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Made a trip out to Yosemite National Park with Eric Shafer to do some alpine multipitch climbing. For such a short trip, we had some pretty big objectives. The plan was: Day 1 - do a warmup climb of Cathedral Peak, an easy route that is 5-6 pitches long and is fairly accessible. Day 2 - Climb the Matthes Crest traverse, a mile long ridge traverse with 6 technical pitches of climbing, its a long traverse and long hike in/out, it would be an all day affair. Then, on Day 3 - if everything had gone well so far and we were feeling good, we'd go for the Snake Dike route on Half Dome which is also a full day climb with a long approach. Then we'd have to drive back to Reno that night and fly out the next morning.

So...things didn't quite go as planned.

Day 1
- The weather forecast wasn't looking very promising with thunderstorms that were supposed to move in early afternoon. We made the hike to Cathedral Peak and saw many puffy white clouds around when we arrived at the base. Knowing that about half way up the route you can bail off by doing two rappels, we decided to start climbing and see what happened with the weather. We climbed three fun and easy pitches in mostly sunny weather. There were a lot of other parties on the route so there were some bottlenecks and we had to do some variations to pass a slower party. We got up to a ledge just below the popular chimney pitch. This was the spot where we had to decide whether to continue climbing or move right along the ledge and rappel down to the ground. As Eric joined me on the ledge, we saw dark clouds move in closer and heard thunder nearby. We decided it would probably be best to bail. Another party of three climbers came up behind us and had at first decided to continue climbing, but eventually decided to also bail. Eric and I setup the rappel anchors, leaving just a piece of cord and a backup sling for the first rap down to a tree. There were plenty of slings and webbing around the tree for the second rap. As soon as we were down on the ground it had started to rain and thunder. It was definitely a good decision to bail. It rained pretty hard on the hike out, but eventually cleared up by the time we got back to the car. The weather forecast for the following day did not look any better with afternoon thunderstorms coming in again possibly even earlier. We figured that trying to do the Matthes Crest traverse would probably be a bad idea since we would most definitely get hit by the storm and have to bail off. Instead, we decided we would get up early, head back to Cathedral Peak and try to finish it up before the storms came in. We were already familiar with the approach and first few pitches of the route so we would be able to move quickly.

Day 2
- We woke up around 4am and were probably on the trail around 5:15am while it was still dark out. The hike was pretty pleasant with as the sun came up and we turned off our headlamps. When we got to the base of Cathedral, there were 2 climbers just finishing up the first pitch and no one else around. Above, there were a few light clouds but no storm clouds nearby. Just like the day before, the mosquitoes were absolutely terrible at the base of the route. With my 70m rope, I was able to make it up to the chimney ledge in just two pitches this time. We did another weather assessment. This time there were blue skies around us and dark clouds out in the distance. It seemed like we should have plenty of time to continue up and finish the route. I started up the chimney pitch. Because it was a tight squeeze, I had to climb with my backpack hanging from my harness on a sling below. It was a pretty fun section with a small crack inside of the chimney to place protection. I continued on to the next good place to stop and build an anchor. Once I got my anchors set and started belaying Eric up, I looked up to see dark clouds above and hail coming down. Crap. The storm had either moved in super quick, or it came in from behind the peak where we couldn't see it. I watched the little bits of hail bounce off the rock and tap against my helmet thinking "as long as it doesn't rain, it'll be okay...". Minutes later it began to rain. When Eric got up to me I put on my rain shell and started re-racking gear and looked up at the next pitch. Normally I would have climbed straight up an easy knobby face, but it looked runout and because the rock was pretty much soaking wet by this point, I didn't want to risk it. To the left of it was a dihedral crack that I could have protected okay, but again wasn't my first choice given the wet rock. Instead I chose a variation that went left that looked a bit easier and less steep. Before I set out on lead, I asked Eric if he wanted to put his jacket on before I started since I wasn't sure how long the next pitch would take. He thought about it for a second then decided not to since it was buried at the bottom of his pack. With the storm above us, we both had a sense of urgency, so I didn't question him anymore.

The first move of the next pitch was pretty intimidating and tough for me to commit to. To get started I had to do a layback while smearing against the wet rock and it took me a bit to finally go for it. Once I made the move I made my way up trying to find the best path to get us up and over. I wandered right then left which made for issues with rope drag and eventually had to stop at an awkward spot and build anchors. It was a pretty uncomfortable stance for me as I belayed Eric. Since I had stopped moving, the cold began to sink in and I soon began shivering uncontrollably as the rain and wind continued to rob me of any warmth I had left. Luckily, I still had another insulating layer in my pack that I could put on under my rain shell once Eric got up to me. Suddenly, I heard a scream and the rope slipped through the belay device for a split second before I locked it off, Eric had taken a fall. He was still out of sight so I called out to him and he indicated that he was okay. It was a nerve-racking situation and luckily he only sustained some cuts and scrapes on his leg. Soon he was climbing again and came into sight and stopped just below my stance. Since I was still cold and shivering and really REALLY wanted to get my other layer on, I told him not to stop and to keep climbing up to me. As he got up to me, I saw that he was still in his t-shirt and shorts and was shivering so much that he could hardly clip into the anchors. I realized that he was in way worse condition than I was and needed to get layers on immediately as he was probably near hypothermic. I helped clip him into the anchors and then took his pack off and helped him get his jacket and hat on. He then hunched over with his hands tucked under his arms trying to warm up. We were still getting battered by the wind and rain, and the ledge we were on was way too small and uncomfortable for two people. I spotted an alcove with a nice flat area that would be partially sheltered from the wind about 10ft down and to the left. After some hesitance, I pretty much made Eric get back on his feet and down climb to the alcove as I kept him on belay. Once he was down, I climbed down too and immediately got my second layer on. Then, as Eric was doing pushups and other calesthenics to warm up, I pulled out my wet, torn up, photocopy of the topo map of the route to try to find out where to go next. I thought I had seen a possible escape off the route to the left, however, I was mistaken and there was nothing mentioned in the route description. Looking down from where we were, there were a series of ledges leading down for a ways, but with the fog I couldn't tell if taking that path would get us down to the ground. We decided it was too risky to take the chance since we could get cliffed out and gotten stuck in a precarious spot. The only way off this rock was to continue up, we couldn't be far from the top. By this point, we were hearing multiple lightning strikes insanely close by. Still cold, wet and shivering I prepared for the next pitch. I could tell that climbing out of the alcove was going to be tough with a 15ft section of offwidth crack. Eric was looking a lot better now that he was getting warm. I plugged a few cams in and pulled on a couple of them before I could get a decent fist jam to make my way up. Eventually I made it up to a ridge to the left of the summit and found a notch that would get us to the backside where we could descend. Once we made it up and over the top, the weather began to let up. The wind and rain got lighter and eventually stopped, leaving an overcast sky above with blue skies out in the distance. Once we were off of the SE Buttress and safely on the backside of the peak and out of storm, we took a nice long break to rest and assess what the heck had just happened. Eventually, we made our way down and did the hike out as the weather continued to improve. That night we drove to the valley were I had reserved a canvas tent at Curry Village.

Day 3
- This was to be the day we climbed the Snake Dike route on Half Dome. Needless to say, we were still pretty thrashed from the events of the day before. We instead slept in, grabbed some breakfast buffet at the cafeteria and then did some touristy sightseeing in the valley. It was a huge contrast in the valley (from the meadows) with crowds of tourists everywhere. We hiked up to the base of El Capitan and looked up in awe at the massive 3000ft granite walls. This late into summer, we didn't spot any climbers. Later on, we drove back to the meadows and before leaving the park we climbed/scrambled up the gentle, slabby Pothole dome which gave us some nice views of the peaks in the distance as well as the lush green meadows surrounding us. We met a couple of climbers who had just finished climbing Cathedral Peak that day and had just made it to the top before another large storm moved in and soaked all their gear. Lucky for them, they were staying the rest of the week when the storms were supposed to subside and give them a nice window of clear, sunny, days for their attempt on Matthes Crest. Then, we drove out of the park and back to Reno where we would stay the night before flying out the next morning. It wasn't until we got to the hotel that we heard from the parking attendant that a girl had died on Half Dome the day before. We were looking it up online as soon as we got to our room. We spent the rest of the night in the casino where Eric was teaching me how to play Craps.