...and JEWEL PINNACLE!

Tonya took me! This is Tonya resting on the hike up.
And this is me. The approach involves crossing the Red River on foot -- and I don't mean by balancing on an enormous dead tree -- and then slogging up a soft, muddy, steep hillside covered in leaves. Tonya brought wading sandals, but I just soaked my sneaks right through. We were obviously too excited about the climbing to be upset by the lack of a trail. But it does surprise me that public parks would be so poorly taken care of when Muir Valley, which is private, has some of the best trails around. Hm.
This is us after our first ascent of Diamond in the Crack. I was too scared to lead at first, so Tonya had gotten the rope here for us.
...but after Tonya convinced me that it wasn't too difficult or scary (and we ate sammiches at the top, ogled the view & wrote in the log), I led the second pitch and then the first. It was terrific.

summary of july until now

my cat is snoring on his bed/scratching post. i think he has sleep apnea.

so i forgot my camera on a few climbing trips, lost my camera on a Dip Wall (RRG)trip, went to Colorado with an iPhone & two disposables, came home, climbed either with no camera or with the iPhone, and finally bought a new camera. but the real issue is that i am a captioner more than a blogger, and picasa is meeting all my needs right now.
Here is my public page on Picasa.

besides Dip Wall, i have been to the Motherlode to watch the Roc Trip comp (yay, Dave Graham), to Pebble Beach, Muscle Beach, the Wall of Denial, Left Field at Prendergass Murray and Muir Valley.