July 4th Part 1. Third Pillar Of Dana

We got up early on the fourth and climbed the Third Pillar of Dana 5.10b. Its a long hike in with a couple thousand feet elevation gain. You leave the road and hike up to this huge plateau.  The hike is absolutely beautiful. It follows the creek then splits off and heads right to the edge the plateau , where you head down a 3rd class ledge right to the base. The climbing is amazing on beautiful white alpine granite with a perfect topout right back onto the top of the plateau.

 Heading up the talus slop to the plateau. 

 Looking across about half the plateau at Mt. Dana.

 Could you ask for a better sunrise view?

 The Third Pillar from the base.

 Traversing to the second pitch anchor. 

The view from the route looking back east toward Mono Lake and the East Side. 

Krystina climbing behind the big flake on the third pitch. 

 Looking down the whole route to the talus from the summit.

Krystina climbing the 5th pitch cracks.

 Making the reach on the 5th pitch.

 The final ledges

So, This was a great route but even more than that it was a perfect day out. The climb went great and we both had a really good time. 

The 4th of July Part 2

On the evening of the fourth we went down to the valley for a DNC 4th thingy that Andrew was running. It was seriously boring, the talent was not very talented this year. 

Wind leveled trees in the Meadows.

 Kaylee and the hat thief.

The Morning of the 5th Ron came down and told us that a bear had visited. Apparently the bear had walked in and couldn't figure out how to get back out. It dumped 4 times in all corners of the lot. Think it was scared.... Maybe just too many apples.

Those are size 13s... 1 of 4. Plastic and apples. 

The 9,000Ft Bivy.

On July 3rd we climbed the Direct Northwest Face of Lembert dome. It's a great 3 pitch 5.10c up a nice crack system. 

 While in the meadows we bivied at a great spot heading off the pass toward Lee Vining. We spent several nights over the past two weeks there. The first night there were 15 cars in the parking lot. The last couple nights there were only 3 or so. 

 The view from our kitchen.

 This guy was way too cute. We saw him and heard him chirping from the other side of the parking lot and thought he was some screwed up squirrel. Turned out to be an adorable baby Marmot.

 The view from the bedroom. 

 Sunset on the 3rd.

 Betsy in the kitchen with Krystina.

Sunrise Mountain and Clouds Rest Backpacking.

We are trying to tick things off our list that we've wanted to do the past 4 years. Krystina had always wanted to see Clouds Rest and Sunrise so we went on what was supposed to be a two night backpacking trip but turned out to be a one night deal. Turns out that hiking with the wife is way better then guiding; we cruised. We left at noon and hiked to Sunrise and camped on top of Sunrise Mountain. We had planned to bivy on top of Clouds Rest the second night but made it there from Sunrise in 2.5 hours. We decided not to sit on top for the rest of the day and hiked out to the meadows and the car. 

 Cathedral Peak

 Learning to use a map and compass.

 The park had a huge wind storm this past winter that flattened hundreds of trees like an avalanche had passed through. 

 The view from our campsite.

Our next destination.

 A beautiful Sunset

 We woke up made some coffee, hung out and then started breakfast about 9. The mosquitos got so bad that we had all our rain gear on and were so miserable that we packed up quickly and ate while walking down the trail.

Clouds Rest

 The marmots (high altitude groundhogs) are one animal that always seems to enjoy the view as much as humans. They are always sitting or standing looking at the view. Well, when they aren't digging through someones pack.

What a great trip.