The overnight rain made us feel that the cracks of West
Cracks would be too wet to climb, so we decided to go for the right off the
road, slabby, 6-pitch Zee Tree on Pywiack Dome.
We pulled of the road in front of the Dome and could see water running
from some of the vegetated divots and flakes on the dome. “Let’s go get coffee… then check it out
again.” We returned 30 minutes later to
find it still wet, as we expected would be the case. Since the climb would be in the shade for
several more hours, we decided to find something else. We chose the Guide Cracks area on the South
Flanks of Daff Dome. The short approach,
sunny wall, and low commitment single pitch climbs were perfect since it was
now a bit later in the morning, and rain was still in the forecast for the
afternoon.
After parking in the wrong area, and having to do some
navigating and bushwacking, we found ourselves at the base of the proper
cliff. As Dave prepared to lead the Guide
Crack furthest to the left (5.5), a group of 5 showed up. We knew this was a popular area, so we were
glad we were able to arrive first. Dave
cleaned the climb on his way down, and as Alex led the pitch more and more
people began to arrive. When Alex was
back on the ground, he quickly started up the 5.7 which shared the same
anchor. After Alex followed the climb,
we decided to head out since it was now very crowded with people waiting for
climbs to open. As we packed up, Alex
pulled out 2 apples for us to snack on during our decent. The baby belonging to an Austrian couple we
were chatting with immediately recognized the apples, started pointing and
grasping at them. His mom gave him an apple of his own, and he
sat in the dirt happily smiling, giggling, and chewing on his apple. All was well until he held up his apple showing
it to Alex, and she held up our two.
Apparently this made him very unhappy to see that she had TWO and he had
ONE. He made a very unhappy face at her
before beginning to wail and cry, now displeased with his apple. Of course, this brought teasing of Alex by
Dave and referring to her as the “mean lady.”
We returned to camp to make cheese quesadillas for dinner,
hang a line to “freshen” our clothes, and relax in camp chairs for the
evening. Tomorrow morning, we would wake
up early to head down into the Valley to pick up Doug. Doug flew into Fresno that day, but was going
to see the Ataris’ concert that night and would we taking a YARTS (Yosemite Area
Transportation Authority) bus into the park.
