We got up this morning and waited for Nefarius. He was sleeping late. I doubt it had anything to do with the port flowing freely at the campfire the night before. Ha!! Finally, Dave, Happie and I left word with them that we would be at Lower Cathedral on Beggar’s Buttress and the Mecca Wall. After they ate breakfast, they were to join us.
The three of us hiked up to Beggar’s Buttress to find (you guessed it) a party on the climb. So we moved on.
We found the Mecca Wall and a 10d sport climb. Dave headed up. This is a very stout “10d.” It was a fun climb for sure, but I was very happy I didn’t lead it. It was devious and tricky and I think in no way a 10d. Fun nonetheless. We headed back to Beggar’s Buttress to find a party rapping off. We wanted to climb the first two pitches only. Dave headed up and Happiegrrrl hoped on and climbed a good amount of the route. It was fun watching her climb and exceed her expectations for the climb.
I headed up after Happie. The first route was interesting requiring a lot of different techniques such as suspending belief of what is humanly possible. The second pitch was a finger crack that shifted at the top to a fist crack. I enjoyed both very much.
It was getting a bit late (the facelift dinner and party started at 6 and we didn’t want to be late) so we headed to one last climb. Dave is the only one who did it given the time.
The entire day, we looked for Nefarius and Matt but never saw them. We hiked back to the car to find they’d written “Yosemite Dirt” on the back glass. Turns out they were there and looked for us but couldn’t find us. I know this since I retrieved a voice mail from them the following day while looking for us. Major bummer. I’m not sure when we’ll all get a chance to climb together again.
We headed to the auditorium for dinner and the show. We started with wine and beer (20$). Our timing was perfect. We were almost first in line for the chow (a 25$ value). It was good food – unfortunately, it didn’t last and the folks at the end of the line were eating scraps such as potato chips and salsa. Poor guys!
The show was a blast. Chicken Skinner got the recognition he deserves for putting together the facelift. Then Timmy O got on stage to entertain. To begin, he, Ranger Jessie and Guy Yager threw t-shirts, wag bags and packages of chalk into the audience resulting in a complete frenzy. At one point, special attention was given to John Stannard. This man works harder than any ten of us there. He wields a trash grabber better than anyone! To demonstrate his skills, Tommy hucked a t-shirt in the air and John S snatched it out of the air with one grab of the grabber.
The crowd went wild!
After the crowd was whipped into a frenzy, Timmy O started the raffle. There were many sweet prizes again that night. Prizes were handed out to many participants. Near the end of the raffle, Dave was bummed that he didn’t get the cool mammut rope (or any prize). Just then, we hear Timmy announce “Dave Vaughan.” Dave ran to the stage to collect his raffle prize: any pair of 5.10 shoes he wants. Very cool! He’d been ogling my 5.10 Guide Tennies since I purchased them. Now he can have his own pair (a $95 value).
As everyone was patting Dave on the back for his excellent score, my name was called. I won a Patagonia fiber-filled parka (a $275 value). Very cool! Following the raffle, we listened to the band a while, then headed back to camp. Because most of the folks had left for home, it was a quiet evening around the fire for those of us who remained.
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