This weekend it was John Blackberries and a new partner recruit, Dawn Toronto, who headed off with me to Tuolumne Meadows in the high country of Yosemite. Yes, she was a lycra wearing, toned-bodied, healthy-eating climbing babe but we tried to look by her short comings and dwelled on leering at her body. Fortunately she was a good sport and could dish out as much shit as John shoveled onto her. Unfortunately, she couldn't come close to matching the shit that I gave her. Oh well, she would do.

This actually wasn't my first trip with Dawn. I had climbed with her once in the Pinnacles and made her Top Five List. The Top Five List is a Blackberries creation consisting of the top five times he was most afraid. I was involved in the #1, 3 and 4th spots on John's list. Of course, I didn't share his view on the life-threatening nature of the situation but that is irrelevant here. After climbing with Dawn twice, I occupied the #1 and 2 spots on her list. Obviously she doesn't have much experience, but she was getting it fast.

My first trip with Dawn was an attempt of the Regular Route on the Resurrection Wall at Pinnacles early in the year. The first pitch is fantastically loose and runout at the 5.9 level if dry and 5.10b if wet. It was damp. I was more afraid on this climb than her since I resided at the business end of the rope. I remember being very gripped well above my last piece with every hold I tried being loose. Dawn, not realizing the gravity of the situation, yells up, "Are you in your zen, Bill?" I didn't answer. She should have known the situation, but she was inexperienced. Following, she was equally as gripped and took a pendulum fall as she neared my hanging belay.

The second trip with her was our first to Yosemite and Blackberries was along on that trip also. It was four of us: John, Dawn, and Sir Dennis Eaton Hogg - the famous wall not-climber. Sir Dennis is from Australia and probably planned as many big wall ascents as his countryman Greg Child. Of course, where they profoundly differed was that Child actually climbed them. This is not to say that I didn't respect Sir Dennis. He has planned to climb, solo even, much tougher things than I have ever thought of climbing. Of course, I am not sure that he ever thought of climbing them either. I think he is going to not climb some heinous A5+ next...the guy has the most ambitious plans for not climbing. His usual strategy for not climbing a wall is this:

Sir Dennis followed this modus operandi for three months in the valley and had an impressive list of climbs he hadn't done. He didn't climb Excalibur twice, the Dawn wall twice (once solo), and the Zodiac twice (once solo.) He also didn't solo the South Face of Washington Column and the Leaning Tower. Wow! And you guys thought I didn't hang out with awesome climbers...

Actually, Sir Dennis is a great guy who has spent seven of the last ten years traveling the world. I don't know how he does it. Rich parents I suspect, although Sir Dennis is 40 years old. I met him in Chamonix, France when both of our partners had run out of gas. We climbed the Aguille di Midi and the Matterhorn together. He has since visited me a number of times in California and has, remarkably enough, actually climbed the Nose and the Salathe...he must have had a great partner.

I climbed more in the three weekends I spent with Dennis in the Valley than he did in three months of big wall attempts. Actually, as a postscript, before he left the valley he soloed the Prow, and climbed the Leaning Tower and the Zodiac.

That weekend we hiked in to climb the West Pillar of the Eichorn Pinnacle. The Eichorn Pinnacle is a striking rock spire that is part of the Cathedral Spire massive. From the notch separating the two spires, there is a short 5.5 route to the summit, but the West Pillar climbs six pitches up the opposite side. When we arrived at the base of the climb after the three mile approach, Sir Dennis and Berries balked at the cool temperatures and wide crack start. So it was left to just Dawn and I to attempt it. I was to eager to climb and Dawn would follow wherever I went. John and Sir Dennis went around to not climb into the notch. Eventually they gave up and Sir Dennis hiked out for a spot of tea.

Meanwhile, I fought my way up the first pitch. The crack is indeed very wide, but there are plentiful knobs on the outside of the crack and offwidth technique is not required. The pitch did prove to be long and continuously interesting with a short crux section involving thin jams over a bulge. The next pitch was the most devious. It started with a downclimb of a few feet and then a dicey traverse across a blank face and into another corner system. From here I worked up to a roof and around its left side with a few desperate moves. This pitch is suppose to be 5.8, but it felt more like 5.9 to me. The pitch ended with a classic Yosemite 5.8 flare. It even overhung a bit here, but it wasn't very long; twenty feet at most and went nicely. Dawn got her first exposure to this type of climbing here and did very well. At least when she got to the top she wasn't swearing never to do one again.

The third pitch was a very long, indistinct 5.8 pitch that wandered up steep but fairly easy cracks with numerous resting spots. This put us on top of the ridge, and an easy 5th class pitch ran along this to the final headwall. Passing the headwall on the left was very exposed, and then I worked my way up a vertical offwidth crack. Luckily, I could bridge way over to another crack on the right and sort of chimney up the wall with my left arm and shoulder pressed into the offwidth and my right leg stretching at full length to press against the other crack. The pitch topped out on the tiny, exposed summit and we looked down into the notch to see Berries taking a photo of us. A great climb!

That night we drove back to the secret spot to sleep because of me. While I had wanted to possibly climb another day in the Meadows it was too cold for me to sleep up there. You see, I forgot something new on this trip: my sleeping bag. I could rough it inside my bivy bag at the secret spot but didn't want to endure the 27 degree nights in Tuolumne without more insulation. Of course, I could have snuggled in with Dawn if it weren't for two things:

Hence, we drove down to the secret spot and decided to climb in the Valley the next day.

The next morning I was up early again but the others made me promise not to wake them until an appropriate hour (I think they said, "Not until lunchtime!") As I was milling about in the idyllic beauty of the spot, my eyes rested upon a structure that I had viewed many times before...It loomed over the Secret Spot like a medieval guardian - dark and dented. I very foolishly felt it was time that I finally climbed the dreaded, inaccessible and probably still unclimbed SSS: Secret Spot Spire.

Amazingly, John was up to giving it a shot also so while Dawn and Sir Dennis remained in their sleeping bags, we set off up the extremely steep, grassy slope. Footing was very tenuous here and we almost ended up falling right down the slopes into our sleeping bags. Further up, steep, loose rock and poison oak choked (John got it bad, I escaped) gullies made for a pleasant approach...NOT! John wouldn't continue after the third big rock broke off on him and almost crushed his foot. I continued on solo and got to within 20 feet of the summit, but with no rope, no belay, very crumbly rock, 5.7 climbing and a death fall if I came off, I decided, painfully, that it would be stupid to attempt the final section and carefully retreated.

Descent was a poison oak laced nightmare as we couldn't reverse what we had come up and descended down the other side of the ridge. We tried in vain to find away around it and finally gave up and plunged right through it. Afterwards we showered (hot or cold, we couldn't remember and hot sounded so much better. It worked for me, but not for John. We later found out that a cold shower was perhaps the best thing) to try and prevent the poison oak rash from forming while Dawn and Sir Dennis went off to Reed's.

A couple of hours later we met Sir Dennis and Dawn at the Reed's Pinnacle area where Dennis had led Stone Groove. I had led this once before with one hang on it but still managed to hang twice while toproping it. Yes, it does take a certain skill to climb like me and soon the knowledge will be available through the mail: Bill's Retro Training Program to Lowering Your Climbing Ability in 4 Short Weeks with a 12 step program for Retro Maintenance.

Then we went over and did the Iota so that I could thrash myself to oblivion toproping and dogging my way up the 140 foot super classic offwidth: Chingando. Why, oh why, do I do things like that? To delude myself into thinking I can become a hardman if I do it enough? To humiliate myself on a 5.10a? Who knows? I don't. Of course, I was stupidly in shorts and removed large portions of skin from my legs and arms. Oh, the joy. We figured out about four ways to do the start of the Iota and I guess now I would maybe consider it to be 5.6 if you did it just right instead of the 5.8 version I figured out on my own. Still, it is a super cool climb.

Which gets me to this weekend...whew!

Since we camped at the secret spot (about an hour and a half away from the Meadows), I had the troops up at an early hour so that we wouldn't waste any climbing time. My companions bitched and moaned quite a bit but reluctantly got up and collapsed into the car. Of course once we got to the Meadows it was still freezing out and the bitching and moaning started anew.

In search of the rare and elusive eastern or southern facing climb in Tuolumne, we chose Phobos, a three star hand crack on one of the only true cliffs in Tuolumne. The steep approach warmed us up and we spread our gear across the rocks at the base. John was interested in climbing this one since if he did it he would be wasted for the rest of the day. He was always coming up with new and interesting excuses for not climbing so this didn't faze me at all.

The first pitch has a reputation for being a lot harder than the 5.9 rating and it turns out to be true. I would rate the first pitch 5.10b. The crux is climbing up a slightly overhanging crack on thin and insecure jams while trying to place the pro. I had to hang once before I got established in the chimney stem above. Further up, I moved out of this chimney and across a blank section into a corner. A little ways up was a belay ledge and I brought Dawn up. She struggled with the lower section and I hauled on the rope, but eventually she stood beside me.

The next pitch is probably the greatest single pitch I have ever done in Tuolumne. A very steep wall split by two parallel hand cracks both of which were the perfect size for jamming. You didn't even have to look for a jam as you slid your hand up the crack, weighted it and repeated with the opposite hand in the other crack. Pure joy. The last went smoothly and we retreated to the car.

After some lunch, we decided to climb the Hobbit Book. This is a three star 5.7 route on Marioulumne Dome above Drug Dome. It was 3 p.m. when we left the car so we brought headlamps for the descent. The climb was just five pitches, but the approach was time- consuming and we wanted to have the lights just in case. The approach is a joy in itself. You walk right up to the base of Drug Dome and get a nice look at the intimidating climbs of Oz and the Gram Traverse. Then we skirted the dome on the left up talus and then back left across step slabs to the summit of Drug Dome. The summit of this dome is so flat and beautiful and removed from the bustle of the roadside. It would be a great place to camp one night. From here the approach works up and right on 4th class ledges and ramps. There is one very exposed section before you reach the start of the route.

We roped up and I led up the first moderate pitch which is low 5th class with a 5.6 traverse section up top. The next pitch is steep 5.7 and ends in a semi-hanging belay below the trademark pitch: the amazing, golden wall of knobs. It was quite crowded at the belay with three of us hanging from four bomber pieces I had placed in the crack. We were in a giant corner. Above us the crack continued and got increasingly wide. It would be possible to climb this section but not protect it. I don't know how hard it would be though, as the route leaves the corner and climbs up the face to the left.

I was a bit pysched when I left the belay because I knew this next pitch was massively runout. I wasn't very afraid since the rating was only 5.7, but I was concentrating intently. For the first twenty feet I continued up the crack and placed my largest cam. Then I ventured onto the golden wall. I moved carefully up and right for twenty more feet to the one ancient, quarter inch, spinner of a bolt. From here, the runout is about 50 feet on near vertical rock. The holds are solid but not all that big and there are some big reaches. The climbing is way cool and very stimulating since a loss of concentration would result in an extremely serious fall. Simply AWESOME! I felt solid and moved very deliberately, checking each combination of holds carefully, making sure I was completely solid on every move. I could feel the tension at the other end of the rope. It is sometimes worse being the belayer and watching your partner lead further and further out into a very dangerous situation. I occasionally called down to them and reassured them that everything was going smoothly, but I personally would not want to watch someone lead this pitch. It is better to climb it yourself.

The last pitch went smoothly and we topped out at 7 p.m. to the beautiful late afternoon light. It was fabulous. I love this lighting. The temperature was perfect; the sky starting to glow. We had just finished a tremendous climb and I was overflowing with delight and satisfaction. The great companions, as always, made the experience very special. The climb is most highly recommended although not for the budding 5.7 leader. We hiked down in the twilight and reached the car just as darkness closed around us. A perfect day in the mountains.