I'm thinking of coming out to yosemite in late march. I talked to someone from California and she said she's climbed at Yosemite at that time. Can you recomend a good guidebook, as well as some climbs that would be approporiate for me for that time of year? I can toprope or sport climb up 5.10c, and I have a very meager rack to 2 inches (a set of wires and a set of hexes and a few miscellaneous pieces i've picked up on clearance) and feel ok climbing 5.9 trad.

-- Jonathan Downing (biswassi@hotmail.com), November 13, 2001

Answers

The Valley is climbable, I was in a T-shirt two days ago. Sounds like you need a bigger rack! Cams up to 3" and full set of stopers and hexes. You will find that 10c sport climbing does not mean that much in Yosemite. You can find a few bolted sport climbs, but be prepared for long run outs on some of the bolted climbs. Start on some easy cracks like Jam Crack, Bishops Terrace (4" cam is helpful), After Six, check out the climbs on the Knob Hill formation Church Bowl, Yosemite is VERY humbling. Don Reid's book, Yosemite Free Climbs is the most complete. A good way to start out is with Chris Mac's supertopo pack, he'll guide you through your whole climbing experience with his topos. www.supertopo.com . He also has the BEST yosemite web site!

-- Rob (tradisrad@hotmail.com), February 24, 2002.