Yosemite 5/15-16/98   with Mike Adams

My partner, Mike Adams, flew out from South Carolina and arrived
at my house at 1:30pm.  I was rather disorganized and did not
have all my gear packed, which delayed us a bit.
We had an epic drive through the worst of the Bay Area traffic,
because we left at 3pm and I took the wrong route!  (Normally I leave
at more like 8 or 8:30pm).  Arrived in Valley just before dark
and made a carry to the base of The Prow on Washington Column.
Talked to a party bivvied in their portaledge, halfway up the first
pitch.  They told us there were 3 parties bivvied in the first 3
pitches!  Walked down and slept at the base of El Cap.  By this
time, Mike had been up for 21 hours and was ready for sleep!

Saturday:  packed up remaining gear and hiked back to the base.
Weather was very cloudy and windy, and felt a few raindrops on the
hike.  Got all the gear up the 3rd class section to the belay for
the first pitch.  Noticed that one of the 2 parties on the route
was rappelling down from the top of pitch 4.  (The "3rd" party
mentioned the night before was apparently on Electric Ladyland).
At this point some real rain started and we waited to see
what it was going to do.
It would stop, then a little sun would come through while more
raindrops started again....  Eventually it started hailing, so
we moved our gear back down the 3rd class section.  Hung around
for awhile more, hoping for a clearing, but the wind, hail and snow
got more serious, so we hiked down with all the gear.  The weather
forecast for Sunday was for more cold and cloudy, so I decided to
just drive home, since we needed a good day Sunday to pull off the
route before my time window closed on Monday night.  I hung around
with Mike for awhile, helping him get settled in Camp 4 and giving
him a tour of the local climbing shop, shower spot, and grocery
store.  I felt a bit like I was abandoning Mike, but the weather
was just not going to let us do the Prow as we had hoped.

Mike stuck around in the Valley for the week and got onto a couple
of walls, but got stormed off them:  the Free Blast (p5), the Prow (p3),
and the Nose (p5).