Steve came all the way from Colorado and we climbed Split Mountain, one of California's fourteeners, on September 11, 2010. It was a grueling trip, with 17 hours of driving, 17 hours of climbing, 5 hours of sleep, and an hour of being broken down on the side of the road crammed into about 44 hours.
On the way we drove through Yosemite. This is Half Dome.Mantis in the Vons parking lot.Morning.Our first sight of the summit, about four miles in.Marmot man.More marmot man.When I first saw this I could have sworn it was unclimbable (without ropes).Little break for lunch.Where's Steve?Big ridge heading off to the west.Across this saddle and then up to the summit.We were both pretty tired at this point.Mysterious crater.Petey Pika allowed me to get really close (bottom of the picture).Look at his mottled coat.It turns out Pikas eat moss.Almost there.The summit at last.Two benchmarks.Across that knife edge is the south summit, not quite as high.The shadow of Split Mountain.Split Mountain, 14,058 ft.A dead balloon.
