Yosemite

We've just left the Yosemite after spending the last eight days in the park.

We've been kinda looking forward to Yosemite as one of the 'big' destinations of our trip, so it was a bit of a shock to arrive at the gates to the National Park only to be refused entry! This was on account of a snowchain restriction being in force on the roads (we don't have snow chains for the RV!). All of this a result of yet another winter storm coming in late season, and depositing a good few inches of snow all over the Sierras.

So our first day in Yosemite was spent waiting to see what was going to happen with road access. Luckily the weather cleared and the roads became passable, and so we got into the park after a few hours of waiting at the entrance gates.

Now I was almost bored of hearing people tell me about how awesome the Valley is when you first drive into it and see El Cap, etc. I'm invariably sceptical on hearing things being so hyped up. But, yes, ok I'll agree - The Valley is awesome when you first see it, and every other time you drive down the road for that matter.

One of the nice side effects of all this precipitation the Sierras have been having is that all the waterfalls in Yosemite are absolutely thundering with water. Some waterfalls which normally start to dry up about this time of year are still flowing with massive amounts of water. Also, there is still quite a lot of snow on the higher peaks, which makes the landscape look even more impressive.

All of this made our trip to the valley incredibly picturesque, but it wasn't really conducive to our climbing aspirations, especially on bigger routes. We did manage to get some good days out on the cliffs - even if it did entail crossing snow slopes to get to the base of the cliffs, and even on one occassion tunnelling under snow on the descent!

Definite high points included climbing The East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock, which is one of The Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, and getting to the top of Serenity Crack seconds before the storm we'd been watching come up the valley finally hit and forced us to retreat. Both are world class climbs, for sure.

In the end it was the National Park regulations/access that has moved us on. Its really hard to get a campsite in Yosemite at this time of year, and even if you do get a site it is now restricted to a maximum stay of 7 nights (that includes Camp 4 these days if any climbers out there are thinking of visiting), or 14 days in total for all sites in any one year. Oh well, I guess its an inevitable consequence of so many people wanting to visit what is a very small area of land.

Anyway, we've moved on. We're starting to head North now. The sun is getting so strong these days that at some point soon it has to see off the last of the winter/spring storms and summer has to come now (surely?). I think we'll stay clear of mountain areas for a few weeks yet though, and just seek out some lower level destinations.

We'll let you know how things go, but in the mean time above are some pictures from the last week in Yosemite, which are:

1) Day one at the entrance to the Park;

2) Yosemite Falls;

3) oh, go on then... here's a picture of El Cap - Ansel Adams eat your heart out ;-)

4) Ruth and shadow pitch 4 of Central Pillar of Frenzy 5) Black Bear

Since Innes' last update we spent another week in the Bishop area. Matt and Anna had to go home at the end of April - unfortunately their plane was not delayed by volcanic ash. We spent a week sport climbing at the Owens River Gorge. No photos I'm afraid - now that we are on our own there is nobody to take them. Also our camera has stopped working properly.

Then we spent a slightly surreal evening in an RV park watching the UK election results come in over the internet. At least we didn't have to stay up all night to find out that nobody had won, as we are 8 hours behind the UK. I can't really believe that the Lib Dems will do a deal with the Tories, but you never know. If there is a Tory Government will I have a job to come back to?

The day after the election we moved on to Lake Tahoe, which is about 200 miles north of Bishop and on the other (west) side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is a complete change in climate - much colder but also a lot greener. We enjoyed the absence of sand and dust, the grass and the big trees. However we didn't get that much climbing done in Tahoe, because for the first time this trip the weather got bad. We managed two half days climbing at a place called the Sugarloaf, and then it started raining. After that it started snowing, and didn't stop for 24 hours. So we decided to cut our losses and head to Yosemite a couple of days early. Now we are ensconced in an RV park about 30 miles from Yosemite Valley, and looking forward to our first glimpse of El Cap, Half Dome etc tomorrow.

Ruth

Photos:

1. Me seconding Fracture 5.10d at Sugarloaf, Lake Tahoe

2.Innes and big tree near Lover's Leap, Lake Tahoe

3. Snowy Lake Tahoe

4. Campsite at Owens River Gorge