Third Pillar of Dana

I recently celebrated my eleven year wedding anniversary.  My husband, Aaron, and I have never been the type of couple who go out to fancy expensive restaurants, nor spend money on frivolous items like roses or jewelry.  I once made the mistake of asking him at the beginning of our relationship why we never do romantic things, and his response was, "What are you talking about?  We do romantic things all the time.  I take you out to climb mountains and sleep under the stars, we go on ski adventures, and bicycle through some of the most scenic rural villages in the world."  DOH. 

For this year's wedding anniversary, Aaron's romantic gesture was to take me to Tuolemne in Yosemite to climb the Third Pillar of Dana (first peak on left, below) .  I've done plenty of rock climbing in Tuolemne, but never have I been so blown away by a climb before.  Simply, "Wow!"  It took us 4.5 hours to reach the base of the climb, and although I generally don't like long steep approaches, I didn't whine one bit.  We were rewarded with pristine lakes and creeks, expansive boulder fields, and a gorgeous view of Mono Lake and the Eastern Sierras.  It was totally worth waking up at 6 am for.

Third Pillar is a five pitch .10b trad climb (route along arete pictured in second photo below), and is known as one of the best free climbs in the world.  However, I would have enjoyed the climb much more if it hadn't been raining to the north, south, east and west of us the entire time.  We were stressed by the thought of getting struck by lightning and getting rained off the route.  Thankfully, all we got hit with were a handful of snowflakes.

Sadly, I didn't bring my professional camera to capture this magnificent landscape, but brought instead my handy iphone which did a more than adequate job of documenting this romantic little adventure.

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Iphone Adventure at the Chief

I love my Canon 5D Mark II, but most of the time, it's just not practical to carry on a rockclimbing adventure.  People ask me all the time why I don't have climbing photos in my portfolio since I spend a lot of my time outdoors.  And my response? I would much rather have fun climbing then spend time behind the camera trying to get the perfect climbing shot.  And to be honest, I'm lazy.  I hate  to lug my heavy camera on a 15 pitch climb when I'm already weighed down by gear, guidebook, shoes, water, food, spare jacket, headlamp, etc in my backpack.  And believe me, every extra pound counts when you are climbing, especially when making an overhanging roof move. 

When documenting spontaneous adventures, I instead turn to my Iphone 4.  The image quality is surprisingly good, and photo apps, like ShakeItPhoto gives you the look/feel of a Polaroid camera.  Plus, among all the photo apps available, the color quality of ShakeItPhoto is my absolute hands down favorite.  I may not be able to achieve high quality large prints from my phone, but the convenience of having something light weight that I can carry with me at all times is a trade-off I am willing to live with.

Below are photos I took with my Iphone on our climb at the Chief (first pic) in Squamish, Canada.  We linked a few climbs together...Diedre to Boomstick to Squamish Buttress....which altogether merged into a brilliant 15 pitch climb which we finished in under seven hours.  Featured in these photos are the spectacular views from the Chief.  And the handsome star of my photos is none other than my husband, Aaron, my best friend and favorite trad climbing partner.  Sorry, no actual "climbing" photos though, as my partner gets quite upset when both my hands are not on the rope belaying. 

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