Meet Details
Yosemite, California **CANCELLED**
5 Oct 2024 to 13 Oct 2024
Cancelled due to low numbers. Will try again next year.
We're having a Zoom meeting to discuss this meet early evening on Wednesday 14th August at 5:15pm. If you're interested in the meet and want to ask some questions please join at 5:15pm — I don’t know if anybody has a better account but with my basic one I scheduled a meeting for 5.15pm. It shows as 30 minutes but apparently we have 40 minutes allowance. Join if you can, as much as you can. The link for the meeting is –
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78117915923?pwd=yiPCbTuvskaJnoKm55Az9aXKhRnrL6.1
Follow in the footsteps, or rather handholds, of such greats as Yvon Chouinard, Royal Robbins, Tommy Caldwell, Alex Honnold, Andy Kirkpatrick and Leo Houlding by climbing the granite walls of California’s famous national park.
Or, if you're more of a walker than a climber, there are a tonne of wonderful hikes throughout the valley such as Half Dome via the Mist Trail, Bridalveil Falls Trail, Tuolumne Meadows and Cathedral Lakes Trail.
Climbers
If you think those walls are reserved only for the premier crew, you'd be mistaken — there are tonnes of climbs within the capabilities of mere mortals. In fact, there is this handy list on UKC exactly along those lines —
A list of climbs under grade E1 (5.10b US)
And a search on Mountain Project reveals an extensive list of routes between 5.4 (HVD) and 5.8 (HVS) —
Accommodation
My hope is that we will be camping in one of the park's renowned campgrounds for the week however getting reservations is proving tricky.
I am trying to reserve two sites. Each site allows for up to six people, and at the time of writing this, there are seven of us signed up. However, although the sites allow for six, it does not mean they will fit six tents (they vary in size apparently) so to ensure we have adequate space for tents, vehicles and any additional joiners, I will book two sites.
I hope to get sites in either the Lower Pines or North Pines campgrounds in the valley. The total cost will be £70–£80 per person for the week.
If I am unable to get sites in May the options are to either a) take our chances on booking in Camp Four, which can only be reserved one week in advance (and is highly competitive), b) plan on using one of the walk-in camps a little outside the main valley. There are a number of Bureau of Land Management campsites near Midpines and El Portal that operate a first come, first served plicy for $10 per site per night.
Park Access
If we can't get a site in the park, we will need to make vehicle access reservations for the weekends unless we plan on entering the park before 5am or after 4pm. Vehicle reservations are for three days and cost $2. There are over 2000 reservations available for the dates we're there at the moment, but we should probably get them ahead of time when trip details are firmed up.
We will also need to pay entrance fees. A single vehicle entrance fee covers all occupants and is $35 for three days (and maybe seven because the weekdays don't require reservations, it's not entirely clear). We might want to consider an annual pass at $70 as that may be more cost effective. We buy those passes on entrance, so don't need to worry about it now.
If we have campground reservations or Half Dome permits we will not need access reservations.
Travel
Other travel details still to be worked out, but I plan to fly into Los Angeles and pick up a hire car there as I will spending a few days either side of the trip in LA. I will update with my flight details once booked.