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

A Note from the Editor

Headed over to Sentinel Creek in Yosemite over the weekend, expecting high temperatures. However, since the crag was in the shade, it was hoody weather. The rock was damp in places, there was dirt-covered snow at the base of the wall, and one route I climbed had running water low on it.

But when I hiked out to the car that afternoon, once I reached the sun, the temps felt at least 10 degrees warmer. And it’s only getting hotter, with temperatures expected to be in the mid-70s until cooling off to the high 60s this weekend and into next week.

As Brandon Pullan at Gripped wrote on March 16:

Yosemite Rock Season Arrives with California Heat Wave

Climbers heading to Yosemite Valley at the start of spring will be welcomed by warm temps and sunny skies

California is experiencing an early spring heat wave, with daily temperature records nearly guaranteed and monthly records likely. Officials have issued heat alerts, warning residents of increased risk for heat-related illness as the region approaches the first day of spring.

In climbing film news, two days ago on Instagram, Sender Films posted:

So excited for today’s SXSW premiere of our new HBO series, The Dark Wizard, telling the epic life story of the inimitable Dean Potter.

Thank you to all the amazing people who helped bring this to fruition. We’re excited to share more soon.

SXSW describes the new documentary The Dark Wizard, about the late Dean Potter, which premiered at SXSW on March 15, 2026, at Austin’s Zach Theater. Directed by Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen, the 120-minute film is an unflinching portrait of Potter, exploring both his groundbreaking achievements as a climber, BASE jumper, and highliner, and the inner struggles that shaped his life.

The film features appearances by Dean Potter, Jen Rapp, Elizabeth Potter, Timmy O’Neill, Dean Fidelman, Alex Honnold, and others from Potter’s world. It is being distributed by HBO.

In park visitation news yesterday, Madison Dapcevich at Outside wrote:

After Months of Bad News, This National Park Had One of Its Busiest Years

Despite a government shutdown and reports of chaos, one California national park saw more than 4.2 million visitors last year.

According to newly released National Park Service (NPS) data, more than 4.2 million people visited the California park in 2025, an increase of 156,000 visitors from the previous year. Yosemite beat out Rocky Mountain National Park in 2025, making it the fifth most popular park in the country, after Great Smoky Mountains, Zion, Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon national parks.

According to the NPS, this was Yosemite’s fourth-busiest year on record, behind 2016 (5 million), 2019 (4.4 million), and 2017 (4.3 million).

For this week’s Founder’s Note, Ken Yager writes: In the late spring of 1987, with a month off work and a road trip planned to Red Rocks, Phoenix, and Hueco Tanks, he set out with Dave Schultz in a well-worn 1965 Ford pickup after a tax mistake left him unexpectedly broke. Along the way, they detoured to Whitney Portal, camped and climbed with friends, bouldered in Red Rocks, and competed in the Phoenix Bouldering Contest. Then they spent a week at Hueco Tanks, where the steep, overhanging bouldering felt unlike anything in Yosemite.

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. He spent his early years in the Valley working, climbing, and trying to be a well-rounded climber, with bouldering becoming his strongest discipline. Now living in Mariposa with his wife, Genny, and daughter, Izzy, Daniel works in GIS for the City of Merced while staying connected to Yosemite through climbing, hiking, backpacking, and family adventures, saying the park’s beauty and variety continue to inspire him.

Chris Van Leuven

Editor, YCA News Brief

YosemiteClimbing.org

Melenendrez on pitch 2 of Freeblast, El Cap. Photo: Andrew Waughn

Daniel Melendrez: A Life Built Near Yosemite

From Riverside gym sessions to family life in Mariposa, Melendrez remains connected to Yosemite through climbing and everyday adventures in the park.

In 2009, a friend invited Daniel to check out Threshold Climbing Gym in Riverside on his birthday. He didn’t go in expecting much, but took to it right away and soon started frequenting the boulders called Big Rock near his place in Riverside, where he’d scrambled before but hadn’t technically climbed.

When he heard that a gym owner was replacing old mats, Daniel picked them up, piled them in his car, and started taking them to his bouldering area, where he and his friend Nick Miranda worked on a V1 slab. When the two got inspired by other lines, they moved the gym mats and took turns working their way up the boulders.

Mark Smith—who put up Wings of Steel on El Cap with Richard Jensen—had put together a guidebook to Big Rock, and later Nick put up one of the harder lines there.

Daniel and Nick moved to Yosemite in 2010, with Dan arriving first and Nick a few months later. A year prior, Dan had visited the park for the first time, and he says, “I was just blown away by the scenery and what makes Yosemite special.” He was so inspired by the waterfalls and hiking trails that he never even noticed the park’s employee housing areas.

But he did notice the Happy Isles snack shack, and it clicked that you could work in Yosemite. “That’s kind of what sparked the whole idea of working in Yosemite,” he says. Back home, he applied for a job with the concession and got a gig working at the Curry Pizza Deck. Upon realizing he had to work all the time and had no motivation to do so, he got canned. But by then he’d already fallen in love with Genny, and they’ve been together ever since. Today, they’re raising their daughter in Mariposa.

Daniel climbed a few big walls in Yosemite during those years, attempted El Cap but bailed, and spent most of his time on free routes and bouldering. He still visits Yosemite on weekends, where he and his family hike and backpack throughout the area. He describes Yosemite as a place of endless beauty and variety, one that keeps offering new adventures through waterfalls, rock formations, seasons, and access to the High Sierra. And he still climbs.

They chose Mariposa because it’s close to Yosemite, and for a period, Daniel worked for a guiding service in Mariposa that took tourists into the park. He has since transitioned to GIS work in Merced, where, by his own account, his work ethic has improved considerably. This year, he was nominated for Employee of the Year, though he didn’t win. He makes digital maps used by the city for a variety of purposes. “Pretty much every department has some kind of use for us,” he says.

Because he climbs less frequently now, he says everything feels new again. He returns to old classics, and they still feel fresh. Yosemite has not become stale to him, even after all these years. In fact, he says, “I feel like I can live my whole life and probably never run out of fun things to do.” As for what’s on his list for this summer, “Mount Clark is an objective that’s been on my list forever. It’s just this magnificent-looking peak.”

“The summer is obviously my favorite because everything is so accessible,” he adds. “I try to get up to the High Sierra as soon as I can and as much as I can.” And as for experiencing the park with his daughter: “Our adventures just get cooler and cooler as she grows up.”

Road Trip

Founder’s Log | By Ken Yager

It was late spring of 1987. I had just finished an underground utility job with WestCon, the best-paying job I had ever had. I paid off some back taxes and filed early, hoping for a decent return. I had a month off before my next job, and Dave Schultz and I made plans to check out Red Rocks on the way to a bouldering contest in Phoenix, then continue on to Hueco Tanks in Texas. I had never done a long road trip before and was excited.

Then everything went sideways. My paycheck had been garnished by about $600. My tax return came back, and that had been garnished, too. After a lot of phone calls, I learned the IRS had not registered a payment I had already made, so I had effectively been hit three times. They admitted the mistake and told me they would send a check in six weeks. I had been counting on that money for the trip. I was upset, but there was nothing I could do. I cashed in my spare change jar, took what I could from the bank, and decided I still had just enough money to go. Dave’s vehicle was out of commission, so we would take mine and split expenses.

I had a white 1965 Ford F-100 stepside with a shell that matched the cab. It was a four-speed with a compound low first gear and could climb almost anything. Inside the shell, I had built a bed, sink, and icebox. I had lived in it for months at a time. The truck was comfortable, but the tires were thin, especially the rear ones, where a little wire was already showing. I had planned to replace them before the trip, but now I would have to wait.

John Harpole asked for a ride to Mammoth Lakes. It was out of the way, but he offered gas money and more for my time. We found room for his pack, squeezed three of us into the cab, and headed south because Tioga Pass was closed. In Barstow, Dave and I bought enough food for a week. John rolled up with a cart overflowing with groceries and asked if he could put a couple of Cornish game hens in my icebox. I had never met anyone who brought Cornish game hens camping before.

We camped at Whitney Portal and climbed the next day with Errett Allen and Gary Slate, who were developing routes there. That night, Dave and I ate a simple meal and watched John prepare a feast of seasoned vegetables and a game hen wrapped in foil over the coals. It smelled incredible.

The next evening, we dropped John off in Mammoth. He shouldered his giant pack, gathered his food in three paper grocery bags, and muttered something about thinking he had bought two game hens. Dave and I climbed back into the truck and enjoyed having the cab to ourselves as we headed south again toward Red Rocks. That night, at Keough Hot Springs, we ran to help after a car went off the dirt road. In the dark, I slammed into the only rock out there and wrecked my surgically repaired left knee. The pain was brutal, and by the time we got back to camp, a huge knot had formed on the kneecap. I worried I would not be able to climb.

We made it to Red Rocks anyway and climbed several routes. The setting was beautiful, and the red sandstone walls felt tall and grand, a little like Yosemite. My knee was stiff, and hiking was hard, but Dave climbed well, and I belayed him on several overhanging 5.12s. We spent our third day bouldering in Calico Basin before heading on to Phoenix.

Phoenix was my first climbing competition, the 5th annual Phoenix Bouldering Contest at Camelback Mountain. About 150 climbers signed up, and there were plenty of familiar faces, including Dale Bard and Bobbi Bensman. The day before the event, we inspected the climbs, a mix of top ropes and boulder problems, all marked with colorful flagging but no ratings. The rock itself felt a little like climbing on pebbles stuck in mud. The next morning, there were hundreds of spectators and a festive atmosphere. We got scorecards showing the point values of each climb and three tries per problem. I started with harder climbs, got pumped quickly, and, before long, I was more of a spectator than a competitor. Bobbi won our division, which was cool to see.

After Phoenix, Dave and I headed east through New Mexico and into Texas. Speed limits were higher than I was used to, and Cadillacs flew past my slow truck. In El Paso, we bought another week’s worth of groceries, along with some excellent tortillas and fresh salsa, then rolled into Hueco Tanks in daylight. The place was unlike anywhere I had ever climbed. The bouldering was steep, overhanging, and far more powerful than anything in Yosemite. We stayed for a week and did not see another climber. We had the place to ourselves. It was amazing.

Then the smell started. Something was dead in the truck. At first, it was faint, then it got worse every day until I could not stand it anymore. I unloaded everything from the back onto the sand and found, wedged behind the bed frame near the cab, a round white object the size of a volleyball. It was John’s missing Cornish game hen, which had been nearly two weeks without refrigeration. I carried it out at arm’s length and threw it over a sand mound. It exploded in midair. Some of the foulest liquid I have ever encountered splashed on me. I dry-heaved, scrubbed myself with soap and water, and spent the night breathing the awful smell. By morning, something had carried off the carcass.

We stayed at Hueco a couple of days longer than planned because we loved it so much. Then we started the long drive home. My truck leaked oil and needed constant topping off. The tires were nearly bald, with radial wire showing on all four, and I had my fingers crossed the whole way.

Somehow it all held together. We made it back to Yosemite broke, but in time for my next job. After my first paycheck, I replaced the tires with a huge sigh of relief. The mechanic was impressed that they had lasted at all. That old truck ended up with more than 300,000 miles on the original engine. Near the end, it burned a quart of oil every 30 miles. It even survived the 1996–97 flood, with water almost up to the engine, and started on the second try after the water receded. It was the most dependable vehicle I ever had. I had so many adventures in it. It still ran when I finally gave it away.

I miss that truck.