Following last weekend's foray onto the very far right side of Hoffman Mtn. I became completely enamored with getting back there before the snow flew. Work travel, family visit, and a very busy schedule of climbs I wanted to do in October meant I needed to do something fast.
Enter Mucci, stage left. Time? Midweek.
"Hey bro, howz it going?"
Good. Such a good weekend for a day trip. Had to get in there. I couldn't not go in there.
"Yeah, Munge, your pics looked good."
I'm thinking about going back in.
It was done that quick. Lightweight rig planned. Photo sent over with possible lines highlighted. Stoke is correctly pegged on ULTRA HIGH. The plan; hike in Friday night so we can get a bit of jump on the 3 or so miles approach hike. At the last minute, a call with John and Susan happens.
"We're not sure what we're going to do."
Well, there's your problem right there. Pack yer shit. Here's how to get there.
Later that evening...
"oh, wow, you're making good time. We'll be at Chilis in Los Banos eating steak."
Two ribeyes later we head out and make the long drive to Wishon with John and Susan caravanning.
We veto the midnight hike in in favor of catching up and bs'ing as only climbers know how.
The sun seems to rise prematurely, and morning coffee can not come too soon. But eventually my sandbagging succeeds and we're on the trail. Our first objective, just get to the base. It's substantial rise from creek to base. The elevation is a non-trival 8k or so.
John and Susan sample the first pitch of Burninator...
Mucci and I head up to capture the ineffable sense of adventure that only happens when things are not completely spelled out.
New terrain means checking out corners that go glassy slab moves. Instead he moves up and right following weaknesses until a loose block choked massive flake means cutting left. A big span of a reach and very little feat makes the move thought provoking. Hit the corner. Then get gear. Tight hands up a few moves, then hit the belay.
Definitely that was the technical crux of the route.
A hit off the Gatorita, er, I mean, we should have brought Gatoritas!
Later that night, back at the ranch, while drinking Gatoritas and thinking about route names the simple, elegant and befitting route name would come to us.
Until then, we were burning daylight in the best way possible. I mean, really, WWBD?
He would aim for this headwall and obvious splitter! No time to drill, just send! NO KIT!
It seemed steep, especially avoiding the big blocks under it. who knows if they would go, but out this far you exercise caution.
Add to that some fairly dark clouds to the east gave character to the Sierra day we embarked on, but they never darkened the rock from their shadows.
Mucci Pics
Step over the baby roof and head for superb climbing.
"Hey, uh, Mucci, I'm just going to take it slow and enjoy this. Sorry."
Damn that was good.
So we had hiked in, done the approach hike, and done a new FA on stunning rock. Call it a day?
pft! You're nuts. Tons of daylight left and the clouds are breaking up even more and receding to the high country.
Walk down the north side and eyeball a slight cleft in the wall left of the route Rejuvenator that I did last weekend.
Totally looks doable for going thru the orange headwall.
We solo up the easier white granite to a little ledge. I figure it's Mucci's turn to get some orange headwall goodness. Right?
Up he goes following this slight greyish feature to the cleft above. But the gear is sporadic hollow and spread out.
After trying to go up and left, testing his pinnacles skills, reason and better rock out right on the black streak takes him through a steep move and the eventual top where the birds and climbers alike are free to roam. Surprisingly this climb is good, but compared to everything else on the wall, so far it's the Worst Route at Hoffman. We are proud to have found it!
The Obelisk is a mere telephoto away when seen from the summit.
We walk down and around and retrieve gear and beers and finish the day watching John climb what is probably Gold Nugget's 2nd or 3rd ascent over on the left side of Red Tail Tower.
It's long, like 200' long if done from the ground.
After that we drop down and make for the creek, some calories, beers and Gatoritas. Without having to carry racks and ropes back up, the next days approach seems reasonable.
Someone may have poored too strong as well, or the elevation was making us light duty because I remember lots of laughs and good times thinking about the day all that it was.
Good thing we enjoyed the libations since I had not brought a ground pad. Even soft ground is hard. Sleep is a little rough.
Soon enough the sun is up. The cold outside air starts to seem better than laying inside the bag on the ground. Eventually the notion that coffee is ready in 3 minutes gets me moving. I know I'm going to climb another good route today.
Some of us are more ready than others.
The next day is approaching up to the base of the orange stuff, and trying to go through what seems to be some of the steeper headwall and use weaknesses we think we saw to get up. The hike up just works me. I'm feeling not so great. It's only the potential line that keeps me going, but our original line just up the hill from Burninator seems fraught with blank sections between hollow layback flakes to get up to a place where we would likely have to drill. We opt for a route closer to the Worst Route at Hoffman on the right.
I know there is a line that goes up through this...
Some sparse gear, a neat think crack crux going straight up and some cruiser fun climbing takes me to a belay at the base of the headwall.
The color here is phenomenal. Mucci takes the steeps...
clean gear all the way
The top...
Completely happy, but somewhat thinking it would be nice to do one more, we head down to shoes and see how things are going on the other side. Apparently, one of the best routes ever has just been done.
This elation of climbing some amazing stone seems to produce the silliest of nostalgic looks back at the end of the day.
We all do it.
We make a leisurely pace to camp, but once packed we beat feet down to the trucks where there are cold beers.
A stunning place, new routes, amazing stone, no crowd, and great friends. Couldn't have had a better time. Brutus would have been proud.
On the way out the Elderberries make me think of Burninator Jam.
Original Topos for Hoffman that we'll look to update with a listing here, me thinks.
http://www.summitpost.org/hoffman-mountain/225486
