I had initially planned on heading up to Shasta this past weekend, but avy conditions made me reconsider. But as it happens, Justin -- a new ice climbing partner -- was going to be in Yosemite Valley. He was new to trad, but had done a few climbs, and I figured we could just do stuff I had climbed before.

btw I'm still recovering from a fractured elbow (in addition to everything else), but after a weekday session in Castle Rock state park with an elbow pad I figured I could make this work ..

Got an early start from SJ on Saturday morning, and we headed up to the approach for Munginella. There were two parties and 5 people ahead of us, but we had a pleasant chat with them and waited. As it turns out they were pretty fast.

Here I am posing -


This was my fifth time on Munge, and my third time leading it. We did it in two pitches. There was a stuck DMM offset just below the highest tree, but we couldn't booty it :(

It was a nice day. The walkoff was wet in the usual places, as is common for springtime, so we rapped. Fortunately Justin's new rope had a good dry treatment :)

What to do next .. we decided to head over to the apron and go climb The Grack, which I'd only led once, in 2006.

As we racked up at the Llama Mobile, fattrad and his GF came strolling by, on the way to Swan Slabs. Jeez, I can't swing a dead cat in the Valley without running into someone I know :)

There were a bunch of parties on the route as usual, so we again hurried up and waited .. had a nice chat with a dude who had moved to the south bay from Toronto.


Here's a shot of me on the second pitch -


Fun, fun, fun ! I always enjoy the last pitch. Here's Justin looking down from last belay as I was rapping to the next set of bolts -


My elbow was hurting and I downed a couple of ibuprofen, stopped by the village store, and then headed back to camp. I made dinner and sunk into a very sound sleep.

We got up early the next day, intent on checking out After Six. I had last led it in 2006.

We got to Manure Pile Buttress and amazingly the climb was open ! I started up .. the first pitch was everything I'd hoped for =:-O I remembered being a little worked the last time I'd done it, and this time was no exception .. the climb was in the sun, and I was sweating by the time I yelled 'off belay' at the top.

We continued up the next several pitches, which I always enjoy for the fun factor.


Me posing again on the last pitch -


Justin at the top, always psyched and ready to climb -


(note bagel + nutella sandwich :)

At the top there was a pretty good breeze, which was welcome on a warm day but made it difficult to hear each other.

It was a fine weekend, and I enjoyed it immensely.