time reversal

On day last week I was sitting in lab, and one of the grad students (Erin) came up to me and asked if I had any interest in taking a trip to Tuolumne Meadows for the three-day weekend. I had no idea what this place was, so Erin explained to me that it was a high elevation part of Yosemite National Park that had amazing rock climbing. It sounded like fun, so I said I’d join her.

Even though the Yosemite Valley hovers around 100F this time of year, the meadows were nice and cool–almost too cool. I almost froze to death in my summer bag one night, and when I woke up in the morning all of the water in our camp was frozen. There was also a lot of wind. But none of this stopped us, and we did some amazing climbs up the large granite domes which are all around the meadows. I even climbed my first off-width crack, which was exhausting and painful (like grad school). The top-outs for the climbs are almost universally beautiful. From some you can even see the top of Half Dome in Yosemite valley. Almost everything is made of granite. It seems like the only vegetation just grows in a pockets of soil that has been caught in the low spots in the rock. The rock varies from smooth-polished to rough with big knobby crystals. Whatever kind of climbing you like, you can find it here.

The only slightly strange part of this trip was our campsite-mates. We were staying in a large campsite with a bunch of Erin’s climbing friends–most of whom were 30-40 years old, were married, and had kids. Some even brought their kids! They were even making bets on who would have kids next. It seemed kind of like the twilight zone. Luckily, they were all really cool people and I had an awesome time climbing, cooking, and generally hanging out with them. I think the reason it was strange for me was that this was the first time in my life I’d spent time with people in this age group that weren’t my parent’s friends.

I can’t stress enough how awesome the climbing was. Awesome routes, (though some were a bit runout) great weather, great rock, and good company. I’m looking forward to doing this again sometime.

Me at the top of Dozier Dome with Taneya Lake in the background. Look at all that granite!

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