Columns of the Giants with friends

On the way to Wanderlust I stopped off at the Columns of the Giants for some sport climbing with friends. There was a heavy rain before I got to Sonora Pass and the road was actually closed for a while to clear debris. The streams were still running hard and brown when I went over. We need the water, but it would be nice to get it in a less concentrated manner.

It was a nice surprise to see Ed Mank there along with Dawn, John, Ted, and Zuska. I only got to climb a bit before I had to head off to Wanderlust, but it was fun to get in a bit of steep sport climbing and see friends.

there was a lot of muddy water

Dawn

Ed

Ted goes up while Ed comes down

a row of climber vehicles

Church of Grundy July 4th weekend revival and backpacking teaser

Over the July 4th weekend I hosted a Church of Grundy Revival. Basically a bunch of YogaSlacker people visited and we set up slacklines and did acro at the park and climbed and hung out. It was a lot of fun and will probably happen again. Some people stayed on through Tuesday morning for more fun and play and then Tuesday evening I went backpacking with Willow and Jana. Peaks were climbed at midnight, passes were passed, beautiful blue lakes were jumped into, moonrises watched, wildflowers smelled... I will have to write proper trip reports for both of these events, but for now here are some teaser pics.

The trip report can now be seen here:  http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/2014cogjulrev.html

high hand to hand with Leah 

There was a lot of water line failure 

Ariel bases Rob like a boss

Ariel and Rob cook while Kathryn, Paul, and Leah chat and eat at the COG

Kathryn climbing at Iris Slab (the old tilt the camera trick)

Kathryn flying Paul

walking the line

YogaSlacker TT 2013 mini - reunion. Kathryn, Tom, Willow, and Leah

Willow boulders

For our hike we went in over Piute Pass, Snowtongue Col, down to Evolution Valley, up Goddard Canyon, past Davis Lake, through Evolution Basin, Darwin Bench, Lamarck Col and out. I have many pics to process, but here are a few to start. 

A more complete trip report for the hike can be seen here:  http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/wjthike2014.html

There was a search underway for a missing hiker who went in to climb Goddard. We saw a few searchers and lots of helicopters. Evidently he summited Goddard and fell on the descent and crawled down to Davis Lake w/ a broken leg. In the evening a helicopter landed almost next to him to drop off searchers and he managed to signal them by throwing rocks and waving something. The next day we saw a helicopter landing by Davis Lake as we went by on the other side.

Willow flying high bird in the back country

there were lots of wildflowers

cold blue lakes were jumped into (Davis Lake)