  The belay
was one new ASCA bolt and two buttonheads at a stance in the crack.
Lin followed with some strenuous liebacking.

p18.  The big vertical corner crack continued, #4 size again at
first.  I was thinking about aiding this start, but I only had one
#4, so I tried to free it, which was not so bad, as my feet worked
fairly well.  The crack narrowed to thin hands and the rock was
fairly rough, so feet worked well.  I tried to free it as far
as possible, but as I placed my last #2 Friend and made a few moves
above it, I realized I needed another #2 to avoid a long runout to
the next pro.  So I climbed back down and rested on the #2, and
started the aiding and backcleaning process.  Soon the crack narrowed
and I placed a few TCUs at the top of the vertical corner, just
before the start of the diagonal roof.  I had backcleaned my 2 #2
Friends, so I was glad to have a few pieces of solid gear to leave
below me.  The roof was #2s until past halfway, and a bit gritty.
I had fashioned 2 simple aiders from 2 spectra slings each.
After the halfway point, I was able to place a couple of #1.5 Friends
in narrowed spots, so I didn't have to do the runout backcleaning.
Back to #2 size again, and I left the pro in place so Lin wouldn't
have huge gaps between cams.  Finally at the end it narrowed again
to TCUs and nuts, and the belay was a 3/8" bolt with a Dolt hanger
and an old shield bolt.  I was a little surprised there was not
a new bolt here, after finding the ASCA bolt at the previous belay.
The pitch was just under 30m, so I tossed my end of the rope down
to Lin and hauled the pack.  I figured at least this way it would
be less strain to follow.  Lin came up with some liebacking, tension,
and eventually prusiking at the roof.  She managed to clean the TCUs
at the start of the roof and then take the small swing out to the
gear in the middle.

p19.  Lin led up a 4th class slab to a 5.9 or aid move at the
roof.  Belay in the trees/boulders on top.

We hit the traversing trail, back to the top of Royal Arches,
downclimbed the 4th class, crossed the stream, and reversed the 5.0
traverse pitch to reach the rappel route.  The rappels went smoothly
except for the second one, where I didn't see the rings to the left,
went past them, and then and had to batman back up the rope to them.
There was only one hanging anchor with no stance.  A little fairly
easy downclimbing at a couple of points, as expected.  Once down
at the wooded ramp, there was quite a bit of downclimbing, and I
started to wish I had brought a topo for the raps.  We reached
a dead tree with a rope burn at its base.  The wall below looked
too long to reach with our rope, so we continued traversing to
the east and after some more downclimbing intersected the Royal
Arches climbing route atop the 5.4 crack pitch.  One rappel from
a small tree atop this pitch reached the 3rd class above the chimney,
then one rappel down the chimney reached our shoes at the base.
We met a guy at the base who told the tale of his ascent of the
Cobra a few years back.  There were no retrobolts on that
first 5.8 pitch.  On the 5.11a (it looked hard for 5.11a, very
difficult to stop and place gear), he took an 80' leader fall!
He was "hammered", so his partner gave it a go.  His partner
took a long fall as well and broke his ankle.  He didn't explain
how the got to the top and down after that....
We had dinner and Lin waited in her car at El Cap Meadow for
Carissa, who we thought might arrive at about 1am.  It turns out
her drive went OK, but her flight out of Denver was delayed by 2
hours, so she didn't arrive until 3am.  Sleep deprivation....

6/18 (Sat).  We headed for the Meadows, knowing it had the
best chance of nice temps, not to mention the beautiful climbs
to introduce Carissa to Yosemite climbing.

Georgia Peach 5.9.  A decent warmup, which I led.  Carissa followed,
and I continued up to the second pitch anchor (5.7, no pro).
Then Lin came up and we rapped from an anchor above Sweet Nothings
to set up a toprope.

Sweet Nothings 5.10c (toprope).  Lin managed to toprope it,
but Carissa had some difficulty with the intense crux.  I skipped it,
since I had (barely) followed it just a few weeks before.

Footnote 5.10c/d.  Lin led this nicely.  It's quite sustained and
has some pretty long runouts, but she has the skills to get it done.
Carissa followed, with some falls/hangs, but got the knack of it and
made it to the top.  I toproped, taking 3-4 falls/hangs myself.

Cryin' Time Again 5.9.  Having done "slab", we though Carissa should
experience "knobs".  We arrived at the base as another party was
getting ready to start it.  I recognized one of the guys as a person
I had talked with at the base of the Apron when I had retrieved our
ropes on Thursday.  They were not entirely sure where the route started
(it's hard to see the few bolts in the wide slab).  So I offered to
lead up with both our ropes, show them where it was, and then belay
above the regular first belay, so we would not be in their way.
As it turns out, leading with both ropes and some rope drag was a
bit slow, especially on the standup move at the top of the arete!
I belayed from a single big ASCA bolt just above that.  I found out
at this point that it was strenuous pulling up both ropes to belay
2 people simultaneously, so this was a bit slow as well.  But eventually
the other folks were able to start.  I led the remainder of the pitch
to the big ledge and brought up Lin and Carissa.  Lin led the next
pitch, with the 5.9+ knobs on the buttress.  I found the buttress was
a bit harder than I expected, employing some dynamic moves (maybe I
should have tightened my shoes first).  A 5.9 traversing section
near the end of the pitch was harder than I remembered, too.  I managed
to place a tiny stopper just after the bolt, so that Carissa wouldn't
face as much of a swing after unclipping.  But it still required some
boldness for following.  Fortunately she had the skills, although the
lack of sleep was not helping.  At this point, we were all a bit tired
so we headed down using the rap rings, instead of trying to do
the next pitch.  Below we could see the other party rappelling from
the first pitch, too.  As it turned out, we didn't have much daylight
left anyway, as darkness set in while we were eating back at the
picnic area.  We drove back out of the Meadows and settled in for a
full night's sleep.

6/19 (Sun).  After breakfast at El Cap Meadow, we drove to Reed's
Pinnacle.

Lunatic Fringe 5.10c.  I led this old classic, which I have pretty
wired.  The crux thin hands still felt fairly desperate.  Perhaps
it was my loose tape job, or just accumulated tiredness from the
many days of climbing?  I was solid above, though.  Carissa followed,
having some difficulty as well on the thin hands crux, taking a few
hangs.  A stuck cam didn't help their, either.  Above she did quite
a bit better.  Lin sat this one out, explaining that she had never
been sure how to climb the crack at that initial crux.

Nutcracker 5.9.  To finish out the weekend, we headed over to
this classic for a friendly afternoon ascent.  Lin was a little concerned
when we say someone climbing the 5.9 start, but it turns out they were
only toproping, so we headed up the 5.6 start.  Lin led off, zeroing
in on a big stuck cam.  I soloed up and cleaned this cam while Lin
was leading on above.  I also cleaned a second (medium sized) cam
from the belay at the end of the 3rd class start.  Carissa followed
Lin on the tricky 5.6 corners and then on the fun traverse to the
ramp, and I followed the traverse to join them.  I fired quickly up
the ramp and brought them up to its top.  The route was just starting
to go into shade at this point, which was nice.  I led the next pitch,
up the hand crack and lieback corners, then out the left variation
finish to belay at the small tree.  Lin and Carissa followed,
and I led up the nice pitch with the small roof, remembering again
how nice the featured rock is on this climb.  The old bolt belay has
been removed from the end of this pitch, so you belay just a little
higher at another ledge with lots of natural gear.  I led up the
mantle pitch, locking off at the crux to reach up high and place
a TCU overhead, then using my knee on the mantle move...  Lin and
Carissa followed separately with no problems.  We walked off and
headed for home.