Yosemite : Part II

Continuing from Yosemite : Part I

Day 3 --> Tourist Time

Day 3 was our family tourist day. That is, Andy and Violet had to leave that morning, and Roger wasn't coming in til later that evening. (Yes, Roger, the 5th member of our family, was able to rearrange his schedule to also come out and join us!)

It had been raining through the previous night, the grounds were wet, and it was still continuing to rain on and off. So tourist time. We took the kids to Yosemite Village to buy souvenirs at the store, browse the Ansel Adams gallery, learn about Yosemite at the Visitors Center, and did an easy, kid-friendly hike to see lower Yosemite Falls.

Tree just outside of the Village store.

The previous day's rains lead us to discover that the kids rain jackets were not so waterproof anymore. They were okay for water-resistance, but not for being out in pouring rains. After all, they have worn those jackets on all our adventures the past 1-2 years, as well as on rainy days to and from school. Luckily the store had kid-sized, bright yellow rain ponchos.

Gotta say... I think the kids look so cute with their bubbly cheeks sticking out of this bright yellow fluff...

Photo of lower Yosemite falls.

It was a meandering kind of day, and fun to do touristy things. Though we were looking forward for the rains to clear, Roger to arrive, and scoping around for some climbing.

Day 4 --> Camp 4

The rains finally cleared and the sun came out on Day 4. Roger arrived in time for dinner the previous day and set up his new pop-up tent, in the rain, in a jiffy. See tent below. It held up pretty well too.

This morning it was still quite chilly, but starting to warm up from the past few days. I was scrambling the week before our trip to make sure we had to right gear to keep the kids warm. Temperatures dropped down to the upper 30s with the winds and rains. A breathable layer system is the way to go to ensure they can still be active and sweat, but retain body heat and keep out winds and rains. REI had sale on winter gear, so I was able to dress up the kids in Patagonia Thermal-weight Capilenes, Patagonia down jackets, and waterproof pant shells. The rain jackets were the only unexpected malfunction.

Today we went to scope out some of the problems around Camp 4. Yosemite has a long and rich history for rock climbing, esp well-known for the multi-pitch wall climbs such as the Dawn Wall on El Capitan or Half Dome. Bouldering became popular too, esp around Camp 4 where many climbers would situation themselves, warm-up, or wait for weather conditions to clear prior to their big wall climbs. So Camp 4 has a lot of established bouldering routes.

As the afternoon progressed, the sun came out and it even started getting hot. With the heat also came the infamous Yosemite mosquitoes!! Anyhow, here's Ryan on some crimpy, slabby V3.

Ryan working some crimpy, slabby ?? V3 problem @ Camp 4


The kids found these cool looking leaves with artsy details etched onto them. They decided to name whatever bug that ate and created these cool looking leaves as "artist bugs".

Like I said before, Yosemite has a long history in climbing. This time of year there were lots of famous, well-established pro climbers in the area. In Bishop we met Bobbi Bensman. At Camp 4, we encountered Nina Williams. Not much interaction, but we did see her partner working on this V4 which caught our attention as well. Ryan bumped into someone he knew from his climbing gym and our two groups hung out to work on Tendon's Give, which has a V4 route and a V7 variation.

Ryan on Tendons Give, not-the-real-V4 @ Camp 4


Roger on Tendons Give, not-the-real-V4 @ Camp 4


So the guide book is not descriptive enough and the interpretation of how the route actually goes was not quite known. What we thought was the V4 route was what we did in the video above. But it really did feel a tad on the easier side to be V4, and Yosemite is known to have hard ratings, not easy ones.

Roger on 2nd upper, half of what we thought was the V7 of Tendons Give.


We think that the lower portion of the 2nd half of the climb, up to the peak completes the V4. (Roger climbed the upper portion) So all in all, we can only say that we did 1/2 of this climb.

To be continued... Yosemite : Part III

Yosemite : Part l

Day 1 --> Arrival

Campsites at Yosemite are, so I've heard, hard to come by if one does not plan early in advance and register at the exact time that registration opens, which is on the 15th of every month, 5 months in advance to desired camping dates. Needless to say, we are not that organized to plan so far in advance.

So when one of Ryan's climbing friends had a week long reservation that he could only use a part of, we shuffled our schedules so that we could join him and use the rest of the reservation days.. cause, after all, it's YOSEMITE!

I have lots of fond memories of Yosemite.. from my first multi-day, back-packing trip hiking a portion of the John Muir trail from Toulumne Meadows to the Valley... or the time I join my college pals, Christina and Sam, to hike Half Dome. Ryan has many memories there too, climbing routes at the base of El Capitan with Bill, and describing aspects of the climb on Lost Arrow Spire.

The kids' teachers gave us homework assignments for the kids to work on for the week, which I had Emilia work on every morning prior to getting out of the tent. The kids also learned about aspects of Yosemite - how the valley was created through glaciers. How waterfalls are formed; And of course, lessons on bears. Ask them how to differentiate between a black and brown bear, aka grizzly bears. Re-occurring theme was to respect nature and its beauty and force by being responsible humans.

This is the kids first time at seeing waterfalls. (Liam is wearing his secret agent spy glasses.)

This is the Yosemite Valley view as you drive through the Wawona Tunnel, heading into the valley.



It wasn't quite peak season yet, but the huge crowds of cars and people was crazy. Took us 2 hours to get from the tunnel to the valley!

Here at last! A deer hanging in the meadows by Camp Curry (aka most recently re-named as Half Dome Village).

Emilia and Violet became fast friends.

Emilia liked this tree-trunk chair...

And she wanted a photo of this heart-shaped rock...

Our campsite was at Upper Pines Campgrounds, which is a skip and a walk away from Half Dome (aka former Curry) Village. We hung out at the Pavilion quite a lot on this trip. Dinner every night at the Pavilion and the first couple days we hung out there instead of the campsite since it was raining on-off.

The Pavilion bear. It's okay to pet this one.. NOT a real one.

Hanging out with our friends at the campsite... kids having a kiddie glowstick dance party.



Day 2 --> Kids Top-Roping at Camp 4

Weather forecast called for rains the next two days. Luckily it hadn't started yet, so we were able to make our way over to Camp 4 and set up top rope for the kids to climb. Camp 4 is a walk-in only campsite which is situated near a bunch of bouldering problems.

Liam was pretty eager to climb; He went up first and also climbed it twice.

Every one coming down from the down climb.

Around the corner were a bunch of other climbers on different routes. We were going to set up a 2nd top rope for the kids, but the on-off rain showers had begun.

We were able to hang out with Andy and Violet for 2 days before they had to leave. Kids had lots of fun despite the weather. They collected pine cones and branches to create a nature shop. Then they asked us if we wanted to visit their nature shop and charged us 10 cents. This time, they got smart and asked for a real dime.. none of this pretend money anymore. =)

The on-off rain was nice to us. It stopped enough to have a campfire and give the kids some Smores time.

To be continued... Yosemite : Part II

Yosemite!

We are back from a week-long trip to Yosemite.. a last-minute, impromptu decision where opportunity and time requirements fell into place.

Stay tuned...

Imagine

I got this photo from Matt recently. He took this photo as we were leaving the Happy Boulders one evening. I love love love this image because it sums up what it is all about.

It was the end of the day, dusk was creeping as the light started fading. Ryan, Roger, and Emilia stopped at this unique artsy-looking boulder to wait for the rest of the laggers (aka Liam and I) to catch up. The boulder stood tall in the faint glow of the dusk sky with the beauty of the Sierras in the backdrop. It captivates the imagination and wonderment of all that transpired to etch such detail in its formation. Emilia went up to it in her own curiosity, carefully and exploratively felt and climbed up it.

Imagine the amount of time and natural elements and weather that created this. Imagine the human lifetimes and events that have occurred throughout this rock's formation... and imagine, in 15, 20 years.. (ok.. probably sooner than that) when my kids come back here when they are older, and this rock will still be there, with memories, familiarity, of their youth and time that we spent together out here.