![East Buttress, Middle Cathedral Rock [April 2013]
Flashback of the Epinephrine descent dazzled me as we raced the dying ray to find our first rappel anchor. Looming ahead of us, the Higher Cathedral Rock was soaked in beautiful alpenglow - a sight that struck serenity in our souls but fear in our minds. A shadow was moving up the façade steadily like an inverted hourglass, consuming it mercilessly into the void. We managed to find the bolts minutes before we needed to turn our headlamps on, and rappelled down a wet gully in the dark.
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This may be new to the other guys but I am used it by now, for better or worse.
The East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock was a very enjoyable route, and it was no surprised to earn a spot on the fifty “crowded” classic climbs of America. Despite the traffic jam and heinous descent, I would definitely recommend it. Perhaps I will come back again for some unfinished business, maybe after getting better at face climbing. If you know the route, you will know what I mean.
After making two more raps, we slogged down what appeared to be an bottomless boulder alley. Occasionally I would turn my light off and gazed up the starry sky. It put my mind to ease, and reminded me of why I chose to be here instead of my comfortable bed. Then I would turn around and see three white dots moving in unison, just like the night I spent coming down from Mt. Whitney. Oh good times.
It’s funny how, sometimes, the most memorable part of a route is not the route itself. The stranger whom you shared the first belay ledge with could end up being a life-long friend. Or the moments when you found the courage to overcome your fear and pushed on. There are times when things don’t go as planned but that is what adventure is all about. The key is to stay focused and don’t let your weakness manifest yourself. To an outsider, it may be nothing more than a story over beer and campfire. To me, nothing matters more than the bonds that were strengthened through this ordeal, because we lived through it, together.
Assis coming up the crux pitch on the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock
The incredible view of El Capitan literally across the street
Michael took some pretty cool shot of us from the road, hope he recovers soon and join us in our next [epic] adventure (Arrow is pointing at Parker, looks like I am halfway up the pitch)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/a8371d2da2887b3470a605a6735b462c/tumblr_mjzlrpKQlc1rxrghdo2_r1_1280.jpg)
![We take photos of each other climbing all the time, but what about when we pop off the rock? Assis captured this and I thought it was kind of neat to stitch them together.
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Unfortunately, this also reaffirmed that I can never be a sport climber, I mean, the knobs are so obvious on the traverse of Polymastia that it’s just embarrassing. It was not a whipper by any stretch of imagination but still, falling in general has always been forbidden in my book. Others may argue that if you don’t push yourself all the time, you will never get stronger. That I believe, is a precarious approach to climbing, as it fosters a mentality that favours reliance over control. Is it prudent to trust your life on bolts that someone else installed, without knowing how rusted they are inside? Or the belayer who is too busy checking out some chick, and gave you too much slack at the crux?
Being a trad climber definitely made me more aware of the consequences of my choices, and be able to manage calculated risks in potentially dangerous situations. At the end of the day, climbing is not a race - be patience and be solid at the grade.
Climb safe and have fun!
The crack was so awesome that I was hesitant to go out onto the face (unfortunately going straight up would lead to The Tube with a poorly protected 5.11a crux, so the choice was obvious)
This was the moment when I wished I was taller, I couldn’t reach the bolt unless I commit to the traverse. So Assis helped me finish the rest of the route in good style](http://24.media.tumblr.com/c322472b186738365ddbae9cca883c91/tumblr_mmieo9JK951rxrghdo1_1280.jpg)
![After spending the past many weekends climbing in Yosemite this spring, I realized it is not the rock that made this place memorable. Instead, it was the people who I shared the moment with, either on a rope or around the fire pit. I climbed with many people over the past years and have made a lot of friends that way. Most of them would simply come and go, and some would stick around on my contact list for the occasional trips. But there is only a few who are truly special, for they are the ones who have literally changed my life.
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Besides all that retrospective mumble jumbo, the 2013 climbing season is back in full swing! Some of my friends are still chasing spring corn but all I can say is - “Hurry up and Good Luck!” Nothing feels better than sinking your hands into jam cracks, with the occasional fists, elbow, arm, and even the whole body.
Good times.
View atop of Higher Cathedral Spire after climbing the Regular Route, and said route was, as the Aussie team in front of us puts it, “adventure choss”
It’s a crack, it’s an offwidth, it’s a way to abuse your body to the next level - it was a flailfest on Generator Crack
Me and Vicky spent our rest day sport climbing at Schultz Ridge, there are actually some good sport routes with gear protected sections. Here Vicky is cruising up New Suede Shoes on technical thin face climbing
Knob Job is still my favourite route at Pat & Jack (photo courtesy Assis)
The Cathedral Rocks glowing in the evening. If the descent wasn’t so tedious, I would be there everyday
Chilling out on a sand-bank with Igor and Katarina. I still remember being on the same spot with Sean and Richard almost exactly a year ago… (photo courtesy Mary)
Going Tubing on “The Tube”, supposed to be good training for Moratorium but this felt harder than the crux pitch (photo courtesy Assis)
Reed’s Pinnacle Direct is the obvious splitter in the middle. it’s probably one of the best line I climbed this year. Though I wimped out and bypassed the OW on second pitch, and opted for the Regular Route finish. The famed tunnel through was super cool and scary at the same time!
Vicky has never been to Yosemite before so I took the liberty to drag her onto some fine classic routes in the area, which all seem to involve WIDE stuff
Alexey took me to Arch Rock for some of his favourite routes. Everything we climbed there has WIDE sections (New Dimension, Gripper and Leanie Meanie), I still have a lot to learn.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/04bf798a1c8b4ba44b2f0f395de5250d/tumblr_mlug0q8uug1rxrghdo1_1280.jpg)
![Chasing Snow [March 2013]
It’s another crappy year for skiing in the Sierra. Despite a few good powder runs earlier on in the season, the rest were mildly entertaining. Our trip to Round Top is probably my last for this winter. The weather and the view were great but the snow was lousy - and dangerously thin on some places. That’s right, getting your skis thrashed by rocks was never a enjoyable experience. That’s it for me, looks like the climbing season is going to start a little bit early this year!
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Approaching Round Top, which isn’t round at all at the top
Snow was so bad that we decided to ski down an adjacent gully…
… just to find equally dense sloppy snow. We even had to deploy our shovel and probe to recover someone’s buried ski, which undoubtedly alarmed those who were passing by
It was March, but felt like May weather. My skis before they ran over a lot of rock - at least now I know how to perform base repair](http://25.media.tumblr.com/f53a76807ac6f0fc1bc578c47bbea945/tumblr_mjzqbgDrFr1rxrghdo1_1280.jpg)
![The Promised Land [April 2013]
I met Alexey at the climbing gym a while back, but never got the chance to climb with him outside until this weekend. For him, it would be just another outing at his favourite spot - Yosemite. But for me, it was a privilege to partner with someone who just climbed Rostrum a month ago.
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Being absent from the Valley for half a year, I was keen to lead some moderate routes to warm up for the season. But instead, Alexey led a bunch of stuff and I just followed. Lucky for me, he took me to some of the best free climbs in Yosemite - like Butterballs, Waverly Wafer and Hardd - routes that I would never dream of trying because they are so damn hard. It was definitely humbling to see Alexey crush those incredible pitches while I struggled up the sustained 5.11 fingercracks and off-widths. Despite the difficulty, those were the most amazing climbing I have ever done, and I couldn’t hold back the big smile even though I was flailing all over the place.
This weekend was an eye-opener for me, and while I have already ticked off many of the easy “classics”, I didn’t truly appreciate Yosemite until now. Am I simply not climbing hard enough to find these lines? Sure, a perfect hand size splitter crack is fun to climb, but it is not interesting. A classic line has to be memorable - be it the exposure that demands concentration, or the cruxy sequences that make you think, or the aesthetic movements that involve a variety of styles, or the sustained climbing where every move has to be earned. Here in Yosemite, you have all of that, and I had the opportunity to get a glimpse of it.
If you never push beyond your limit, you would never know the possibilities. That is what Yosemite taught me.
Alexey warming up on Sherrie’s Crack
Itaru exiting the off-width section on Desparate Straight, best route at Pat and Jack with everything from fingers to wild stemming, sandbagged 5.10a
The Cookie Cliff
Alexey starting up Hardd, an action packed 2-pitch route involving chimney, OW, fist, hands, fingers, roof, lieback, airy traverse - it was hard
Catchy, sustained thin hand leads to a reachy move at the end
Belaying Alexey on his project - Tales of Power (5.12b), a very overhanging route that goes from chimney to tight hands to an OW finish
Separate Reality - a project for 2013?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/560eb7c0137e954f748abeca3b3655f6/tumblr_ml0zwzpA121rxrghdo1_1280.jpg)
I met Alexey at the climbing gym a while back, but never got the chance to climb with him outside until this weekend. For him, it would be just another outing at his favourite spot - Yosemite. But for me, it was a privilege to partner with someone who just climbed Rostrum a month ago.
East Buttress, Middle Cathedral Rock [April 2013]
Flashback of the Epinephrine descent dazzled me as we raced the dying ray to find our first rappel anchor. Looming ahead of us, the Higher Cathedral Rock was soaked in beautiful alpenglow - a sight that struck serenity in our souls but fear in our minds. A shadow was moving up the façade steadily like an inverted hourglass, consuming it mercilessly into the void. We managed to find the bolts minutes before we needed to turn our headlamps on, and rappelled down a wet gully in the dark.
![Chasing Ice [March 2013]
Tugged behind the impressive granite walls that surrounded Eagle Creek Canyon, the Sunny Falls offers several short but fun ice climbs. The ice condition was marginal and was gradually deteriorating under the afternoon sun. The pillar on the left looked super cool to climb but unfortunately, part of it has already detached. With spring weather like this, the crag probably won’t last much longer.
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With only two outings this year, it will take me at least another season before I am ready for some easier alpine routes. Eventually I would like to repeat some classic lines in Alaska, like Cassin Ridge and Hams & Eggs. But for now, there are plenty of exploring to do in the Palisade and other parts of the Sierra.
The Quarks are sharpened and ready!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/ab54c89e02c1f6b7901d93fbd622b784/tumblr_mjzn5fFvb51rxrghdo1_1280.jpg)
![Enchanted Rock State Park [March 2013]
When asked about the reason for coming to Austin Texas, most were surprised to learn that I wasn’t there for Sxsw.
“Just plain business trip”, I said, “and a bit of climbing on the side”.
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Being 2 hours drive away, Enchanted Rock is pretty much the only place around Austin for trad. I had my heart set to check out the place, but finding climbing partners in a foreign city could be difficult. But then I thought - how cool would it be to organize a climbing trip through Meetup, and make some new friends along the way!
Sure enough, a dozen people signed up without knowing that me, the “organizer”, is not even a local. And within hours of landing, I was hanging out with a bunch of awesome people and was happily jamming my way up granite walls.
The climbing there reminded me of JTree cracks and Squamish slabs. In fact, most of us have never been there before. We were there for the entire day, sampling everything from tips to OW and straight-in cracks to friction slab. To top it off, we stopped by Cooper’s Old Time Pit at Llano for some authentic Texas all-meat BBQ.
I came back again the next day with Eric, whom I met through erockonline, to climb a bunch of classic lines in the park. Yeah, this place was that good.
Contrary to my stereotype about the Midwest, most of the people here in Austin are actually very friendly (except for those who designed the highways and roads). The vibe is chill and the bars are cool. Hopefully I will be back again for more climbing and of course, the BBQ.
Grass Crack on the left and scary looking OW on the right at Triple Crack Sanctuary
Fear of Flying, a WIDE crack that most mortals on TR would just lieback the crap out of it](http://25.media.tumblr.com/718836fcaf31ab9670866533d7b15c28/tumblr_mjzjdtSqaH1rxrghdo1_1280.jpg)
![Red Lake Peak and Powderhouse [March 2013]
The dry spell that plagued us last season is back with a vengence! With the lack of new snow and the persistently warm weather, I didn’t expect to do much skiing during last week’s cabin trip. I even brought my climbing gears too, but it seemed like I was the only one who has given up.
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In fact, my expectation was so low that I would be happy to just hangout in the hot-tub while everyone else is [probably] skiing on choss and ice. But Saturday was such a nice day that it would be a sin not to at least bag a peak - so a bunch of us skiers went up to Red Lake Peak on Carson Pass. As an added bonus, the summit block had a section of class 3 rock that we scrambled up in our ski boot.
The top was mostly icy, which made skiing somewhat less enjoyable. But we did find pockets of deep dense powder in the trees - it was still hard to make turns in them but whatever, it was good enough for me.
Sunday arrived and so did the rain. We crossed our fingers and headed down to Luther Pass, which is slightly higher up in elevation than Lake Tahoe. Wet fluffy white stuff was falling from the sky while we skinned up the steepish, wooded north slope of Powderhouse. The number of kick-turns we did was obscene, but at least I got tons of practice - even dodging a random skier halfway through a turn!
There was a few inches of new snow sitting on a breakable crust layer, and we stayed mostly below the treeline. It took us a few hours to reach the top but we could not believe how good the snow was. With smiles permanently stuck on our faces, we skied through trees on pristine powder all the way back to the car. Unwilling to remove our gears, we searched hopelessly for the magical chairlift that would take us back to the top. Regardless, I was satisfied with the turns we earned, some of the best one in the season!
Crater Lake and the north bowl of Red Lake Peak
One of the several snow to rock transitions
South ridge of Red Lake Peak
Approaching the “summit block”
An incredibly creepy summit shot
Splitboarder - checked!
Skiers - checked
Meadow at the base of Waterhouse/Powderhouse, gotta love the whiteout](http://24.media.tumblr.com/5ef50ade1774f739706dab51ea8c51d8/tumblr_mja2gsSPAF1rxrghdo1_1280.jpg)
![Spearhead Traverse Attempt [Feb 2013]
Sometimes I can’t tell if I am dreaming or not until fatigue kicks in and reminds me that, really, I am just somewhere in the Spearhead Range
If there is one thing that I learned from this trip, it would be that keeping up with Tom was just as hard as staying ahead of the rapidly deteriorating weather. Don’t be fooled by his somewhat traffic-light inspired outfit, he is a badass skier who takes the backcountry [fine] dining experience very seriously.
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The Spearhead Traverse is a popular ski tour that takes you across 13 glaciers in the Spearhead Range behind Blackcomb and Whistler. With good weather and snow condition, It is possible to complete the traverse in a day if you are fit enough. But a dry season coupled with marginal weather would only make glacier crossings more challenging and time consuming. In the end, we decided to take it easy and spend 3 days on the route. Besides, it just doesn’t do justice to rush through such incredible landscape.
This would be Tom’s 4th time on the traverse so he is quite familiar with the route. We began our tour at the top of Blackcomb Glacier on a gloomy Saturday morning. Visibility was reasonable most of the time except for a moment of whiteout that forced us to stay put below Mt. Trorey. It was an eery feeling to be surrounded by a void that stretched beyond all bounds and directions. Ironically that was the perfect time for us to catch up with each other, for it has been half a year since we last met in Squamish. A brief window of clearing gave us enough time to find a suitable place to camp between Pattison and Trorey.
Getting off the chairlift with a 40lb pack is tricky business
Mount Decker at the back
In this kind of condition, we could be surrounded by man-eating Yeti’s and still don’t know about it
5-Star campsite at the Pattison-Trorey col
Our dinner was gourmet in the backcountry standard - curry rice with lentils and onions, served with freshly toasted naan breads - that’s better than what I sometimes eat at home!
We woke up the next morning to a clear sky, but the rosy forecast was short-lived when shifty looking clouds marched in as uninvited guests. Crevasses on Overlord Glacier looked hungry as hell and the last thing we wanted was to be there in a whiteout. So it was decided that we cut the trip short and turn around. While a bit unfortunate, I was still happy to be treated with a mesmerizing vista of nature’s elegance. I did not go home empty handed.
Mount Macbeth and Fitzsimmons Glacier to the right
More mountains to the west that I cannot name
Skiing down the Tremor Glacier, with Tremor in the background
Skinning across to Pattison in search for a skiiable line
We skied down some sweet untouched powder on Tremor and Trorey Glaciers before the fog fully engulfed us. The ski out involved some tricky route-finding and dicey terrains that gave me a lot of trouble, which ended up slowing us down. Exhausted but alive, we got back to the base of 7th Heaven Chair before dark and in no time, we were happily lining up for a burger at Splitz Grill.
My only regret was that the eggplant and tofu, which got frozen solid overnight, never made their debut as our second night’s dinner. Maybe next time when we meet, it will be dim sum and chow mein in the High Sierra - backcountry steam tray anyone?](http://25.media.tumblr.com/378aa54357ebdaffc6d0d110421ba1e1/tumblr_mirmpbWKjg1rxrghdo1_1280.jpg)
![Lost? Or just waiting for an inspiration?
Yesterday I was inspired, from a person I least expected. Her philosophy echoed the voice in my head - a voice that has been suppressed by fears and doubts. It has been a year since we last met, and I was surprised to see how much she has changed. We shared our ideas on life, death, religion and relationships, conveniently bypassing all the casual topics that are normally expected from an infrequent visitor.
Her ideology was reminiscent of whom I used to be, someone who would embrace changes to seek new frontiers. That stuck me because I envied her and the choices she made - I envied my past. It was a tragic moment when I realized that I may never have the courage to step out of the very hamster wheel that confined humanity.
I am afraid of failure, yet I have lost the love of my life because of my own ignorance. For the past months I was living in regret, but I am glad that there is someone who can spare the time to reignite my dying candle. She simply reminded me that sometimes, giving up certain things in life can only make room for other better things. Life is too short to be indecisive.
A dream will always be a dream until I wake up to do something about it.
[Dec 2012, white-out condition on our way to Castle Peak summit. We set aside our egos and turned around, going back to the safety of civilization]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/cf921bc81f5e51b4b991222b13176818/tumblr_miyu51bgLm1rxrghdo1_r1_1280.jpg)
