Yosemite - SAC Lead Climbing workshop - 4/21-22/07 Instructors: Jared, Clint, Darko, Paul, Sharon WFR: Alexis Students: Dave, Emily, Ian, Kendra, Moritz, Nat, Ryan Most of the instructors + Ian + Moritz drove up in Darko's van on Friday night to sleep outside the park. Paul and the other students drove up on Saturday morning. There was a hitch on Sunday morning, because Paul was coordinating Saturday morning and had expected to receive a list of people driving up then, and got a general list of peoples names and cell phone numbers, including Ian + Moritz who had already driven up on Friday. So the drive Saturday was delayed while Paul tried to contact Ian + Moritz. Ryan called in to say that he couldn't make the 5:30am departure and drove up a little later. Most of us arrived at the lodge parking lot opposite Lower Yosemite Falls at about 9am. We set up at Swan Slab, which was pretty deserted. Usually the Yosemite Mountain School has a guided class there on weekends, but perhaps due to the 70% rain forecast for Sunday, it had been cancelled. We had students set up a trad belay anchor, and checked them. Since we expected Sunday to be rained out for climbing, we started immediately into mock leading and real leading (for those ready). We figured that more anchor work could be done on Sunday. Jared led up the first pitch of Church Bowl Gully 5.6, and set up a toprope for mock leading. Ian led up Oak Tree Flake 5.5, and continued to the small tree above Grant's Crack. I followed (checking his gear). We then set up a toprope anchor for Grant's Crack and he rappelled. I went back to the large flake/block above Oak Tree Flake, and used some webbing to set up a toprope for Oak Tree Flake, and a directional anchor for Grant's Crack (otherwise the toprope tends to be a bit right of the crux and also gets stuck in the wide upper section). I checked mock leads on Oak Tree Flake 5.5 - Dave and Emily. Sharon checked mock leads on Grant's Crack 5.9 - Dave, Kendra and others. Jared checked mock leads on Church Bowl Gully 5.6. Paul and Darko supervised more belay anchor work left of Oak Tree Flake. Darko led the 5.7/5.8 flake further left (right of the 5.0), and set up a toprope. Dave mock led it and I followed, adding a second rope so it could be belayed from the ground. After lunch, I toproped Church Bowl Gully and set up a trad anchor in a horizonatal crack left of the tree for Penelope's Problem, a 5.7 lieback flake which is usually occupied by YMS. I checked several mock leads on this by Dave, Kendra, Alexis, Moritz and others. Dave also did a real lead of Church Bowl Gully 5.6 and I checked his gear. Jared led Lena's Lieback 5.9 and others mock led or toproped it. Eventually we started getting some light rain. Emily toproped Penelope's Problem (instead of mock leading), to save some time and a wet belayar at this point! Fortunately the rain was not too heavy, so we were able to climb for a little while and also take down all the anchors, and it was getting near dark anyway. We moved along to the campsites, and set up our tents and put food into the bearboxes. We walked over to the Curry Pizza deck and had some pizza inside as it rained. Then back to sleep in the tents (and Darko's van). On Sunday, we woke to find 1/2" of snow on the Valley floor, with a cold steady rain as forecast. After breakfast and clearing the campsites, we headed over to the Curry Village reading room, where we sorted a bit of gear and had a lecture on many details of leading climbs by Jared, Clint, Darko, Paul and Sharon. After this, we headed over to the Chapel Wall, hoping to find a 20' x 50' dry spot to climb and practice placing anchors, as recalled by Clint. Instead we found an 8' x 15' dry area, and not many cracks for practicing anchors. Jared led Gold Dust 5.10b, hanging once to warm up his numb hands in the near freezing temp. Dave, Kendra, Paul and Ian toproped it also. I found a few cracks in which to place gear, and discussed alternative placements with the students. Alexis and Moritz tried out the alternative placements themselves, too. Moritz brewed up some expresso on his stove and a few folks went out on short hikes in the rain to keep warm. Eventually Ian cleaned the toprope anchors and we all drove back home.