Valley - May 6th-7th 2006.

Hit up the valley with Durbs. The goal (after the customary week of email spray and bluster) was an "El Cap weekend", in which we would do the Freeblast one day, and if that went well, the Nose (to Dolt) the second. Saturday mid-morning found us at the base of the first pitch of the Salathe, waiting behind a slooooow party who also had designs on the Freeblast. The psych slowly fading as the second asks for tension on the first pitch. The Nose-to-Dolt was out that day for sure, since the big gear was a full five minute walk back to the car. Soooo....Not being afraid to bail, we re-traced our steps to the meadow, and drove across the river to do East Buttress of Middle Cathedral instead, which Dan had never done.

Durbs on the start pedestal:

Durbs, valley slab hardman, setting sail on the .10c slab pitch.

Further up on the route. Durbs was pretty gripped most of the way.

The descent gully, with "snow" - something we had heard about in the valley but never seen. The gully was actually as "full on" as Yosemite ever gets (for us) - rapping in waterfalls, and tunnelling under snow while hoping it doesn't collapse. Don't be fooled by Dan's apparently dry t-shirt - it was pretty hardcore.

Finally got on the Freeblast the next morning, after a nice egg muffin and coffee at Degnans. Here's Durbs following p1 (which, like everything else so far this year, felt way harder than in the past - one of the cracks might have fallen off, not sure...)

Durbs heading up the short p2:

I got p3, and couldn't resist the temptation to pull on a fixed nut. This made the roof surprisingly easy. Durbs got it clean on follow.

Below is Dan on p4. This was to be the deal-breaker, as it turns out. We were short on nuts (no offsets) and skillz (and ballz), so the .10d seam that protects the notorious slabs shut us down. As consolation, we went and did Serenity as a confidence builder - the crux of which, as it turns out, felt WAY harder than the past seven times.

Also present in the Valley this weekend were Ryan, Judd, Debby, and the nice frenchman Nicola who we gave a ride to the Valley. Dan and Ashley were there too, and in customary style were doing routes known only to the Roper guide (one of which Dan described as "vertical crimping on dirt hummocks" and "not the Valley at its finest"). And Wyatt and Patrick had a go at Astroboy, which sounded like it went well.