Weekly Pano: Mr. Miley @ Lover's Leap

after a fun day of climbing a fun route on hogsback, Surrealisic Pillar to Hospital Corner (all 4 pitches)... to the top... check out Nick's pumped forearms.... this was a great day of climbing to make up for our busch league climb of Temple Crag... leading 10a trad off the couch felt pretty good.

Pedallin' (my mtn bike, tandem, & coker)

Was sore from last weekend's cycling adventures.  Night Mtn Biking on Fri, Tandem Ride on Sat, and MUNI ride on Sun.  Phew!

Did a fun night ride on Mt. Tam last Friday with Sigman, Booth, and Man Chicken... don't have any pics from that ride... but it was really fun.  Booth is really fast.  20 miles with about 4000 ft vert.

Saturday, met up with Ko for a ride in wine country.  We had to pick up some bottles from Vincent Arroyo anyway... so we started in St. Helena and rode 10 miles to Calistoga and did another 10 back.

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Sunday... Stefan came by the house at 6 am for an early departure to S. Lake with Funk.  While Funk dropped off Kokanee (his sister's dog) Stefan and I hopped on Bear's Reach, and another route on Hogsback.  Then Funk and I simul-climbed another route on Hogsback and then it was time to MUNI in tahoe.  So we drove up to echo summit and hopped on the Pony Express Trail.  An easy mtn bike ride... but quite a challenging MUNI ride.  And it started snowing on us. That was awesome.  The crazy guy that lives at the bottom of Sierra Ski Resort telling us to get off his property... that guy is NOT so awesome. 

Snow!

Lover's Leap = Fun

Nick cruising up Haystack... 

After feeling a bit under the weather the night before, I decided to sleep in rather than waking up early and trying to beat out the bay area traffic.

So after a late start, we decided to meet up at Lover's Leap at 1 pm.  We started climbing at 2 pm, and decided to climb as many routes as possible.  I won the roshambo and started leading up Haystack (5.8)... after pulling the crux, I set up a belay and the 70 meter rope was long enough to do the route in 2 pitches.

After scrambling down the shoulder we saw that no one was on The Line (5.9), so we decided to cruise up that classic.  I think I've probably climbed the Line everytime I've been to the Leap and might be my most climbed route... who knows... but it's such a great line.  Nick led the first pitch, and with the 70 m, we could do this one in 2 pitches as well... so I got to pull the roof at the top.  

Pinedrop (Pterospora) on the decent trail.

This whole time, there were dark clouds looming over the Tahoe basin.  Nick actually drove through rain on the way to the Leap.  And every time we got to the base, we asked ourselves... "should we wait up for 15 min?... see what the storm does?"... and just kept on hopping on routes.  

mean while... Truckee was experiencing a hail storm... (courtesy of KCRA)

Looking back down at Nick after topping out on Hogsback

When we got to the base and looked up we were hoping to hop on Bear's Reach, but there was a party already on it... so we decided to go to Hogsback and simul up Deception Direct (5.9)  

The view of the East Wall of Lover's Leap from the top of Hogsback

The Line, with folks midway up it... as seen from Hogsback

When we got to the base of Bear's Reach it was getting dark-er.  

7:45 pm... starting up Bear's Reach.  Nick & I simul-ed up the whole thing in 40 min.  Just in time to enjoy the sunset.

Solo-ist cruising up Fantasia and his dog looking up worried...

Check out these Dykes!  One of the many reasons why this place is so special.

Summit shot... Awesome clouds... should've just left a camera doing a time-lapse at the top. 

Got down just in time... and didn't need headlamps... good thing as we didn't have any.  

So we did 3 routes on the east wall, and one on Hogsback for a total of 1300 ft or so of climbing.  Not bad for a half a day of climbing.  One of these days I'd love to start in the morning and just climb all day and go for a personal vert record.  

Weekly Pano: Bear's Reach

This is quite hard to see... so you'll have to click on the pic... and even then it may not be big enough.    But in the middle of the pic is Nick starting up Bear's Reach at Lover's Leap.  Off to his left, you can see a solo-ist climbing Fantasia (5.9R).  We started up at 7:30 pm, and simul-climbed all the way and did it in one pitch, topping out at 8:15 pm...