Your window into the stories, history, and ongoing work to preserve Yosemite’s climbing legacy.

A Note from the Editor

Lots of news to share this week. Taylor Martin established another Yosemite big wall. She wrote on Instagram:

“I believe this to be a good repeatable route just to the right of the 60 Salathé… Hummingbird (5.9+ A4, 13 pitches). Fixed pitches over a four-day period… Returned on July 31 and climbed to the top, topping out on August 5 after spending six days on the wall with a seventh to get down. The route travels through around 90% new terrain and offers one A4 pitch and six A3 pitches, five of which require more than 20 beaks on their pitches.”

Oliver (“Oly”) Tippett wrote a story in UK Climbing about his one-day ascent of Sea of Dreams on El Cap, penning:

“The Sea was a glaring omission from the speed records list. It had never been pushed before and it was clear why. It was first done by Jim Bridwell, Dale Bard, and Dave Diegelman in 1978, and was billed as the hardest route on El Cap at the time. The wandering pitches, loose rock, sustained difficulty, and dangerous sections made climbing quickly clearly challenging.”

In more climbing news, Vitaliy Musiyenko’s Goliath Traverse got its first repeat. He wrote in the AAJ:

“Summary: South-to-north link-up of ‘The Full Monty’ traverse in California’s High Sierra, from Taboose Pass to Bishop Pass, followed by the Full Evolution Crest, from Bishop Pass to Piute Pass, by Vitaliy Musiyenko, August 2–9, 2021. The traverse of approximately 32 miles and 60 summits, called Goliath, was completed with no support or preplaced caches.”

Climbing magazine called it, “5.9/5.10.”

“I’m happier to be done with it than I am to have done it,” [Tanner] Wanish said. Over nine days beginning on July 27, Wanish and Michael Vaill made the second ascent… [Read the Climbing story here.]

Climbing also published “The Valley Boy: The Story of Grant Cline. A 17-year-old free soloist ran away to Yosemite. One year later, his body was found at the base of Royal Arches.”

In climbing video news, check out (published three months ago) Black Diamond Presents: Flashed — Babsi Zangerl’s Historic Flash of El Capitan: “One try. That’s all it took for Babsi Zangerl to send the 3,000-foot Free Rider (VI 5.13a) on El Capitan.”

In case you missed it, BD (nine months ago) published this video of Connor Herson climbing Meltdown. On August 9, Gripped published, “Weekend Warrior Extraordinaire – Connor Herson’s Yosemite Spring Sends.”

Speaking of films, Anna Hazelnutt reposted her video climbing Peace on Medlicott Dome — on the one-year anniversary — in Tuolumne, now with a new musical score by Mark Hendry.

For this week’s feature story, we talk with Dave Sessions, author of the upcoming e-book Tuolumne Climbs. The old-school-style guide with a modern take is designed to be read on your phone, so you don’t have to carry a guidebook in your pack on the way to the crags.

Chris Van Leuven

Editor, Yosemite Climbing Association News Brief

YosemiteClimbing.Org

Four-year-old Dave Sessions with his dad, George, after climbing the East Face of Fairview, 1968. Photo: TM Herbert

**Interview with Dave Sessions: Author of Tuolumne Climbs (Out Soon)**

“If it weren’t for Yosemite Valley — Tuolumne would be the finest climbing area in the world.” – Dave Sessions

Dave Sessions has me on the phone as he wolfs down a bowl of spicy curry at a Thai food joint somewhere in Salt Lake City. He’s celebrating the near-completion of his new book. Regarding the soon-to-be-released e-book, Tuolumne Climbs: “It’s not a select guide, I don’t really like select guides, but it’s not an encyclopedia either — it’s 650 routes, a lifetime’s worth of climbing in Tuolumne. It covers all the great routes on the domes and doesn’t get into the peaks or the backcountry.”

“It starts with Olmsted, Murphy, Stately, hits the domes to Lembert and Puppy, and makes its way back.”

Sessions says the book is due out this month (August), calling it version 1.0. He’ll email copies to buyers and, as he updates the book with feedback and new information, send out revised editions. To order, visit YosemiteClimbing.org. The book is currently on pre-sale for $18 (marked down from $22).

Sessions is a second-generation Yosemite/Tuolumne climber. His dad, George Sessions, climbed in The Valley starting in about 1953 amid the “Steck era,” Sessions says, referring to Allen Steck. “My dad guided in Tuolumne—Wayne Merry brought him on—when the school opened in the late ‘60s. My dad used to say that guiding was just a good excuse to loaf around in the Meadows for the summer. When they brought him on, they said, ‘Sessions, do you know how to place nuts?’ He told me he had no idea. But he said ‘Sure. Of course I do’…

“Growing up around the guides was amazing. The big thing back then was that the guide school was in the incredible building that is now the visitor center. Folks like Warren Harding would show up and hold court in front of the stone fireplace, and everyone would hang on his every word. He had a great sense of humor. They all did. TM was the king of humor. When he would get into it—a half-empty beer in one hand— everyone would soon have tears in their eyes listening to him spinning his fanciful yarns.”

Other than his dad and his cousin, Gary Colliver, Sessions’ first partners were Scott Burk and Alan Nelson. “Burk was my first partner. We met when we were 14 and 15,” he says. “I was up there with my dad; he was up there with his dad. We hooked up and climbed a bunch of the routes on the headwall of Lembert: Rawl Drive, Truckin Drive; Headrush was brand new back then, and we did that.”

“The following year, ‘79, we met up there and spent six weeks climbing together. Peter Mayfield took us up Lucky Streaks, and I have a vivid memory of him picking through his gear and putting excruciating thought into putting together a rack of nuts. In the end, it was seven or eight nuts total (including for the sling belays). Pretty thin for a big route like that. At the end of the day, I couldn’t get one of the nuts out at a sling belay, and when we got to the top, he asked me ‘Where’s my nut‽’ I was, like, ‘I left it; I couldn’t get it out.’ He wasn’t impressed. He started downsoloing, going down far enough to shout to the party behind us and ask if they’d cleaned it. I remember he didn’t talk to me the whole way down. It was a pretty important nut to him. …Sure - when you only have seven or eight.”

Tuolumne Climbs

Sessions and I pivot to the present day, and while looking at a sample chapter of Olmsted Point, I ask him about the book.

“I was really shooting for an old-school feel,” he says. “The photos need to not just tell you where the routes are — they need to make you wanna do them."

My first thought was that the format reminded me of the Green Roper book, and when I said that, I could hear him chuckle in agreement on the other end of the line. “That’s what I grew up with — Roper’s Green Guide to the Valley.” He says it also harkens back to the simplicity of George Meyers’ Yosemite guide and Tom Higgins' 1978 article in Mountain Magazine #60.

“I love Mountain Magazine. Oh my God, I couldn’t wait for them to come out, and I had all of them,” he says.

In short, Sessions’ guide combines the concise style of the early Yosemite guide, together with fantastic photos, with modern usability, especially for climbers wanting something mobile that they can use at the crags or even up on the routes.

As for the release date: “I’m still very optimistic that we will meet the deadline of August 21st and get it mailed out so that folks can start using it. “I really hope people enjoy it; so many people contributed over the years—from Vern Clevenger’s foreword to essays from Yerian, Burke, and Claude Fiddler.”

Look for a feature story on Vern Clevenger in next week’s eNewsletter.

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