Yosemite adventure with Eliza and Nate - Day 1

For ten years I've known that my cousin Eliza lives in Yosemite with her husband, Nate, a professional Yosemite climbing guide. For ten years, I've thought I need to go out there for a few days, to the birthplace of rock climbing in the USA, to climb with the two of them. In that time, we've each started families (we both have two kids), I've gotten stronger, and we've all gotten older. Each year I would ask myself, "should I go to Yosemite this year?" And the answer was always the same: "No, you don't have time. You can't leave the kids for that long. You can't leave your wife for that long. You can't take that much time off from work..." Well, this year I turned 40. And I decided that I shouldn't keep putting off this opportunity forever. This is the year I decided that, no matter what, I would make that trip to climb in Yosemite. And today was the day that trip started.

I left the house at 6:15 in the morning. After flying to SFO, I made the 4 hour drive to their house.

Arriving in Yosemite around 3:30 PM PDT, there was still time to get in a few routes!!! Eliza drove me 15 minutes into the park, Nate met us in the parking lot, and after a very short approach (2 minutes???) we arrived at a granite wall split by several moderate cracks. Eliza led the first one, a straightforward crack climb called Knob Job (5.10b). She made it look easy, but after following her, I was glad she had done the lead for me as I warmed up on the sharp granite in this beautiful valley. The rock seems super solid, but it also seems ready to cut up the backs of your hands if you don't jam them into the cracks just right! Tomorrow I'll use some crack climbing gloves we've borrowed from a neighbor. The crux on this climb was a thin, flaring finger crack near the top. I believe if I had followed this crack, the climb would have felt like 5.11+. But Eliza clued me in that there was a big, long flake to grab onto out right, which turned the move into a moderate lay-back.

Here I am, trying to learn good crack technique. I have a lot more work to do!!! Nate has promised to teach me good crack climbing skills as well as to give me some pointers for fast multi-pitch belay transitions.

Kenton struggles to practice good crack climbing techniques on Knob Job.

For a more casual first lead, I put up Nurdle (5.8), a fun and relaxing route which meandered between crack climbing and face moves. With that short but exciting start to my week of adventure, we called it quits for the day.

Nate smiles for the camera during our short descent from the Pat and Jack Pinnacle.