On the 22 of August we went with some guys from the Gym to spend some time in the Tuolumme Meadows. The weather was difficult, but we nanage to squezze a small climb. Together with Carlay and Kenny, we headed for the west crack, but a slow party has already on the route, being the attitude of the belayer mediocre. A team of 3 fun British guys were next. And the weather was suspect, so we looked for alternatives. We spotted another 5.9 around the corner from which a party of three was baling. It turned out that they were leaving behind 2 large metolius cams. They let us know that the climb was “stout”, which I later realized it means “hard” not “fun”. Since it was one of Carlay and Kenny’s first trad climbs, it was a bit of an stretch. The truth is that they are very strong boulderers, so it went fine.
The first pitch is cruser. The second pitch is 5.9 akward, according to two guide books and my experience. The rope was getting caught in the underclings, so we made a snall pitch, with a hanging belay that Kenny did not like. He had taken a small fall the previous day bouldering that caused him some discomfort. The second pitch follow another undercling, to a squezze corner where one can jam fingers, toes, and press against one side to smear on the other. The belay station is a large five star ledge. Pitch four involves some smearing and underclings. We were looking for the difficulties to suddenly increase to 5.9+, so I was being very cautious. Eventually, I reached the roof and manage to put a bomber #2 Camelot and the belay station was 5m away. I could see the hard move. A traverse, kind of smearing and holding some small holds on the headwall. However, with such a bomber piece by my nose, it was not too bad. Pitch five climbs some textured rock, to pin, to a boulderly move (5.8). This was a short pitch, since Carlay and Kenny were not super comfy down there; I called the pitch short, setting the belay station in a humongous ledge to the left. From there on, some easy friction took us to the great view at the top. Two rappels took us to the ground.
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