Tuolumne Meadows 7/18-19/98  with Juan Senosiain and Lin Murphy

I was having trouble locating a partner for this weekend, and thought
I might have to work on some solo project, but Juan sent out an email
on climbing@lists.stanford.edu and we got together.  The Meadows
was the obvious choice, as a heat wave was forecast for most of the
state, I hadn't been there for about 3 years, and Juan had never
climbed there yet.  Lin signed on at the last moment; she is recovering
from some surgery on her ankle.  We got a rather late start on Friday
night, and the mosquitoes were rather pesky at the Hetch Hetchy bivvy spot.

Saturday

- Stately Pleasure Dome, South Crack 5.8
  We polished off this route fairly quickly, with me leading, and
belaying Juan and Lin up on 2 ropes at the same time.  We passed
another party of 3 (Joe, Hadley, and Al - Stanford students), who
had made a hanging belay midway up the second pitch (they were doing
it without the topo).  They had a bit of trouble when a loop from
their second rope got stuck in a crack well below Al.  I rapped
down and freed it for them.  Up near the top, the rock was starting
to sizzle with heat from the sun, and I talked briefly to Monica
who just soloed South Crack.  We ran into her again back at the road;
she had gone for a dive into the lake, and Juan did the same.

- Fairview Dome, Regular Route 5.9
  The day seemed young, so I picked this route, and we left the
car at 1:15pm.  There was a party of two just ahead of us, but they
only delayed us about 10 minutes (that's not bad for this route).
There was one fairly slimy section on the first pitch, and the footholds
often seemed a bit slick (perhaps they've become rather polished?)
After a couple of pitches, we realized we were all rather tired.
But we kept going, and managed to top out without any major problems.
Juan did get off route following the pitch into the Crescent corner,
but managed to pull off his new direct variation.  I got tired of
dragging both ropes on the final 4th class pitch, so I took a breather
while Lin and Juan 4th classed to the top.  We got a nice drink from
the direct snowmelt beneath The Great Pumpkin, and it was getting dark
as we wandered through the final woods and minor swamp to the car.
  Minor epic finding water (old spigot near stone house now capped off
by the unhelpful NPS, so we drove into the campground and found a good
tap in the first bathroom).  Drove out of the park to "Camp 9", where
we drove to the bottom of the old road inside the curve and sacked
out on the old roadbed.  Lots of rushing water sounds and no mosquitoes.

Sunday   (determined to stay in the shade; it was hotter than I expected)

- Lembert Dome, Direct NW Face 5.10b  We picked up Erik Pank in the
parking lot - he was looking for a partner.  So I roped with Lin
and Erik led for Juan.  Lin the first 2 pitches (5.9) as one.
This is a fun thin crack which runs up the face.  The first pitch has some
rather large pin scars, and also a few glassy holds.  Lin also led the
third pitch (5.9 in the old book, now rightly 5.10a).  It is
quite steep, with the crux where the crack is too thin to jam.
Lin led using sloping face holds on the left, while I followed by
lunging for where the crack opened up again.  I led the 4th pitch,
which is 5.10c in the new book, but should have stayed at 5.10b.
The fingerlocks are pretty solid, and I placed 4 wireds closely in a row
at the brief crux.  Erik had thought the 5.10c thin crack might be
a bit hard for him to lead, but had no trouble; Juan had 2 falls.
Lin and I walked off up and left through the saddle, while Erik and Juan
walked down the big front slab (this is longer/slower).

- Low Profile Dome
We had raced the sun on Lembert, managing to stay mostly ahead of
it in the shade.  Low Profile was just going into the shade when
we arrived.
1. Black Widow 5.9+ .  I led the fun easy golden knobs first pitch,
and Lin led the crux up thinner knobs and pockets in a narrow black
waterstreak.  It's the third time I've done this, and I like it a lot.
The crux protects well with TCUs and a fixed pin in the horizontal pockets;
it doesn't deserve the R rating in the guidebook.  We left our ropes
through the top rings so that Erik and Juan could toprope it.
2. Memo From Lloyd (5.11a; 5.10d in book).  Erik and Juan set up a
toprope on this.  Erik was liebacking the sharp edge of the corner,
but not solving the move to get the good hand jam at the horizontal.
I put on my tape gloves, and managed to get it, although my sequence
was a bit off on the start.  Fortunately there are lots of decent
hand jams and solid fingerlocks, because it's steep!  Don Snyder
showed up with Annie; they are on a month-long kayaking and climbing
vacation.  He toproped it with no problems.
3. Darth Vader's Revenge 5.10a.  Lin and I used Don's toprope for this.
It seemed rather hard; perhaps because I haven't used those golden glassy
knobs of the Meadows for so long.