Having wrapped up another semester of teaching at the university it was time for a break. My brother flew into Fresno from Canuckistan to escape the cold and enjoy some Sierra granite.

Our first stop was Big Sleep up in Shuteye Ridge. The weather was less than ideal, it had been raining for a couple of days (I though it was a drought?) and when we arrived Big Sleep was sitting in a cloud. But stoke remained high.


Three of us went up Afternoon nap (5.7) in a cloud, route finding was interesting. Thankfully the climbing is easy, even for crumby climbers like myself.


We thrashed around the summit looking for a descent trail. Being unable to see more than a few feet in front of our faces, we opted to rap the route.


The weather improved over the next couple of days, and we headed to Frenso Dome to sample some more Chicken-head climbing. I love Fresno Dome, terrific climbing, and there never seems to be more than a couple of other climbers present.


I love that there is no guidebook for Fresno Dome. We wandered around the base and found the start of what I think must have been Whiskey Bill (5.7).


Seeing a bunch of chicken-heads up above, my wife got all pumped up and starting leading up the route and while I was still wandering around the base looking at the climbs. Well I guess we're doing Whiskey Bill.


The climbing was ultra-fun. Pitch 2 was all Chicken-heads, with mostly slings for pro.


Topped out to wonderful views. I highly recommended this route!



For the final leg of the trip we headed to the valley for a few days of climbing. Having never been up Half-dome we hit up Snake Dike. We left Summerdale campground at 3:30am and were on the trail by 5am. WE took the Mist trail and arrived at the base by 7am. Despite my efforts at an early start we were still the 2nd party to arrive at the climb


The climbing was cruiser and pretty fun. About 30 minutes after starting to climb 8 people showed up at the base! A little different than our day at Fresno Dome.
The climbing was pretty mellow, the infamous runouts were not so bad. Maybe I have been climbing too much slab lately?




We topped out the 8 pitches after about 3 hours, thankfully the party ahead of us were moving quickly. The worst part of the "climb" is the thousand feet of class 2/3 slabs to the summit of half dome


We spent a couple of more days climbing Nutcracker, Munginnella, After Six and After seven, before heading off to Tuolumne to climb Cathedral peak.



It was surprisingly quiet, one other party and a pack-eating, food stealing marmot


The climbing was stellar




We hiked out and enjoyed some time in Tuolumne meadows