Power Dome - Hannaramic

It was Wesley's last weekend in California before, so we wanted to climb something big. With all the fires and smoke, going to Courtright Reservoir seemed like our best bet. We headed out at the crack of dawn, and set our sights on climbing Power Dome, am impressive 700 foot tall steep slab. I have actually never climbed it before, so I was psyched to give a go.

As we racked up in the parking lot, we were joined by Dave Fries and Paul, local Fresno climbers who were holding their annual climbing festival.  

We followed them, and rappelled into the gorge which gets you to the base of Power Dome

Paul and Dave -- into the gorge!!

 

Approach slabs

We had planned to climb the classic "A little Nukey", but Dave and Paul also wanted to climb it.

Dave leading "A Little Nukey"

 I also had in the back of my mind another route - Hannaramic, a sustained 5.10 route nearby. So we launched up it instead. Wesley took a good couple cracks at leading the very tough first pitch, but being new to run-out slab opted to make a strategic retreat. Me, being a slab-o-phile, took the lead for the whole climb. The route was excellent, sustained difficult 5.10 slab climbing ... sooo much fun!

Wes making a good effort on the tricky featureless first pitch

 

Are there holds here?

Having fun!

We pretty much kept pace with Dave and Paul, so were climbing side-by-side the entire time. Pretty fun to have casual chats with other climbers at a nearby belay and snap pictures of each other!

Dave and Paul on "A Little Nukey"

 

Me and Wes

We topped out, - high fives all around! Dave and Paul invited us back to their campsite for some excellent home brew! How gracious of them!

Victory!

 It was great climbing with Wesley, hopefully I will meet up with again some year.
 

Crest Creek Crags - Vancouver Island

After a highly successful x-ray data collection at the University of Victoria, Teresa and I headed up to the center of Vancouver Island to spend a couple of days climbing at Crest Creek Crags in the lovely Starthcona provincial park. It was really fun to go back there, as its one of the places I first stared sport climbing back in the early 2000s. 

Its great, with over 150 routes, many of them in the 5.10 range. There is a nice mixture of sport and gear protected routes, and an excellent manicured trail system, reminiscent of Smith Rock.

Approaching the crags in the woods. Nice and shady!

Signs pointing to the various crags. Luxury!

Teresa cleans a sport route

We did a ton of climbing, about 3 days. We climbed a ton of enjoyable routes on perfect basalt. A very mellow and relaxing place to climb! We stayed in the village of Gold River, a quaint and quiet place to stay. In addition to the climbing we also explored the town's water front and did a bit of hiking at Strathcona Provincial Park. 

One of my favorite little towns on the island

Gold River waterfront

ok

Didn't really see that many flowers, but it was a grunt up to the ridge!

Hiking

A very calm Buttle Lake

Sequoia - Sillliman point

I met up with a visiting climber from West Virginia names Wesley Neil for some adventure climbing in Sequoia. He was visiting his girlfriend who works at the lodge and wanted to stay in the park. Since Moro Rock was too hot, this was a perfect change to finally convince (i.e. trick) someone into climbing Silliman Point.

Silliman Point

 Silliman point is a rock formation at the head of the Mt Silliman cirque. It involves about 4 miles of hiking, some serious bush whacking and ~3000' of elevation gain to reach the base of the rock. The point itself is about 800 feet tall and only has a single recorded route - West Recess (II, 5.7, FA Skip Gaynard, 1973). I met up with Neil and we headed up for a day of melllo adventure climbing. 

The route is about 7 pitches ( 5 of real climbing and 2 of scrambling) up a chimney and crack system.

Silliman Point - route takes the crack system to the right

 I led the first pitch and then gave Wesley the "awesome" chimney pitch above. The climbing was easy, a bit dirty but very well protected. It was only Neil's second multi-pitch, so was  a perfect introduction to adventure climbing.

Wesley gets ready to head up the chimney

 I took over the lead for the rest of climb, which was the most part easy, slabby cracks. A pitch of easy cracks then we pulled up a chicken head covered pitch to a narrow ridge. Fun!

gear belay

 

Wesley coming up pitch 4

Pitch 5 was very enjoyable, a 5.7 corner crack system. Fun!

Wesley belays

 

Me heading up the corner-crack system

After pitch 5 we reached the ridge to the summit. From there we put the rope away and scrambled up the last few hundred feet of 3rd class to the top

End of the technical section

 We enjoyed the summit views for a while before beginning the walk off packs our packs at the base. 

Wesley, chillin on the summit

 

Flower filled meadow on the way down

 Super fun climb! There is a lot of new route potential on the formation and nearby, but maybe I shoudl keep that beta to myself!

 Wesley was a great guy to climb with, strong and super positive. Hopefully I'll get to climb with him again someday!

Sport climbing and swimming - Shuteye ridge

Full on summer has arrived, with temperatures in the triple digits its time for lazy man trips to the mountains. We headed up for 3 days of "climbing" in Shuteye ridge. Even at the high elevation of 7,000'+ its still smoking hot in the sun, which makes getting up the motivation to climb difficult!

Climbing trip?

Teresa, Michael and I spent 3 days camped out near Lost Eagle. We climbed twice at Lost Eagle and once in the Chilkoot lake area. With the heat we only climbed a handful of routes, but they were all good ones! Michael and I flashed a difficult 5.10c slab route and we made several cracks at sending the route "Afterglow" (5.11b), neither of us sent it clean on lead, but Michael came close (not so much me!)

My attempt on Afterglow

After the tricky parts

 

Michael climbing it with better style than me!

We also checked out the swimming hole wall. Climbed a couple of nice routes there, and did a bunch of swimming and lounging by the river. 

Swimming hole wall

a swimming hole

We climbed a couple of routes at Chilkoot Lake and We also some moderate slabs on the apron at Lost Eagle. We shared the shade with a large friendly group of climbers visiting from San Diego. 

Slab climbing

Some dude from San Diego. Nice guy!

And then of course, more time at the swimming holes!

Cool swimming holes

Michael enjoying the water!

Teresa swimming in the deeper pool

Fun weekend! Lost Eagle goes into the shade in the late afternoon, there are plenty of routes there to check out. We will have to go back for some climbing in the future (maybe with less swimming?)