43 ºC / 109 F was under the sun, the papers gave a maximum of 23 ºC / 73 F (in the shadow) those days. Anyway, I got sunburn...

Wow! Ultrabusy. Spent Saturday with the binoculars scouting out some routes with Craig and Alice before heading over to climb the overhanging bolt ladder on the Leconte Boulder. Had a lot of spectators! Finished off the day with dinner at the Groveland Hotel and a Rocking Horse 1999 Napa Valley Zin. Got back to my apartment at 2am. Was back on the road at 6am to Napa to join a friend from Boston and his gf for a champagne brunch on the NV Wine Train. Then we went to Prager Port Works where I picked up a Summer Port and Noble Companion. Also visited Heitz Cellars. I liked their "Cellar Selection" Chardonnay but thought it was overpriced at $30. I can get better in Fair Play Tried to convince my friend to hike up Mount St. Helena but he didn't go for it. They went to a few more wineries but I went home to beat the traffic. I'll bring some Prager port to Yosemite next week! Both days (Yosemite and Napa Valleys) had great weather.

It pays to be early bird.

I was up to our local crag early to set up some top ropes for a group of beginners and managed to claim an entire treasure chest of booty.

Here is the list

6 turbo-express screws with quick draws scattered about the base of a now gone ice climb like manna from heaven

5 wild country friends with quick draws conveniently forgotten (for me anyway) on top of the cliff next to the belay bolt.

8 quick-draws left behind on the bolts of an over hanging sport wall.

Even when we split this between myself ant the two other guys who setting up it made for my best hall ever.

Unfortunately out there somewhere is some gym-climber who spent all his X-mass money on gear only to loose on his first climb.

Their loss is my gain I guess.

To top it all off this was the first day of good weather we have had around here this spring bright and sunny and almost 17c out.

Plans fell through to visit family in No. Cal but I made the best of things by heading off to Tollhouse for a speed ascent of the Tollhouse Traverse. Stepped up my personal best to 21 minutes 13 seconds. "The Lap" (as it is referred to by locals) starts at the Hang Glider Slab (see the only Tollhouse photo) and takes the descent trail to the north end of the dome. Climb the 3-pitch Tollhouse Traverse (5.5....except the last 50 feet is 5.7 slab). Return to the HGS. But as with any victory, a price was paid to gain it. One huge gobi that runs the entire length of my calf. Doin' the "Loose Rock Shuffle" on the descent trail!!

John Wang, Alice and I scoped out some climbs in Yosemite Valley on Sat. for the up coming weekend, then John and I climed the severly overhanging bolt ladder on Le Conte Boulder for some fun aid practice. Damn was it cold - lots of snow all around on the rim of the Valley!

Took my 5 year old to Mount Diablo. Hike down the ridge to the Devils pulpit. Climbed it and then hiked the Loop trail and back up to the visitors center. We then went down and hiked back to Rock City. She had such a good time that she wanted her own profile page on SP and wants to go up more peaks.

This thread is a great idea. Wish I had visited earlier.

I led a hike for beginners on Saturday. The next three Saturdays will be conditioning for this group. Climbed Mt. Morrison with my girlfriend on Sunday. I try to climb or hike both days of every weekend. With my girlfriend, I'm finding I have no trouble keeping up the pace. End of last season, I was in tremendous shape.

Sorry guys...my weekend starts on Thursday. Thursday is chore day. Friday is climb day. Saturday is donothingday. Today (Friday) was spent at the crags with the wife. Belay slave/photographer (son, Andrew) decided NOT to cut school and go climbing. Something about too many days missed already would hurt his grades..blah....blah. Sounds like he was scared to me. That boy needs to get his priorities in order! Really pissed me off too because as a result, we didn't have any pics to post. Anyway, Jackie and I had a blast. Led a couple, top-roped a couple, got humbled by a couple. Thanks to the Narrows in the Wichita's for a great day.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.   Alan

Had a great weekend. Attempted to climb the south face of The Tooth on Saturday but got blown off by high winds and snow part way up. Got to Vantage at about 5:00 Saturday, then climbed for about three hours. Camped there for the night, then climbed most of the day today on my 29th birthday. I led an easy one, then we toproped some very hard routes on M&M Wall. Love that place!

On Friday, holiday in Madrid, I hiked to the summit of <a href=//www.summitpost.com/mountains/mountain_link.pl?mountain_id=1450><b><i>Ocejón</i></b></a> with 4 friends. They're not mountaineers but we all could reach the top. It was a nice day for me and the weather was sunny and warm. I'll post the summit log soon.

I got rained-out this weekend. I was supposed to go to Yosemite with Craig and John but the crappy weather scared me away. Even my backup plan, climbing Mt. Diablo, didn't pan out for a variety of reasons. This has been a very wet spring for California and I am ready for summer.

I know, I know--I should stop whining.

Weathered off of St. Helens at about 6700 feet. Visibility was......our feet. Good practice with winter camping though. Heard from some hikers on the way out that SAR was out pulling another group off that got disoriented earlier in the weekend(don't know if that's true). And just 2 days earlier it was sunny and 70. What the ....? Guess that would make it Spring, huh?

Thuseday, May-01: climbing in the Donautal, after that barbecue at the top of a crag.

Friday, May-02: climbing at the Schwäbische Alb, after that visit of a Thai-restaurant, very good food, I like eating !

Saturday, May-03: climbing at the Brüggler/Switzerland together with the DAV section Tuttlingen

Sunday, May-04: one more day of climbing at the Brüggler/Switzerland together with the DAV section Tuttlingen

This was a kind of a weekend as I like it ....

Like David said.........bring on summer!!!

Yup, almost summer here but the other day it snowed so yesterday I went with a friend to do some hiking. We drived to Puerto de la Quesera and did 4 principal-2 thousand meter peaks, <a href=//www.summitpost.com/mountains/mountain_link.pl?mountain_id=1369><b><i>Pico del Lobo</i></b></a> included, and 2 subsidaries in less than 7 hours. The weather was fine and see nobody in the whole hike. I could take many pics so I'll submit some of them nextly. We saw many different birds but no wild mammals, only cows.