YOSEMITE

After one month in Indian Creek,

I leave the desert for the trees,

the rivers and the granite !

What a difference...!

Half Dome in Yosemite

Just when I arrive to Camp 4, the famous campground, I randomly meet the Germans I met in Indian Creek before ! I'm alone here and they invite me to join their site in the campground. From that day I became... their Princess ! 8)

Our first site in Camp 4

Camp 4 is a nice campground were squirrels, deer, bears and mosquito become your closest neighbors...

No need to ask permission to join for dinner...!

Sometimes, they are so hungry that they don't even wait until you've cooked dinner...!!!!

So, we have to hide the food in these "bear boxes" but it's hard to fit everything inside sometimes...

And when the animals are gone.... It's pancake party !! ;)

 
Yep, Camp 4 is full of adventure on itself but the main reason we are here is... For the climbing !

El Capitan

Me on Separate Reality

My first climbing experience in Yosemite won't be a long multipitch route as we would expect but this famous single pitch roof crack called... Separate Reality ! I give it 2 tries on the first day and fail... I will then send it 2 days later :) :) Such a beautiful line !

My apparently weird beta at the top...

Thank you Freyr....!

Then, we'll get on some nice multipitches !

Dominik on Serenity and Sons

Luki on The Moratorium

 Me on The Moratorium

Lauren on the boulder problem called Cedar Eater

Me on Cedar Eater

I will also do some offwidth training with Lauren before we get on Steck Salathe ! We play on Generator Crack and Cedar Eater.

Lauren and I on the way down Steck Salathe

And finally, we got on Steck Salathe... An epic journey through 15 pitches of mainly offwidths and chimneys which took us more than 24 hours...! My first real chimney experience and my god... after this, I swore I would never climb chimneys again ! But I learned... If you want to climb in Yosemite, you better know how to make your way inside these things... So I guess I 'll keep crying...! ;)

Enjoying the "all you can eat buffet" at the casino ! ;)

The next few days, it started to rain in Yosemite. My birthday had to come during that period and with the Germans, we had the opportunity to go to Fresno and sleep in a hotel for a good price ! Thanks to Roger, a nice ranger we met in Yosemite ! So after our respective adventures, we decided to give some comfort to ourselves ;)

Celebrating my birthday in the hot tub, at the hotel...! Good life ;)

Then, playing around in WALMART...!

Yes... After this, we were ready to rock again ! ;)

Getting ready to jump on The Lost Arrow Spire !

The spire you can see on the right ! Just beside the waterfall ! Some climbing, some aiding... and a night on the wall :)

Luki, myself and Dominik in front of the spire !

Luki on the first pitch

Myself doing some aid climbing...!

But finally trying to climb it instead...

After 10 pitches, we arrive at our bivy ledge. A "great bivy for 5" ! Huge and very comfortable but... soooo windy and cold that we couldn't sleep at all... The next day, we were so tired that after 2 pitches of mostly aid climbing (which wasn't our favorite type of climbing), we decided to bail... Argh'... :/

On the bivy ledge

Jugging up the aid pitch

Well, at least, after this we could enjoy the view to the spire and the waterfall but this time, from the beach in front of it... ;)

...And meet a bear on the way back !

Ivan on the finger crack

Then, Ivan and I climbed Voyager together. An amazing 7 pitches route on Fifi Buttress !

Me on Voyager

Climbers are a good tourists attraction !

Yep, some good times in Yosemite :) Unfortunately, the weather got really hot very soon there. We had to leave earlier than expected, with many projects left on the list... With the Germans, we started to head to Squamish at the beginning of June, making some stops in climbing areas on the way. It was time to say goodbye to Yosemite but... I knew I would be back soon !!! ;)

Thanks a lot to Dominik for taking most of these pictures !