climbing in Yosemite

[Eli Liang]

A friend and I are going to San Francisco in early April on business. So
we decided to take advantage of this opportunity to climb in Yosemite. Since
then, another friend has also decided to fly out there and meet us in
California for this purpose. This being our first time in Yosemite, we were
planning on hitting one of the "tourist" climbs, Lost Arrow Spire, and maybe
doing one or two other popular ones. We have also toyed with going up
the east face of Mt. Whitney. I have a copy of Steve Roper's "Climber's
Guide to Yosemite Valley," but that book is 15 years old and I was wondering
how out of date it might be. After all, climber's have a penchant for
changing routes over time. One thing thats changed is certainly the use of
protections. The guidebook seems to recommend pitons for almost everything.
For instance, in describing the Lost Arrow route, Roper recommends bringing
15 pitons just in climbing the tip!

Anyways, I was hoping to get some info on Yosemite, and climbing there from
some of the climbers that read this news group. I know of at least one route
that has changed since '71. It's been mentioned in this news group that the
Royal Arches no longer has its most well known feature, the Rotten Log. As
that is one of the climbs under consideration for our trip, could someone
tell me what that pitch is rated now? 5.10 lead climbing just isn't our bag.
I've heard/read a lot about Yosemite, not all of it favorable. Is theft of
equipment going to be a worry there? How about crowding on the routes
(especially the tourist/climber routes like I mentioned)? Will it be
necessary to start before dawn in order to avoid waiting on climbs? Are there
only specific areas where one may camp in the valley and if so how close/far
are these from the climbing areas (in general)? The other thing is that
our business in San Francisco will be concluded on a Thursday evening and
we were planning on heading straightwise to Yosemite. Since the car trip
will take up to 4 hours, we might not get there until very late Thursday
evening. Will this be a problem? Does anyone know what Mt. Whitney will
be like in April? Is it going to be very cold? Lastly, is there a better
guide to Yosemite climbs around (more current hopefully)? I was also
hoping to find "topos" for some of the climbs.

-eli

p.s. we'll welcome any suggestions of any "must do" Yosemite climbs which
are <= Grade III, <= 5.7 lead, and <= A3.
--

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eli Liang ---
University of Maryland Computer Vision Lab, (301) 454-4526
ARPA: eli@cvl, eli@lemuria, eli@asgard, eli@mit-mc, eli@mit-prep
CSNET: eli@cvl UUCP: {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!cvl!eli