The close to two weeks spent in Camp 4 in Yosemite valley, were absolutely incredible. To start off, Camp 4 itself (a place that is legendary among the climbing community) is everything we hoped for and more. Mostly populated by climbers (though this time of year there were quite a few backpakers, and even a couple of tourists), it's a place where time seems to stand still. On the second day there we'd forgotten (and didn't care) what day or for that matter what time it was.
As you can see when no climbing is going on, there's reading, playing cards, juggling, sharing stories of woe, and making bets on whose car bears will break into tonight. At most times of day and every evening you can hear someone picking on a guitar. It's one of the most relaxed, quite and serene places I have ever been to. Camp 4 has its own fauna composed of three major species: the fat bold campground squirrel, which spends its time begging for climbers' food and chasing the thin campground squirrel away,
the thin campground squirrel which spends its time begging for climbers' food and running away from the fat campground squirrel,
and the bear - which spends its time not caring about squirrels or climbers because its too busy breaking into cars looking for food (during the time we stayed at camp 4, there was an average of at least one car broken into every night). We got to see a bear walking around the campground at night. It had complete and utter disregard for people: it was nonchalantly steeping over climbers sleeping on the ground, sniffing around bear boxes for food that had not been put away, and having a fine time of it all. I'm really not sure if that can qualify as seeing a bear in the wild.
There is a huge boulder in the middle of the campground - that's where climbers gather on lazy afternoons to attempt Midnight Lightning - probably the world's most popular bouldering problem. It is rated V11 (very very very hard). When we jumped on it, Andy was only able to pull the first couple of moves, and as for me - I wasn't able to even get my feet of the ground and start the problem. The kid flying up it here is Wava - really great, really friendly Polish guy here on vacation. Probably the best climber I've ever ran into.
Sites are shared (up to 6 people per site) so the place was perfect for us: we got to meet and talk to a ton of amazing people. Kurt was the first person we ran into at the campground.
Just a few days earlier he'd been stalked by a Mountain Lion at the base of El Capitan. In this picture you can see he's tired and only half alive: that's because he just came back from spending two days and two nights on Leaning tower - a big wall - all by himself. He's been climbing for over 10 years, so he gave us quite a bit of helpful beta - he's also one of the people we got to talk to the most (we stayed in the same site for close to a week) - and had some really great conversations with.
Carlos and Mariana had come to yosemite from Mexico City. Carlos, who is a climbing instructor back in Mexico, made an attempt on Zodiac (a 4 day route on El Cap), but he and his friend Louis decided it was just too hot, so they backed off after the first day of climbing. In the background is Amy - one of the "permanent residents" of Camp 4 - not an easy task seeing that the maximum allowable stay is 1 week.
After a day or two spent relaxing (which comes very easily at Camp 4) we decided it was time to go do some climbing. Here I am ready to belay Andy on one of the upper pitches of After Seven, a 5.8 five pitch climb during which we found out a couple of things: first - once you are up high in Yosemite Valley the wind is so strong that there is NO WAY you and your partner can hear each other. Second - climbing on a dark granite face during the noon hours of the day, with the hot sun blasting at you is really really tiring and it makes you drink A LOT.
Once we got to the top of After Seven we were tired but feeling great because the view up top was incredible.
But after we got back down we were simply tired (and scary looking) - and ready to do nothing but ministry for the next couple of days or so.
That's when the Lord sent our way some of the most awesome people we met on this trip. In the morning Matt and Gabe walked into our site lugging a guitar and 10 different bags, and started setting up what ended up being one of the largest tents in the entire campground. We quickly realized they were Christians and we spent the entire afternoon in fellowship - chatting, plucking on Gabe's guitar and defending the campground from squirrels. It turns out Gabe goes to Moody Bible Institute in Chicago - what are the chances of that??!
That's also when Stuart joined our little group. Now this man works as a rigger for theatre shows - he's been traveling for years across all the major cities of the US with some of the greatest theatre productions ever made. His energy and vitality put us all to shame: we all stayed up late chatting around the campfire, and when the four of us were still sleeping, he was out mountain biking along yosemite's many biking trails. As we were drawing straws for who would have to make breakfast he was already back and getting ready to go for a hike to the Upper Falls (looong hike). Oh yeah - and have I mentioned he's almost 50? Really incredible guy, full of amazing stories and with a heart of gold - who has Andy wanting to be a rigger here at the U of I.
Did I mention we took it easy?
That's also around the time when Andy had another close encounter with a dear (for the first one look at RMNP). This time he had a camera and took a few pics. This is in the middle of El Cap Meadow.
While driving around the valley we saw a lady artist painting.
...and Andy found yet another potential carrer to dive into after getting back to Champaign...
On Sunday we checked out the local church. The before the service the Pastor asked if anybody was visiting from another country, and finally one family raised there hands and it turned out they were from Poland. Overcome by excitement at running into so many Poles, I immediately raised my hand (to Andy's laughter) and said I was from Poland as well. Andy pointed out (while still trying not to burst out laughting) that after 9 years of being here I can hardly claim to be visiting. A lady sitting next to us quickly proved him right by walking up to Andy and saying how impressed she was at his excellent pronounciation...
Half dome towers over the entire valley - it's pretty amazing. One night we saw a couple of tiny headlamp lights about 3/4 of the way up it. I think they saw us too because at the time we were climbing the Southwest face of Washington Column... but that's a whole other story which I should probably tell from start to finish. I will do that in a day or so.
