Yosemite - informal trip - 4/28-29/07

With a forecast of sun and highs in the low 80s, plus the 3 SAC
campsites, it was time for a group Yosemite trip!
I set up topropes at Church Bowl on Saturday and at the base of
El Cap on Sunday.  Other folks climbed independently in pairs
and shared the campsites.

For the group folks:
Friday night:  2 cars drove up:  Ekin, Koichi, and Ian;
Aaron, Clint, Jared C and Eric.
Saturday morning:  2 more cars:  Moritz, Patience, Martin and Francisco;
Justin D, Eu-Jin and Lindsay.

Saturday:

Ekin and Koichi dropped off Ian at the Church Bowl.  Bishop's Terrace
was crowded, so they went over to the Apron and climbed the Harry Daley route.
Later they came back to Church Bowl and waited in line to do Bishop's
Terrace.  They eventually got on it just before dark; Koichi led and
Ekin followd in the moonlight.  They met us at the pizza deck at 9:30pm
to swap Jared and Koichi between cars.  Ekin, Ian and Jared then drove
back to Palo Alto.

In the meantime, I led Church Bowl Lieback 5.8, set up a toprope on it,
and also set up topropes on Uncle Fanny 5.7 and one for both Revival 5.10a
and Tammy Fae 5.10c.  Aaron toproped Pole Position 5.10a.

Eu-Jin led Black is Brown 5.8, but by following the supertopo literally,
he missed the face traverse to the left and led the 5.10c version, including
his first leader fall (onto a yellow Alien), and some hangs.  He and Justin
set up a toprope using a cordelette on a big tree branch, since someone
had removed the hangers from the bolts on top of the route I had placed
in December (to avoid walking up the eroded/loose slope above the top
of the cliff to the trees).  Later I toproped and moved the anchor down
to the bolts, using some wired stoppers to cinch on the bolts, backed up
and secured with some cams.

I made an attempt to lead As It Is, described as 5.8 with munge on the topo.
I found the munge (dirty moss), also 5.9 moves, loose flakes and not
much pro, so I lowered off of 2 cams and retrieved them later on rappel.

Vince and two friends appeared at midday, after having found Swan Slab to
be extremely crowded.  Vince set up a toprope on Aunt Fanny's Pantry and
later took a smooth toprope lap on Tammy Fae.

Late in the day I toproped the 5.10a flake on the wall left of Uncle Fanny,
and placed 3 cams for directional anchors, so that people would not swing
into the corner if they fell.

During the day, most people toproped pretty much all the climbs which were
set up, although not everyone made it up the 5.10c.

On Saturday night, most of us met at the pizza deck, for various reasons.
Later we made it to the campsites for the night.

Sunday:

Justin and Eu-Jin started on the Harry Daley route, while Lindsay hiked
the Four Mile Trail.  The remaining folks headed over to the base of
El Cap.  I led La Cosita Right 5.9, and set up a toprope.  Then I led
Sacherer Cracker 5.10a and belayed from the top as Koichi followed it
clean (including the final direct ow, which I had avoided by traversing
left on the horizontal crack to the chimney).
Aaron made it through the technical 5.7 ow start, and worked on
the finger/1" crux, making it to the hand jams, and getting well worked
in the process!  Martin tried the 5.7 ow start but couldn't quite get
through the crux.  Koichi then toproped Slack Center 5.10d cleanly; I
was very impressed with his smooth pace up the upper ow and squeeze
chimneys.  This does not get done very often, and the chimney held several
small loose rocks which were inadvertantly knocked down in the process,
but nobody was hit.  He trailed his rope and I set up a 2-rope toprope.

Moritz, Patience, Martin and Francisco had arrived slightly after us,
and endured a rather long wait as other people had arrived just
before them and led through or toproped La Cosita Right.

Eventually we also set a toprope on Short But Thin 5.11b.  Justin arrived
and tried it first; he nearly onsighted it.
After we had all done La Cosita Right we moved the toprope over to
La Cosita Left 5.7 and Sparkling Giveaway 5.11a, which most us tried
(it's quite hard, with strenuous diagonal hand traverse
to a very long span between holds on the blunt arete).

Patience did a nice job toproping Sacherer Cracker, getting it all clean
except for one brief slip at the crux.  She used my version at the top
to do the chimney instead of the direct ow.
Moritz got the 5.7 ow start, and then worked up the main crack with
several hangs.  Eventually he bailed from most of the way up the wide hand
section.  Francisco made it up the 5.7 ow start after learning the foot
and hand technique, then worked on the crux finger/1" section, but didn't
have the jamming technique to get past it.  I toproped the thin start of
Slack Center, and then lowered from the start of the ow.  Koichi set a
second clean lap on Sacherer Cracker to clean the anchors, using the
traverse to chimney at the top to save further skin loss from his arm!
We had used all the daylight, and drove home.