My long planned trip to Yosemite to climb Half Dome in a day with John Blackberries had run into a bit of a snag: John was sick and so dizzy he couldn't stand up without support. Actually, this is my history of climbing with John. In 1994, I came out to do Quarter Dome with him, but his elbow was injured and I did the route with the Loobster. In 1995, I came out again to do some routes in Tuolumne. John got a stomach cramp on the approach to the Third Pillar of Dana and I did the route with the Loobster. My tickets were non-refundable, non-change-able, non-nothing-able. I called on the ever-reliable Loobster. He could climb Friday through Sunday, but he was stuck on jury duty for Monday and Tuesday (the last two days of my 5 day trip). I sent some mail out to the superstars of Yosemite Valley without much luck. I had one offer to climb on the weekend, but no one was available for Monday or Tuesday. Except for Hans Florine and he also invited us to stay at his house. Cool! Hans Florine is a multiple World Speed Climbing Champion and owns numerous speed records in Yosemite including the fastest time on the Nose and the fastest solo of the Nose. If I could rope up with Hans it would certainly be the highlight of the trip.

I arrived into Sacramento at 3 a.m. on Friday morning and took an Airporter to John's house in Davis for a little sleep. John had graciously offered me his pick-up truck for the five day trip and I left the next morning at 8 a.m. - planning on meeting the Loobster at our favorite Valley turn-out at noon. The drive was uneventful and I arrived only a couple of minutes late. The Loobster was anxious to climb something hard and scary. Well, maybe that wasn't his exact state...

We hemmed and hawed (are these real words?) about what to climb. The Loobster had not been climbing much and was definitely out of any one day Half Dome ascents. My good friend, Dr. Offwidth, had put tremendous amounts of pressure on me to climb the top half of the Rostrum on this trip, but, in an eventually successful effort to put off this climb for the entire trip, we decided against jumping on it immediately. Since we only had half a day left, we needed something manageable. I suggested doing the Cobra near Royal Arches. I posted asking for information on this route but got absolutely no information. No one I knew had done this route.

The Cobra branches off to the right from the Royal Arches route where that route goes left at the pendulum. The route was put up by Mark Powell and Bob Kamps in 1966. Roper's 1971 guide to Yosemite recommends bringing "25-30 pitons, including 10 1-1/2" angles and 8 bongs up to 4"." This is a good indication of the crack sizes that will be encountered. The route was first free climbed by Tobin Sorenson in 1975. The current topo shows very run-out 5.9 slab climbing going up and then straight right to the base of a curving crack in a huge, sweeping dihedral - the Cobra. Once at the base of the crack, the topo shows three pitches: 5.10b, 5.8 wide, and 5.11a inch and a quarter lieback. The suggestions from the web community were to bring a hammer, pins, bolt kit, and be prepared for gardening on the cracks. We brought none of the above. And left the ground at 2 p.m. for an 18 pitch route that not only hadn't we done before, but didn't know anyone who had. I was feeling audacious, but also felt that if the route were too dangerous, we'd just retreat back to Royal Arches route. Later I would re-consider the ease of this retreat.

The plan was for the Loobster to lead all the way up to the pendulum on Royal Arches while I carried the pack containing aiders, jumars, two liters of water, our shoes, and long sleeve shirts. The Loobster had just done Royal Arches a month ago and was very familiar with the route. We simul-climbed most of the route up to the pendulum and arrived there in about an hour. The day was warm and we climbed in shorts and T-shirts. Nine pitches down; nine to go.

We passed one party of three en route and met another party at the pendulum. These friendly guys were leading the route for their first time, though they had been up it before. Much to our surprise, we would see these guys much later in the day. Loobster led up to a pair of big bolts just above the pendulum. "Cool!" we thought, "Maybe the route has been retro-bolted." Loobster then led the first pitch of the Cobra and it was well protected with brand new bolts. The climbing here is 5.8 and excellent! Unfortunately, the retro-bolting would end as far as the Cobra was concerned. Apparently these new bolts were put in as part of a new route that heads straight up from the top of the first pitch of the Cobra. The new bolts continued for at least two pitches, but our route headed out to the right - and it reverted to the topo: run-outs on ancient quarter inch bolts!

It was finally my turn to get on the sharp end. I led up to one last new bolt and then headed right. Thirty-five feet later, I clipped a quarter inch bolt and contemplated the crux 5.9 friction moves. The next bolt was thirty feet away, up and right, and just before a water streak. I tried going straight towards it. No luck. Then up and left and then back right. I didn't like it. Finally, I climbed down and right to some larger holds and then straight up to the bolt. I belayed here from the single quarter inch bolt, but I had a small ledge to sit on and the forces involved in slab falls aren't that great. I felt safe enough. The Loobster followed and confirmed the difficulties of this section. The next lead started with another 30+ foot run-out on 5.8/9 friction. Loobster found a way over to the bolt and came it above it, clipping the bolt at his ankle. Then he went up to a flake, placed some gear and moved further right to belay from gear.

I followed and led a 80 foot pitch mostly horizontally to the right. There was one bolt on this pitch and one at the belay. This had some 5.9 friction on it also, but mostly was easier. The topo shows the belay further right, but that would be stupid. Here is a bolt and a small ledge. Again, nothing to back-up the bolt. Loobster followed and declined the next lead. I led right on a completely horizontal pitch which involved underclinging along a crack at the base of the steep headwall that loomed above us. We needed to get further right to the only crack that pierced the wall. There are no bolts on this pitch, but I got in four pieces in 100' - more than we had been getting. The crux was at the very end of the pitch. I was 25 feet out when I placed a two-cam blue Alien and underclung downwards with my feet smearing on a slab. Five feet further I was thankful to find a good #2 Camalot placement in a crack hidden behind some grass. My feet were screaming with pain and fatigue and I rushed things. Fifteen feet out, I came off. "Falling!" I yelled and slid down the slab in a harmless, but disappointing fall. I immediately scrambled up to the base of the crack and set-up a belay from a fixed piton and a couple of other pieces. The Loobster fell in almost exactly the same place while following.

It was starting to get late and we had three pitches to go. At this point I realized a retreat would be very difficult since we'd have to climb back across the traverse and could not rappel off. We had to get up this climb or we'd be stuck on this slab in the dark. I was worried about the condition of the upper crack. If we had to garden it out or if it required pitons we'd be in a world of hurt. I was a bit stressed and wondering why I had been so audacious before. I always get my ass kicked in Yosemite. Why would this be any different?

I started up the 10b crack, cranking liebacks, fingerlocks, and thin hand jams on excellent rock. Unfortunately, the crack became filled with grass. I could reach by these sections but wasn't strong enough to purely lieback with my feet. I needed my feet in the corner/crack and they just slipped off the grass. I fell. I did an aid move here to get by this section and another to reach a bush at the end of the 5.10 section. I then ran up the 5.7 crack above until it hit a section labeled 5.9 on the topo. This section was a bit loose and covered in some lichen and I did another aid move here. Above I stretched the rope tight to reach a belay on a sloping ledge. The Loobster decided to just jug this pitch. After figuring out my aiding set-up, he was soon at the belay, but wishing he had brought his kneepads.

My feet were killing me from overly tight shoes and too much slab climbing. I asked the Loobster to lead the next pitch while I rested my feet. The Loobster agreed and started up the wide crack. He asked for tension a couple of times, but seemed to be moving okay. Fifty feet up, he said, "I can't do this, Bill. It's just burning me out. Can you finish the pitch?" This surprised me, but lowered him back to the belay and we switched ends of the rope.

With the advantage of a toprope, I quickly regained the Loobster's high point. The climbing was a classic Yosemite grunt, but not too bad. 5.8 seemed about right. I moved above the #4 Camalot that the Loobster lowered off of and found I could get handjams by burying my arms deep in crack. I found the belay only thirty feet further. This consisted of two quarter inch bolts out on the face to the right of the crack. The rock is dark and so are the hangers so that the belay is very hard to see until you are right upon it.

The Loobster jugged up and I started up the penultimate and crux pitch at 7:30 p.m. Loobster asked me if I'd like to take my headlamp with me. "No," I said, "I'm going to blast this baby!" I free climbed the first thirty feet and then French freed ten more feet before getting the aiders full time. This crack is relentless and I doubt the 11a rating. We had four pieces that would fit the crack after leaving two behind, I leapfrogged two #1 Camalots for thirty feet until I got to the lip. I turned the lip and clipped into the two bolt belay.

The Loobster jugged and we did the last pitch to the top. This pitch is rated 4^th class, but it has a hard (5.8/9?) move over the final bulge. I surmounted this with a boost from the Loobster. Soon we were stripping off our shoes and packing the gear. With headlamps on our heads, but not yet on, we started the descent around 8:40 p.m. First we needed to reach the notch behind Washington Column. By then it was dark and I found my headlamp to be lacking in power - the batteries were almost dead. I also realized that I forgot to bring my regular glasses - all I had was my prescription sunglasses. It would be a dark descent. We didn't make any route finding errors, but progress was slow as we traversed towards North Dome Gully. Just before we could head down, we caught up with the party from Royal Arches. We descended with them for awhile, but eventually left them far behind. Halfway down my headlamp died completely and I followed as closely behind the Loobster as I could. Climbing down by Braille whenever I fell off the pace. Frequently I would have to call for the light. We got back to the car around 11:30 p.m. That isn't too bad for doing the descent in the dark. I had descended this gully once before in the dark and it had taken us five hours.

We drove over to our favorite turn-out and slept in the back of the truck. In the morning we weren't in the mood to blast off on something early. We headed to the cafeteria for some food. Since we didn't really eat lunch or dinner the day before, we were staring. After stuffing myself, I gave Hans a call and explained why we didn't show up the night before and told him we'd see him tonight. He related his plans about doing the Realm of the Flying Monkeys the next day with Peter Coward. Loobster and I retired to the parking lot to sort gear. Loobster only had one #3 Camalot and no other units in this size. Continuing my efforts to avoid stiff climbing, I deemed this insufficient to climb the Rostrum. Unfortunately the Loobster immediately offered to go by the climbing store and purchase another unit. Damn him!

We did go buy a #3.5 Camalot, but decided the Rostrum was better left for tomorrow. I had always wanted to do Lucky Streaks on Fairview Dome and the temperatures in the Valley were warm, so we headed up to Toulumne. We started hiking into the route 1 p.m. I would not start climbing before noon on the entire trip. What a slacker! It was about 30 minutes to the base of the route and I was surprised at the steep angle of the route. I expected more of a slab route like the Regular Route, but the West Face of Fairview is quite steep. Also, Lucky Streaks is primarily a crack climb, albeit with numerous face crystals. There was a large snowfield at the base of the route and after gearing up, I led across this in my climbing shoes with a big rock as an ice axe.

I belayed on a small ledge so that the Loobster wouldn't have to simul-climb the snow while I did the next pitch. The Loobster was feeling confident today and asked if I'd mind doing the leading. I thought I was up it, but my feet were already hurting. I had just had my Kaukulators re-soled and now my boots felt much tighter than before. They had hurt me quite a bit on the Cobra and it was starting already. After this route I would revert back to my 15 year old Fires for the remainder of the trip.

The first pitch has a 5.9 section on it and the crux moves are well above your last piece. I deliberated on this move for quite awhile before easily doing it. Unfortunately, the climbing stays sustained and the protection is minimal. I got in a small cam that I didn't think was too good and then had to run things out for twenty or more feet on dicey 5.8. Maybe it was my shoes or my head, but this pitch gave me a mental beating. I belayed at a nice ledge and brought the Loobster up.

I split the next 5.9 pitch into two as I wasn't sure where it ended and if there would be a good ledge. This worked out just great as both pitches ended on good ledges and it broke up the stress. I found these pitches challenging and was a bit concerned about the crux 10b pitch which was next. The crux pitch can be done straight up a thin crack at 5.10d, or by climbing around it on the right via 5.10a face climbing. At first I thought the latter option wasn't protected and took a look at the 10d option. The climbing looked very hard, though it didn't last long. Since I was having trouble on 5.9, I thought the chances of falling off the 10d were almost 100% and turned my attention back to the 10a option. I climbed up on the right and found a hidden gear placement. Further up I got a #3 Camalot up on the right. With a really long sling, I didn't think the rope drag would be too bad. Now I had to do the very tricky 10a move back to the left. There is exactly one handhold for this section: a sidepull which is only good once you lean left; and one foothold: a small, smooth edge out to the left. The trick is getting your right hand on the sidepull and your right foot on the foothold so that you can reach way left and grab a good edge. Eventually I worked out the balance and made the move.

From here you have to do a 10d undercling/lieback to get around a roof and onto a ramp with a finger crack. This is a tricky section, but protected well and I pulled it off by climbing through the crux instead of stopping to try and place gear. The climbing eased to 10a on the ramp and at the top was another roof that needed to be underclinged around. I found this awkward and my feet were screaming for some relief. I finished off the pitch to a small ledge and brough the Loobster up. This was the top of our fifth pitch (the third pitch in the topo).

Above me was a finger/hand crack in an 80 degree slab with lots of face crystals to stand on. This pitch was rated 5.9, but I found it easy and moved quickly so that I could get off my feet. At the top of this pitch is a hanging belay. From here there are two choices: head left to get into the bottom of a left facing dihedral, or continue straight up the crack to an expando-flake and belay, then head left to join the other variation on 5.7 face climbing. We choose the later since the pitches were shorter and would allow me to get off my feet quicker. This turned out to be a bad decision as the climbing on this variation is extremely run-out.

I led up the next 5.9 pitch at a pace driven more by the pain in my feet than the difficulties of the rock. By now I was comfortable with the climbing and this pitch went easily, though the mandatory 25-foot run-out was a bit unnerving. The pain didn't allow me to fidget long before launching up this section. I cruised up to a fixed nut and then went 25 more feet to the "Expando-Flake" which seemed fine as I sat on it and placed gear for the belay behind it. I immediately ripped off my shoes.

The Loobster followed easily and I asked him to lead the next pitch so that I could rest my feet longer. He agreed and started up the pitch which seemed just as hard as the last one. After a couple of placements, the Loobster launched out on 5.7 face climbing that led up and left to a hole and then further left to the exit crack. This pitch has absolutely no gear once you start traversing left - if you stay on route. Daunted by this mandatory 50 foot run-out, the Loobster went up to a crack and placed a couple of pieces. Here he was too high to continue the traverse and elected to do a tension traverse. Even with this gear he was at least 35 feet out from his last piece. A fall on this sharp knobbed wall would do incredible damage. Falling just isn't an option. The Loobster did a great job on this pitch, which is definitely the psychological crux. Following, I retrieved the gear and downclimbed to the traverse to confirm that it goes free at 5.7. This is a dangerous pitch and I'd recommend doing the left option.

I ran up the final 165-foot straightforward 5.8 crack pitch. I stretched the rope tight and belayed from gear in the crack just before the climbing got trivial. The Loobster led the next few feet to a good ledge and we un-roped.

I raced down the fun slab descent back to the packs and we were back at the car by 6:30 p.m. We didn't waste any time heading down and were at Hans' house by 8 p.m. Hans is a very kind, generous guy and it was great to finally meet him in person. Actually, both the Loobster and I had met him years ago at a Mountain Tools slide show. Hans remembered the show well since he forgot to bring the slides down from Berkley and had to entertain the audience while someone retrieved the missing slides. Peter Coward was already attempting to sleep as they were planning on getting up at 4 a.m. for their El Cap adventure. Hans was wide-awake though and we talked for quite awhile before he retired. Hans completely opened his house to us and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We stayed up late watching videos of Yuji Hirayama's attempt to on-sight the Salathé, and Hans speed climbing matches. We even had dinner!

The next morning we were moving slow, as was our custom on this trip. "Damn," I thought, "I'm turning into my friend Opie..." We watched golf of all things that morning. Finally we decided to go at least look at the Rostrum. Our plan was to go in from the top and work the exit pitch. Sort of like what Scott Burke was doing with the headwall pitches on the Salathé. The Rostrum would be my project. Well, it was a way out of leading it, at least temporarily.

We did the Notch Route to get to the top and I had Loobster lower me down to the bottom of the last pitch. I carried a rack of big cams with me to test out the placements. Loobster declined a lap. He thought: "Climb a 5.9 offwidth when I don't HAVE to? I think I'll pass." I TR flashed the pitch, then immediately got lowered down the Bridwell Corner on the East Side of the Rostrum. This pitch is 5.9 offwidth to 5.9 hands. I cruised the 5.9 offwidth section, but found the 5.9 hand section to be quite difficult - especially because I didn't wear any tape and the rock was extremely rough with biting crystals chewing up my hand. The crack was continuous without many footholds. I TR flashed it, but not easily. I would have been much better off with my mitts on.

Then I took a short rest before lower down and doing the last pitch of the Rostrum again. I flew up the thing this time in about 5 minutes. Fun climbing! The entry move into the offwidth at the start of this pitch is rated 10a and is quite difficult and awkward. On my first lap I had tried to purely lieback this section, but couldn't pull into the offwidth and had to downclimb. Eventually I did this by using my head and right shoulder to brace myself while I shuffled up my hands. Definitely a gumby move, but it worked. The second time up this pitch I had refined the head jam and it worked especially well. This entry move was starting to feel reasonable.

After more resting in the shade provided by the big tree on the top of the Rostrum, we packed up. A quick rappel put us back into the notch and Loobster led the 5.7 exit pitch up to the rim. Then he tossed me down my Spyder Mitts and put me on belay so that I could climb Loyd's Return Trip (5.9) back to the rim. This is a thin crack that leads to a tricky roof and then a couple of burly fist moves.

Back at the car, we separated the gear and said our good byes. The Loobster was heading back to fulfill his civic duty. I went by the grocery store before heading back to Hans' Basecamp. I called home and put away the food. At 6:30 p.m. Hans walks in the door - he had done the Realm of the Flying Monkeys in 9:59. A route on El Cap and back home in time for a relaxing dinner! He climbing world is so much different than mine. I wanted to enter this rarified realm of speed climbing.

After dinner Hans agrees to climb the next day and asks me, "What about the East Buttress of Lower Cathedral Rock?" I say, "That would be fine. I've done it before, but climbing anything with you would be great." He says, "The East Buttress of LOWER Cathedral Rock..." He obvious thought I was thinking about the classic and very popular East Buttress of MIDDLE Cathedral Rock. I had climbed this 12 pitch, 5.10c route with the Loobster in 1996. I had led every pitch and it had taken us most of the day. We were snowed on during the last couple of pitches on that ascent. Hans had done the route once before also with Roxanne Brock and he was off route for the first two pitches, off route in the middle, and off route at the top. Hence he was anxious to climb the entire route. I would be his guide! Hans felt his variations were more like 5.11c.

The next morning Hans had to do some work so he sent me off on one of his favorite running loops. This run starts at the Sentinel Dome/Taft Point trailhead off of the Glacier Point Road. I ran towards Sentinel Dome and then up to the very summit (this is only a few minutes from the trail). The views were spectacular. I continued around the loop until the spur trail heads out to Taft Point. I took this trail and ran out to the incredibly exposed overlook! This is a highly recommended hike/run. I completed the loop back to the car. It ended up being 56 minutes of running.

Upon my return to Hans' house, he was ready to go. We quickly packed up and headed out. On the drive down Hans briefed me on how he likes to do things. He gives a one minute warning when he is approaching the end of a pitch so that the second can get ready to go as soon as possible. Hans doesn't simul-climb unless he is 110% sure that the other person will not fall and we didn't plan on doing any of this since he had never climbed with me. Hans doesn't usually carry stoppers and for this route he brought only 4 stoppers and no nut tool. I remembered placing stoppers galore on the crux pitch and am particular fond of this type of protection, but I deferred to the master. Heck, he'd lead the crux pitch anyway.

After stopping at the post office and the recycling center, we parked below Lower Cathedral Rock. We threw on the packs and I immediately led us up a talus slope too far to the right. Hans got us back on track and I led us to the start of the intimidating 5.8 chimney which marks the start of the route. It took us only 16 minutes to get to the base of the route, but now we'd lounged around taking out time to gear up. We'd later regret this when deciding to go for a car-to-car time.

We both wore shorts and kneepads for the chimney. I pulled on my tape gloves, but Hans said he rarely ever tapes up. I wore a T-shirt and wore my Camelback as our only water. Hans stripped off this shirt to reveal a chiseled physique. I was surprised he'd climb without a shirt in such a chimney and didn't follow suit. Of course, I had no chiseled body to reveal - only a belly pouring over the top of my harness - and thought it best to keep myself covered.

Now it was my turn to lead. Hans handed me the Spartan rack: which included just one #4, #3, #2, and #1 Camalots. The rest were all smaller cams, mostly TCU's and, of course, the four stoppers. We had only three long slings and 5 or 6 quickdraws. I guess I was learning one trick of speed climbing: carry a small rack. This way not only are you going light, but you don't have much gear to stop and place. I was definitely into the speed climbing mode and didn't want to let Hans down. Though I knew our pace had to drop, I was determined not to let it drop too far. I raced up the Fissure Beck pitch (5.9) and wrestled with the leaning 5.9 squeeze. I ran things out much further than I normally would: 20 or more feet between placements. I finished the pitch at the hanging tree belay just after Hans called the halfway mark, so I continued up the next pitch, which is 5.8. I stretched out all the rope and placed most of the tiny rack before I got to the tiny ledge. I set-up a belay with one stopper, a #2 Camalot and the #4 Camalot.

I was feeling good having led two pitches so quickly and Hans followed in a flash. I offered pulling one of the pieces out of the belay, but he declined and fired up the tricky, stemming/finger crack crux pitch. Hans did some huge stems on this pitch that I knew I couldn't duplicate. Hans is " 6'1" tall in the morning", as he says, and I'm only 5'11". Hans is also very flexible and no one would mistake me for a gymnast. I fell off leading this pitch before and warned Hans that I might come off here. He reassured me that if I wanted to take some more time and get it free, that was fine with him.

Hans ran out most of the rope and it was my turn. I negotiated the lower section pretty quickly and was faced with the crux. Since I couldn't do the stem, I had to climb the corner directly and this involved dicey body wedging and desperate reaches to shallow finger jams. Breathing like a steam engine, I barely scraped through without coming off and let out a victory yell. I motored up to Hans and he took the next 5.7 pitch as I was still breathing hard.

I followed and showed Hans the proper way to turn the roof on the next pitch. Hans had previously gone directly up to the roof thinking that turning it on the right looked intimidating. I cruised up the right side at 5.9 and belayed at a tree. Hans followed and commented how nice it was to be on route. I took off on the next 5.6 pitch and Hans told me to just keep going if I felt good. He'd simul-climb behind me. I put the next 5.9 pitch together with the long 5.6 pitch and half of the next 5.7 pitch up to a ledge before I belayed. I had gone for 2.5 pitches and was pretty much out of gear. I checked the watch and it indicated we had been climbing for 2:43. I said to Hans as he took over the lead, "If we hurry, we can break three hours." His reply was, "We'll break three hours and we won't have to hurry."

When the rope came tight, I started up. The upper half of this climb is a bit junky, moss covered, some loose rock, some runouts, but interspersed is some good climbing. I flew up the last section to Hans and we stopped the watches: 2:58. Not bad for 12 pitches. Hans commented that we could possibly do the route in under four hours car-to-car and the race was on. So much for taking in the great views from the summit. This is certainly a drawback of speed climbing. John Orenschall once said "Climbing would be a great, truly wonderful thing if it weren't for all that damn climbing." Well, speed climbing would be so great, truly wonderful tihng if it weren't for all that damn rushing around.

We scrambled down the Gunsight descent, downclimbing all the rappels, back to our backs. We downed more liquids and packed up. It was going to be tight - very tight. After getting down the steepest sections and off the talus, we were running through the woods. It was fun pursuing such a ridiculous goal with Hans. We are very much alike in that regard. We jumped over logs and dodged around trees until we hit the road. A quick dash to the Hans' truck and I stopped the watch: 3:58. No problem!

On Tuesday, sans a climbing partner, I would eventually get in my coveted speed ascent of Half Dome. By via a different route than originally planned. Hans had a friend arriving from South Africa and wasn't available to climb. Anyway, Hans says to me, "I know what you should do! You should try to break my record on running up Half Dome. I did it in 2:03 up and 3:33 roundtrip." Okay, I'd give it a try.

The time officially starts at the Half Dome Trail sign just on the other side of the bridge (now closed) near Happy Isles. From here to the summit it is 8.2 miles and 4900 vertical feet (5100 vertical feet roundtrip). Below are my splits at the obvious landmarks. I ran this with a single Camelback for water and one packet of Power Gel. That wasn't nearly enough food as I bonked hard on the descent and was totally wasted when I was done. The water was sufficient. I started at 9 a.m. and it was quite warm in the sun, but not overbearing.

On the way up, every hiker I passed thought I was crazy and I got quite a few comments. The way down was the biggest ego boost I've had in a long time. I re-passed everyone and they'd ask, "Have you been to the top already??" "Yes," I'd say and then they might say, "To the top of the cables??" "Yes." "OH MY GOD!" One women called me her hero and I had one marriage proposal and a handful of propositions. I got an applause from one group as I zipped by. Not surprisingly I was the only one running the trail.

As can be seen by these splits, I was crashing towards the end. I actually ran slower on the Little Yosemite Valley section on the way down. This is because this section is quite sandy, mostly level and has two hills on the descent. This long level section hurts my average ascent rate.

But the bottom line is that I bested Hans Florine!! :-) I guess he never claimed to be the world's fastest trail runner. This is a strong run for me, but I'm sure Kraig-zilla could take at least 20-30 minutes off this time. Certainly under 3 hours. I have long thought this hike to be one of the best day hikes in the world. The scenery is unbelievable! Unfortunately, I didn't get to look at it much as the running took almost all of my attention.

I staggered around Curry Village for while, eating and drinking. I wanted to chat with Dave Bengsten of the Yosemite Rock Climbing school but he was never around when I checked and today was no different. Oh well. Dave had sent me great beta a number of chimney routes I was interested in, but we had never met. I headed back towards John's house by 2 p.m. and arrived there a little after 6 p.m. After a shower and some dinner John dropped me at the airport. Arriving at the airport I was met with my obligatory airline disaster: my flight was cancelled. Johnny was kind enough to make a return trip to the airport to pick me up and then return me in the morning at 5:30 a.m. What a guy! And he didn't even get to climb...