The Valley

There are no words to describe what it’s like to see Yosemite Valley for the first time. I almost crashed my truck when I rounded the corner and saw El Cap towering above everything else. I’ve been climbing for 13 years now and this is the first time I had ever been there. Horror stories about crowded climbs, jaded rangers, annoying tourists, and on always convinced me that I should just go somewhere more remote. Whatever problems this place may have, they’re all worth it, and really not that bad.

Crowds? Sure, but we lucked out and didn’t have a problem. Rangers? Yup, they busted our campsite neighbors for possession. Tourists? Of the two that talked to us, one was in fact very annoying. The other gave us beer. The only real down sides of the trip were a squirrel eating through my tent and hearing someone deck from the first pitch of the Nutcracker (broken arm, very lucky). And the good side? Well, how about thousands of feet of world-class granite everywhere you look. Since Jen and I are still in the process of getting fully healed, we concentrated on ultra-classic multi-pitch moderates. We could have climbed two a day for the rest of the summer before we even had to make an effort to find something else. Of the several thousand feet worth of climbing that we did, maybe two pitches ranked below amazing.