(August 16-17, 2011) 

    I had this romantic idea of climbing the moon goddess arete of Temple Craig with a group of east side mountain ladies on a full moon. Due to lack of excitement, my taking on too many projects, and the dynamic plan changes of climbers, the trip was narrowed down to Jillian and I.

    I remained exhilarated to climb a mountain with my best friend. So we gathered our gear, waited until I got off work at 7pm, and drove down to Big Pine. That night we cooked a dinner, organized or gear, and decided to set the alarm an hour later for 4 hours of sleep.

    It was a beautiful Sierra sunrise, however we should have been miles closer to the base of the climb. With positive attitudes and faith in our skill, we hiked the trail at a good pace for the weighted packs. When we reached the steep snowy ice bank, we smirked because most being an axe to assist, and we didn’t need one. With all smiles and 11AM slowly approaching, we started the route.

    We cruised. Simul climbing for the first five pitches made for smooth climbing and spirits were high. With six out of fourteen pitches done and six hour of sun left. We were confident and proud of our mission. I lead a hairy exposed 5.7 with ease and we munched on nuts and Probars before Jillian lead up the 5.8.

    I was getting cold and pitch nine had been going on for an hour. When I climbed to join Jillian on the next ledge, she looked concerned.

    “I don’t quite know where I should be.” She shouted before I got all the way to her perch. I looked around and in my opinion it all looked sketchy and loose and not the class 3 ledges that we were looking for.  We switched belays and Jillian looked around with no luck and now two hours of sun left.

   

                                        The route                                                            Hairy 5.7

                                                                                                                                    Our camp

We decided to leave a nut and repel down to the “escape gully” to check it out. However the sun dropped faster then expected and the gully looked steeper then the climb with added loose rock. A scary dark abyss of rope tangling, rock dropping, invisible repel stations, and leaving gear behind. We were both tired and a bit frustrated with ourselves. On the plus side the weather was decent and if we got to cold we could walk up the gully and descend from the top.

    Jillian and I found a tiny ledge that blocked rock fall and wind (for the most part) and rested for the night. We decided that if we got to cold or motivated to continue, we would move, however it was much safer to not mess around in the unknown dark.

    The sun came. When it warmed us enough, we peeled the emergency

blanket off  and immediately saw two climbers on moon goddess arete.

I shouted across the canyon, “It was a lovely night for a slumber party.”

And they shouted back, “did you two have a pillow fight?”

    To make a long story short we repelled and hiked out safe and sound

promising to always allow for more time, to look at more photos of the

route, and a few other tips. Although the epic, we were prepared, played it

safe, and keep great spirits.

Sasha Lovell