Damn This Place is Big!

The alarm goes off at 4am. It’s still cold outside as we quickly breakdown the tent and throw everything in the car. Soon we’re traveling down the road in the dim light of early morning. I’m used to alpine starts after a long season of ski mountaineering, but this time it’s different. We aren’t getting up for a ski descent, or a climb, or even to wait in line for concert tickets. No, we are heading to Camp 4 in Yosemite, to get in line for camping. It’s either this, or play hide and seek with the rangers the whole time you are here.

We get to the lot around 6 am, and there are already 10 people ahead of us. We take a seat and pass the time until the booth opens at 8:30, making some new friends along the way. Having secured our tent spots, we can enjoy the next seven days free from the hassles of any rangers that have nothing better to do than harass climbers in their quest to make the world a better place. Of course, once I’ve officially registered for a spot, I then wont be “allowed” back in the park until September 15th. Seems a little different than the glory days I’ve read about.

This is my first time in Yosemite. Tracy has spent several summers here, but I never managed to make it happen until now. We ended up having some unexpected time off as she transitions to a new job, so we packed up the car and headed west. Some of our other friends from the Roaring Fork Valley are here as well, and there’s a lot of good vibes in the air.

We don’t have much of an agenda while we are here, as neither of us have been doing much climbing lately and the rust lies heavy on our skills. For now, it’s just great to soak up the beauty of the place, and whatever climbing happens will simply be a bonus on top of that.