Trip Report by Dave Anderson...


I was going to post this once we had the pictures developed and
I could actually put it through the wringer a few times, but
I figured even a bad trip report is better than listening to
dumbass@hiddenaddress and foo@youcantfindme try to start up
moronic flame wars, so...

(yes, yes, yes, it's too long.  whine later).

Matthes Crest                                   23 June, 2001
-------------
(Dave, Dorothy, Hector, and Luke)

Settled into a lovely (but camp-smoke-filled) site at Crane Flats at
about 1am after a not-so-hasty departure from Sunnyvale on Friday
evening.  Lovely anyway, though we had to leave Lisa behind
due to some new knee problems.

We started out Saturday like snakes in winter, taking our time
to get warm and ready.  My "travel fast and light"
insticts started kicking in, and I began to mentally chant,
"must go faster!"  It didn't have too much of an effect,
and there was no need to rush at all.

Saturday's climbing was tame.  Romped up a three-star 5.6, the
Norhtwest Books on Lembert dome.  Very nice climb - a bit of
friction, a bit of liebacking, and a bit of crack climbing.
Hector snagged the second pitch, and accidentally took a 5.8/5.9
variation up the obvious corner that proved quite fun.
Luke, Dorothy, and Julie followed as a group of three, so
Hector and I spent a while ambling around the nearly-summit
tapping our toes. At some point, hector rigged a top-rope for
himself on our rope, lowered back down, and climbed a bit of the
route again, while Luke and I belayed his followers up.
Eventually, we headed to the car to prepare for the hike to
Matthes Crest.

"Light and Fast" was represented by Hector and Dave;
"Sane and Comfy" showed up in the other corner
with Luke and Dorothy.  We eventually achieved
a good balance, and the hot water was really welcome at dinnertime...
sometimes I forget that I don't always need to hurry through life.

The hike in was not too long, and not too eventful, except for
a random sighting of Karl Baba, who was returning from
Cathedral Peak.  Two Baba sightings in two weeks -- I must
be spending almost enough time in Yosemite.  The hike
proceeds from the Cathedral Lakes trailhead past the
lakes, circling around Cathedral Peak, and treating us
to a beautiful 180-degree view of the peak as it changed
from a rocky protrusion, to a sideways knifeblade, and
back to a jagged peak.  I'll get the pictures from Luke
one of these months.

Cresting Cathedral Pass, we descended into a valley that
was so gorgeous it was almost golf-coursesque.  Dorothy
noted that it almost seemed like Disneyland, it was so perfect.
A swath of green sloped gently through the valley,
with a small creek wandering its way among the mounds of
grasses and wildflowers.  Stupendous!

We passed an entertaining boulder as we hiked along the side
of the valley, and it claimed enough of our time and attention
with a few problems that the area around the boulder soon
became our campsite as the sun dropped.

Our 6am start nearly happened, and we hiked up the talus 
and dirt approach to reach the base of the climb by 8am.  

The climb starts in a bushy notch towards the south end of the crest, 
with a nice view of Matthes lake on the east, 
a view of Tressider peak on the west, 
and a view of the party that arrived at the base about 10 minutes 
before we did.  Happily, they were friendly, and seemed competent.

One thing about 10,000 feet in June -- it's _cold_ in the mornings.
My fleece and thin nylon pants weren't quite up to the task
in the wind, but we survived until we started climbing.
The Crest consists of a little bit of technical climbing
separated by a lot of very enjoyable, exposed class 4 scrambling.
Hector took the first lead, for which I was secretly glad --
my hands were still stiff from the cold.  Unfortunately, this
meant I got to follow with the pack as we simul-climbed the first
three pitches, and I was breathing hard by the ridgeline.  I lead
along the ridgeline until a nice stopping spot and too much
rope drag begged for a break;  we sat in a wind-sheltered corner
and waited for Luke and Dorothy to reach the crest.

And.. waited.  The speed difference between simul-climbing the route
and setting a belay at the top of three pitches soon became apparent,
but we were in the sun, sheltered from the wind, lying on some nice
flat blocks of rock... and soon fell asleep.  

But only for a few minutes, we think.

Luke and Dorothy topped out after a time, and I lead off again through
more of the jutting class 4 happiness, waiting occasionally as we
caught up with the party before us, or to hear from our other party.
The advantage to this is that I got to watch the front party negotiate
the undercling traverse, which didn't seem all that hard.  Probably
not 5.6, at least, in comparison to the start of the route.  Some time
after this, we started waiting again, and Hector took the lead up to
the South Summit (summit tag #1), and was nice enough to be the second
on the downclimbing from the summit -- I had a nice comfy toprope on
the way down.  I returned the favor on the 5.2 ramp towards the notch
between the summits, and appreciated every bit of sparsely-placed pro
that Hector left for me.

(Truthfully, it was all well placed. Thank you, Hector. :).

From the notch, Hector watched the party in front of us struggle
to get to the north summit.  One member approached and then backed
off of the lead several times.  Finally, the other person in their
party lead up a left-leaning handcrack sized flake.  

Luke announced via a very handy talkabout that they weren't going
to do the summits, but it was OK if we did.  We jumped, and I
stole the rack.  A scramble lead to a ledge, where I placed
more pro for an anchor than I'd used in the last half-mile of
climbing.  The flake was a veritable nut-hoover.

Hard-looking offwidth, or nice juggy hand-crack flake?
Offwidth or flake?

For some, this might be a tough call.  
I heard the flake calling my name.  

A slight overhang made it a bit of fun.  A few completely
bomber jugs in the flake gave way to something a bit more slopey, and
then to a bit of a reach for a block higher up.  The pro wasn't so hot
here - any pro would need a long sling to let me move later, which
wouldn't do much with a ledge 10 feet below my feet, but I gave a
great demonstration of TFB style: The tall fat bastard locked off at
the top of the flake, and spent a minute or two feeling around for
holds on the ledge above.  It's nice to be tall - I might have to use
skill and style otherwise.

We caught up with the earlier party at the summit, who pointed us at
the summit register.  Hector soon located some rocky outcrops that
turned out to have a bounty of slings on them (which was noted in the
topo I'd left with Luke.  ahem).  A few fortuitious breaks in the wind
let us toss the ropes down with only one re-throw, and we quickly
snuck down to the notch without incident.  The four of us shared a
rope with the party behind us, who also decided not to ascend to the
peak, and soon we were to the slippery slabs that form the base of the
Crest.

We didn't even have to use our headlamps getting back to the
car.  We had at least 5 minutes of moonlight left.  It was a great 
adventure for all of us, and I think it was quite an intro to long
climbs for Dorothy, who'd climbed only a small handfull of two-pitch
climbs before, and went cruising along the crest like a pro.

    -Dave