How was your day dear?

[JC w KC redux]

Ours was just Hunky Dory

[Brad Young]

Are those routes as so-so as I remembered them?

[JC w KC redux]

Are those routes as so-so as I remembered them?

We just took turns on the 8.
It had elements of fun and challenge for me + it was good to have the home court advantage

[JC w KC redux]

nelkins leading Hunky Dory

[mynameismud]

I had fun, managed to get out and scare myself on something not to hard.

[Brad Young]

Since you asked: Roger and I got four new routes established today at 8,500 feet on bullet granite. All at Deadman Buttress:

-  Funeral for a Friend 5.10c *

-  Love Lies Bleeding 5.11a **

-  Toccata 5.10b **

-  Fugue 5.8 **

All four are 80 to 90 feet long and protected by a mix of bolts and thin to really thin gear.

And Squiddo and I got a new route in yesterday in cool-enough conditions in the South Fork:

-  Five Fingers 5.8

And we got another route started. We then had an interesting encounter with snakes (plural on purpose) and a marmot.

Thanks again Squiddo. See you up here again soon?

The rest of you Pinns nuts ought to come up to coolness again and more. While it lasts. See you soon too?

[clink]

That loadstone makes your ass look small dear.


 My day fabulous, shopping for designer clothes with Mud. He was scared at first then found out how easy it is to look cool in the right clothes.

[mynameismud]

The reason I wear a fanny pack is because it accentuates my wonderful ass.

[JC w KC redux]

Mud and clink,

Please ingnore the man behind the exfoliation curtain. He must have confused us with that other site.

You two seem way too focused on what's behind you.
Did you finish a route or just horse around all day?

Invalid without pictures!

P.S. Where's Waldo?

[Brad Young]

Please ingnore the man behind the exfoliation curtain. He must have confused us with that other site.

Speaking of that guy, he picked up an interesting rock on the way up to Deadman yesterday (at Chipmunk Flat). That other geologist (you know the loser one - he can climb both the RNW Face of Half Dome and the Nose in one day, and yet he very rarely climbs where it matters) immediately said "that's chert, it must have been brought here by Native Americans."

Apparently chert is a very hard sedimentary rock formed very deep in the earth. It can be formed into sharp tools like obsidian (I was pretty surprised that any sedimentary rock could fracture into that sharp an edge - he explained how it's silicon based, like glass, not calcium based). The nearest source to Chipmunk is near Knight's Ferry, almost to Oakdale.

Here's what it looked like:







Pretty cool stuff. For a science.

[mynameismud]

Mud and clink,

Please ingnore the man behind the exfoliation curtain. He must have confused us with that other site.

You two seem way too focused on what's behind you.
Did you finish a route or just horse around all day?

Invalid without pictures!

P.S. Where's Waldo?

We just horsed around all day.  Did not see Waldo but we did look for him.

[mynameismud]

Liked the orange rock better.

[JC w KC redux]

Pretty cool stuff. For a science.

Lots of chert in the Coast Ranges too - mostly red here in CA but comes in a variety of colors. Usually forms in a deep sea environment from siliceous ooze aka slimy mud - starts out as fish poop with the skeletal remains of plankton - then recrystallizes as it lithifies. It looks like that specimen might have some crystal pockets (vugs) or maybe dissolution cavities filled in with other mineral crystals. It's my understanding that the American Indians traded the stuff like currency as well as fashioning it into tools and weapons. The art of chipping it is called knapping (are you dozing yet?)- and few people are still versed in that art - kind of like mud masters Flint is a variety of chert and you can use either to create sparks by striking a piece of steel. It can also make an edge sharper than a surgical scalpel

[Brad Young]

Geologists. Two of the coolest nerds I've ever known. 

[clink]

We just horsed around all day.  Did not see Waldo but we did look for him.

I pranced around and did not see any sign that Waldo or any other human had ever been there. Damn Mud, my head is still spinning.

Geologists. Two of the coolest nerds I've ever known.  Roll Eyes

Yep. A fossil of a geologist is petrified nerd.

[JC w KC redux]

I pranced around. Fabulous, shopping for designer clothes. Damn Mud, my head is still spinning.

Thanks for that imagery. Things you can't un-imagine.

[waldo]

P.S. Where's Waldo?

Waldo flaked again. I got up thinking there was someplace I had to go. By the time it dawned on me where it was, dawn was in the distant past!

Geology class is fifty years in my past, but I thought chert might be metamorphic. No? I defer to our resident experts. Son Jeremy (then about seven) found a cache of obsidian arrowheads in Tuolumne Meadows campground.The ranger, much to J's disappointment, advised leaving them in place. The Meadows campground has been in use far longer than we supposed.

[clink]

Thanks for that imagery. Things you can't un-imagine.

 In the parting words of a pleasant homeless person we gave a lift, "Happy rainbow unicorn dreams".

 Meanwhile back to the diversion dear, JC you just have to go to Marshals after work, with me. On the weekend the Outlets, all of them! We can find you nice socks and a bright colored selfie stick for your unicycle rides. What are we aver going to do about Nelkins' wardrobe?

 

[clink]

Since you asked: Roger and I got four new routes established today at 8,500 feet on bullet granite. All at Deadman Buttress:

-  Funeral for a Friend 5.10c *

-  Love Lies Bleeding 5.11a **

-  Toccata 5.10b **

-  Fugue 5.8 **

Nice Brad and Roger. That is equal to a whole seasons worth of stars for Pinns routes.

[mynameismud]

Pinnacles routes have stars?