To the Tuolumne meadows we go!

To the Tuolumne Meadows we go!

- Markie

After being completely blown away by Charlotte Dome (and crushed by the long approach) we headed to Tuolumne Meadows for Joey's birthday week. We had a campsite booked and we were stoked to start climbing a couple stellar domes scattered throughout the meadow and sub-alpine areas  

The first dome we decided to climb was a new obscure route called Grand Central on North Buttress of Cathedral, another 1,000 foot route. 

This was the start of pitch one, nice and chilly and in the shade. My favorite! (not.)
The first pitch was very low angle and easy. A nice warm up pitch with great rock quality, fun crack moves, and a final fiction climbing move that gave the pitch it's grade. It was a wake up call to Joey. 'We are climbing Tuolumne slab now!'.

One of the exciting things about Tuolumne, and this route, was it had many friction slab pitches on it; something I was not all too familiar with. It also was hand drilled (like all Tuolumne routes?), which meant that the bolting was more exciting and more memorable than the normal slab sport climb.

But I quickly learned to trust my feet and continued to repeat a Cochise Stronghold saying that Joey taught me - 'heels down, butt out, that's the way we slab it out!' I think that Drew Munson taught him that one a few year ago and it really helps!

Don't worry, we got some crack climbing in too. 

 

Joey got the dicey run out slab pitch, classic to Tuolumne, and he crushed it!

He is placing a nest of micro cams/nuts in this photo and seemed stoked that they might catch him.

Next was the 10b crux! Scary, right? Naw, just a short steep hand crack! My specialty. 

Shortly after, we topped out to an amazing view. It was absolutely spectacular; a sea of pines and granite for as far as the eyes could see!

It was another successful climbing day.

More nitty gritty on our climb:
We started the hike at 10:19am, at the base by 11:01am, and then topped out at 4:10pm.
Much more casual than Charlotte Dome and the walk off was way easier too.

The next day consisted of slacking around and watching fly fishermen.

After taking a rest day, our next objective was Regular Route on Fairview Dome. I was stoked to see the view at the top as I had heard it is spectacular. 

The first pitch was a super slick crack that lead to a nice belay. I was a little hesitant to take the lead, but knew I would be able to do it! 

You can see the first pitch in the sun down below.

Joey leading up the sick little dihedral midway up the wall.

Nothing beats being hundreds of feet above the ground on amazing granite with half the wall above you. I would look up with excitement, eager to see what the rock had in store for us ahead.

SUMMIT SELFIE!

We kicked that routes ass and were ready to head back down for ice cream and a hot shower.

As mentioned, the view from the top was insane. Time to hike down some slab though...

I am pointing at the crux hand crack of the route we had done prior, Grand Central on the North Buttress of Cathedral.

Just a few hundred feet of knee jolting slab descent to go...

Nitty gritty of the climb:
We started the climb late, because we wanted to get some sunlight and witness golden hour from the top. We started at 11:35am, hit Crescent Ledge by 2:55pm (the end of the harder climbing), and topped out by 5:40pm.

Time to head back to Lone Pine to get those permits for Whitney!!