I woke up early, packed up, ate the rest of my groceries and put my trash in the last bear-proof bin I‘d see in a while. Then I walked over to the intersection, a cardboard with „Oakland“ on it, in my hand. Soon, a girl chatted me up, suggesting that I come to Mariposa. I …
Author Archives: queerclimb
Day #53 Birthday Climbing
I woke up and found a chocolate bar next to my tent – the Austrian couple left it as a b-day gift – I love small gestures like that and it immediately brought me in a good mood. When I returned from the lodge with coffee in my hand, two sweet girls I had met …
Day #52 Overcoming Fear
Saseen and I took snapshots of sport routes in the guidebook and drove to the crag in his colorful van (every second person I meet lives in a van…). To start off we picked „Pat & Jack“, a wall that features lots of harder technical climbing and routes full of big knobby holds. We did …
Day #51 Meeting the Stars!
Today was the first day of this trip where I could sleep as long as I wanted to. I woke up at 10am and got coffee, went to Curry Village for a shower, relaxed in the lounge and read a lot. My knees and feet could still feel the impact from the big hike the …
Day #50 El Capitan
I had not entirely recovered from the past couple of days‘ climbing but as those were my last four days in Yosemite, I figured I had to hike up to El Capitan. I got up early and started in shade, but soon the sun came out and it wasn‘t friendly. Endless granite switchbacks climbed past …
Day #49 More Cracks!
The morning started with oatmeal, cookies, tea and good coffee – provided by the Austrian couple. I had to extend my campsite for four more days and as it was Sunday, there was free coffee at the ranger kiosk. I had texted Disco, a friendly guy from Michigan, to meet up and see what we …
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 …
Day #47 Climbing with Yoshi from Tokio
As some people left the campsite, I was able to move my tent away from the giant trees that had dripped sticky resin on everything. An Austrian couple settled into the campsite. Over dinner they told me that they had already climbed The Nose 20 years ago! They‘re in their late 50s and still going …
Day #46 Fingerlocks & Handjams
(To my non-climbing friends: this sounds like food items but they‘re crack climbing techniques 😜) The two Germans at my campsite, Benedikt and Sebastian, suggested going climbing together and we picked a shady crag close to the campsite. Two other guys chatted me up too, so for the next days I would have climbing partners …
Day #45 Free Soloing The Nose, Pitch 0.5
I did not want to get up today. But then, lots of things had to be done: shopping for postcards (of course another climbing history book „somehow“ found the way into my shopping bag…), finding faster internet and contact lense solution. I found those in the libary – the sweet librarian Christine gave me the …
Finn Goes West - Hiking & Climbing in the South-Western USA 