Yosemite - Serenity / Ahwahnee Buttress / Sons of Yesterday - 12/17/05 - Erika Erika was about to leave for 4 months in Alaska, after a very busy fall quarter, so we pushed our luck and went for a day trip, even though the weather forecast couldn't make up its mind between mostly cloudy and partly cloudy. Never mind that I had done this route 7 days ago, or 3 times already this year; it's a classic and always worth doing. Parking at the Ahwahnee at around 10am, there is a thick frozen puddle but we know it's warmer above the valley floor; the question is how much warmer? Up at the base the light is fairly bright, with the sun trying to break though the clouds. I have my usual turtleneck and long underwear/ tights, plus a sweater, balaclava and 2nd wool hat. Erika has 4 upper layers. I head on up p1, which is a little drier than last week (shorter wet section; not running with as much water). Erika gets a bit cold belaying, but cranks up the pitch in the belay parka with numb fingers and feet hurting a bit. Do we go higher? Well, p2 is a nice 5.10a and Erika can't resist, so she leads it solidly. While she is leading, a father and son team arrives at the base and the dad is leading p1. He is past the wet section when suddenly I hear a big noise and look down to see him taking a huge whipper. He stops upside down about 5' above the ground; he must have gone about 40'! He gets up, apparently without major injuries, and his son takes over the lead. The son confided to me that it was pretty scary to see that leader fall happen, and I agreed. Later, dad leads p2! When I reach the knob belay below the tree, the sun is actually out for about 10 minutes, so I hand over the belay parka and try to make good time up the p3 Ahwahnee Buttress corner lieback/handcrack. Erika follows, remarking that she "would have been in tears" if she tried to lead it. It's rated 5.7 in the Meyers/Reid guide, but 5.9 in the Supertopo. I have been thinking of it as a stiff 5.8; it's tricky and committing in places, but fortunately never ultra hard. I belayed at the Serenity bolts so we could consider rapping off, given that the sun is gone and there is a breeze which is making me wish I had my little wind shell in addition to the sweater! Erika is cold again, so we figure we'll bail out, but first Erika will hang out at the hopefully more sheltered Sunset Ledge while I rap down the corner pitch to remove some of the packed dirt above the tree that makes it hard to jam or place cams in that lieback/jam section. I promise it will only be 15 minutes, but after a furious session with the pruning saw in the dirt, it was probably more like 30. This should make future ascents more enjoyable, assuming the forecast rains arrive to wash off the dirt I sent down the corner. Erika belays me back up the hand crack and up to Sunset Ledge, where the wind has stopped and she's warmed back up. So we decide to try for a few more pitches. I take the short one up to the tree belay, and then the long crux pitch of Sons. I'm feeling less trusting of the friction footing on the low angle groove approach and traverse moves left to the main crack. But I make it and crack the finger crack moves to the hand jams and first tree. One of the thin hand bulges above gets me a little gripped. I actually made the moves and got my feet established on the sloping ramp, but I'm a bit runout and want to get a cam in. I'm stemmed with an insecure flaring thin hand jam; perhaps insecure due to the cold. And the rack is a bit unfamiliar to me, with Aliens and small Camalots (plus a few of my own cams). So I compromise and reach for a slightly better hand jam, try to relax and I do get a decent cam in. One more bulge and I'm starting the crux section, with some finger locks to the flake hold in the crack. This time I am careful to avoid getting my foot stuck in the crack, and I use the bear hug sequence without getting too gripped above my pro. There may be hope for me yet. The rest of the pitch is friendly with my reach and I belay Erika up from the nice tree stance. She has no problems except for the final reach for the tree near the belay (where she pauses only slightly to find a way). Then she sends the 5.7 hand crack to 5.9 roof/upper bulge with no problems. As I'm starting to follow this pitch, a cloud arrives from the west and it starts snowing lightly. I panic a bit and leave some gear and the haul line clipped to the belay anchor, figuring we need to get down fast. But the snow stops after a few minutes, so I climb back down and clean up the gear, before following as fast as possible. Light is fading, but I figure Erika will enjoy the next perfect hand crack, even if she is not ready to risk onsighting it in the dark, so I run up it as quickly as possible and she follows in the near darkness. We head down the rappels, without much light except our camera displays, since we have left the headlamp and water back at the tree belay just above Sunset Ledge. It starts snowing again; lightly but steadily, so the ropes start getting wet. Fortunately the raps go fairly smoothly, even the long rap down the crux pitch of Sons where the 50m rope is about 10' short of the lower tree belay. Erika tied in for a belay on this section; given that it was wet, why risk a slippery solo? Reunited with the headlamp, we continue down to the bolts atop Serenity p3. The ropes are getting wetter and it's darker (no full moon like a week ago with Claire), but the lights of the Ahwahnee Hotel reflect up off the wet rock fairly effectively. We have one anxious moment, when the knot runs through the double crack/flake on Serenity p3, but fortunately it pulls through and we are spared a potentially epic retrieval. 2 more raps and we are on the ground. The rain starts getting heavier almost immediately and we are glad to be down. Soon we are changed into some dry clothes and ready to warm up at the Ahwanhee fireplace, but there's no fire - just some ashes and radiating heat! So we finish off Erika's thermos of tea with diced lemons and drive out on 140. After the usual fast food, the drive on 152/101 is epic at times, due to heavy rain, puddles and near-hydroplaning. I have to keep my speed under 65 due to the constant scary puddles, and we see 3-4 cars spun out on the 101 shoulder. But we survive it and get back to town shortly after midnight.