California Tan Lines

Once every now and then, as the good child I always try to be, it is time for me to visit my parents. Visiting my parents is great for multiple reasons:

1. My mom cooks food
2. I can watch TV all day
3. California Climbing aka Yosemite Bum Life
4. I can drive my parents car
5. California Sunshine

If those aren't enough reasons, I can not help you! 

Being back in California was definitely a life change for me. Being on the Sheep Ranch for so long, it is easy to forget that there are cities on earth that have a higher population then the entire state you live in. That cowboy boots and big trucks are not a common thing on the west coast, except you are hipster and that the variety of radio stations is mind blowing. While there are maybe 6 radio stations available in Wyoming, of which 3 play Christian Rock, one is NPR and the rest plays Country, just in the Bay Area there were probably 40 Stations of which only 2 played Country music and maybe 3 that play christian rock.
Anyway, one of the things I was most excite about on my entire California trip was going to Yosemite Valley. For me the Valley has a special place in my heart, with Walls like El Captain, Half Dome, Leaning Tower or the Rostrum. Unfortunately, Yosemite was burning during my time in Cali. This meant my dad, Alex, and I had to come up with a new plan of how to get at least some cool climbing in during my time on the Golden Coast. Fortunately the plan was simple. After multiple days of bouldering at Castle Rock State Park, we headed up towards Sonora Pass in the Sierra Nevada.

Sonora Pass
Sonora Pass is on CA-108 and is the first pass to the north of Yos. Nat. Park. On the first day of our two day trip, Alex and I hit up the Second Quarry and the Lost World. Two climbing areas, which don't seem to get a lot of traffic, but have excellent climbing.Why nobody goes there, might be because of the famous Mexican Monster called Chupacabra. This legendary monster scared many climbers, by making terrifying noises and moves loose laying belonging around. Luckily, Alex and I were fortunate enough to not meet this famous monster and had a peaceful night.

Alex bouldering at Castle Rock State Park in the Bay Area

On our second day, we went to the Columns of the Giants. Home of Delirious, the steepest 5.12a in the golden state. Psyche was high and so Alex and I didn't even bother warming up and jumped straight on it. Alex crushed it on his second go, while I was lucky enough to not get flash pumped and finish it on my onsight attempt. Another exciting thing I did at the Columns was trying a 5.12d, which had a refrigerator size hollow flake on it. This flake reminded me a lot of ice climbing competitions, which have moving elements on their competition walls. On this route, the fridge flake did the same. It moved around with you, when you grabbed it. Problem was that it was unavoidable to not grab the flake. Due to that, my dad forbid me to try the route again since he didn't want me to get crushed by a fridge. I don't understand why? 
Just sitting around, with looking for another route to try, we watched Lonnie Kauk onsighting La Dentista (5.12c). The line looked amazing and Lonnie totally cruised it. Despite me being lazy and totally unmotivated to climb at all, Alex kicked my ass again which is quite usual and convinced me to give it a shot. Soon after, I found myself clipping the chains.

Columns of the Giants. Photo taken by Lonnie Kauk

Lake Tahoe

Being Visitors in the US, my family and I always try to behave like a typical american family so we don't stick out as stupid euro trash. Sometimes, this is a difficult task. For example: my dad never went to the park with me to play baseball, nor do any member of my family even understand the rules of baseball. We also never did any tailgating or did other traditional american things like shooting or participate in a rodeo. However, we do participate in traveling to traditional american vacation destinations like Lake Tahoe. 

Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the US and has excellent climbing as well as decent skiing. After a day of hiking around echo lake along the pacific crest trail to enjoy the beautiful Sierra Nevada landscape, we went camping on a horse campground. Now some might ask themselves what the heck is a horse campground? The answer is simple. A horse campground is campground designated for people that have horses. Something I never seen in my life before. After recovering from this surprising experience, the next day we were off to Echo Cliffs, to check out Space Walk (5.11c/d). A sick splitter crack, which goes from hands, to flared offwidth to fingers to an exciting sloper face finish. Alex tried it a while back and talked about this declaring it "A Crack of Yosemite Quality". Being ueber psyched, we headed up to Echo Lake and got to work. After a nice 5.10 warm up, I hopped on Space Walk and luckily made it to the top without a fall. Space Walk is def. one of the best crack climbs I ever climbed. 

Johnny S. on Spacewalk (5.11c/d)

After hanging around for a little more at the Echo Cliff, it was time to head home to pack my stuff. My time in California ended, meeting great people, eat good food, get sun burned and climb a lot of good crack. 

California I will be back. 

The Author of this hella nice text can not hold responsible for any possible writing or grammar mistakes made during the production of this piece of literature.