Sunday, 29 August 2010

Crack- tastic Domes!



Sunday 22nd - Friday 27th August - Toulumne, Yosemite National Park
View of Half Dome


On the Sunday morning we drove into the Park and headed to Toulumne Meadows.  Here we managed to get the equipment we needed and 5 nights in the campsite - awesome!  In the afternoon, we headed off to do our 1st route:  West Crack on Duff Dome.  60m pitches of crack on pristine granite - wow!  Felt the altitude kicking in as I puffed my way to the top!
Simon marking the summit of Daff


Next day, Regular Route on Fairview.  A classic American climb.  Team Jones were hot on the heels of the American team above and speeding along above the Taiwanese team below!  Think I've got the hang of hand-jamming now!
That's Fairview Dome.  Our route went right up the middle
The bottom of Regular Route.  The crack goes on and on


The descent off Fairview, you just walk down the Dome.
Back at camp, we cooked ourselves a tasty meal and put all our food in the bear box as instructed.  Unfortunately, we can't have closed it properly:  Si got up for a midnight pee and discovered the bear box doors to be wide open and most of our food scattered across the ground or gone!  Yogi had eaten our bran flakes, biscuits, trail mix, tortillas, muesli bars, bagels and banana flakes. He had mauled the apples, had a scratch and sniff at the jerky and rice before making off with our montgomery jack cheese (but left the crackers).  To make matters worse, he had summed up his opinion of us, by leaving a large, brown present in the middle of our camp!

3 comments:

  1. daff dome (dome across from fairview). Duff is my favourite beer...

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  2. wish we were there, even if there's a scary bear!!
    love Alison and Sumera

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  3. You can say what you like, but it's no Northumberland. Glad to see the chalk bags are getting out and about. Hope the bear didn't steal those.

    P.S. Si - I think I owe you one Pembroke guide (well, technically it was James who dropped it in the sea...)

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