On this forum are an unfortunate few who might be deemed "geographically undesirable." We don't live very close to Pinnacles. I'm one of them.
Sometimes we "GUs" have to "make do." I did that today with Dawsons.
The drive from our house to parking for the South Fork Slabs takes about 30 minutes. We thought today would be a a good day to be down there.
The hike was cool and colorful (nice job there Halifax, low and right in the photo):
The smoke layer out to the west, over the Central Valley was awful:
The aspens are all turning colors now:
The Dawsons might be ready too early for winter skiing and lift rides(?):
Luckily our skies are pretty clear:
Temperatures on the late season granite were perfect. After we warmed up on a 5.8, Steve got on "Gravity Chamber," with it's short, but gut-wrenching 5.10a offwidth start:
Steve and Laura did a very nice 5.8, "Follow Your Fingers" (and what else can you do on such a perfect splitter?):
Did I mention though that this route ends with a chimney? Ah well, grunt it out:
I led "Birthday Flake" which got me a second new lead for the day (but we got no photos).
All in all it was not a bad substitute for "the real thing" and it was a much shorter drive. A good day.
