Valley Times

Rain.  High near 51.  New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.  Damn!  Only two days with no rainfall isn’t enough time for it to dry…I drive on, thinking about ‘the proj’ and drying my sweating finger tips on my jeans. 

After three days of heavy rain, the valley floor feels like a wet sponge.  Fog blankets the meadows as the temperature slips away for the night.  It’s beautiful.  I spend the last hour of daylight running back and forth along the riverside at the back of El Cap Meadow; every day is a training day.  The cold air feels good as I swish through it, stopping to snap iPhotos of the stunning setting and the towering walls above me.  No matter how fast I go, I can’t outrun the excitement that radiates through me just from being in this place…. again. 

Yosemite Valley is a special experience for anyone who visits.  I’d like to think it’s even more extraordinary for me and for those that think like I think.  Last year was my first fall season as a Californian and I was lucky enough to have landed within range of The Valley on the year that it never snowed…or rained… Not until January 18^th.  Now I’m spoiled.  I couldn’t ever even imagine a place so indescribably grand.  Friends had told me on multiple occasions that, as a climber, you will never forget the moment when you see The Captain for the first time…Now I tell others the same thing.  An ‘average’ boulder problem here would be AMAZING in every other area I have explored.  The weather windows of opportunity here close before I’m ready.  Will tomorrow be the last good day?

Early mornings here are my favorite.  I consider it a blessing and a curse that I am unable to sleep in. There is always so much quiet and so much beauty around to try and take in before the rest of the valley wakes up. 

I finish my run and stop to stare at The Nose again. My gaze moves slowly up the wall and through the features that compose that particular route; I scan the meadow once more and see that the fog blanket is thickening.  A smile creeps back across my face and a shiver of energy pulses through my body as I’m reminded how good it is to be alive.         

                                   A magestic El Cap Meadow just before dusk

                  Kona, somehow even more psyched than me during our meadow run.

                                       Scofflaw - One of Randy's many beautiful new problems