Trip Report
Storm over Tuolumne (Tresidder)
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Monday July 26, 2010 9:20pm
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The "Girls Alpine Weekend" long ago planned turned into the "Girls Toodling Around Bagging Peaks" weekend, due to, ahem, the weather forecast. (and not, of course, due to our lack of planning and fitness! No, not us!)
But yes, the weather called for T-storms developing Sat PM, and WORSE storms on Sunday, so we weren't about to take our slow selves up on any exposed hard-to-retreat-from ridges. Hence, we settled on Tresidder (and beyond), figuring we could do a ridge traverse and break out the rope randomly if we so chose, without worry about storms sneaking up on us.
Off we went up the Cathedral Lakes trail with an alpine start of around 10am.
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11:40am Bright Blue Skies!
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And lots of alpine flowers:
[ Click to View Linked Image]
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12:45pm Clouds are building
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1:40pm Cheryl tagging the South Summit of Tresidder, au cheval. More clouds.
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Ann looking at the storm developing.
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2:15pm Storm! Glad we're not on Conness.
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2:50pm Really, really glad we're not on Conness!
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Bail bail bail!
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3pm! Cathedral is starting to go under storm shadow.
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3:20pm Darkness sets over Cathedral.
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3:30pm Climber high on Cathedral as lightning cracks around us. We saw several up there.
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4pm Climber high on Eichorn! Lightning everywhere, what is he doing up there? (Ran into him later and was told that the summit block was ARCING!)
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4pm Smarter climbers are much, much lower on Eichorn - they are bailing and leaving gear. MUCH smarter.
(sorry, my camera isn't so hi res - maybe I'll zoom in to make this clearer)
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4:02pm Hail, rain, and lightning, but at least we are in the forest.
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Overall, a fun scramble, and I'm glad I didn't see anybody get hit high up.
cleo
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About the Author
cleo is a social climber from Berkeley, CA. |
Comments
Ricky D
Trad climber
Under the Webmasters Thumb
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Jul 26, 2010 - 09:22pm PT
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WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gotta love it when Nature scares the hell out of you and inspires you at the same time!
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Jul 26, 2010 - 09:38pm PT
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Good call, Val! That looked like a good time to call it bail time.
E-mail me if you guys might be down for Donner. We aren't doing Emerald Point this year. Camping/climbing Donner Lake.
We were watching lightning strikes from Shuteye and we got some droplets.
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Mungeclimber
Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
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Jul 26, 2010 - 09:36pm PT
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nice!
Sunday we got a piece of that storm to the North. Lightning right above us. But we were just TR'ing close to the road, so left the TR anchor and pulled it all and jammed for the truck. 30 minutes later it cleared enough to go get my gear (aliens, you know) via a side scramble and then spent the next hour drying out and trying to hail someone to provide a jump. battery had died.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Jul 26, 2010 - 09:44pm PT
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Nice job cleo.
Was certainly dramatic on Saturday afternoon.
All I can say was WTF were those teams thinking on Cathedral and Eichorn? There was about 2 hours warning in the sky. By 2 PM it was obvious things were going to get electrified soon up there.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Jul 26, 2010 - 09:58pm PT
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Thanks for the TR. Not the weather you ordered is it?
Same for us as we are in the area. In the last two days, we've been rained and hailed on a lot. And I can't believe we've not be fried by the lightning either. Several fires have been started by the stuff. Hope it improves for all of us!
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Dirka
Trad climber
Hustle City
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Jul 26, 2010 - 10:17pm PT
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GreAt pics!!!
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Jul 26, 2010 - 10:22pm PT
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Heart is aching man. Thanks for the TR.
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Jul 26, 2010 - 10:25pm PT
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Great flower pics, Cleo. And awesome storm pics too!
Glad no one was struck by lightning!
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 26, 2010 - 10:50pm PT
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great to have run into you gals on Sunday as we were bailing for home...
hope you had good top roping!
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jul 26, 2010 - 10:57pm PT
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It's always a good day when raingear is deployed along with smiles!
isn't it fun up there?!
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Fritz
Social climber
Choss Creek, ID
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Jul 26, 2010 - 11:02pm PT
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Cleo: Great photos and report.
What were the "lightning magnet" climbers thinking?
I hope your folks did the: "here's to cheating death" toast, at the end of the day!
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zeta
Trad climber
Portland, OR
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Jul 26, 2010 - 11:16pm PT
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great TR, i was wondering what you guys ended up climbing...bet you were glad to not be up high in that lightening!
excited for the next Tuolumne adventure!
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Captain...or Skully
climber
Boise, ID
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Jul 26, 2010 - 11:23pm PT
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I love Tuolumne.......Thanks, Cleo.
Fab.
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Inner City
Trad climber
Portland, OR
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Jul 26, 2010 - 11:26pm PT
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wow awesome photos thanks a bunch. Tressider summit is worthy!
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Alexey
climber
San Jose, CA
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Jul 26, 2010 - 11:31pm PT
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Ha, it was Sid and me on Einhorn at 4pm. We did not have a chance to bail, too high. The so call "smarter" climbers just finished climb before it started. We did not leave any gear but it was some plan B to rappel and come next morning to get gear back. But we just wait about 40 min and it cleared up. On our way back on Cathedral trail we met a lonely hiker who was walking to get abandoned gear on Cathedral and Einhorn kind of gear-scavenger .
So be aware - sometime returning next morning to get your gear can be too late.
I new that same day Nutjob was planing to be on Cathedral . Did you had epics Scott?
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LuckyPink
climber
the last bivy
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Jul 26, 2010 - 11:37pm PT
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good idea on the peak.. we were on Starr King on Friday for a beautiful easy day.. but Saturday a routine shower made a full on crashing waterfall of the gully and streaming rivers of the water streaks on the domes. Glad we were not descending that day. Mother Nature bats last.
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davidji
Social climber
CA
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Jul 27, 2010 - 12:27am PT
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Nice trip report! The storm photos add drama. Glad no one got hurt.
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Inner City
Trad climber
Portland, OR
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Jul 27, 2010 - 12:40am PT
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Mt Starr King! A gem. I slept up on top one clear evening years back, quite a location. The Yosemite high country is so great! Some of the more obscure summits (Tress.) are fun as heck!
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rhyang
climber
SJC
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Jul 27, 2010 - 12:48am PT
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Good times !
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10b4me
Social climber
Lida Junction
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Jul 27, 2010 - 12:48am PT
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beautiful
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snowhazed
Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
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Jul 27, 2010 - 02:00am PT
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AWESOME
dirka and I have been on top of eichorns when it was audibly arcing off our heads- whooooo this tr brings back memories
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Trad climber
Will know soon
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Jul 27, 2010 - 02:12am PT
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Thanks for the share. Great tr and pics. Am I so wrong or do No Calers post way more tr's than us here in the South ??? lynnie
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JOEY.F
Gym climber
It's not rocket surgery
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Jul 27, 2010 - 02:41am PT
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Glad Alexey got off ok! Love the TR, I did Tressider many years ago, need to go back. Thanks for the stoke! Need TR from Lucky Pink too...
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Jul 27, 2010 - 06:18am PT
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hey there say, cleo.... i love tuolome...
say, (unintentional, of course) you sure got some excitment going on here! .... (oh, i love the lighting and storm pics--but then, only when i am snug at home) :)
very glad none of those climbers got hit... :O
thanks for the neat report, and sharing your time---seems it was still just as wonderful, in spite of the storm...
*being an artist, well, it is easier for me to say that... :))
god bless, and thanks again, so very much...
*nice to see crimpergirl here, too, adding about the lightning, i have been wondering how others are faring, as to climbing and bad weather---seems near everyone i know around here, and back east, and a tad to the west, are getting more rain and lightening than usual...
(unless memory is not serving us well) ;)
well, all for now...great share!
*ooops, steveW's post just reminded me:
yes! beautiful flowers!!!
:)
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Brian
climber
California
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Jul 27, 2010 - 06:25am PT
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Nice TR. Gotta love those afternoon storms, even if they complicate our climbing plans. Alpine starts mean you get the route to yourself and beat the electrical light show!
Brian
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Jul 27, 2010 - 01:41pm PT
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I loved it -- it's so much like my typical Meadows experience.
Thank you.
John
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cleo
Social climber
wherever you go, there you are
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Author's Reply
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Jul 27, 2010 - 02:11pm PT
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We def. ran into some climbers from Eichorn who bailed (not to mention we saw them rappelling). They told us that they were on top of the P1 when it started hailing (3:30pm?) and that the party above them were on P3 (presumably Alexey).
To be fair, I don't think the storm was very visible from Eichorn, except to the south, where it did look threatening around 2pm, but took longer to develop. On Cathedral, it should have been obvious from 12:30 on. On Conness, it went from blue sky to big storm in maybe 1.5 hours - very fast.
Anyway, I definitely was worried about those up high - yikes!
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Prod
Trad climber
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Jul 27, 2010 - 02:28pm PT
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Bitchin!!!
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smoores
Social climber
San Francisco
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Jul 27, 2010 - 02:48pm PT
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Looks like you ladies had a good time!
My party actually was on Conness! We were on top of North Peak by 9:30 and were hoping to be on top of and off of Conness within a couple hours, but the storms built really quick and seemingly much earlier than Saturday. We were at the first tower on the North Ridge of Conness and decided to turn around when those clouds started looking really ugly - got rained/hailed on a bit coming back down the ridge, but otherwise ok, as we were at the mellow stuff at the bottom by the time it got really wet. That is an amazing link-up though, highly recommended.
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Josh Nash
Social climber
riverbank ca
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Jul 27, 2010 - 04:44pm PT
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so rad!
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Jul 27, 2010 - 10:40pm PT
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Now we are spoiled. What did you do today? :)
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