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Lovers Leap, Aug 17-18 2007 |
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For our one year anniversary, Mélody and I wanted to do
something special and romantic. And what could be more special and
romantic than a weekend of climbing at Lovers Leap? We took Friday
off, stocked up on the victuals at the Bowl, and headed for the hills
around noon. Unfortunately, it seemed like a lot of other people had
the same idea, and traffic was rather slow. When we got to the
campground, it was mostly empty, so we had our pick of the sites. We
set up camp, made a late lunch, and were getting ready to rack up,
when I heard a loud squeak from the bushes, where Mélody had
gone off to pee. She came running back, and informed me that she had
nearly peed on a snake. When I went to investigate, it turned out to
be a Western rattlesnake (actually, Kelly informs me that it's really
a Northern Pacific, Crotalus viridis oreganus)
, rather large, and fairly lethargic. It
barely moved as I approached it, and took quite a while to coil. It
never even rattled. This was only my 3rd rattlesnake sighting in 9
years of climbing in the sierras. We racked up, and headed to the lower buttress, where we started out on The Groove (5.8). A bit challenging for the grade, requiring crack, stem and mantle techniques. Nice and long too - a full 100'. We then moved over to Surrealistic Pillar (5.7), where we played on the first pitch for a while, before hunger pangs started to set in, and we returned to the campground. There, we cooked up an elaborate dinner of tortellini, pan fried organic pork chops in a mushroom and bourbon sauce, and bananas flambée. Yum! As we were getting ready for bed, we found another interesting animal. Wonder what it is? (Kelly, our inhouse bio-guru, informs me that it's a camel or Mormon cricket.) Unfortunately, my camera was starting to die, and the pictures are not clear at all. |
 (2592x1944 at 3143 kb) |
 (1944x2592 at 3043 kb) |
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| various critters | |
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| It was bloody cold the next morning, and despite the early hour of our rising, we dawdled around the camp for a bit, waiting in vain for it to warm up. We eventually gave up, and started hiking. Of course, it warmed up immediately, and we quickly overheated - I keep forgetting how much colder the campground at the Leap is than the walls themselves are. We hiked up to the Main Ledge, with a bit of 4th classing around the top of the lower buttress, and made for Corrugation Corner (5.7). There were a couple of parties already on it, which made for slow going, but there was no one behind us, so we took our time, and hung out at the various belay ledges. We had a most excellent lunch at the top of P1, consisting of "The Sandwich", supplemented by a fabulous view. At the P2 belay, Mélody discovered and implemented the "beached whale" technique, enhanced with various whale songs. At the summit, we hung out in the sun for a while, then hiked back to camp, where we had another snack and refreshments, then broke camp and loaded up the car, and headed for home. |
 (1944x2592 at 2598.5 kb) |
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 (1944x2592 at 2350 kb) |
| Mélody: before, during and after Corrugation Corner | ||
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 (1944x2592 at 2274 kb) |
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Of course we stopped off at Z-pie on the way back!
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