Tuolumne. Stormed off again. Surprise, surprise.

I traveled on to Tuolumne Meadows, in the upper part of Yosemite National Park. I decided that I would climb cathedral peak, a 5 pitch climb that my friend Ollie and I got stormed off back in 2008 after the first pitch. It is basically a lightening rod but a fairly easy climb at 5.6.

 After some lining up issues, I busted up the first pitch which was pretty easy.

 The tree from which we had to repel last time soon came into view.

 There are many ways up this face and some faster guys were off the the right of me Simulclimbing.

 Looking down on the 4th pitch chimney. It had me worried at first because I had to wear my back back but it could all be faced climbed. Then, I was concerned at the belay that the flake I had slung would not work in an upward pulling fall. Again, no problems since I soon got in a bomber piece. There is noting freaky about this climb other than storms and rocks coming from the traffic.

 Giving the guys above me some room before leading up the last pitch.

 Down below here is Fairview dome and on it's left, Daff dome, the scene of the next climbing adventure.

It is only a half hour walk off the top of Cathedral Peak so I only took my climbing shoes. Too bad that if you miss the track, it may turn into a 2.5 hour ordeal with no water. But hey, that would never happen, especially for someone so experienced as myself. (insert family feud noise here)



The next day, Daff dome was thick with humans. The west crack, which I planed to solo, was very busy. I even walked in with 2 guys who I will just call Steve and Kush for that is their names, who were also going to do the route. We all decided to team up and do the 10b to the right.

After doing the first pitch though, and with the storm clouds threatening to dumb some time in the arvo, we decided to bail due the the speed of the party ahead. Further up, we would have to leave gear to retreat and by the time you decide to leave gear behind, you are already not having fun.

We did some easy single pitch stuff around the corner on the decent trail. 2 guys that we had seen on the dome had come past, but then they were on a route with noone else on it and they were fast.
After a few climbs, we finally got dumped on and it was marble sized hail and plenty of it.

The domes turned into waterfall focusing machines.

The further that we came down, the more that the water had collected onto our path which was wedged between two domes.

At one part, we even had to avoid the force of the foot deep water for worry of being washed off balance. What better person to find their way down though than captain storm himself. This was the 4th time now and I was getting good at it.

 As I drove through Tuolumne, the ground was covered in patches of hail stones. We were in such a rush that unfortunately I left some gear with the other guys who were nice enough to send it to the hotel that I am now in. It is probably downstairs now ready for collection.