A salveged day.

Today I had made plans to climb a couple of pitches of the Rostrum with climbing ranger extraordinaire Jesse McGayhee. Just about the time I was starting to expect his arrival I got a call from my boss, Tori, asking if I'd help "work up" a bear that had been trapped the night before. Fortunately, Jesse is an understanding fellow and took this opportunity to spend a few hours taking care of domestic duties.

Here you can see me give "Blue 1" the old reach around. Just trying to make him comfortable.

The best part about living and working in Yosemite, from a climber's perspective, is that after work you can easily get in a fulfilling climbing fix. That is exactly what we did today. Jesse and I headed over to Lower Cathedral Rock for some cragging and I made amends by helping Jesse with his job. First we recovered a fixed line that had been left on a project for about three years. It took a while but I owed him. We climbed a couple of really nice routes there as well. In particular a 5.11d (I don't know the names of any of these routes), which I was able to onsight just barely. The rock quality was spectacular, the movement was varied, and the view was second to none...unfortunately, I left the camera at home.

As a consolation prize here is a picture of my friend, Jesse Burkhart bouldering a problem called "Circuit Breaker." I highly recommend this problem if you like crack boulder problems.

For perspective, here is a shot of me on the same problem.