Tangerine Trip A2 5.8

so this whole adventrous and RAD climb all started with this email on wednsday morning before I went off to school...



Hi mickey,
Lets scope out the conditions, if there isn't a lot of snow on top I say we get Mickey and CRANK out a no bivy adventure. Bring a small haul bag with a thermos, and a stove, and keep drinking hot brews to stay warm. Zodiac? TT?

I'll just tape my fingers together if I need to, but it is much better.

First adaptive Winter El Cap (though I did an ascent in a Winter storm that started 3 23) technically, but first in Jan, which is cool. There is a 0 % chance of rain for the next 10 days. Mickey can only go on the weekend. I'll send him this e mail.

Go team! Wayne



with waynes stoke and my 3 day weekend coming up in 2 days I begin to feel that I will be suffering from lack of sleep in a very short while. so before I go to school I print off a topo and start examaning it in history, math, english, then came lunch and I called wayne... left a message saying lets do the trip this weekend. he called me back later that day and confirmed we are climbing sunday with a badass named kris!!!!!


so it is saterday and it is 2:00 and I leave for yosemite. as I drive I think about how the pitches will be and the technicle stuff. think about the water and what blocks I want. I get there and try to go to bed but it just is not working, no matter how hard I try I cant go to sleep.

so it is 7:00 AM and its sunday, as I am in my sleeping bag on the bridge looking at the route wayne and kris pull up and the adventure begins!!!!!! we meet and talk about the drive and things then wayne starts off on the approach. me and kris start to put the rack together and take things off and add things on we are getting more and more stoked. soon enough we start the approach and meet wayne at the base. we decided that I do the first 8 pitches and kris will do the next 8. the boys give me the anchor info and how to fix wayne and such then I start. with 15 feet of free climbing done and 1 bolt clipped my shoulders already hurt :) I get done with P1 and set up the belay and start off on pitch 2 as wayne Jugs and kris cleans. after the first 3 pitches and a couple cluster f*#ks thanks to me I start off on pitch 4 and it is a very easy pitch because of the fixed gear. I get to the roof and start lowering and doing penji's to the anchor. it is now dark and it begins to get very calm and a bit colder. I start P5 which was the hands down best pitch for me, super fun and very splitter towards the end. I eventually get done with P.7 and I begged kris to let me start jugging and start the belay job rather then being a rope gun and he has no problem with it. as we get higher and higher and wayne gets free hanging ropes after free hanging ropes we get more and more tired. kris was still killing it all the way to the top and we reached the top 1 hour after sunset on monday. we sleep on the ledge 100 feet from the top because it is shelterd from the wind. I sleep in my haulbag and all of us are reasonable warm. the next day we get up and jug the lines we fixed to the tippy top the day before and I call me buddy joe marley and mom and even good ol jaysen henderson... telling them that we have made it and had a blast doing so. we start packen the bags for the descent as wayne heads down. soon enough we make the rappels and pleased to find 3 new ropes of thin diamater rather then 3 old 11mm static ropes from hell!!!! I get down first and find a gri gri 2 at the base (BOOTY!!!!) and head down to the parking lot, put the pig in a box and hitch a ride to the bridge!!! drive back and start organizing gear. soon enough kris shows up and about 3 hours later wayne is with us as well. we drive back to bridge and go our separate ways, wayne and kris back to washington and me to SLO.

[Click to View YouTube Video]
[Click to View YouTube Video]

this trip was rad and a really great learning experince. I learned how to climb with an adaptive climber and kris tought me some really cool tricks to clean, lead, and short fix. it is hard to call a winter ascent but none the less it was in january. I thank wayne and kris for letting me come along on this push.

it ended up to be about 34 hours but, what is time?????!!!!!!