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The forecast called for partly cloudy, daily highs of 49, and nightly lows of 27. Sounds like a perfect Valley weekend to me! Of course, that assumes that the forecast is reliable.... We bit the bullet, and headed out on Friday night. The car was still packed from J-tree, so it wasn't much trouble to get ready. Dan Rampe had a site in the Upper Pines that he wasn't using, so Dan, Lynsey, Rob, Mike, Jeremy, Chris, Erin and I all arrived there within about half an hour of each other. There was snow on the ground. What the hell were we thinking? Erin and I arrived first, so we had the pick of the few dry spots, and found a reasonably flat one between two trees. When the rest of the crew arrived, we squeezed 3 cars into a space meant for two, and crashed.

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It was pretty cold the next morning, and we didn't get moving particularly early. We even stopped at the mountain shop on the way, to check out their gear selection. Jack - I have a new yellow/red hybrid alien for you! Erin and I did a bit of tourism, then made for the Cookie. We warmed up on Crack-a-go-go, hit the Cookie Monster, did a couple of laps on Red Zinger, and then relaxed for a bit on Meat Grinder. Then it was time for lunch. Actually, we didn't do anything - everything was wet, though we only discovered this after hiking up to it. Bugger. So we trudged back down, got in the car again, and joined Dan, Lynsey, Rob and Mike at Pat and Jack's. By then the temps were fairly pleasant, as long as you stayed in the sun. I warmed up on KnuckleHeads (5.10b), and just as Erin was about to follow, Steve and Heather showed up and decided they wanted to do Trough of Justice which overlaps it, and really pissed me off by running their rope euro-style over ours, and over Erin. And then doing multiple laps. Not good style at all. It wasn't as if the crag was crowded or anything either. Erin was not very happy either.

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Charles on Knuckleheads, and Lynsey on Desperado

Afterwards, I TRed Desperado (5.11d), which Rob had led, then unsuccessfully tried to clean the gear on rap, so Dan had to lead it again. Unfortunately, he too couldn't clean the gear on rap, so we left a few pieces for Mike to clean when he came down from Desperate Straights, where he had been taking pictures from - he was also on the injured list having separated his shoulder while snowboarding the previous week. Lynsey and Erin did the Polymsatia, the bolted route that run around the arete next to the Tube, while I TRed Cat's Squirrel (5.12a), a ridiculously thin seam. I fell off the first time at the double gaston, but stuck it the second time around and continued with much grunting to the top. Somehow I really stressed a muscle in my left butt cheek, as it was really sore when I got down. Erin and Lynsey had finished on Polymastia, so they TRed it too and both sent it clean. Erin, it's not fair having fingers that small! It was dark by then, so we packed up and made for Camp Curry, where we met up with Jeremy and Chris for a fine dinner of pizza and wine. The next morning, after much discussion, we decided to check out Schultz' Ridge. None of us had been there before, so it took a bit of bushwhacking before we found the correct approach. Difficulties were compounded by directions which assumed one were driving west along northside drive, instead of walking east from the meadows - the road is closed until May 5. Eventually we found it, and Chris and Jeremy led off on Warm Up Crack (5.10a), while Lynsey and Dan went up New Suede Shoes (5.10c). Rob and I explored up the ridge a bit, finally finding Endless Summer Wall. When we returned to the rest of the gang, Erin led Warm Up Crack, and I TRed a few laps on it, then both led New Suede Shoes, before trying out Dreams of Thailand (5.11d) which Dan, Lynsey and Rob were working on. The second bolt was missing its hangar, so we left the first 3 clipped when "leading" it. A tricky section in the middle that is very height dependent. I had no problem making the reach, it was a good struggle for Lynsey, and was just a little too far for Erin. Though she ended up pulling a muscle in her abdomen while trying it.

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Chris on Warm Up Crack, and Lynsey on New Suede Shoes

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Lynsey practices for Dreams of Thailand (with musical accompaniment), while Erin and Rob look on bemusedly

We finished off on Endless Summer Wall, where despite the name is was overcast and blustery. Horestail falls was streaming copious amounts of water over the edge of El Cap, and we would feel it mist us when the wind would shift. Chris and Jeremy had been there for a while, and had tried out a couple of the routes. Lynsey and Rob went up Crystalline Passage (5.10b), while I led Bikini Beach Party (5.10a). Erin didn't want to belay me on it or climb it, as she was afraid that I would fall to my death on the 5.7R section at the top. Jeremy happily stepped in. It was actually a pretty easy climb, and I'm not sure where the 5.10a move was. The run out at the top certainly wasn't an issue. I was about to rap down, when Erin suddenly changed her mind and indicated that she wanted to climb it too. Hmmmm. I belayed from the top, just in case the weather that had been getting consistently worse all day long decided to finally turn on us, and we survived, despite a bit of rockfall that came from who knows how far up. I'm happy I was wearing my helmet! Chris, who had just led Crystalline Passage (5.10b), had some issues rapping down - Lynsey and Rob hadn't had any problems making the rap with their 60m rope, even though it's listed as a 110' rap, but Chris' rope was a little short, so we tied our two ropes together to lower her down the last few meters. Not all 60m ropes are the same! We packed up and headed back down, and were just a few hundred feet from the cars when it finally began to rain. Good timing! We were (or at least I was) hugely disappointed to find that El Aguave in Oakdale was closed, and had to resort to another local restaurant for dinner. Ug. And on top of that, traffic was horrible, adding an extra hour to the return journey. But at least no one got seriously injured this trip, and we didn't die of exposure! So I guess it was a good trip after all.