East Buttress of Middle Cathedral Rock--Yosemite Valley, June 2001
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Beepbeep! Beepbeep! Bee! The alarm went off at 4:30 and Jack and I rose
and started stuffing sleeping bags, striking the tent, eating breakfast
and moving out of Camp 4 for the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral, 
leaving only our spare food behind in the bearbox. After some time spent 
trying to match the topo to the rock I took the sharp end of the rope up
through the ugly! nasty! 5.8 roof to the "ant tree" then followed Jack up
the 5.6 handcrack--the path less travelled, judging by the lichen on it--and
the sustained 5.7 lieback, two pitches taking us to the base of the bolt
ladder leading to the 5.9 roof I'd been fearing. "That doesn't look so bad!"
Clipping and pulling on draws I ascended the line of bolts spaced about a
metre apart; a tricky traverse then stem and lieback, undercling, reach
and pull, stem, place and clip, pull, step, through! and on up the fun
5.6 flake above. Phew! Belaying Jack up I enjoyed great views of El Cap,
the Cathedral Spires and the valley, watching a (hopefully!) controlled 
burn make its way through the trees and playing (largely unsuccessfully)
the game of trying to spot parties on El Cap--could that be one by the
Great Roof on The Nose? Enjoying a rack loaded with cams--two each of the
purple, green, red and yellow camalots, and assorted smaller and larger
ones--we moved on up, a fun 5.7 corner falling to me to lead then the nasty 
5.7 flared groove to Jack (Man! Good job! Glad I didn't lead that one!),
the Supertopo proving much more helpful than the regular one. The Indigo
Girls' "Shame on you" seemed to be my song of choice for the day and
with frequent bursts of "My friends they wash the windows, they shine/climb
in the sun" and the occasional "Climb on!" to the tune of "Go West" I 
stemmed and jammed and smeared and underclung my way up, knocking back the
water but (as so often happens...) only eating what bites I could snatch 
between the calls of "Off belay!" and "On belay!" from above. Jack, feeling
tired and congested, handed his last lead off to me, giving me the 5.8
pitch I'd both hoped and feared would fall to me...A beautiful hand crack
to my left caught my eye, looking easier and better travelled than the
groove above me, and traversing over--easy does it now--I liebacked up it
to the second to last belay. Only the awkward chimney/groove remained and
at 4:30 we were both on top, ten hours and 9 pitches after starting up. A
nectarine (yum!), an apple, water, food! then the last of our 4 litres 
drunk we picked up the descent trail leading left towards the towering 
Higher Cathedral Rock. Entering the spectacular chasm between Middle and 
Higher we found the rap anchor and started down, 3 single rope raps and
an unending scramble past what looked to me like (sadly, unripe) 
thimbleberry bushes eventually putting us back at the car shortly before
7, tired but happy. Blackberry smoothies really hit the spot then after
one last look at what we'd climbed it was back to Berkeley through (of
all things!) a rain shower.

on Escher's "Ascending and Descending"