Cathedral Peak 08/2017

It was a popular weekend climbing at Tuolumne Meadows in the summer of 2017.  I was with Amber, Paul, and Chris and we were wanting to climb some of the classics. We slept in our cars by Tioga lake and woke up early to head for west crack, a super classic 5.9 on DAFF dome.  We got to the base at 8am and there was only 1 party ahead of us - could have been worse!

We flake the rope, rack up, get ready, and then wait for the team of 4 to get ahead.  We noticed their style was … unusual to say the least.  only 1 of the 4 were familiar with trad climbing and instead of limiting the group size or using multiple ropes with cowtails or a few different effective methods, they decided the leader would go up with 1 rope, the 2nd would follow but not clean the gear, the 3rd would pinkpoint the route, and then the 4th would follow and clean the gear.  Then and only then can the leader rack up again and do the same thing over again.  The first pitch involves a 5.9 move with a bolt right at the beginning and then smooth sailing on 5.6 terrain for the next 100' to the anchor.  After an hour or so, the group was still working on the first pitch.  I head over to the left and do the first pitch of bombs over Tokyo, a fantastic 5.10 finger crack route, and Paul and Chris eventually get to try to first pitch of west crack.  When they got to the anchor, all 4 of the group was still there all hooking their PAS on a single bolt.  Where's the anchor?  How did you belay these people up?  WTF are you going to do now?  If it takes you 3 hours per pitch, then the next 4 pitches should take another 12 hours??

Paul starting to lead pitch 1 of west crack

This was a new understanding of what "slow climbing" really could mean.  I have redefined this as glacial speed and fortunately, I was with good friends in a beautiful place so our spirits were annoyed but still high!  It was about noon when we decided to hike out and try something else.  As we were hiking away, we see the leader had just started the 2nd pitch and what appeared like an angry mob down below heckling away.

…..


After a good lunch break and a brainstorming session of trying to decided what to climb, we determined to go and check out Cathedral peak.  This usually took a team a full day given the 3 mile hike in, 4 full pitches, alpine conditions, tricky descent, and then a 3 mile hike out.  The Cathedral peak summit is a pointy spire that looms over the alpine of meadow of Tuolumne Meadows and it's not uncommon for thunderstorms to sweep in unexpectedly and be-night climbers.  None of us had done this climb before. So anyway, it was 4pm or so (can't remember exactly) and we packed out bags and hit the trail.

Amber on the approach to Cathedral Peak

Chris enjoying the fun cruiser climbing in the first half of the climb

The approach trail was steep and a little tricky to follow but we ended up right at the base of this beautiful chunk of rock and unfortunately another mob of people on the rock and on the ground.  We go in 2 parties of two and Amber and I ended up in the back.  The rock for the first 300' or so (until the chimney) was mainly garbage which was surprising given the popularity of this route. When I got into the chimney, it was just getting dark so I clicked on my headlamp when .. the darkness continued.  *Click* .. *Click* .. nothing.  "OK" I say to Amber. "My headlamp isn't working so I'm going to climb really fast to catch up with Chris".  Then I just book it and climb the next couple hundred feet lightning fast until I'm maybe 15' below Chris who was following up Paul's lead.  I explain the headlamp situation to Chris, we both laugh, and then he agreed to shine his light down on me each time I need to place gear (which wasn't much) for added safety while I remain climbing about 15' below him.  I finally mantle onto this large ledge where Paul is belaying and felt a huge sense of relief. Here we are perched up on a ledge overlooking just about everything around us, it's totally dark and I have no headlamp (or jacket but it wasn't cold).  Now, Amber and I were using a 70 meter rope and I extended it the whole way so Amber was 230' below and out of earshot.  Fortunately, all of our experience together put us both at ease and she counted to 30 then cleaned the anchor and started climbing even though she never heard me shouting down to her.  I learned later that there was actually a group of 2 girls at the belay ledge with Amber watching her confidently yet blindly unclip her anchor and start climbing up the chimney.

Phew! At the ledge.  Photo by Chris.

The weather was warm and perfect so it was more beautiful than anything.  For this next and last pitch, things got steep and the granite got better, the grainy flared cracks turned into nice splitter cracks and I climbed by moonlight which was very empowering and surreal.  I had a huge smile on my face especially when I topped out and saw Paul and Chris at the top of the feature belaying.  I throw in a cam, put Amber on belay and start belaying her up so we can start the precarious descent.

In reality, the descent probably isn't all too difficult, but given the conditions and unfamiliarity with the route, we played it safe and rappelled from a couple bushes with a huge double rope 200' rappel.  Just as we were about the clean the rope, the 2 girls from earlier were approaching and we shouted towards them to use our rappel.  They also rappelled down and we were glad to help out our fellow night climbers.

In our tired stupor, we limp back down the trail to our cars, re-park the car out by Tioga lake to sleep, eat a quick PB+J for dinner and crashed out pretty hard.  Today was fun but more of a type 2 fun.  The lessons I learned was to bring a working headlamp, a jacket, and that's all.