This week, we feature Zoe Klein, an ecologist who works with American Forest, an NPS adjacent organization, to study the conservation of whitebark pines in Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings National Parks.

Ken Yager recounts the shenanigans involved in rigging for a movie to film a 120-foot whipper from the top of El Capitan with Dave Shultz, which incidentally turns into a bad acid trip.

On Wednesday June 10, the unstoppable duo Olly Tippett and Taylor Martin broke the speed record on Tangerine Trip, taking the same route as the previous record holders by starting on Lost in America and Virginia to get to the start of Tangerine Trip’s fifth pitch and then following the route to the top. The record was last broken in October 2025 by Brant Hysell and Dan Gosselin in 7 hours and 57 minutes. Tippett and Martin completed the route in 7 hours and 8 minutes, shaving 49 minutes off the record.

On Monday June 15, the Department of the Interior released drafts for national guidance pertaining to climbing management for the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Forest Service. The Access Fund noted that these three agencies together make up for roughly thirty percent of all climbing within the United States. These new guidelines will shape the future of climbing here in North America. We are now entering into the public comment period, and it will be of the utmost importance that climbers weigh in and make their voices heard to ensure the unique nature of our sport is understood and protected moving forward. The Access Fund has posted links to make it easy for climbers to share their voices during the comment period, which will close thirty days from June 18. 

The Valley has been buzzing with discussion this week over a topic that has been controversial for some time: the rebolting of Half Dome’s classic route Snake Dike. This week I spoke with one of its first ascensionists, Eric Beck, to inform him of the degree to which his route was being re-bolted and to hear his opinion about it.

The degree of the community’s reaction to this event is a testament to part of what makes Yosemite so special: people that come here to climb, and especially people that have been climbing here for years or for their whole lives, care deeply about the tradition of climbing in Yosemite. It’s not just about climbing. It’s also about the history, the culture, the tradition, the ethic, the style, the community, and so much more. 

A huge new free route was completed on the north face of Middle Cathedral this week: Borealis (VI 5.13a, 23 pitches, 2200 ft.). Brandon Adams, accompanied by Trish Matheney, Brett Wines and Lance Colley for five days, finished the route from May 29 to June 4.

Also of note, Jordan Cannon sent all of Mt Watkins in a day on Monday June 1st, belayed and supported by Adam Monkaba. Cannon had put in a lot of work rehearsing and chalking / ticking the route and prehanging draws on the 12d pitch prior to their ascent. He also added rappel rings to most of the anchors to better facilitate retreat from the route.

For this week’s Founder’s Log, Ken Yager reminisces about time he spent together with the late great Walt Shipley and recounts some of his lightheartedly rebellious antics.

Memorial Day weekend usually marks the first major weekend of the busy summer season for Yosemite National Park, and this year proved to be especially hectic. With the elimination of the timed-entry reservation system, the park experienced record crowding. So far this year there have been more than 836,000 visits - roughly 100,000 more visits than this same time last year.

For this week’s feature I speak with Skot Richards. He blends passion and innovation by developing specialized equipment for big wall climbers, and he puts his own gear to the test during his own ascents of El Cap routes.

El Capitan continues to be the scene of much action, and Taylor Martin and Olliver Tippett have continued their spring tear of speed climbing by breaking two more speed records. On Sunday the 17th, they climbed Shortest Straw (5.7 A4, 1800’) in 9:51. Martin wrote about their ascent “It feels really cool to not need a headlamp on a route that once took me around 5 days to climb.” Continuing their spree, on Tuesday May 19 they headed back up and made the first one day ascent of Hole World (5.9 A4) in 14 hours and 45 minutes.

For this week’s feature I interview Nick Ehman, longtime Valley local and SAR member, to talk about his love of Yosemite and how he has been able to continue to live, work and play in the Valley.

This last week saw some impressive climbing, including a repeat of the Yosemite Triple Crown by Chris Deuto and Eric Andersen. They linked the three major formations on May 9th on foot and by bicycle for a total time of 22 hours and 16 minutes. They started on Mt Watkins, climbing Half Dome next and finishing on El Capitan. The pair had prepared by climbing the double last Fall and rehearsing each route this spring.

El Cap has been busy with wall climbers and was also the scene of another notable ascent. A new speed record was set on Lost in America by Olly Tippett and Taylor Martin on May 7th. For this week’s feature I had a chance to catch up with the two of them to hear about their experience on the route.

PROGRESS REPORT: YCA Film Festival & Storyteller Summit Kickstarter!

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We are blown away by your continued support and the anticipation of the inaugural YCA Film Festival & Storyteller Summit.

Ken Yager remembers Dean Potter in this week’s Founder’s Log.

We are pleased to welcome and introduce our newest YCA News Brief Editor, Miles Fullman! Miles is a talented writer and climbing ranger in Yosemite, whom comes highly referred by his predecessor, Chris Van Leuven. Chris will still be contributing to the news brief from time to time while he steps away to focus on the growth of his booming Yosemite e-bike tour business.

We’re so excited for the future of this newsletter and hope to create a dynamic and engaging weekly drop in your inbox, with guest writers and up-to-date park knowledge from Yosemite experts! We are so glad to have you here with us.

The Yosemite Climbing Association (YCA) successfully hosted the Mariposa Facelift on April 11, bringing together 78 volunteers for a day of community stewardship and environmental care throughout Mariposa. Volunteers worked across Mariposa town proper, with a strong focus on the Mariposa Creek Parkway. By the end of the day, participants had removed 990 pounds of trash and 400 pounds of invasive species, including mustard and thistle, helping restore critical riparian habitat along the creek.

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For this week’s feature, I speak with Matt Cairns, whose Yosemite life is shaped less by technical rock climbing than by a deep desire to reach wild, remote places. After years of hitchhiking across the U.S. and abroad, guiding backpacking trips in the West, and eventually settling in Mariposa, he built a life centered on adventure, service, and time in the mountains.

Ken Yager’s Founder’s Log recounts the 1986 first ascent of Karma on Half Dome’s South Face, a bold and dangerous route he joined while still recovering from major knee surgery. Despite pain, hard runout climbing, rockfall, and the uncertainty of a steep, intimidating dike system, Yager, Dave Schultz, and Jim Campbell kept returning until they completed the climb after 12 days of effort.

Climbing season is on, and so is California’s heat!

For this week’s feature story, I talk with Daniel Melendrez, who started climbing in 2009 after a friend talked him into trying a gym in Riverside, and moved to Yosemite the next year after an earlier visit to the park left a big impression on him.

In the late spring of 1987, with a month off work and a road trip planned to Red Rocks, Phoenix, and Hueco Tanks, Ken Yager set out with Dave Schultz in a well-worn 1965 Ford pickup after a tax mistake left him unexpectedly broke. Read this week’s full founder’s log below.

In this week’s Founder’s Log, Ken Yager recalls a story from 1979; after moving to Mammoth Lakes for a ski-area job, he made his first trip to the Buttermilks with Yosemite friend Grant Hiskes.

And for this week’s feature, I talk with Brian Ludovici. Brian is a Yosemite-based climber originally from North Carolina who came west after being inspired by Valley Uprising. He now lives in the Valley, works as the park’s after-school program coordinator, and spends much of his free time soloing, bouldering, and linking together big days like the Yosemite Picnic.

For this week’s Founder’s Note, Ken Yager shares how he helped create an NPS-approved “Ask A Climber” telescope program and hired Tom Evans as the interpreter. And for this week’s feature story, I write about climbing with Eric Johnson during his first multi-pitch route in Yosemite.

For this week’s feature, I interviewed Miya Tsudome, a Bishop-based climber, photographer, and filmmaker who built her skills in Yosemite and now documents big wall ascents in real time. She’s helping with the YCA film festival coming up later this year. This summer, she’s headed to the Cirque of the Unclimbables in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

In this week’s Founder’s Note, Ken Yager recalls a pivotal summer in 1972 in Geneva while his dad worked at CERN, with weekends in Chamonix, where the climber campfires hooked him on the idea of bigger mountains. After an inexperienced, snow-storm-aborted attempt near the Dru and reading The White Spider, he tried to “do mountaineering” back home with a brutal winter ascent of Lover’s Leap—verglassed 5.6, deep snow, near-frostbite. He topped out shaken and decided he preferred warm hands and dry rock.

This week, YCA News Brief features Remy Mitchell, who shares why Yosemite keeps drawing him back through different life chapters—community, history, and that endless “new again” feeling.

Ken Yager shares his experience working as KPIX’s assistant during Mike Corbett and paraplegic climber Mark Wellman’s 1991 Half Dome ascent of Tis-sa-ack, juggling rope rigging, filming support, and repeated hikes to deliver footage to the Valley.

This week’s Founder’s Note features Ken Yager taking readers back—way back—to 1977 and the infamous drug plane that crashed in Lower Merced Pass Lake.

And for the week’s feature, I talk with Marc Manko, Heide Lindgren’s fiancé (see story on Heide in last week’s news brief), a Yosemite big wall climber who works as a physician assistant in Idaho.

For this week’s Founder’s Note, Ken Yager writes about his first serious attempt to climb the Nose in winter, where he learned hard lessons in logistics, cold bivies, and a sketchy retreat.

And for this week’s feature story, I talk with Heide Lindgren and her fiancé, Marc Manko, about their love of climbing in Yosemite. A few years ago, Lindgren and I ran the trails at Stockton Creek Reservoir in Mariposa, and later she joined my friends and me bouldering above town. She took to it immediately, and over the years, she’s kept me updated on her progress—today, living in Boise, Idaho, she’s a 5.10 lead climber.

• Climbing Magazine reported: When he topped out on 'Free Rider' (5.13a; 3,300ft) on November 30, Teddy Eyob (@goretex_jockstrap ) became the first Black climber to free El Capitan

• Tom Herbert put up a new line on Loggerhead Buttress called Winter Sport

• In this week’s Founder’s Note, Ken Yager shares a classic Yosemite story that starts in the late ’80s, when plastic holds and indoor competitions first appeared in the U.S.

• For this week’s feature, YCA speaks with Midpines local, Nick Miranda!