Running in Central Park

Amy and I were in New York City this weekend. We went to see two Broadway shows yesterday, and by this morning I hadn't had a chance to do any exercise since Thursday night's trip to the climbing gym. I really wanted to get in a long run, and I thought that a few hours of shuffling around in Central Park would fit the bill perfectly. Leaving the hotel on 48th Street a bit before 7 AM, I made my way north the ten or so blocks between me and the southern end of the park.

I started my run on the main road that circles the entire park. After a few minutes I was surprised by the sound of whistles blown near an intersection. Apparently there was a small bike race going on this morning, and the whistles were a way of signaling all of us to watch out and get out of the way.

Halfway through the trip north I got off the road and onto one of the side paths. I never realized how many small paths cut through the Park. For a few minutes I was all alone, running past a small waterfall, with a quiet portion of New York City all to myself. Turning around and coming back south, I found myself on the "Bridle Path", a broad path covered mostly with crushed stone. The surface reminded me of the old-school tracks we used to run on in high school before the fancier new rubber surfaces became popular. Here and there I dodged small piles of manure left behind by horses which were nowhere to be seen this early in the morning.

Having returned to the southernmost end, I circled around and did it all over again before heading back onto the streets and back to the hotel. At just over 14 miles, it was an invigorating end to our weekend trip.

A view of the skyline from Central Park 

Yosemite adventure with Eliza and Nate - Day 5 - Lost Arrow Spire

Yosemite Falls (center) and  Lost Arrow Spire (far right)

Saturday had arrived, the last day of my big adventure. We had prepared all of our gear, food, water, and other supplies the night before. Nate had instructed me on the basics of using Jumars and stirrups to ascend a rope (not as easy as I might have imagined!). I had been careful to go to bed early. This was going to be an epic day, the first day I would aid climb, and we were planning to do a real classic, with a super-long approach: an ascent of the Lost Arrow Spire Tip and rigging the Tyrolean traverse back to the main wall. Not only that, but Eliza was also planning to bring up about 10 ten-year-old girls and some of their parents later in the day, to zipline across the Tyrolean that Nate and I we would rig. The alarm rang at 2:30 AM - we needed to get an early start to ensure that the Tyrolean would be rigged by the time the larger party arrived. By 3:30 AM we were parked in a lot near Camp 4 and had started our ascent up the Yosemite Falls Trail. To the top of the falls and a point just across from the Lost Arrow Spire would be about a 4.2 mile hike up a seemingly endless series of switchbacks, a bridge, and some steep slabs. We did it in just over two hours, despite the long (100 m?), thick (12 mm) and heavy rope in my pack. On the way up we were treated to spectacular views of the valley before sunrise. We also hiked through an area which was filled with a constant mist, almost like rain, from the falls which could be heard thundering nearby, and which we crossed over using a sturdy bridge near the top. The stars were out, as clear and bright as could be, something I always miss back in Atlanta. And we had the trail to ourselves given our alpine start. This hike was one of the best parts of the entire experience.

Half Dome silhouettes sunrise in Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Creek viewed from the bridge above the Falls. Sentinel Rock is in the background.

Unfortunately, I personally had not fully prepared for the conditions we encountered at the top of the hike. Anticipating a day in the sun similar to the ones I had already experienced, I was wearing only my climbing pants and a t-shirt. This had been plenty for the temperatures in the parking lot and on the hike itself, but it wasn't enough for the lower temperatures and stiff breeze we were surprised by at the summit. Already a bit wet from perspiration and moistened further by the mist through which we had traveled, I rapidly began to lose body heat as a chilly wind that must have been at least 25 MPH roared down the slope. Luckily for me, Nate had brought just enough layers for me to borrow a lightweight long-sleeve shirt. How about that for excellent guiding instincts? Nevertheless, we both felt a strong urge to get off the peak and into the notch below, where we hoped weather conditions would be more favorable. Nate swiftly rigged a rappel using the long static rope we had brought for the Tyrolean and made his way down to the base of the notch. I huddled behind a small rock with my teeth chattering, shivering all over, waiting until I could descend after him. It was an airy rappel, heading first downwards and then swinging over to the ledge where Nate held the ends of the rappel lines for me.

Route description and topo map for Lost Arrow Spire Tip. We rappelled from the tree at top right to the belay at bottom left, climbed the spire, and ascended/traversed the tagline back up to the tree to finish the Tyrolean.

Once anchored at the first belay, Nate led off up the 5.10d starting pitch. When he got to the bolts at the second belay, he pulled up the extra slack and tied my line into the anchor, a technique know as "short-fixing" the pitch (remember, I didn't know anything about aid climbing until the previous evening!!!). Honestly, I remember very little about the rock features I encountered here, because I was so consumed with learning how to ascend the rope with the Jumars. Using one Jumar to pull up with my right hand, a Grigri to pull with the left, and my feet to scramble on the wall, I made steady (if inefficient!) progress upwards. Reaching the second set of anchors, I put Nate on belay and watched as he worked his way up the aid wall. In a little while he had reached the summit and fixed the rope again. I worked my way left across the ledge, cleaning gear as I went, careful not to swing too hard into any corner as I detached the rope from various quickdraws and slings. Halfway up the final wall I encountered gear I had never seen before: narrow wires attached to rivets, sufficient perhaps to hold body weight, but not much more. These are apparently a common piece of gear in aid climbing. At this point I also took a brief pause to snap a selfie from above. Man, did I need to concentrate hard on not dropping that phone!

Kenton hanging by a (11 mm!!!) thread off the top of the Lost Arrow Spire

A bit more jugging, grunting, and heavy breathing brought me to the top of the spire where Nate sat waiting patiently. This was another opportunity for some priceless photos.

Nate rigging gear atop Lost Arrow Spire

Kenton atop Lost Arrow Spire with Yosemite Falls in the background

Kenton atop Lost Arrow Spire

Nate attached the long, static line (that we had rappelled down originally) to this new anchor atop the pillar, I clipped onto it with a sling like a zipline, and I used the Jumars and Grigri for a final push back to the tree on the main wall. Nate laughed at me when he saw how I was trying to make progress, cluing me in that this final push would take a lot longer if I didn't use the (somehow difficult to figure out) stirrups which dangled from my harness. Heeding his advice, my ascent was soon complete, and I took off my harness to relax while I waited for Nate to join me. By 9 AM he had finished rigging the Tyrolean, and we could chill out while we waited for the rest of the group to hike up and join us.

As I sat with my head resting on a Boulder, glad that the wind had died down and that the temperature was rising, I noticed what looked like large white birds soaring far below. It took me a little while to realize that these were actually hang gliders, who were jumping off a nearby peak and landing in an open field in the center of the valley! I also noticed the same swift birds I had seen a day earlier. Soon I felt some strong hunger pangs coming on, and ate an early first lunch (second breakfast?). In general I was starving that entire day, presumably because the hikes (both that day and the day previous) had me burning serious calories.

Around 9:30 (sooner than I had expected), the group of girls showed up. I pretty much just sat back and watched as Nate and some of the other parents carefully clipped each of them in turn to the Tyrolean line and lowered them out onto the traverse line. This seemed pretty easy, at least from a physical standpoint, and I felt as if it was over too soon.

One of the girls being lowered along the Tyrolean traverse to join friends on top of Lost Arrow Spire

Several of the girls (and a parent) atop Lost Arrow Spire

When everyone had been lowered across, we began the far more arduous process of bringing them back over to us. This was an uphill process. For the young girls, we got away with redirecting the towline through a pully with a ratchet (a Petzl Traxion?) and cooperating in groups of three to do the necessary pulling. For the heavier folks (two of the dads), we had to rig a 3:1 pully system to reduce the required pulling force. By early afternoon, everyone was back together, and we relaxed in the shade of a tree for a while, almost napping, before we began the hike back down.

What struck me the most on the walk back to the parking lot was how crowded the trail had become. Whereas Nate and I hadn't seen another soul when we hiked up at 3 AM, the path might as well have been a highway filled with people at 3 PM. It became easy to understand why Yosemite has such a problem with erosion on some of its paths. The views also looked entirely different with the sun high above than they had in the pale light of sunrise. Back to the car around 4:30 PM, I snapped a few final shots of the spire and the falls from below. What an unforgettable end to this incredible week!

Close-up of Lost Arrow Spire

Yosemite adventure with Eliza and Nate - Day 4 - Higher Cathedral Spire with Margaret

Lower and Higher Cathedral Spires

This has been such an active trip that I haven't had the time or energy for my last two blog posts until this morning! On Friday both my hosts were busy with work, but Eliza is so popular around here that she easily managed to round up another climbing partner for me. We decided to climb Higher Cathedral Spire's Regular Route (5.9), which Eliza had recommended the previous evening. This route features a rather long approach from a parking area across the valley from El Cap, two peaks down from Middle Cathedral Rock (which I had climbed two days before with Nate and Eliza). It turns out that Margaret, my partner for the day, is from Marietta, GA, just a few exits up the highway from where I live now, and that she came to Yosemite a few years ago. As we walked up to the trailhead we were joined by three other guys who, we quickly figured out, were also from the Atlanta area. What a coincidence! Not wanting to become stuck climbing behind a (presumably) slower party of three, Margaret and I put our legs into high gear on the approach trail, a steep path winding its way through both forest and talus fields. Our fast pace turned this already steep ascent into a serious enduro-fest. I guess that makes up for my lack of running all week. But the three guys behind us managed to stay with us for a long while, so we had to try to go even faster! We lost the trail a few times but finally came to the base of the climb, breathing hard but ready to climb. The three southern boys were only a short way behind us, but it turned out that we hadn't needed to hike so fast after all. They happily agreed that we should go first, as they would definitely be the slower party; they had just wanted to follow us, because they were concerned they might get lost on the approach! In the end, there was already another party starting up the climb when we arrived, but these two were moving quickly enough that they didn't slow us down by more than a few minutes.

Topo map of Higher Cathedral Spire's Regular Route

I was certainly a bit nervous about this 5.9 climb, especially given the spanking I felt I had received the previous day on an "easier" 5.8. But Margaret had assured me earlier that she would be willing to lead any of the pitches that I felt uncomfortable leading myself, and the guidebook seemed to indicate that the climb had a bit less crack climbing and a bit more face climbing than the typical Yosemite route. We decided that I would lead the easy 5.6 first pitch and the 5.9 third pitch, and she would lead pitches two and four. After waiting for the previous party to finish up, I set off up a gently sloping ramp and left-facing corner system, then traversed left and up some more to belay at a tree. This pitch was relatively casual.

Margaret at the first belay

Kenton at the first belay

Margaret led the second pitch, which went up about 15 feet, then traversed left around a bulge with a horizontal finger-crack/undercling to easier climbing above. This pitch finished at another tree belay. I then started leading the third pitch, which followed a bulging pillar for a while before traversing left into a rotten orange chimney. Here there were two variations I could have followed, either climbing left around the bulge and then up, or climbing a portion of the rotten chimney, then traversing right onto a section of exposed and exciting face climbing (5.9 face variation on the topo map). I chose the second option, especially since a party that had just rappelled down next to us assured me that it was easy to protect. True enough, there were some small but reliable cam placements in this section, which finished with a narrow, balance-y mantel. I must have stared at that move for a full five minutes before giving it a good try, even after the girl belaying above me assured me that she could see a solid (though invisible from below) handhold to which I would be moving. In the end I succeeded, but not without the grace I might have hoped for! Instead I ended up on my knees, performing the move in a style more like the long-lost cousin of the beached whale. With a huge sigh of relief, I found the "thank God!" handhold and pushed myself the final 10 feet to yet another tree belay. Backing the tree up with a few cams, I watched as Margaret made quick work of this pitch and joined me.

Margaret just after moving through the crux mantel on pitch three

From here she started up into the fourth and final pitch, traveling through some rather blocky face climbing terrain protected by old pitons. Then the climb moved right, following a huge horizontal jug in somewhat chossy rock to a short section of crack climbing (5.9 steep hands variation in the topo). This portion was the only part that felt very similar to the splitter crack systems I had encountered during my first few days in Yosemite, and I was very glad to be wearing my crack gloves. By now, I felt that I was finally getting the hang of climbing these cracks! Now I just need to learn how to do them without putting myself in too much pain. Easy terrain led to the top of this beautiful climb, which finishes directly on the spire with beautiful views of the valley floor. It was a short but really fun ascent!

Margaret atop Higher Cathedral Spire

Kenton atop Higher Cathedral Spire with El Capitan in the background. On the far right, snow covers the peaks of Tuolumne Meadows in the distance.

One thing I noticed for the first time while on this peak were the birds. There are birds here that move so fast, you feel as if someone has thrown a projectile at you when they pass by. As quickly as they appear, they’ve passed by, an encounter almost too brief for me to figure out what they look like. Nate later told me he thinks they’ve evolved this way to avoid their ever-present predator, the peregrine falcon. There are a few of these endangered raptors in the park, and this sometimes leads to closures of popular climbing areas. I gather the falcons can be disturbed if people spend too much time nearby.

After taking a break to eat lunch, rehydrate, and enjoy the view, we started the four rappels we would need to get back down. This was a bit tricky, as the rope got stuck once or twice when we pulled it down. Still, the descent didn't take too long, and we were back at the car about six hours after we had left it. We finished with another quick dip in the frigid river. Wow, is that refreshing!

Margaret starting the first rappel off of Higher Cathedral Spire

Yosemite adventure with Eliza and Nate - Day 3 - Base of El Cap

On Thursday Eliza and I left relatively early (7 AM) to drive to the base of El Capitan. We were hoping to get an early enough start that we could finish our planned route before the sun came around the arete and took the rockface we were climbing out of the shadows. As we hiked up the short approach, we had to keep swatting at mosquitos. It seems that at this time of year there are a ton of these critters at the bottom of the valley. Luckily they don't breed higher up on the rocks, thereby providing another strong motivation to quickly ascend onto the imposing walls lining the valley.

Our plan was for me to lead Little John, Right (5.8), see how we felt at the end of that, then maybe climb 1-2 more pitches and head home. This way, Eliza could get out of the heat and prepare for her kids to come home from school. Eliza had pulled her hood completely over her face to keep out the mosquitos by now. I racked up and led on up the starting corner. I was in for a rude awakening on this climb, which I quickly discovered just a few feet off the ground. Yosemite crack climbing is just unlike any other climbing I'm really used to. It seems that so often the only thing to use is the crack, and this requires a different set of skills (and a tolerance to ankle pain!) than I already have. I struggled up the first pitch of this climb, through a small chimney and above that into a hand crack, grunting and laughing at myself the whole time. How do you put your feet in the crack below a roof and your hands in the crack above at the same time? How do you keep your hands from sweating and sliding all around? How do you stand for long periods on a foot jammed in the crack when the muscles and tendons just below your ankle start to burn, and your toes are screaming? These are all skills that I want and need to learn to climb around here.

Eliza and Kenton at the top of the first pitch. Middle Cathedral Rock is in the background.

I made it to the top of the first pitch, belayed Eliza up, and we surveyed the second pitch to our left. It looked straightforward enough: ascend a narrow, low-angle ramp, climb the crack above for a short while, then traverse left across a relatively blank face to another ramp and from there up a short way to a belay in a corner. Here I wish I had looked more closely at the topo map before setting out. My heart was already racing while I was on the narrow ramp just above the belay. I moved into the crack above and starting up what seemed like a straightforward path. Eliza had warned me several times that I would need to traverse left early on and that I wanted to be sure I didn't go too high before I made the traverse. Look at the topo map below:

Topo map of Little John Right and a few other nearby climbs.

See where it says, about halfway up, "traverse 10' above 2nd piton (don't go too high)"? Well, I went too high, probably about 15' too high, before I realized that I was just going to have to make the traverse whether it looked like the right place or not. And then I was forced to downclimb around the shrubbery, effectively on toprope with one solid cam at this point, but with a heckuva lot of rope drag. Finally finding myself on the proper ramp to the left, I climbed as high as I could to make a belay in the corner above (circled "K" in the topo map with " 140' " written next to it).

Unfortunately, the situation I created by taking such a tortuous route was not the safest one for Eliza. She would have preferred to make the traverse lower down, in the recommended location. But before she could do that, she needed to climb up to where I had traversed, remove the cam I had placed there, and then traverse over. In my attempt to keep the rope drag to a minimum, I had not placed any gear after that cam, so a fall for her would have been a terrific pendulum, a very dangerous fall to say the least. Eliza calmly cleaned the last cam, downclimbed as far as she felt she could (to remove as much pendulum swing as possible), and made the traverse over to the ramp to join me at the belay. Eliza Kerr is a badass climber, cool under the most intense pressure!!! Needless to say, this episode did not inspire confidence in my route-finding abilities.

The last pitch was a short and straightforward crack in a corner to a wide, blocky ledge. At the top, over on the left side of the ledge is a 5.10d, single-pitch finger crack called Hardly Pinnacle. After the spanking I had just received on a 5.8, I wasn't in any mood to try leading 5.10d. Eliza happily tore up the route, setting up a toprope for me on the bolted anchors. Yet again, I was forced to use techniques that felt foreign, difficult, and painful to me. This crack was narrow enough in places that I could barely get the tips of my fingers and shoes into it. But Eliza assured me that I could get my toes in far enough to stand, using just the tips of my fingers for balance. And she was right! If I can perfect my technique on cracks like this, I'll be prepared to head back to tackle Finger Lockin' Good at T-Wall again next fall.

From there we rappelled in a single shot to the valley floor below. We finished with a relaxing picnic by the river in El Cap meadow.

Eliza coils the rope at the bottom.

Yosemite adventure with Eliza and Nate - Day 2 - East Buttress of Middle Cathedral

Middle Cathedral Rock - view from the ground

Wow, am I tired! We sent at least 13 pitches today. Nate did almost all of the leading. Today I got to follow him (in tandem with Eliza) up the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral, one of the 50 Classic Climbs of North America!!! It was a relatively short approach, but by the time we got to the start at 9 AM, there were already two parties there. Nate took matters into his own hands, free-soloing the first pitch and setting up an anchor. We quickly climbed up after him, trying to get ahead of these other parties. From there on out it was a race to the top. I've never climbed so quickly. The two of them clearly wanted to 1. avoid slowing down the parties below us (not a problem) and 2. finish the climb quickly so that we could get out of the hot midday sun. From start to finish we were done in 4.5 hours. We did the "50 Crowded" variation.

The climbing generally felt casual, but the exposure and views were incredible. Here are a few photos.

Kenton belays Nate up one of the first few pitches.

Nate and Eliza crank through the belay change with El Capitan in the background.

The descent was through a gully apparently prone to rock slides. Needless to say, Nate kept us moving quickly.

Eliza coming down the scree-filled descent gully.

After 1100 feet of climbing in the hot sun, we were tired and hot. A quick dip in the frigid river quickly cooled us off.

Nate, Eliza, and Kenton after jumping into the Merced River. That was bracing, and refreshing, all at the same time.

But that wasn't enough for Kenton. After a (large) snack I led the two-pitch classic Bishop's Terrace. This was filled with fist-sized cracks, but I was smart enough to wear the crack gloves this time. This was definitely the right decision, as it made the jams feel completely secure AND painless. At the top we had good views of Half Dome in the distance. Nate gave me helpful pointers on proper anchor-building and rappelling techniques. It was another awesome day!

Kenton at the top of Bishop's Terrace, with Half Dome in the distance.

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.