"The Sands of Time"

Look at this enormous piece of Granite! This is a gem of a climbing area called Calveras Dome that sits between Lake Tahoe to the north and Yosemite to the south. Consequently it sees very low numbers of climbers. Great for us because the climbing is awesome and we had it all to ourselves.

Sands of time is a very aesthetic line up an hour glass shaped formation in the center of this dome.

When I first imagined climbing this route I was a bit intimidated. It is a true trad route. 8 pitches with a couple of 5.9 pitches. Some super exposure. Some friends had been up it with a guide and loved it. I didn't intend to take a guide, but when I thought of climbing it I did want to share the leading duties with someone.

The first pitch is pictured to the left.

As the day approached I realized that this was a big climb for me. Well within my limits but challanging. More than I had taken on from a leaders perspective. Denise wanted to climb it also but was not going to lead. So my delima, get another leader to climb it with me, or lead the whole thing with Denise.

To get myself psyched up I climbed hard in the gym a few days before the trip and had Denise belay me. We talked about efficient transitions and the things I would need to remain confident on the climb. For me a big thing is not having my follower scared or struggling too much. It will eat away at that confidence. That's a reason it is nice to share leads. You tend to feed off each others efforts. Non-climbers often have ahard time understanding just how mental climbing is.

Look at that pooch belly. How you going to get up there with that dude?

Denise did great job at the gym and I decided that I wanted to lead the whole thing and I wanted to share the climb with Denise and no body else. Just making the decision put my mind at ease. I knew what was ahead of me. I knew that if we had any trouble we would just back off, leave a little gear if necessary.

Well the day came and Denise and I got a pretty early start. The first pitch went by without a hitch, which was a good sign. Second pitch again went smoothly. The third pitch we had a little trouble figuring out exactly where the route went. After doing a little reconnisance I found that I had already gotten to the 3rd pitch belay.

The fourth pitch was for me the crux. It had a nice wide step over gap up into an off width. This was made difficult due to the fact that Denise and I were both wearing packs. I got up into it to find that I had to remove the pack and dangle it below me. Then I had to shimmy up the crack to get in to a spot where the crack finally closed down enough to take a piece of protection. This was not too easy as it seemed to be quite run out. A bit of commitment and I had another piece in and could continue on. Finishing the 4th pitch you come to a point of granite. With no other options you just throw a sling over the top of the point and back down a little ways. It's secure enough although it seems like something out of a cartoon where Yosemite Sam lasso's a peak. Up came Denise behind me having to struggle with the same dangling pack issue.

Pitch 5 was the crown Jewel of the climb. From the Point of Granite you swing out onto the face and climb up a thin crack. From below the crack looks to thin in places for your fingers. Once you get up into it though you find it to be superb! This crack goes right out on the face about 400 feet above the deck. It's a really spectacular place to climb. The crack takes protection well so you feel pretty safe. It is a long pitch. Often times on climbs the signature moves or pitches are short. Not so here. You really get into a groove and focus on nothing but the moment in space and time. Eventually you start to run out of rope and have to set a belay. The 6th pitch is a bit more laid over, but you have to work between cracks and places that will take protection so it's a little more run out. None the less you end up at a nice big lunch ledge where we relaxed and eat our lunch taking in the view of the valley.

Another couple of pitches took us to the top of the Shark Fin looking formation where we met up with the top of a very popular and famous route called the "Silk Road". By this time we had been on the rock for about 8 hours which was enough so we decided to rap out down silk road.

Here's an example of the rap rings on the silk road rap. It was a pretty easy rap route to follow, and the rope pulled cleanly.

The rap off was relatively uneventful. We did run into a couple of guys climbing up the Silk Road as we came down. They were very impressive climbing 5.11C seemingly without any trouble. They told us they come every year to do the route. They looked to me to be climbing with a very thin rack of gear, and were no spring chickens. I guess in there late 50's. They commented that in a dozen years of climbing the silk road we were the first party they had actually shared a ledge with. Gives you an idea of how little traffic this area gets.

We made it to the bottom safely and hiked the 20 minutes down through the brush to the car. Celebration time!

This is definitely in my top three climbs to date. A truely wonderful day!