Next Story >>>

October 22

Edmond and I are met at San Francisco airport by Paul Teare – the first time I’ve seen him since our Everest reunion in New York, twenty years ago. We head east in his van and arrive soon after nightfall in Yosemite valley, where his friends Gil and Tres have dinner waiting.

October 23-25

Yos.Moon Cathedral Spires, Yosemite

Yosemite, like the Taj Majal, lives up to all the superlatives and is stunning in the clear light of autumn. We start with a three pitch Bridwell climb called, appropriately, Commitment, Paul bawling instructions at the two British crack-climbing novices. On Day 2 his friend Brian joins us for a two-and-a-half hours race up Royal Arches.

After a long hot descent, we cool off in the Merced River, then make the obligatory pilgrimage to the foot of El Capitan. Edmond leads a nice little one pitch crack climb as the setting sun burnishes the soaring summit corners of The Nose, 3,000 feet above our heads.

Edmond Venables with 3,000 feet of El Capitan above

The following day Edmond and I do a fantastic 12 hour round trip from the valley to the summit of Half Dome and back.

Half Dome South Face

 Glad to find a party in front of us to show us the improbable start to Snake Dike – a single knobbly seam in the bald granite slabs of the Southwest Face.

Edmond Venables leading on Snake Dike

Gorgeous views from the summit, east to the massed domes of Tuolumne, and west down the immense ice-gouged trough of The Valley.

Perfect afternoon on top of Half Dome

October 26

Time to move on, stopping for a quick climb in Tuolumne Meadow, on the way over to Mono Lake, where we stop for large steaks, before driving north to camp beneath Lover’s Leap. Rain, then snow, during the night.

October 27

Paul says it’s far to cold to climb at Lover’s Leap, so we drive down the valley for a large cooked breakfast. The waitress says no-one has ever asked for cooked tomatoes before, but the chef grills the beautifully. Then we do a couple of routes on the Sugar Loaf before continuing east into Nevada, to stay with Eliza Moran in Reno. All the best restaurants are in the casinos – Nevada’s alternative to taxation.

Nevada’s alternative to taxation

October 28-31

A mixture of work and pleasure, preparing and giving my presentation at Truckee Meadows Community College.

Truckee Meadows Community College bookstore
 

Gratifying to address a packed hall, and great to meet in the audience Dick Long – one of the great Yosemite pioneers of the 50s and one of the team that first climbed Alaska’s daunting Hummingbird Ridge. Off the next day to Donner Pass, scene of former cannibalism by desperate pioneers trapped in the winter snows. Today it is bright and sunny.

Edmond, Paul and I warm up on the beautiful three pitches of One Hand Clapping. As the name suggests, the 5.9 crux involves an unnerving layback, with one hand palming an alarmingly rounded granite edge. Then Edmond leads us with calm cool up Composure and we finish with a sunset romp up Mary’s Crack, before posing for a group photo.

Gil, Stephen, Paul Teare and Edmond at Donner

November 1

Edmond has now flown home. Eliza works her magic with United Airlines to get me a First Class flight to Denver, where I am met by Mike Chessler of Chessler Books.

Signing stock for Chessler Books

A busy afternoon signing books, ice axes, pitons and all the other bric-a-brac housed in Mike’s vast mail-order mountaineering emporium.

November 3

To Boulder to meet Jack Roberts for a day’s rock climbing in Eldorado Canyon. The last time I was here was 14 yeas ago with Robert Anderson and Mike Bearzi. Today we do the beautiful, classic Yellow Spur – six pitches of immaculate red sandstone dappled with brilliant yellow lichen.

Jack Roberts on the crux of Yellow Spur

Evening session in Golden with the American Alpine Club Book Club, followed by beer and dinner. George Lowe – star player in the 1983 first ascent of the Kangshung Face of Everest – turns up for
dinner.

November 4

A day to catch up with work, chez Dougald and Chris MacDonald.

November 5

Another trip to Eldorado, this time with Kelly Cordes, who is about a foot shorter than me, a lot younger than me, and who climbs about 15 grades harder than me.

Kelly Cordes (R) and friends in Eldorado Canyon

 He settles amicably for a pleasant romp up Ruper, followed by Wind Ridge and the improbable, blunt arête of Hair City. Evening show at Gary Neptune’s famous store, followed by book-signing. Thrilled to have Tom Hornbein – first man traverse Everest – in the audience.

November 6 – 10

Time to head west on my long-awaited road trip with Dougald Macdonald. On the first night we stay with Michael Kennedy in Carbondale, leaving at sunrise the next day to continue west to the north rim of the stupendous Black Canyon of the Gunnison. [

Dougald MacDonald in the Black Canyon

For 35 years I have dreamed of coming here. The heart-stopping 2,000 foot view down to the river is suitably awesome, as are the immense pegmatite bands scrawled across the great Painted Wall. With short daylight hours, we settle for the more modest Escape Artist, a stunning 1982 creation by Ed Webster and Chester Dreyman. Dougald leads the stunning 50 metres high corner on pitch three. I get the wild traverse on pitch two, tiptoeing above a huge overhang and cursing myself for succumbing to weakness and resting on a runner at the crux. We stay that night in Ridgeway with Jim Nowak, who runs a brilliant aid project building schools and medical centres in the Himalaya. In the morning we head into the desert to find the remote Gypsum Valley and climb the gravity-defying Psycho Tower.

Psycho Tower

The late Charlie Fowler made the first ascent and called the route Psychopath.  Afterwards we locate a couple of bolted sport climbs and I delight myself by completing a tough 5.10 on crazily fragile wafer edges of sandstone.

Another climb near Psycho Tower

Monday the 10th. More stunning red desert sandstone. After a good night’s sleep at Jack Tackle’s yurt in Castle Valley

Jack Tackle’s yurt with Castleton Tower on the right

We walk up to Castleton Tower

Castleton Tower

 with a quick detour to admire the neighbouring Rectory

The Rectory

[What a treat to do the famous, classic, Kor-Ingalls route! Four pitches, starting with a real grunt of a chimney. Dougald led the soaring crack of pitch 3.

Crux pitch of the Kor-Ingalls route on Castleton Tower

I followed, marvelling at the crux layback, where you have to place your left toe on thumbnail-sized nubbin of calcite, so polished by 50 years of rubber shoes that you can see our reflection in it.

Venables and MacDonald on the summit

On Tuesday morning we leave early to dash over to the Arches National Park and climb one more tower – a splendid grunt of a chimney leading to the top of Bubo.

Arches. Bubo Tower haloed on right

Dougald is so enthusiastic about showing me the architectural splendours of the park that we join all the giant pick-ups for a final tour of the Arches end up having to race at 100 mph to arrive with just ten minutes to spare to catch my flight from Grand Junction to Salt Lake City.

Macho Man’s pick-up

Having done a morning climb in south Utah, I finish the day with an evening climb in north Utah, with my Ogden host Mike Vause.

November 11

Vause and Venables off climbing. Cf I Chose to Climb

A great day out with Mike Vause, climbing a new 1200 foot route on the quartzite cliffs above Ogden. We call it Armistice Buttress and get back down just in time to change for dinner with the Ogden School Foundation fundraising committee.

Mike Vause on Armistice Buttress

My Mormon hosts take pity on their ungodly guest and ensure that I have copious amounts of
Californian wine with dinner.

November 12

Ogden School Foundation literary banquet

The committee do a brilliant job of themed Himalayan decoration at the conference centre for the big annual ‘literary banquet’. Particularly pleasing to have the legendary mountaineer Jeff Lowe at head table and to be able to announce that yesterday he was voted an honorary member of our Alpine Club in London. Wonderful to have an audience of nearly 800 for my lecture.

Top table with Jeff Lowe and Deanna Byck

November 13

Up at 4.45 am to prepare my talk for 600 Ogden high school students.  Mike and Janis put me on the spot by asking me to be grilled by the ten winners of the writing competition, before going into the theatre to address the big audience. Besieged afterwards by a mob of 14-year-olds demanding to see my toeless left foot. Strange way to earn a living. One final, freezing cold, rock climb in the afternoon, a last dinner with the extended Vause family, then off at midnight on the ’red eye’ flight to New York.

November 14

A black tie job for the American Alpine Club New York Section annual dinner. Good to see old friends Mark and Theresa Ritchie, Phil Erard, Bill and Barbara Phillips, and Roland Puton, who so bravely put Rolex money into our Everest expedition 21 years ago.

November 15

A lavish brunch at the Athletics Club, followed by a quick walk through the autumnal splendour of Central Park, then a long haul to Portland, Oregon via Chicago.

November 16 -18

My Oregon hosts, Peter and Mary Green, arranged for Chris Potts to drive me over to the unique volcanic tuft formations of Smith Rock. Strange to climb on pebbles cemented into what looks like solidified mud. During a day and half we climbed seven or eight classic routes, including (on my fourth attempt) the delightfully intricate Barbeque the Pope (what did the poor pope do to deserve such malice?!).  Charming students at Catlin Gabel School endeared themselves to me by selling lots of books at my evening lecture. What a great ending to a fantastic tour! Now coming down to San Francisco to catch the long flight home.
 

Next Story >>>