Learning to Climb ... Again ... on granite cracks

It's been a while since I have written of my adventures, mainly because I have been getting out there relatively less. Mostly because new climbing partners are hard to find. Here in the legendary Yosemite Valley, everyone is a climber, yet they already have their climbing buddy, or they don't have the same days off work as I do, or perhaps they are just too busy with other stuff, like drinking beer (a common Yosemite pastime, especially among climbers, hehe).

Swan Slab - Source: mountainproject.com

Last week I was lucky enough to run into this guy from the bay area named Ryan. Climbing on the slabs at Swan slab by himself, obviously testing out some new climbing shoes just a few feet off the ground, I asked him if he had a climbing harness and wanted to do something a little more exciting. He quickly responded with a "yes" and "yes". As we were about to rope up, I noticed that I didn't have climbing shoes. What a bummer!! We exchanged numbers with the hope that I might get a call to go climbing. As it turns out, the next day, I spotted Ryan around the same spot and we quickly roped up to do the two pitches on Oak Tree Flake rated 5.6. With kind remarks all around, we went for a beer to plan this weeks meeting.

Chouinard Crack on Glacier Point Apron - Source: Supertopo.com, Chris McNamara

Yesterday we tore up the Glacier Point apron by climbing the best 5.8s on the wall, like Harry Daley and the Chouinard Crack. Both excellent, classic Yosemite crack climbing. Also counting our warm up on the Goblet, we put together 6 pitches before noon. Of course, having hardly climbed on real granite and sustained cracks, Ryan led all of the 5.8s which was perfect for me to get some practice in crack climbing.

Today we met again to climb the Five Open Books next to Yosemite Falls via the easy Munginella rated 5.6. I would give it a french rating of 4+ for it's steep finish with big holds. One might consider giving it a V french rating but after all we are in Yosemite Valley and well, lets just say the rating system is quite peculiar.

Yours truly at the first stance on Munginella, Upper Yosemite Falls way up there

The climb produced another great view of Yosemite Valley from the north side about mid-way up Yosemite Falls.