Pushing softly and liking it!

Gas fill-up: $30.00 Morning coffee: $1.00 Restroom pitstop: $.25 Shoving your fingers in a perfect crack: Priceless.

The Thanksgiving turkey was still working its magic saturday morning at 4:15 am as Elizabeth and I debated our departure to Yosemite Valley. We knew we had made the right decision as we drove into the park a few hours later (Evo would be proud). The sun yet rising, temperatures still low, and our anxious bodies ready to hit The Grack, we were sure it was worth the early rise. Hell, Yosemite was practically on the way home from the Bay Area!

We pulled into the valley around 8 and after a short poopytzeit (nicht zussamen) and some coffee at Curry Village, we headed out to the Grack. Upon arriving at the base, we stripped off some layers and cruised up three pitches of nice low angle cracks. When we topped out on the climb Elizabeth summarized it pretty well (paraphrasing): “That was a nice hike, but when do we start climbing?”. After striking a glorious 5.6 pullharder summit pose, we rapped down and headed to the five open books.

It turns out that the lack of people on the Grack, one of the more popular moderates in the valley, was not an indication of the rest of the valley. We arrived at the Five Open Books area looking to do the slightly harder Cavern to find a party of 3 gumbies on it. It turns out every dihedral on that cliff had people on it. Slightly annoyed, we headed back down and made our way to Church Bowl, where Shay climbed Bishop’s Terrace, a fun 5.8 that was made more serious than it should have been by the lack of bigger cams on the rack.