New Year 2000--Climbing in Tuolumne Meadows
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What to do for New Year? Plenty of ideas were floating around but nothing was
shouting "Pick me!" Then came the news that Tioga Pass through Tuolumne had
been reopened in December for lack of snow for the first time in over 20 years
and what else could we do? Tuolumne it was. Michael, Kelly, Brian and I 
headed up on Thursday evening, and after a lazy Friday morning, parked across
the road from a frozen Tenaya Lake next to Stately Pleasure Dome, 'neath blue
skies and sunshine. Dressing warmly nevertheless Michael, Kelly and I went
off to climb South Crack (5.8, ***) while Brian went for a walk around the
lake. I led the odd pitches as I'd taken the even ones when I'd climbed it with
Karl and Armin earlier in the year; 5 pitches later I was extremely glad to
pull my wind breaker from the pack, Michael was over the moon at his first
multi-pitch experience and we were all still having trouble believing we were
able to mark the new year by climbing in Tuolumne. The last sunset of 1999
was a fiery display reflected in the ice of the lake, then it was off to Aspen
campground, where we found Jeremy, Josie, Ky-Van and Joerg who'd come up that
day. Dark at 5 meant we had 7 hours to kill till midnight; cooking dinner,
standing round the fire, telling Two Truths and a Lie, eating cheese and
chocolate fondue and playing silly games In the Manner of the Adverb we whiled
away the time till "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...Yay! Right, I'm
going to bed"--Kelly, perhaps feeling the altitude, wasn't feeling well and
headed straight to bed; the rest of us followed shortly after tidying up.
Another lazy morning--"Hot water anyone?"--then it was back to the domes. My
first climb of 2000 was leading Darth Vader's Revenge, my second 5.10a lead
--it would have been my first if I hadn't backed off almost half a year ago!
The chill wind caused Kelly and I to change our minds about doing Dike Route
(5.9, ***), and after everyone who wanted to had had a go at Darth Vader's we
retreated to camp. Among the last up, I was in bed shortly after 8; my 
sleeping bag together with a spare bag of Kelly's on top was enough to keep
me warm (I really need a new bag!) but I woke well before light anyway,
perhaps due to retiring so early--at least I was warm and awake instead of the
more usual cold and awake! The light dusting of snow we'd received had closed
the road, forcing us to take the long way home, north then west.