Rock Climbing (Part 3)

I awakened at 4:45AM. Saturday morning - no alarm required. Rueben and I had slept in the tent and mom and dad had slept in the back of the Navigator. The temperature had dropped through the night to a delicious 31 degrees. MMMmmmm, I LOVE COLD WEATHER!! My mummy bag was true to it's word... I was extremely warm and even had to unzip it in the night as it was getting a little 'too' warm. I stirred Rueben so he could sleep in my bag and then I was off.

I wanted to watch the sun rise. These are some of the views everyone missed that morning. I only wish I would have gotten one of the full moon casting it's light like diamond reflections on the lake. It was breathtaking! The morning was a delicious 43 degrees! Brr! :)

Things began to stir around the campsite and that was when I got a good view of our tent, or what was supposed to be a tent.

Uh, not so much!

We quickly packed all of our stuff and prepared for the days journey.

My dad noticed rock climbers on one of the domes on the way to Porcupine Creek. He quickly pulled over and we watched the two climbers scramble their way higher and higher up the dome. Can you see them?
You may want to enlarge the above image to spot them.

There they are!

It was then we noticed climbers on the dome on the other side of the road as well. They were all free-climbing which means they were only using their hands and feet. Nothing more, nothing less.

How many climbers are in the above picture? Comment to see if you and other readers agree.

It appears one of the climbers in this picture might be injured.

Please confirm with a comment. I did not notice this until I looked at the pictures at home.

Still not sure if they are or not though. Let me know.

Isn't it amazing?!?!

I could not get over the courage of these climbers. This dome was only about a car's width from the road. If anyone fell, if the fall didn't kill 'em, surely the traffic on the two lane road would.

We crossed the street and saw an older man changing his shoes. I asked him if he planned on climbing also but he said he didn't climb that dome anymore. He said he used to be a guide for those climbs when he was younger. I asked him if climbers really only used their hands and feet and he said, "Oh yes, it's not difficult, you do it like this." He then went over to the mountain and began to climb a short piece of it. It didn't look terribly difficult.

Rock climbing has always intrigued me. However these domes seemed awfully intimidating.

I thought I'd try my hand at it, but only went a short way because my dad was there and had not brought his roll of life-size bubble wrap with which to catch me if I fell. I wasn't necessarily dressed for it either. I did however enjoy the section I did... though, I'm not sure I'd ever attempt that steep of a climb. Though repelling from that height does sound intriguing. Definately something I would try.

You may recall a sunset picture at Olmsted Point in my previous entry. Well, this is a daytime view. If you look far in the distance (almost in the middle of the picture) you will see Half-Dome. The hike we were taking would end up on the exact opposite side of the Dome; directly across from it. This is just to give you a visual of where we were going.

Our final destination was the highlight of our trip.

Come along on the next entry to see what we saw & experience what we experienced.