Climbing Snake Dike in Yosemite

snake dike

Click on the link to see the climb!

In October I made the decision to climb a 5.7 route up Half Dome called Snake Dike. It is an 8 pitch climb with a final hike up to the top of Half Dome and it is estimated to take about 4 hours to hike up to, 4 to climb, and another 4 to hike out.  We started out by waking up at 2:30 am and leaving by 3:30 to start hiking up, My Dad, our friend Brett and my Mom all started the hike, but my Mom turned around after a few hours so she could take care of the dogs in our van. She carried extra food and water and my pack to Nevada Falls and then my dad carried my pack. We got a little lost on our hike and didn’t get to the base of the climb until 10 am, and there were 8 people getting ready to climb it ahead of us! We managed to finally get on the rock at 12 and started climbing. It took a long time because we kept catching up to the climbers ahead of us and having to wait until they cleared the route, but the views were incredible!  We didn’t get to the top of Half Dome until about 7″30 pm and took a break to take our harnesses off and eat a little food. Dad called Mom and she started hiking up again with extra water and sleeping bags just in case we bonked on the way down. I have to admit I was pretty tired and Dad actually carried me for about an hour on the hike down. We met up with Mom at about 11:30 pm and still had to hike down Vernal Falls. We didn’t get back to camp until 1 am and Mom made some lentil soup and then we all crashed!  We woke up the next morning at about 8 and were refreshed and happy, but we had to pack up camp and leave. It was a great experience and I can’t wait to go back! While in Yosemite, I also saw a bear, a bobcat and a California King Snake. I also got to meet one of the worlds greatest climbers- Ron Kauk! I watched a movie he was in and bought his book and he signed it for me and told me to email him so we could climb. It was super cool!

Watch the video of Sage running a 35 ft dam!

Sage on the Big Bend Dam!

Big Bend Dam on the Feather River

What happens in California after a few years of drought. The reservoirs get low and sections of rivers normally underwater become runnable again. This weekend we did the Big Bend Run on the North Fork of the Feather River. This section is normally under 35 feet of water but the reservoir is so low we were able to run about 6 miles of class 3/4 whitewater. It starts out with a short paddle to a 35 ft. dam that makes a big slide/drop into the river. At first I was very nervous, but I watched several people run it and I decided to try it. I followed my Dad to the wave above the drop and Mom follwed me. When I started to go over I felt like I was going to slam to the bottom, but the roostertail wave carried me gently to the slide portion and the pillowy waves at the bottom.  I had so much fun that I paddled right over to the ropes hanging on the side of the dam and climbed back up to do it again and again. We had set up a pulley system for boats and everyone had to climb up a rope to get back up, but I was pulled up because I weighed less than some of the boats!

After several photo drops on the dam, we continued down the river for a lot of fun rapids. Box Car rapid was a riverwide hole that had a small rock slot that I was able to shoot through, while most of the other people  had to drop into the hole and were flipped. After a short lunch break and a fun seal launch, we continued paddling through a few more class 4 gorge rapids into the lake where we were picked up by motor boats and shuttled 7 miles across the lake to our cars. I hope to do this again next week.  Thanks Scott Sady for the great photos!

 

Peace,

Sage