"The summer of 2004 brought me to many places, one of them being Tuolumne Meadows.  I think Tuolumne is the most beautiful part of Yosemite that I have seen so far.  The vast High Sierra landscape sits around 10,000′ in a lush forest littered with granite domes. 

During this trip I was going to climb a few routes with my friends, Kevin and John.  Our first plan was to climb what we heard was a classic route on Lamb Dome called On the Lamb.  The route began half way up Lamb Dome with many different approach pitches.  Our plan was to start on the North side and climb the three horizontal traversing pitches South.  Some how we got lost, bypassed the start and ended up on the summit.  On the descent we ended up at the start of the route on the South side.  Climbers had show up on both sides and were now climbing toward each other.  I should have stayed to see how they were going to pass each other.

We headed to Tenaya Lake and began thinking of other classic route that were not loaded with people. I looked across the lake and saw this amazing 1500′ low angle ridge rising to the summit of Tenaya Peak (10280 ft). The ridge was the North West Buttress 5.5.

John had gone off to solo some routes, so Kevin and I decided to head up the NW Buttress of Tenaya Peak. He had not soloed anything of this scale before. I told him it was fun climbing (and was hoping he wouldn’t sketch out). Being away from crowds, views that go on forever, and pure movement was what this climb was about, it’s what the Sierra’s are about. I traded the flip flops for my 5.10 Guide Tennies, packed up some water and we were on our way. It was fun to flow over the granite, meandering from crack to crack once we bush whacked our way to the base. Tenaya Lake began to get smaller and a view of The Valley came into view.  We c0uld see Half Dome and Clouds rest to the South and ten feet to our left was classic exposure.

The route involved it all… smears, edging some splitter cracks. My Guide Tennies were solid the entire way, even on the approach and descent.  We stayed up on the summit for a while, enjoying the 360 degree amazing view.

Kevin had a blast making his way up the route and enjoying the incredible view from the summit. The view is difficult to put into words. You’ll have to head up and check it out.

Climb on"

-Eric