"We started at 2.30 am..."

Cy, you are the man. Anyone who can motivate 8 people to be at a trailhead in the middle of the night just plain rocks!

I spent the weekend at <a href=http://www.summitpost.org/show/mountain_link.pl/mountain_id/4688>Dome Rock</a> , in the Southern Sierras, with Shortimer and some other good friends. Usually at this time of year that place gets too darn hot but the weather was cool and conditions for granite slabbin' were perfect.

I could swear I saw Deb blow by us on the grapevine going up Friday early eve. We were doing a prudent 80 or so when this bronze Xterra goes by so fast we almost got wiped out by wake turbulence.

edit for link

HA! Yea, that probably was me Kris! Traffic was pretty light from Temecula, so I blazed to Hanford in 4 hours and 10 minutes (290 miles).
Dave, Daniel and I did some aid, free and TRing on El Cap Saturday. "Hey, this looks good, let's do it" kind of thing. Very fun and relaxing. Daniel is non-stop agro on the rock and Dave lead a perfect C1 with no beta. Me? Well, I just clean up everyone else's messes.

Skied the Dana Couloir on Friday. What a run! Misha and I hung out in Tuolumne on Sat/Sun. We got chased on Pywiack Dome by threatening weather on Sat, but had a great time on Sun. Fairview Dome awaits...

I worked, went home, drank, ****ed, drank, ****ed, passed out, worked, went home, drank, ****ed, drank, ****ed, passed out....

exciting weekend eh?

Da Dude

<i>Skied the Dana Couloir on Friday.</i>

Sweet ! I'm thinking about heading up myself at some point. How was snow coverage below the glacier ? I was sort of hoping the rocks below the lake were also covered ...

btw guys what did you think of the mosquito situation ? Bad as usual ?

no skeeters in Tuolumne yet... still lots of snow. Give it 2-3 more weeks...

Snow coverage below the glacier was inconsistent. I had to take off the skis and walk a few yards several times. The suncups above Tioga Lake were awful, even with nice, soft snow. Deep mud by the lake. Walking should be a breeze, but it does get soft later in the day.

I got caught in a lightning storm near Boundary Peak, NV - not so fun.

We got chased down from Bishop Pass on Saturday afternoon by a blizzard with thunder and lightning. Pretty spectacular. Treated ourselves to dinner at the restaurant at Convict Lake (reeeeally good.) Sunday did a recon hike up to Pine Creek Pass. A beautiful area just south of Bear Creek Spire. Another perfect weekend in California.

<I>Treated ourselves to dinner at the restaurant at Convict Lake</I>

Worth a trip up all by itself! If Whoa Nelli Deli can have its own mountain page, then this place deserves one too... Infinitely better, IMO.

Saturday, Dave and I did some simul-climbing at Tahquitz on "The Uneventful" 5.5, which later turned into "North Buttress" 5.7; fun stuff! I was tickled to see prayer flags swingin' from that old dead tree just behind the summit blocks. Beautiful day.

Climbed Basin Mountain, weekend before that Whitney/ Muir, weekend before that Mt Tom, weekend before that....well you get the idea.....I work to support my habit.

Went to the beach for the first time in three years -- ain't the hills, but nice chill out with my better half.

Speakiing of good weekends, anyone remember that nice book which was published in the '70's by the Sierra Club Press called "Learning to Rock Climb" by Mike Loughman? (A white book with a striking photo of a woman perched in a granite corner on the cover.)

Well, as my friend and I were walking up Pine Creek Trail on Sunday we came across Mike and his companion sitting in the shade at a switchback. It was a great re-union, as I used to climb with Mike and haven't seen him for ten years or more. Mike is a walking history book on climbing and somehow managed to be on hand to witness many of the occasions which are now legend in SoCal climbing, such as Tobin's FA of the Edge, and Fitchen's unlikely descent of "the folly" as well as many JT FA's which were done in the '50's before the actual FA's. Oh, if you're ever out in Joshua Tree looking for a challenge that is sure not to be crowded, go find Mike's route called "Crescent Wrench" out at hound rocks. This is the kind of route which gives JT a reputation for sandbag ratings (it's a mere .10c.)