Yosemite - Cookie, Serenity/Sons - 3/11-12/05 - Jared Brown More training for the Indian Creek trip, and bag a few classics in the process. We drove up on Thursday night via 120, and slept outside the park. Got a leisurly 10am start (I'm sure Jared needed to catch up on sleep after finishing projects before exam week). Friday - the Cookie. 1. Bev's Tower 5.10a - Clint led. I felt fairly insecure on this lead, as usual. But there are many holds, rests, and good pro. Jared followed with no problems. 2. Wheat Thin 5.10c - Jared led. Nice smooth onsight job! 3. Butterfingers 5.11a - Clint led with 2 hangs. I got the technical crux OK, after first climbing up and down a few times to place some TCUs as high as possible. I stemmed over right into the hand crack and placed a cam with a runner, still feeling well rested. After making a couple of thin hand jams I tried to place a #2 Friend quickly, but only 2 of its 4 cams fit; I pumped out very quickly and had to hang there. After several tight handjams and some partial rests, I couldn't quite crank the move past wide feet, so I took another hang at that point. Jared's feet were slipping on the technical crux; he skated off at one point, but I think he caught himself before the rope came tight. He had to take a brief hang to clean the cam at the wide stem, but got it clean from there. Jared took a shot at toproping Butterballs 5.11c. He made it up a ways, but his feet kept skating off, so he lowered and we rapped off. Dan Rampe and Patrick were toproping Aftershock 5.11b, while we had some lunch. I taped the end of Jared's rope to theirs, to thread it for our toprope, but the tape broke and both ropes came down. How embarrassing! :-) 4. Catchy 5.10d - Jared led. Very nice onsight with no beta. 5. Catchy Corner 5.11a - I led - mostly on aid :-( I knew it would be a long shot, since my endurance has been poor. But I thought I could get to the stem rest and at least get a ways into the upper sustained section before seeing if I could get it. But I didn't quite make it to the stem rest; I didn't feel secure enough hanging on at the semi-thin fingerlocks to get pro in with my feet above the previous TCU. I was already halfway up the pitch, and the sun was setting, so I aided up to the top as fast as possible. Jared did a nice job following free, with some hard breathing near the top as the pump accumulated! Dinner at the (indoor) pizza deck. Cheaper and faster than driving out to Mariposa. We got a good long sleep, and were up for some more moderate action on Sunday. We chose Serenity Crack / Sons of Yesterday, one of my old favorites. With our fairly leisurely start, there were two parties ahead of us, with the first follower just leaving the ground as we arrived at the base to tape up. 1. Serenity p1 5.10a - Jared led. A thin trickle of water was running down the crack all the way to the base. This made the pin scar pinching a little slick and several of the jams a bit slimy. But Jared motored up it with no problems. 2. Serenity p2 5.10a - I led. This was naturally nice and dry, and I used the lower step across to switch cracks. It is less polished, and since Brian Cox likes it, I figured it was a SAC tradition! 3. Serenity p3 5.10d - Jared led with one hang. He was almost past the crux but felt insecure on a 2-finger lock, so he took a hang there. I followed clean, but my feet were skating a bit and I quickly tried different pinscars in the crux to avoid the painful / numbing ones. 4. Sons approach 5.7 - I led. I met Melissa for the first time (after some emails in the past) halfway up to the big tree, then managed to unnecessarily cross my rope with hers when rushing things a bit. Doh! I found out that Melissa and Jay were doing the first ascent of new route, Daughters' Direct, just right of Sons. Some years back, I did some nighttime cleaning of the second pitch of this route. But I had been unable to find a partner to finish off the route, or finish cleaning it. They had worked a bit on the route last weekend, including some nighttime cleaning. Jay looked very solid leading its first pitch, and is a really nice guy (just like I thought). Melissa floated it as well. 5. Sons of Yesterday p1 5.10a - I led. Jared's feet were starting to hurt a bit, not to mention the already bruised hands from the Cookie session on Friday, so I gladly took the lead when he offered it. I had to focus on the various cruxes, but never felt gripped/desperate. So I guess I must be getting into shape. Jared followed with no problems, and did not even complain when an occasional slack loop would develop as I took some pictures. At this point (2pm), we had to bail out, as I promised Jared we could return early enough to catch his dining hall closing at 7pm (I'm sure some sleep before finals week was a goal, too!). So we did a single line rap on the 60m lead line, and J. released it for us. One short rap from the big tree to the top of Serenity p3, then a 51m rap (Jared had to reach down to get the slings, using my 50m rappel rope) to a station below the Serenity black knobs belay. The usual west wind was blowing by now, so the ropes pulled cleanly, being blown fully clear (right) of the double flakes on p3. We (barely) reached the ground on the next (55m) rap. And yes, Jared made dinner at 7pm, even though it was a little slow driving on the 2-way road on the valley floor at 3:15.