Last weekend, I climbed with Wayne Burleson and Joel Ager at Tahoe.
Saturday:  Donner Summit.  Still a lot of snow left over from the winter,
but perfect temperatures (even a bit too much sun for some of us).

Space Wall:
1. Made in Japan 5.11a.  Wayne led.  Fun route -- face to arete with
slab move at the end.  A good warmup.
2. Neanderthal Dudes 5.11d.  Wayne led w/ 2 hangs, I followed w/ 2 hangs,
Joel made it over halfway with hangs, then Wayne TRed free.  A great line of
holds up a fairly steep wall.  Our tips were feeling a bit roughed up and
Joel's "1 week crash in-shape plan" was wearing thin, as was my "1 month ...
plan".  The snow arete approach and the guy on the snowboard who whizzed past
while we were on the route were also cool.

Snowshed Wall:
A snowslope leads across the stream directly to the main belay ledge....
3. Peter Principle 5.11a.  Wayne led w/ hangs.  Gear gets in the way on
this one, and it's no gimme.  At this point I teamed up with Greg from Bishop
to do some other routes, so I can't give the usual hang reports....
4. Devaluation 5.10b.  Greg led, I followed.  A friendly crack warmup.
5. Aerial 5.11b.  Total epic/fiasco.  Greg dogged for quite awhile figuring out
the crux.  Then lowered from the 3rd bolt because it's scary reaching the 4th.
I TRed to the 3rd, and I was also too scared to lead to the 4th.  So I traversed
over to Devaluation, pulled up some Friends, and led the undercling back left
to the upper arete.  Then I had a hard time making the final (5.10) moves on
Aerial, in spite of gear at my waist....  Our tails were very much between
our legs at this point!
6. Manic Depression 5.11d, W + J TR.
7. Monkey Paws 5.12a, W + J TR.  "Wayne walked it".
8. Panic in Detroit 5.12b, W TR twice w/ hangs.  I had fun attempting to reach
the crux area (horizontal seam), but I couldn't quite get there.  A great way
to render what was left of our arms.

Sunday:  Joel went back to Berkeley on Saturday night.  Wayne and I headed for
Big Chief, but the gate on the dirt road was locked.  So we checked out
The Emeralds.  We skipped the stream crossing in the rental car; instead you
can just walk across a log.  We hiked to check out the main gorge, but it was
soaked from the big spring runoff (no surprise).  Note:  we found some poison
oak in the talus near the gorge entrance.  There were also many 4WD folks
camped and/or living in the general area.
We climbed at the Steel Monkey Wall, which is a great little crag
(overhanging, 65', mostly incut solid holds).  The crag is hidden from the
dirt road, but the map is fairly accurate; we actually found it by following
some other climbers.  It's similar to the "90 Foot Wall" of Emerald Bay, but
it's much steeper, especially at the top.
1. Radio Static 5.11c/d.  Wayne attempted the lead, but the bolts were spaced
and the holds/moves were very tricky/funky.  So he TRed.  I TRed w/ 3 hangs.
Later a young lad from Colorado showed up and led it as we watched.  He hung
at the same places I had trouble with on TR.  Fun route.
2. Steel Monkey 5.12a.  Wayne TRed nicely.  I had 3 hangs or so.
Awesome finish on steep, incut, spaced jugs (I barely hit the last lunge as
my strength was running out).  At the start we shared a couple of holds with
Radio Static.
3. Green Ice 5.12c.  Wayne was challenged, trying to figure out the easiest
feasible way to do the delicate crux.  On his second TR session, he nailed all
the hard moves right to the crux, but didn't get it.  I took many hangs just
to reach the crux, but it didn't really get the lunge to where the crux starts.
The series of moves to that point are some fun sidecling/liebacks.
An interesting area with a fair amount of short new route potential (mostly
not at steep and nice as Steel Monkey).
Normally, I'd like to be climbing a little better at this point in the season,
but given my current aches and pains (sore back and knee, chest cold, etc.),
I had a great time (I thought I'd flail completely!).

Clint