Day #48 Cosmic Debris

I agreed to belay Yoshi on his project, a 5.13b classic, a slightly overhanging fingercrack called Cosmic Debris.

We parked at the chapel and walked over to the wall. Yoshi suddenly stopped and pointed to an elegant, grey animal moving silently and stalking its’ prey – it was a bobcat! They are rate!! I was exstatic to see it but the animal didn‘t really care to pose for a photo, it briefly looked at us and went on hunting.

Yoshi proceded to „warm up“ on the same 5.12 route of yesterday…it‘s beyond me how to do that, pulling through incredible hard moves without a proper warm-up. I didn‘t want to follow this time, saving my fingers from the torture.

To get to the second pitch of Cosmic Debris, we had to jumar

up a fixed line Yoshi had already installed. I had to take my backpack with me and wore a down jacket, so it got hot pretty fast – jumaring is exhausting, but then I‘m not sure I’m using the most efficient technique. Sweating and huffing, I arrived at the anchor and looked up – a thin, finger- to hand sized crack winding up on an otherwise featureless wall. 5.13b. Will I ever be strong enough to climb that hard?

Yoshi tied into the rope and worked his way up, placing gear after gear, often pausing and taking a few falls. He did it a second time, in toprope mode, clearing his friends off the route.

My stomach was rumbling – I‘ve only had what I called a carb-bomb, a bagel with peanutbutter for breakfast… so I munched a clifbar and a plum while Yoshi rested. Then we descended quickly and Yoshi took off with his car to Oakhurst to do some grocery shopping.

I decided to go to the library to update my blog. In the afternoon, I refilled my coffee cup at the Lodge without anyone noticing – how convenient 😅 I had another burrito dinner, stacked up on beer and walked to the internet spot a second time – I can‘t keep up with all the stuff that‘s happening. The last two weeks, it seems like, are passing extremely fast.

When I came back to my tent, I found a bag with fresh veggies in my bear locker – thanks, Yoshi. The other guys from the site had a small party but I was so tired, I fell asleep within minutes.