Dave felt much better this morning and the swelling was noticeably better. (See the video of his feelings about germs at the end of this entry). So off to Cardinal Pinnacle we went. As stated on Summitpost.com, “Cardinal Pinnacle is one of several (more or less) Eastern Sierra roadside rock crags. It is at high enough elevation (~10,000’) that it can be comfortably climbed during the summer. In winter, it can offer mixed climbing.
The rock and route quality is excellent, and there are numerous spectacular natural lines, both on the pinnacle itself, and nearby cliffs. The longest routes clock in at four or five pitches. This is a good place to go if you don’t have a lot of time; the approach is short, and if you’re reasonably fast you can easily knock out even the longest route in a few hours car to car.”
We drove up to the base of the pinnacle. It was pretty. And the hike, though steep, wasn’t as bad as I’d envisioned. We headed up the talus field, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be either. Though not a 20 minute approach as the guide book suggested, it wasn’t too much longer.
We arrived at the base of the climb. I looked up, saw crack, cringed and my foot whimpered. I kept a brave face though. Dave headed up and I followed.
Surprisingly, the foot didn’t hurt too badly, and the climbing was nice. The second pitch was the best, and hardest. It was the first time in some time that I cleaned the entire climb cleanly. Though I’d convinced myself days before I’d hate it, I have to admit it was quite fun. And my foot hurt very little. Weird.
And I’m glad Dave got to do the climb since he’d been talking about it for some time. It was a good time.We headed back into Bishop to visit with some friends – Jeff and Diane. We met them in Cochise last fall and had looked forward to spending some time climbing with them while we were in town this trip. There was no climbing to be had though since Diane had taken a nearly fatal fall on July 10th and was just home from the hospital. In sum, she broke every limb multiple time, had to have her left cheek/orbital reconstructed and had 3 or 4 pelvis fractures.
Simply, she was lucky to be alive. And she was doing great. She looked terrific and had the same high level of energy we were accustomed to. Jeff was doing well too. No doubt the scenario has been difficult on him too.
We enjoyed dinner, conversation and headed back to camp. Hopefully our next trip will include a fully recovered Diane and lots of climbing.
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