Split and Korcula: Wait, There Aren’t Any Dalmatians in Dalmatia?–Sept. 25-29.

Posted on October 19, 2019 by Mike

Well, maybe there are some Dalmatians somewhere, but we didn’t go near any fire stations that I can recall; although we did several times run into a particularly mean old lady who might beat Cruella Deville in a fight. I guess when it comes to relevancy, however, these points are neither here nor there. The Dalmatian Coast is one of four regions that traditionally makes up Croatia; because it includes both Split and Dubrovnik, it is probably the area most identifiable to Americans—especially if they watch Game of Thrones.

I think most people who visit Croatia spend more time in Split, but we were taking the name quite literally because we had only half a day to see it before we had to split for the island of Korcula (pronounced Korchula). Split is most famous as the approximate birthplace and retirement home for one of Rome’s final emperors, Diocletian. He ruled the Roman Empire for 20 years from AD 284-305 but may have also unwittingly played a large role in its downfall by splitting it among 4 emperors before returning to his childhood home to hang out in his palace (this has nothing to do with the city’s name).

The palace took only 11 years to finish, much to the suffering of slave laborers—2,000 of whom died during the construction. Most of the structures we saw came much later—medieval houses, mid-2000’s gift stands, etc., but it actually made for an interesting mix. One of the best parts, though, was also one of the oldest—the cellars. Most of this was actually only excavated during the 1950’s after being discovered about 100 years ago. It is also the filming site where Daenerys chained her dragons in GOT (we never got super in to this part of touring Croatia, but it was still fun to try to identify familiar spots). My favorite part was the Roman pipe on display—square with a round hole…they could interconnect to form a sort of ancient Lego.

The other really cool part of the palace was the vestibule to Diocletian’s living quarters. Situated over the steps to the main square, he used it as a greeting spot for important visitors and to make a grand entrance once a season to remind his subjects (who viewed him as a god) that he was the stud duck. It once was capped by an ornate dome, but the open-air round top was actually pretty impressive as well.

We spent most of the day just sort of wandering around the circular narrow lanes both in his palace and the rest of the old town. This was actually quite fun; it was full of shops, restaurants, and all types of people. Like all the old towns we’ve visited, all the streets were cobblestones, and some of the squares were quite slick. Eventually, we found a place with surprisingly good local microbrews to sit in a quiet side street before having dinner in the busy, lively square and then doing the walk along the main boardwalk—a favorite pastime of both locals and tourists. Strangely, we saw some version of Chinese paparazzi filming three young Chinese people standing in a crosswalk—apparently, they are celebrities…possibly reality television stars, professional gamers or maybe just really good at not jaywalking.

Split was a fun place to hang out for a day, but I was in fact, ready to split for Korcula the next day; I love me some island time. Korcula is an island that requires about a 2-hour ferry from either Split or Dubrovnik. It was discovered by the Greeks, ruled by the Romans, and later developed by the Venetians. It was the birthplace of Marco Polo, and also the only island I’ve seen so far with a walled city.

We were also lucky to arrive on a Thursday because we could see the Moreska, the island’s traditional dance, performed that night. The dance tells the story of two Dalmatian kings who are fighting over a lovely lady; the bad king has decided to go ahead and kidnap the lady, and so the good king must take his army and save her. The performance began with a lovely acoustic harmony of four beautiful songs of love and, I presume, loss. Then the bad king comes out with his kidnapped lady and army; once the good king and soldiers enter, a little trash talking ensues before the battle. All of this is set to the music of a small local orchestra of both kids and adults. The dance portrays the battle through a series of short fights; it is athletic and exciting—soldiers spin in two circles, carrying two short swords, striking left and right. Several dancers lost multiple swords in the violent striking as the fight went on, and you could even see sparks coming off the blades. No spoilers as to who wins the lovely lady, but Sarah and I were blown away by how good this dance was, considering Korcula is a pretty small island, and only locals from traditional families could perform.

Oh, also, the celebrity crosswalkers had made their way to the island and apparently eaten dinner next to our condo that night because the paparazzi was standing outside our door below our drying laundry; I asked one if he’d photographed my underwear, but I don’t think he knew I was joking.

Our plan for the next day was to rent a scooter to go to a couple of wineries and the beach; this was jeopardized, however, by a rental dude with a very large chip on his shoulder. I must look like a real gumby because he grilled me pretty hard about whether I knew how to ride a scooter; I assured him I would not be a crazy tourist, but he assured me that people who say they know how to ride scooters rarely really do. He even made me take a test, which I passed and was rewarded with the world’s most gutless hog. The area we went to was on a hill, and Sarah was sure she would have to get off and walk; we made it but probably looked just like Dumb and Dumber.

Korcula may be small, but it actually produces a really good wine that is not grown anywhere else in the world. The white wine is made from the Grk varietal, which is commonly thought to be named for the Greeks, who brought it to the island. The girl at the second winery we visited contested this, pointing out that the Greeks were actually on the island before they were known as Greeks and the term Grk could also derive from a word that loosely meant agriculture or soil. I have to admit, I had wondered why Grk doesn’t grow in Greece if it was from there. Anyway, both Sarah and I really liked this light, minerally crisp wine and were sad that we would probably never have it again. Not too sad, however, to prevent us from spending the rest of the day at a beautiful sandy beach and swimming all afternoon; we both love to swim in the ocean and had been waiting for a chance to get after it a little. The water was too cold to simply float, but it was great for swimming!

After two days spent on the beach (we rented bikes the next day, not wanting to go through the rigorous scooter test again), we decided to kayak to a couple of nearby islands. We rented a double kayak, or “divorce boat” as it is known in Sarah’s family. While we didn’t ever actually say the D-word, it did take a bipartisan effort to figure out a system for cohesive paddling. We must have done okay, though, because we got out to the main island before anyone else—we actually thought we were in the wrong place and kept paddling for the next island. By the time we’d figured out our mistake—about a mile according to the map, the sea was getting markedly deeper, darker, and swifter, so we turned around. On our way back, the water taxis were pulling into the one we’d passed, so we stopped for lunch and a swim. Before returning to Korcula, we simply floated in front of the walled fortress for a few minutes, enjoying a view you couldn’t get anywhere but on the water.

Korcula is probably not most people’s idea of how to spend four memorable days in Croatia, but it was exactly the type of place we’d been hoping for—somewhere to unwind but also stay active. While the island was not exactly deserted, for the most part you could avoid the crowds (if not the Chinese paparazzi). Split had also offered an interesting bit of history and great people watching. So far, the Dalmatian Coast, while not the canine spectacle I had imagined, was proving to be a pretty cool place to visit.

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, Croatia | Leave a comment

September 21 – 24, 2019: A Sample of Croatia’s National Parks

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Sarah

After eating and drinking our way through Istria, the Raff’s needed exercise and nature.  A few days in two of Croatia’s National Parks was just the ticket.  We headed inland and south to Plitvice Lakes. 

Google Maps again suckered us into a “shortcut” which meant an extra hour of drive time on windy mountain roads!  When we arrived at our apartment, our host, Ivica, laughed when we told him how we came.  He asked us if we saw any bears as we were so far in the boonies! 

Ivica was quite the character and really made our stay in his home special.  He is a retired park ranger and loves this area.  The river that flows from the lakes runs through his front yard, so he has landscaped a sampler Plitvice for his guests to enjoy.  While we enjoyed our welcome beers, Ivica planned out our afternoon itinerary including hand drawing our map.  He really wanted to make sure we made the most of our time and enjoyed the area. So off we went exploring.

Plitvice Lakes is 16 terraced lakes connected by waterfalls in a forested valley.  The distance from the first lake to the last is 5 miles with a vertical drop of over 400’.  In between are numerous small waterfalls with lots of vivid green plant life.  The lakes themselves are primarily blue but change dramatically based on the sunlight. 

We had a full day planned to explore the lakes with tips from Ivica to avoid the crowds and get the best viewpoints.  We started at the Upper Lakes and decided to explore Raff style – we picked the longest walking loop that would see everything – 11.4 miles.  Since the park is so crowded, the walking trails are only 1 way.  There are plenty of shorter loops that incorporate buses and even electric boats, but we needed our exercise after all those truffles!

The lakes were gorgeous and ranged in size.  We enjoyed the peaceful walks in between the bursts of tour groups. Overall, we were able to avoid the groups which really increased our level of enjoyment.  We even found a quiet bench with a perfect view to enjoy our lunch – burek of course!

After our loop, we took out our handy map made by Ivica and drove to the top of the canyon for the overlook view.  These were some of the best views of the day as we gained an appreciation for the size and grandeur of the area.

That evening, we enjoyed a long chat with Ivica about living in this area of Croatia.  It was very interesting to learn about the challenges.  Tourism is the area’s primary source of income, but it is a double-edged sword for the locals with high food prices and crowds.  This area of Croatia saw heavy fighting during the homeland wars (1991 – 1995).  It actually was the location of the first shot fired and first casualty (a park ranger) of the war.  This was our first glimpse of the scars from the war.

The next day we said our goodbyes, crossed the rickety, single lane wooden bridge and headed south.  Today, we had all major roads – yippee!  Our destination was Paklencia National Park near Zadar right on the Adriatic Sea.  The weather forecast wasn’t great, but I kept hoping that it would be clear once we got there.  However, we were out of luck as it was downpouring with booming thunder.  So, we found an amazing café overlooking the sea for coffee, lunch and catching up on our journals.  There are worse ways to spend an afternoon.

We lucked into an amazing apartment with a terrace overlooking the sea.  The owner offered us wine for our welcome drink. Instead of bringing 2 glasses, she gave us a whole bottle.  Her husband is a winemaker and she wanted to share.  It was amazing!  It was nice to slow down for the afternoon, relax in our own space and catch up on our “chores”.  Sometimes we find it challenging to keep up on our journals, blog (no surprise to you guys) and plan our logistics for the coming weeks.  This is especially true, as I tend to like to be always be on the go.  So, it was nice to have some forced downtime.

The next day, the weather cleared, and we were able to head into the park.  Paklencia National Park is known for its limestone canyons.  It is primarily a hiking and climbing destination and isn’t high on the radar for tourists – well, except for climbers!  Since we only had one day here due to rain, we cheaped out and didn’t buy the climbing guidebook.  Instead, we looked for the tags on the routes to show the grade or made friends with the other climbers to borrow their book.  There were climbers from everywhere… Brits, Germans, French and even a few Americans!

The popular climbs were all close together and basically right off the main hiking trail – so no approach.  The limestone was quite polished due to all the climbers and the bolts were fairly spaced out, so we climbed conservatively.  We ended up climbing 8 routes and had a full day of fun.  So nice to get a few bonus climbing days as we are lugging all our gear primarily for our 2.5 weeks of climbing in Greece in October!

We both felt so much better after spending several days exploring the parks, getting some exercise and meeting some new friends.  The downtime was much needed to get us in the right mindset to continue our exploration of Croatia’s Dalmatia coast.

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, Croatia | Leave a comment

Istria, Croatia: Wine, Dine, and Climb All Rhyme–Sept. 16-20

Posted on October 2, 2019 by Mike

If you know us at all, you know that we love to wine, dine, and climb; luckily, the Istrian Peninsula, our introduction to Croatia, offered all three. After a short bus ride from Slovenia and one of the easiest border crossings ever, we enjoyed five days in what is best described as the Tuscany of Croatia—although, I think Croatians might bristle at that comparison because Istria is fast becoming its own big brand thanks to truffles—the delightful, aromatic tubers that grow underground and are very rare (and really expensive at home). We just happened to be here when they were in season, and we were happy to indulge.

Istria is a series of hill towns, mostly small, that can be seen from miles away as they loom above flat lowlands. Red tiled roofs and stone buildings are packed densely into tight areas that are sometimes walled from a few hundred years ago. Motovun, the town where we stayed, was a good example—actually having three layers of walled defense–and we never got tired of wandering the small, winding (and steep!) cobblestone lanes. Our B&B also featured a great balcony that gave us a spectacular view of the vineyards and farmlands below; in the morning, we enjoyed our breakfast on this balcony while taking in the view and listening to truffle-hunting dogs barking to announce their newly discovered treasures, I suppose.

We spent one day just sort of roaming around a series of these tiny towns–each with its own unique character. Two of our favorites offered very stark contrasts: Groznjan (grohzh-NYAHN…all so clear now, right?) is an up-and-coming town full of art galleries, truffle/wine/olive oils shops, and a couple of quiet squares with the occasional restaurant, while Zavrsje (ZAH-vur-shyeh…I got nothin’…) is a virtual ghost town—really cool looking from a mile away but in reality just a bunch of overgrown broken stone foundations and a few intact farm houses after nearly all of the town’s population left following WWII (this area was part of Italy but not after the war).

Istria is not without larger towns, however. We spent another day checking out two of the larger ones: Pula (POO—lah…I’m sure you could figure that out, but c’mon, when do I miss an opportunity to mention poo) and Rovinj (roh-VEEN, the only name that’s simpler than it looks). Pula is the industrial, working city and port of the peninsula, while Rovinj is kind of the tourist sweetheart of the region. I think both Sarah and I really enjoyed the smaller parts of Istria, but we had a fine day touring these two spots.

Pula has one really great historical site—a nearly intact Roman Amphitheater, sort of like the Colosseum in Rome. Built over several decades during Rome’s glory days, Pula’s amphitheater was completed around the same time (AD 80) as Rome’s…here I am probably blatantly plagiarizing…I mean citing…Uncle Ricky’s guidebook. It was nearly torn down to be sold and used as cheap materials for Venice several centuries ago, but thankfully a Venetian senator proved to be a convincing negotiator when it came to preserving the sixth largest Roman amphitheater in the world. It was fun to imagine the violent excitement that came with the gladiator battles and to note where Pula’s VIP’s occupied loge boxes in full view of the crowd yet far enough away to be free of the blood. While there weren’t many written explanations around the monument, it was cool that you could pretty much move freely throughout the whole thing. That is, until all the tour groups showed up; I tried to compete, but apparently, simply holding a guidebook high in the air while Sarah follows me does little to convince others to move out of your way…next time I will tie Uncle Ricky to an umbrella or flag.

Rovinj, on the other hand, is really just a beautiful place that is fun to experience and explore. Just off a beautiful harbor, the city’s Old Town rises steeply up an appealing hill. Like most of the towns in Istria, Rovinj’s Old Town is basically car-free. That makes getting there a pain in the Pula (couldn’t resist) but touring much more pleasant. We passed a nice afternoon mostly just ambling narrow shopped-filled lanes on some majorly polished stone pathways, strolling along very blue waters of the Adriatic Sea, and stumbling onto surprisingly quiet simple neighborhood scenes just off the main streets and squares. Our afternoon wasn’t totally without excitement, though, as we climbed the 192 narrow rickity spiral-staircase steps up the cathedral’s bell tower for some awesome city views—the sign in the church disputed Uncle Ricky’s 192 figure; after seeing the staircase in person and noting the 189 step advertisement in the church, you’d want to know what happened to the other 3 steps, too!

So, I mentioned the wine—three wines dominate the region: a crisp light white called malvazija, a fairly medium-bodied smooth red called teran, and (to a lesser extent) semi-sweet to sweet muscat. We tasted at several different wineries; I would say that they are all boutique wineries, although it seems like they might be growing. Since Croatia seems to be a favorite destination of American Olds (I refuse to designate the age that makes you an Old, though most are significantly older than we), I will name three favorite spots—if you are not an American Old, now you will have something to share with the Olds with you are acquainted, thus breaking through the generation gap dividing our great nation—Kabola (best small, inexpensive winery), Kozlovic (sort of the big hitter, great wine, fabulous organized tasting and tour), and Clio (a little pricier, bigger wines, sort of neat that they only do “orange” wines instead of white—grapes spend a little more time in the skins during maceration).

As for the dine, we indulged in several lovely truffle-fueled meals. As I mentioned earlier, they have a heavenly aroma; places don’t just plop a whole tuber in your stew but instead shave very thin slivers of truffle over your entrée of choice—my favorite place, Mondo Konoba in Motovun was actually featured in The New York Times and, I think, a Dave Bourdain special; anyway, they actually shaved the truffles at your table, and it sent you into bliss even before tasting your meal. I think that one of the most interesting thing for me was that it didn’t matter how you tried them—steak, pork, chicken, eggs, tomato soup, even chocolate cake—their umami goodness enhanced whatever you ate. Lucky for us to be here now because we will probably never eat truffles quite like that again!

Of course, we rarely pass up a chance to climb; with all the wining and dining, I suppose we needed the exercise. Luckily, Istria has a ton of good limestone (similar to our climbing in Wyoming and South Dakota this summer), and Sarah found a fun crag just outside of our town. It was really small but nearly deserted, and the climbing was very fun and well-bolted. We’d heard that snakes are pretty good at slithering into the lower cracks, so we found ourselves tapping on many of the holds…not only to test the rock’s solidity but also to let the snakes know we’d rather not meet them unannounced. We were hoping to do some more climbing later in Croatia, so this was a great little introduction after a month away from sport climbing.

I can remember both Sarah and I doing a second round of research on Istria last spring after deciding to visit Croatia; we had only planned a day or two at first but decided to extend our time after that second round. We thought it sounded like a place that really fit us well…I guess sometimes those brains of ours work pretty okay, after all!

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, Croatia | 2 Comments

September 12 – 16, 2019: Slovenia – Logarska Dolina, Ljubliana, and Piran

Posted on September 27, 2019 by Sarah

“I don’t want to die, and I am going to drink a liter of wine” were the words that poured out of my mouth during our eventful drive to Logarska Dolina from Lake Bled.  What was supposed to be an easy drive per our Google Maps instructions snapshotted on the Ipad (we were too cheap to get a GPS, a working phone or a paper map) turned into an adventure on off-the-beaten-path mountain roads. 

The first problem was a mythical turn that Google Maps made up which didn’t exist. The second problem was we were pooped as we had just hiked 10 miles on day 3 of our Triglav climb.  We eventually made it to the top of a mountain pass and thankfully there was a comical tourist map which we used to navigate us to our farm stay. 

The third problem was the road that we drove to drop us into the valley was steep, had many blind curves and was just wide enough for two Geo Metros.  After a white-knuckle drive, we arrived at the serene farm just in time for dinner and a much-needed welcome drink of homemade blueberry schnapps!  I didn’t quite drink a full liter of wine by myself, but I sure enjoyed Rebula wine with generous pours from Mike!

The farm that we stayed at is a working dairy farm in a tranquil mountain valley surrounded by craggy peaks and only a few miles from Austria.  The family all works either on the farm or helping run the B&B.  We enjoyed all of their fresh dairy products: yogurt, butter, cheeses, and even cottage cheese (it is good when fresh with honey from their bee hive!).  We ate like kings and queens in their cozy dining room overlooking the farm. Their warm hospitality made it a great place to call home for two nights. 

Besides the farm stay, the other the main highlight of visiting this region was to enjoy the scenic views by a drive on the panoramic road.  The guidebook had warned us that this road could be scary to drive on, but after the prior evening’s adventure it felt like a piece of cake.  Well until I met a logging truck head on and had to reverse down the hill to a turn off!  We enjoyed the many scenic views, thankful for the bluebird day.  We even scooted over the border into Austria! 

As I was still recovering from Triglav and my scary drive, my favorite part of the day was drinking wine overlooking the waterfall!

The next day it was time to leave our peaceful valley and head to Slovenia’s capital: Ljubljana.  We had only time for a quick stopover on the way to the coast.  After a less eventful drive, due to our purchase of a paper map and Mike’s mad navigating, we easily found our way to city center.  We enjoyed the day walking around the car-free old town opting out of true sightseeing.  The area is very pretty with a river running through with nice bridges and plenty of narrow streets lined with Viennese style facades.  I really enjoyed the window shopping, gelato, and wine shop.  Mike liked the beer shop and lunch.

Piran and the Karst region were the last stops on the Raffs’ itinerary for Slovenia.  Piran is a tiny seaside village squished between Croatia and Italy.  Slovenia only has 29 km of shoreline on the Adriatic Sea.  We enjoyed a much-needed beach day.  I love to read in the sun and every hour or so cool off in the water.  Back and forth until the day is over. It is one of the few times that I feel carefree in life.  So, we found a great beach, lucked into some warm weather and relaxed.  The sea is super clear and very salty, so swimming and floating was very easy!

Burek is our new favorite food. It is a flakey philo type pastry filled with seasoned meat. Thanks Sam and Lindsey for the recommendation.

The Karst area is known for its limestone, caves, wine and Lipizzaner stud farm.  We skipped the caves as we have seen a few in our travels, and they are not really our thing.  We did go to the Lipizzaner stud farm in Lipca.  This is the original farm were the Lipizzaner breed was created way back in the 1700’s by the Habsburgs.  I very much enjoyed our tour of the farm including the fancy stud stalls with their lineage proudly displayed.

I even got to pet a few mares – I was a little nervous at first…

The highlight was watching a training session.  Lipizzaners are famous for their color (white), their intelligence and their ability to master dressage moves.  We watched several horses with their trainers work on their dressage steps.  We luckily had a guide who told us what they were doing as neither Mike nor I had a clue.  Once we got the hang of it, we were quite impressed with the horses’ balance, grace and strength.  My favorite was the flying change of leg move.  Basically, the horse has to change which leg is going first, and to do this they must quickly switch when all the legs are in the air.  It was impressive, and I recommend watching a video of it on You-Tube😊

Slovenia was a great first stop on the Raffs’ European tour.  It is small, easy to get around and one of the cleanest countries I have ever been to.  No litter anywhere, and the public bathrooms are all clean!  We also enjoyed their warm, welcoming hospitality and their extreme pride in their country.  We would highly recommend a visit.  Uncle Ricky was right – we wished we had more time here, but Croatia is calling, and we must go.

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, Slovenia | 2 Comments

Sept. 9-11: Mt. Triglav–Via Ferrata Fun

Posted on September 24, 2019 by Mike

              We are WAY behind on our blog, but ironically the weather here in Croatia as I write this on Sept. 23 is exactly the same as it was in Bled, Slovenia, the night before our Mt. Triglav climb: thunder bolts and lightning (though not very, very fright-en-ing—en-ing—ennn-IIIING!). We had our doubts that the climb would actually go, but our coordinator assured us the weather was improving (the forecast did look better for our summit day) and pushed the start a little later in the day to minimize our time in the rain. This was fine by me because I got to have one more delicious breakfast from Pension Kaps…seriously, if you ever come to Bled, stay there!

              After a quick orientation and gear demonstration, we piled into a van to head for the trailhead with two German sisters named Liza and Inga. We had all signed up for an unguided climb, so we weren’t really a team at first but sort of became one as the day progressed. That is, we started walking together and began to talk along the way; by the end of the three-day tour, we had become climbing partners and friends.  Also, the term “pile” is probably not the right word to describe 4 clients getting into a van made for 12 people; I told you the weather had been bad!

              The first portion of the day went through the woods on mostly flat terrain along a very clear river cut through cavernous limestone. After hiking fairly gently for a little over an hour, we came to a flat road along some open areas that I think were still used for farming (I think the national park went through some private property) because we had to dodge a very large tractor. I was beginning to wonder just how steep the trail would be when we eventually started to ascend. I didn’t have long to wait, though, because we soon found ourselves climbing up a steep old gravel road that switchbacked aggressively for about another hour. It was the worst part of the day…nothing to look at but our feet. We were quite happy to reach a small open meadow and grab a quick snack before continuing another hour through more open forest and limestone bluffs.

              Eventually, we reached the tree line and immediately remembered why we’d signed up for this climb—the Julian Alps are gorgeous! The first high mountain hut was here, and it gave us a nice chance for a break and to get to know Liza and Inga a bit better over a quick discussion of Fanta’s origin; apparently, it was a German invention during World War II when American Coca-Cola was not available. Someday, I will use this knowledge to win final Jeopardy and become the envy of all blue-haired Americans eating early-bird specials at supper clubs; seriously, I was actually really intrigued by this, and it was fun to make some new friends while Sarah and I were doing what we loved.

              The remaining 400 meters up to our hut were stunning! Mt. Triglav remained a mystery shrouded in high clouds, but jagged peaks surrounded us everywhere below. While we needed to get up to the hut fairly quickly in order to get dinner after our late morning start, it was difficult not to stop at every switchback to take a dozen pictures. As we got to the hut, the clouds lifted just enough to give us a sneak peak of the mountain, though the clouds sat right back down until after dark.

              We slept pretty well for sharing a room with 14 other tired people at just under 8,000 ft. It was cold, and we were happy for the double wool blankets on top of our bunks. Luckily, there were at least three people who snore way louder than I do, and all three of my teammates confirmed that I was not the culprit robbing others of sleep.

              After a quick breakfast and stop at the squatty potty outhouse (thank goodness, we’d been to Nepal!), we geared up in harness, via ferrata set, and helmets. Climbing via ferrata is basically ascending fixed lines with two safety cords girth-hitched (tied) to the belay loop on your harness. These cords are linked to locking carabiners that you clip onto metal cables attached to drilled-in bolts and metal spikes intermittently. If you fall, you won’t fall past the bolt. Soldiers used this technique to climb the mountains in war fronts (like the Soca front that Sarah described in our last blog) during World War I.

              Actually, we had done most of the hard work the day before; the summit only required a little under 1.5 hours from the hut. After some easy scrambling, we started to hit some via ferrata sections; while the climbing was pretty easy everywhere, the cables were placed in sections that were really exposed and would have serious consequences if someone fell unprotected. It was very cold outside, and the visibility above us was not ideal, but man was this route fun! If really felt like play time as we romped up steeper sections, clipping here and there along the cables!

              After about 40 minutes, we reached a long, exposed traverse and were not entirely excited to see that the several centimeters of snow from two days before had not yet melted. It was mostly packed down, but you couldn’t be sure what you were stepping on beneath it. Since the ridge was easy, not as many cables were placed, but the exposure was still no joke. I was actually glad when we got to the much steeper summit approach, because more of the climbing was via ferrata. Once again, the fixed climbing was such fun that we were at the summit before we knew it!

              At 2,864 m. (9,308 ft.), we were on top of Slovenia, enjoying summit #7 (the final one) of our year. There was this funny rocket-shaped shelter at the very top, which made for fun photos. Even better, the clouds lifted all around us about two minutes after summiting. We enjoyed panoramic views of surrounding peaks and green valleys far below us. Soon, Liza and Inga followed and celebrated their first alpine summit! Slovenes truly adore this mountain—it is even featured on their national flag—and to be truly a Slovene, you have to climb Triglav (we are still waiting for our dual citizenship cards). While summits are very nice, however, the climb this morning definitely took the cake.

              Unlike most people, we were descending a different ridge than we’d climbed. Normally, this would be great, but the slick snow on this route hadn’t been packed down by climbers the past two days. We decided to start down immediately in case the clouds sat back down since we weren’t thrilled about the path anyway. We could always turn back and descend the main route, but it would add quite some time and distance to an already long day. Nowhere along the path was outright dangerous, but some patches were slick enough to add some spice and keep our attention. Fewer cables were fixed here, but there were ladders consisting of metal spikes to provide extra footholds in exposed 4th class sections without cables. I had much respect for the German sisters; this was their first descent and not an easy one, but they kept calm heads and made it through just fine. Still, though, we all breathed a sigh of relief when we eventually hit regular trail (just before clouds sat back down on the route) and could really celebrate…hello, caramel chocolate bar!

              We actually still had a really long trek (I think 7 more hours) to get to our hut for the night, so we didn’t wait long. The first part of the descent was through these sort of hillocks between lower peaks and then steep switchbacks down to another hut where some grumpy old American kept going on about ordering black tea and getting coffee (Sarah distinctly heard the word “coffee” come from his lips, and anyway, what sort of American man chooses black tea over coffee? Note: if you are that American man, keep it to yourself…I am just joking…black tea is perfectly fine to drink if you actually order it instead of coffee…it is even better if a tornado has destroyed all available coffee sources within 299 miles).

              From there, we were disheartened to discover we actually had to ascend another 1500 feet to a saddle between two other peaks before we could finally descend for the rest of the day. Once we got to this saddle, though, we were in a great section of seven beautiful lakes along the trail. Each lake featured that signature clear water we were coming to expect of all waters Slovene. Further down, the limestone cliffs grew smaller and whiter, and we began to see more green. The hut may not have featured the stunning backdrop of Triglav that could be seen on a clear day, but it was situated between two pretty lakes. Moreover, they had microbrew on tap!

              All four of us had long drives ahead of us after finishing the climb, so we got an early start on day 3 and made quick work of the morning. We did have a nice break at a scenic hut overlooking Lake Bohinj, however, where we enjoyed some strong coffee (not black tea) and fresh apple strudel while enjoying the sunny view of the lake and the Julian Alps! Why don’t we have the hut system at home? I guess then this wouldn’t be as cool…wait, did I mention the apple strudel?

              A couple of hours (and over 40 steep switchbacks…they number them), we found ourselves at our pickup point and headed back to Bled. Lake Bohinj was quite beautiful and looked like a cool place to hang out, but it was time to go. Outside the tour company, we said goodbye to our new friends; we enjoyed getting to know them and were impressed with the way they approached their first alpine climb. Climbing Mt. Triglav and experiencing via ferrata for the first time was super fun, and I think it was my favorite part of Slovenia. 

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, Slovenia | 2 Comments

It’s All Fun and Rains: Bled, Slovenia September 5 – 8, 2019

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Sarah

It was time to kick off part two of the Raff’s Still Moonin’ adventure… Europe!  Our starting place was a trip through the Western Balkans.  Croatia was top of the list, but after some research (Thanks, Rick Steves!) we decided to add on Slovenia.  It was described as a small mountainous country known for its hospitality, farm to table food, and love of the outdoors (58% of the country is covered in trees).  Plus, they had wine and hut-to-hut mountain climbing with easy access.  We were sold!

After a non-eventful, even pleasurable flight on Air France, we arrived in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  We quickly got our rental car and headed out towards Lake Bled.  It had been a few years since I have driven in Europe in a manual car, so the drive was a good reminder of all the different road signs, roundabouts, and narrow roads.  I was happy to arrive at our hotel and find a nice parking lot to drop the car!  I was even happier to celebrate our safe arrival with a glass of wine overlooking the lake.

Lake Bled is a gorgeous emerald green alpine lake with a picturesque island.  We enjoyed the 3.5Km walk around the lake with a few side trips to different viewpoints of the lake including a trek up to the castle.  The view was beautiful, and it was cool to climb up the walls and imagine defending the castle by looking through the arrow slots.

The real highlight of the lake is taking a Pletna boat ride to the island.  According to Uncle Ricky (our nickname for Rick Steves), the Plenta boats started in the 1700’s as a way for the families in a neighboring town to make a living as they had minimal farmland.  Today, there are 14 families that have boats, and they are in a union.  Each boat charges the same price per person and all the money is evenly split between each family.  There are several boat launches around the lake. They give the older oarsmen the short side and the younger the long side. 

We opted for the longer ride to maximize our time on the water with the views.  We got the first 2 spots in the boat for great views.  However, about halfway into our crossing, it started to downpour and we got soaked!  Once at the island, we had 40 minutes to explore.  We rang the bell in the church 3 times in hopes that our dreams would come true according to tradition.  The clock tower was newly restored, so we enjoyed observing the pendulum clock in action including ringing the bells at 45 after.  The views were disappointing as it was still downpouring, but it was a fun adventure. 

The splurge of the day was dinner at Fine Foods Berc which offered a 4-course tasting menu with wine pairings.  It was a great time and fun to sample Slovenian foods and wine.  They pride themselves on local, fresh foods and this was a great introduction.

Course 1: Trout prepared in many ways… Smoked (really fishy), eggs (weird!), cooked (pretty okay), and pate (actually my favorite!).  This was paired with a Slovenian white wine from the Karst region which was minerally and crisp.

Course 2: Traditional Slovenian ravioli stuff with potatoes and bacon served with lamb ragu.  It was basically like a pierogi with lamb sauce and was by far my favorite dish!  This was paired with a red wine called Teran which is bright, fruit-forward and known for its minerals.

Course 3: Boar medallions with buckwheat dumplings paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon.  Great pairing, and the boar was excellent.

Course 4: A fancy take on the famous cream cake of Bled.  I don’t really like custardy desserts, but this was amazing!  We skipped the dessert wine as it isn’t our cup of tea.

The next day, we enjoyed a driving tour of the Julian Alps.  This was our best weather window for the few days in Bled, so we left early in hopes to get some views.  The first highlight of the day was driving Vrsic road.  This road had 50 hairpin turns: 24 up and 26 down.  The road was built by 10,000 Russian POWs in WWI to carry supplies to the Austrian troops defending the Soca Valley from the Italians.  Many died from exhaustion, starvation and avalanches.  The POWs built a tiny Russian Orthodox church in their camp in remembrance of those that died.

The road is so steep that at each turn they laid cobblestones to increase traction.  I was happy we had an early start and didn’t run into many other cars or busses.  According to Uncle Ricky, this is a big objective for cyclists and they can beat the cars up (35 minutes)!  We only saw one coming down, which might be scarier than going up!

As we went up, we had glimpses of the mountains that were surrounding us.  The clouds would drift in and out but no amazing views.  However, when we got to the pass, the west side was perfectly clear!  Wow!  We soaked in the views of the big craggy, limestone mountains towering over the green valleys.  The Soca river was perfectly clear and a beautiful blue.  Some sections were very narrow through the limestone, and we enjoyed a few suspension bridges to get better views.

The Soca Valley saw heavy fighting in WWI with over 1M dead by the end of the war.  We stopped at an outdoor museum to walk through an Italian front with barbed-wire fences, trenches, pillboxes, and caves.  As I walked through, I got chills.  I can’t even imagine what it was like especially in the winter. 

In the small town of Kobarid, we stopped to walk through a WWI museum that provided us with more background of the fighting.  This was also the town where Ernest Hemmingway volunteered driving an ambulance and inspired A Farewell to Arms.

To wrap up the day, we opted to take the Car Train back to Bled instead of driving 2 more hours.  The Car Train was only 45 minutes as it went directly through the mountains (literally through tunnels).  We drove onto the flatbed railcar, put on the emergency break and held on for the ride.  It was an adventure, especially the tunnels as they were long and dark.  The last tunnel was over 10 minutes long with the only light from the train engine.  It was an adventure, and definitely not up to the safety standards of the US!

The weather forecast for our last day in the Bled area was terrible – 3” of rain, cold and thunderstorms.  We actually were supposed to start our 3-day attempt of Mount Triglav today, but postponed it due to this storm!  So, we opted for a morning tour of Radovljica instead.  Radovljica, or as we lovingly called it “The R town”, is a medieval market town located on a hilltop.  The town center is filled with colorful, historic homes and cobblestone streets.  We had the place to ourselves as it was downpouring, so good photo ops! 

The highlight, strangely enough, was the beekeeping museum.  Beekeeping is a big thing in Slovenia, and they are very proud that their native bee is still thriving while most of the European bees have died out.  I really enjoyed peeking into a live beehive trying to find the queen bee!  The highlight of the museum was the historical front panels from the beehives which were painted with different scenes.  They ranged from religious scenes to cultural scenes.  They were beautifully painted, and it was interesting to learn about this aspect of their culture.

Our first few days in Slovenia were fun with a warm introduction to their hospitality and a glimpse of their craggy mountains!  We were looking forward to getting more acquainted with them during our 3-day climbing trip!

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, Slovenia | 4 Comments

Tahoe to Indiana, or Where the Hell Have We Been? Aug. 17-Sept. 3

Posted on September 3, 2019 by Mike

As Sarah mentioned in the last blog, Mt. Whitney was sort of the final big item on our list of stuff to do this summer. We’d actually scored one more set of permits in the Sierra, but they had been sort of a backup plan in case Whitney hadn’t panned out. As it was, however, we’d had so many good days of climbing, that we really didn’t feel too excited to turn around and do another long pack-in, plus there was a forest fire in our next region that was creating smoky skies. Instead, we decided it would be a great time to find a place to swim and chill out for a few days before making the long drive from California to Indiana to see our family and make final preparations for our trip across the pond.

Before leaving the Whitney area, though, we made an important stop at Manzanar, the former Japanese Internment Camp. Most of us probably know about this unfortunate part of our country’s history, in which we relocated and imprisoned (let’s not mince words…our government admitted its mistake years ago) Japanese American citizens living on the coast in desolate middle-of-nowhere internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Stuck in the middle of the desert, 10,000 people were forced to call Manzanar their home from 1942-45, a few months after the end of the war. Keep in mind, that’s 10,000 people sharing one square mile of desert. Although moved in response to irrational fears of collaborating with the enemy, not a single Japanese American intern was ever convicted of conspiring with Japan. The people gave up their possessions, homes, businesses, and communities—most never returning—in exchange for tar paper and plank barracks (often housing multiple families) that offered minimal protection from dust or cold.  After the war (and a Supreme Court order), prisoners left with $25 and one-way bus tickets. The visitor’s center does a great job of focusing on the people who lived in Manzanar through videos, photos, and written accounts. In today’s culture of fear-based argument and dehumanizing people for nearly any perceived difference, I wish everyone could spend an hour at Manzanar.

Lake Tahoe was our locale of choice for some R and R after a summer of pushing our bodies.  I’d never actually been there, except to drive through on the way to climb at Lover’s Leap a couple of years ago, so I wasn’t sure what to expect but was really ready for a swim! We were a little shocked, though, at just how crowded it was when we got into town—luckily, it was Sunday, and the week was much quieter. The City Campground is quite a dump—they planned to build new bathrooms next month, which was absolutely irrelevant to us. So it was that I managed to poop everywhere in Tahoe (Les Schwab, a State Park bathroom, Safeway, and a Ford dealership in Nevada) except the place we called home! Anyway, we spent the next few days sun-bathing and reading beside the crystal blue water, taking brief but refreshing swims in the cold water, and generally living a blissfully slothful existence. We had planned to move to Lover’s Leap at the end of the week, but Craggin’s battery officially kicked the bucket on the morning we wanted to leave (thus, the pooping in Nevada), so we ended up just moving to that side of the lake and learning to stand-up paddleboard (super fun!) before heading east on the long road to Indiana.

Here are the greatest hits and observations…also known as just enough to keep us sane through 30 hours of straight, 4-lane nothing:

  1. Detouring to Ft. Collins, CO to see our great friends, Ryan and Leslie Morrison, their adorable daughter Clara, and our old 4-legged pal Wylie. The mark of good friends is being able to pick up right where you left off as if it hadn’t been way too long, and we were so lucky to share a ton of laughs with them last week.
  2. Summitting our 6th state high point (2nd via car) at Panorama Point, Nebraska (5,429 ft.) Unlike the highpoint of Iowa that we summitted a few years ago, you can see over the corn at this one.
  3. Nebraska sucks…in fact it might be the one thing Meat Loaf would not do for love.
  4. If Nebraska is not that one thing, then McDonald’s chicken tenders are.
  5. Stumbling onto (not into…or out of) a wonderful lunch at a winery in Kickapoo, IL.
  6. Pulling into the Mathews’ driveway way too long after leaving Nebraska.

The past week, we’ve had a great time with our family in Indiana (including a fun barbecue, impromptu chin-up competition spanning 3 generations, baking pasties, tennis matches, and a memorable Scattergories contest), trying to figure out how our niece and nephew seem to grow up when we can’t seem to do the same, and transitioning from van life to backpacker life as we make final preparations to fly out on Wednesday—next stop Slovenia! If you are really tired of reading about climbing, stick with us because we’re about to go Rick Steves on y’all…

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, USA - Summer 2019 | 1 Comment

Mt. Whitney: August 12 – 16, 2019

Posted on August 31, 2019 by Sarah

The culmination of our summer climbing plans was Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the continental United States.  All summer, we had this climb in mind. We would need high-altitude fitness, good route-finding and efficient climbing to make it successful.  After our successful time in Tuolumne, we felt prepared to give it a go.

The crux of climbing Mt. Whitney is getting the elusive permits. Only 10 individuals each day can enter the area that we needed to camp in to attempt the technical East Buttress route.  Six of these are available to reserve 6 months in advance.  Rewinding to February of 2019, Mike and I were trying our luck to obtain 2 of these permits during the peak climbing season.  Mike scored and got the permits on Valentine’s Day – a great present!

We spent 2 days prepping for our climb in Lone Pine, CA at a nice B&B.  Lone Pine is a small, hot, dusty town catering to Mt. Whitney climbers.  Back in the day, Western movies were filmed at Alabama Hills just outside of town.  We didn’t do much in town besides rent bear canisters and eat a few meals.  We were too busy trying to pack.

As usual, we had an ambitious plan to maximize our permit time by camping for 5 nights.  As we starting to organize our gear, we realized that our packs couldn’t fit 5 nights of food, so we dropped it down to 4 nights – exactly what we could fit into the 2 bear canisters.  Bear canisters are bulky, heavy and just do not pack well.  We each had to carry one, plus our camping and climbing gear.  Our packs were heavy – 42 lbs for me and 46 lbs for Mike, but everything fit without looking too much like a yard sale!  We were ready to give it a go.

As we were making our final preparations at the trailhead, we saw familiar faces from Portland – Pat Cook and Rhonda Ramirez.  These two ladies helped with our Advanced Rock class with the Mazamas where Mike and I learned how to climb trad!  It was fun to see them and tell them that we were using our skills to climb Mt. Whitney!

I was nervous for the approach due to heavy packs and the steep grade of the climber’s trail (4000’ in 4 miles).  We decided to take the same mindset as we did on the Grand and just take it step by step.  The first challenge was the 2 lower creek crossings.  The creeks were rushing with snowmelt, and the rocks to cross were slick as snot!  It was a bit scary, but we managed without getting wet.  The next challenge was making our way through the Ebersbacher ledges.  We had to walk along a narrow ledge with a steep drop off.  A fall would have been very bad, so we took our time and tried to stay as balanced as you can with a very heavy pack on!  This was my least favorite part of the hike!

From here, the hike eased up in terms of bad consequences, but ramped up in terms of steepness and slowness due to the altitude.  We moved at a steady pace and enjoyed the views of the lakes and eventually the imposing East Face of Whitney.  As I was staring at the face, I had moments of doubt that there was actually a climbing route up it that we could climb! 

After 6 hours of hard work, we arrived at Iceberg Lake (12,600’).  The lake was still partially frozen, so it was well named.  We were pooped.  The approach with the heavy packs was really hard work!  We found a great rock shelter to call home and set up camp where we could scout our route.  We spent the afternoon relaxing and watching other climbers descend the Mountaineer’s route.  Based on their feedback, we happily found out we could leave the crampons behind!  The original plan was to take the next day as a rest day, however, the morning’s weather forecast showed it was the best day to climb.  We also found out that no other groups were planning to climb our route, so we would have it to ourselves!

The route that we chose to climb was called the East Buttress, 2000’ of technical 5.7 rock climbing.  We got an early start, as the route is in the sun from 6am to 2pm and then gets cold.  After 45 minutes of scrambling/hiking, we arrived at the base of the first pitch.  Since the climbing was fairly sustained for the entire 2000’, we planned to pitch it out (no simul-climbing).  The first several pitches were fun, varied climbing – stemming, jamming, slabs, and pure joy.  We had a little route-finding issue about 600’ up, but we managed to get back on route quickly.  Never a good sign when you start climbing rock with lichen!  Surprisingly, the follower—not the leader–encountered the hardest aspect as we wanted to climb fast, but we would get out of breath as we were so high.  So even as a follower, we had to pace ourselves.    

After 7.5 hours of climbing and 13 pitches, we summited!  We were happy, but tired.  The summit was very large, and there is even a hut on top to be used as an emergency shelter.  We shared the summit with 2 other teams that came up the neighboring route.  The views were incredible.  We could look east and see our entire route up from the car.  Every other direction was filled with mountains and lakes. 

We enjoyed our first real break of the day and enjoyed eating snacks including my favorite… Snickers bar!  Then it was time to descend.  I was very happy that it was a non-technical descent via the Mountaineer’s route.  It had a little 4th class scrambling and then mostly scree/trail down.  We were back at camp 1.5 hours later! 

Back at camp, we feasted on Raman Noodles and Mountain House!  Then early to bed as we were tired from the full day.  That night was a full moon.  When I got up to pee, it was so light outside that I didn’t need my headlamp.  The moon was high over Whitney and was so incredible! 

The next day, we slept in until it was too hot to stay in the tent any longer as it felt like a sauna.  We debated over breakfast what we should do next.  Our options were to hike out or rest a day and climb something the following day.  We were beat.  I think our active summer caught up with us in addition to the exhausting pack in with the heavy load.  We just didn’t have much left in the tank.  Plus, resting in the hot sun all day didn’t sound appealing, so we opted to hike out and shorten the trip.

Truthfully, I was not excited about the hike out; I guess who is?  I kept thinking of how slick the rocks in the creek were, how steep it would be on tired knees, and the exposed ledges.  However, the hike out was easier than expected and felt like 4 miles.  We made good time and arrived at the parking lot in 4 hours.  The Yeti did a good job, and we enjoyed cold Peroni to celebrate.

I had an incredible time on our 3-day trip.  The rock climbing was some of the best of the whole trip.  Good granite, good gear, and long varied pitches.  The scenery was awesome – granite everywhere and crystal, clear, blue lakes!  I was extremely proud of how well we did the whole time – good route-finding, teamwork, and efficient climbing.  I was thankful for the time we spent at altitude as neither one of us had any issues, which was huge!  Overall, I’m just so happy that Mike and I were able to climb Mt. Whitney.  We were teasing each other that this was our Machu Pichu of this summer.  Our last big thing before the next segment of our trip.  It sure did not disappoint!  What an epic summer of climbing – we are so very lucky!

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, USA - Summer 2019 | 2 Comments

The Magic of the Meadows: Tuolumne, Jul. 31-Aug. 12

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Mike

Sarah and I have just finished 12 days in Tuolumne Meadows—the prettier, less crowded, more temperate portion of Yosemite National Park. As usual, we came with a giant tick list of peaks to climb, but we’ve also been going hard for a long time. We’re probably in the best shape of our lives, but it’s also taking us longer to recover from things. We found ourselves having to choose between long alpine climbs and pushing our grade on harder climbs with short approaches; in the end, alpine won out, especially with the amazing weather we had. Sometimes it was frustrating to have to rest; both Sarah and I have the benefit and drawback of pushing for the next big thing. Luckily, Tuolumne Meadows is about the easiest place to chill out that I can imagine. Twelve days is darn near a permanent residence for us after nearly a full summer on the road, but Tuolumne is certainly a spectacular place to call home! Rather than bore everyone with a full blow-by-blow of our time, I will instead stick to the highlight reel!

Our first major endeavor was Tenaya Peak, which towers above the road and picturesque Tenaya Lake—site of many a hippy bath during warmer weather. Summitting requires about 1,500 feet of climbing up to 5.6 with an hour-ish approach and longer hike down a trail to the lake, so we got an early start. Reaching it is supposedly a bushwhack, but we had a good trail almost the whole way—definitely no bushwhacking of North Cascades standards! The worst part was crossing wet slabs under a small waterfall, but that took about 5 steps. From there, we pondered a “sea of slabs” with probably 2,498,172 ¼ ways to ascend!

 We free-soloed the first 500 feet of low angle, 4th and easy 5th class before roping up and simul-climbing (at the same time, keeping pieces of protection between us) another 600 feet in 2 long pitches. When it looked like the climbing might be a bit more serious, we pitched out the rest of the climb—basically, we did 13 pitches in 6! Looking out from the summit at Tenaya Lake, Cathedral Peak, Matthes Crest, and Half Dome, we felt pretty pleased with the world—a couple of hikers were at the summit, but we’d even had the route to ourselves! It’s also not every day we get to climb 2,000 feet from car to summit and get back to camp in time for lunch and ice cream from the store! The person who’d signed the summit register the day before noted that he’d lost count of how many times he’d climbed Tenaya, but it gave him a sense of what he wants from his world; I think both Sarah and I could relate to the freedom, peacefulness, and adventure this climb offers.

After a couple of days of resting and cragging, we tackled the 1st half of Matthes Crest—which would mean climbing a ½ mile of a very narrow, exposed ridge 500 feet off the ground. We made short work of the first portion of the trail—if not for the sake of time than to avoid being skeeter breakfast. One guidebook suggests a very convoluted approach that notoriously messes people up, so we chose the simpler option to hike easy trail to the base of Cathedral Peak (probably the most climbed in Tuolumne) before going cross-country on easy to navigate terrain toward our objective. It was a good decision, and we had no problem navigating, but man, it was a haul!

We pitched out the first 3 pitches of vertical climbing to gain the ridge. It felt really windy and cold, but the climb starts from a sort of notch which probably caused that; most of the day felt much better! Sarah led the 1st pitch, and I immediately broke off a knob—the first 3 pitches are all knobs, which made for a pretty shaky start for me! That changed, though, when we hit the ridge and began simul-climbing on mostly easy, super fun slabs and big flakes. Every once in a while, a more vertical hump or tower required harder moves, but the exposure was the real challenge. I’d move around a corner or peek over the side before going, “I don’t wanna’ climb that!” and move up the face instead. Sarah got a few heady downclimb moves, and I was very grateful for the good protection she left me in those spots. Other than that, there weren’t too many memorable moves, but there were a couple of spots with 2 hands on a rock fin and feet basically on the edge—neither of us spent any significant time pondering the sheer 500 foot drop below us!

We stood on top of the South Summit after about 5 hours of climbing; we’d lost some time on the first 3 pitches, and I was a little slow to start the morning. Still, we’d moved very efficiently on the ridge, and a ½ mile of rock climbing is a really cool thing! We took a few minutes to ponder the North Summit, which is a little higher and requires two ropes to rappel, thinking maybe another time. I managed to make the downclimb a little harder than it needed to be, but I protected it well, and Sarah kept the cussing inside her head (I think) before joining me at the notch between summits for two pleasantly low-key rappels took us to solid ground. I don’t think either of us had ever climbed something that exposed for the entirety of the climb, and it was definitely Type-2 fun. That being said, we both found ourselves eyeing the second half of Matthes Crest—after all, isn’t a mile better than half?

If you’ve ever used Recreation.gov, you know that it is basically a piece of poo. Well, it turns out the Park Service probably feels the same because the website managed to sell a bunch of the walk-up sites for about 2 weeks in peak season! They didn’t really know the full scale of the problem when we’d arrived and waited half the night to get a campsite, but they’d figured it out by the time I went to renew…overbooked…no renewals! Thus, I found myself first in line at 3 AM in the middle of our trip because I was going to be damned if we didn’t get our campsite (really, the best site I’ve ever had anywhere). I was glad to see Sarah walking up the way at around 7:00 with coffee and cinnamon cake, and we got our spot.

When we’d come here a couple of years ago, thunderstorms had shut us down nearly afternoon, but we’d been lucky enough to have a long streak of mellow weather with moderate temperatures—even in the valley. Sarah suggested climbing Snake Dike Route on Half-Dome, so we watched the forecast and were very surprised to get a weather window with highs well below the oven one would usually expect down there in August. Snake Dike is named for long, windy streaks of raised features on the otherwise slabby granite; these make for relatively easy climbing but also greatly diminish the opportunities for gear placements. Yosemite is known for very long runouts for bolted climbs, and Snake Dike certainly lives up to that reputation. On the other hand, packing was really easy since you don’t have to take much gear!

Rather than bumble around a dark campsite at 3:30 AM, we moved from the bed to the front seat and drove down in our pajamas, sipping cold coffee drinks and saving breakfast for the trail. Only a handful of cars and a fox shared the roads with us, and we were happy to find a parking spot in the lot—meaning we were only ½ mile from the trailhead instead of a whole mile (what’s up with these weird distances in California?). The approach was about 6 miles and very scenic—passing pretty Vernal Falls and rushing Nevada Falls. I found myself leering at other people’s packs but could discern no other ropes, which boded well for our chance to avoid crowds on the route. The first half of the hike climbed steeply up endless rocky steps before mellowing out for a couple of miles; from there, the climbing trail ends and you have to ascend a gully of rockfall from a couple of years ago, cross a couple of really exposed slabs, and then wind up and around to the start of the climb. We had a very long day to go, but we did stop long enough to take account of these giant forearm-sized cones!

It was a little breezy when we got there, but only one other party was above us (and they were already 3 pitches up!). Our climb was 8 pitches and about 800’ of roped climbing, followed by another 1,000 feet of calf-burning easy 3rd class slabs to the top. The hardest climbing is 5.7 and occurs in the first 3 pitches, which are sort of a series of traverses on slick rock to reach the long dike. With only a bolt or two and maybe a cam on each pitch, we found ourselves climbing very quickly! The 4th-6th pitches are all really long, really easy, and REALLY runout—like 160’ feet with 2 bolts! On the 6th pitch, I climbed 120’ before slinging two knobs (one terrible and one okay) because I wanted something, promptly missing the bolt above me, and reaching the anchor at 130’…only to discover it was a hanging belay on spinning bolts (climbers, keep donating to ASCA)! Despite the lack of protection, the climbing was really fun and not overly scary…you just never got to the point where the runout wasn’t at the back of your mind (wait, isn’t that the part of your brain in charge of survival?). Two short, easy pitches of trad climbing on slabs, finger cracks, and a mini-roof got us to the 3rd class stuff, although we roped up for one more while the climbing stayed more vertical. We tried our best to pace ourselves up that last 1,000 feet, but slab running burns your calves and lungs anyway.  I finally spotted three sets of long legs reclining in the sun above us, and we happily topped out to join the masses about 100 feet beyond the legs. We’d climbed from the base in 3 hours on a day that, aside from a few cold gusts, turned out to be gorgeous!

The summit is actually pretty awesome—huge with nothing around it to block the surrounding views into the valley and up at the peaks of Tuolumne. We took some photos, including the famous “diving board” shots and enjoyed our first summit of a Yosemite classic climb. It was a little bit of culture shock, though, with all the people—one group beside us that had climbed up the cables on the dog route was even frying steaks on an MSR stove! Our rope was a novelty to many (they thought we were like Alex Honnold), but we’ve climbed plenty of peaks without ever seeing a steak knife at the summit before!

Another new, and not entirely enjoyable, phenomenon was our descent via 500 feet of 2-way traffic between the wire cables. They are only attached in a few places through giant bomb-proof eye bolts drilled into the rock; intermediate poles (that lift out when people pull up on the cables!) are dropped into drilled brackets, creating questionable anchor points if someone falls, and wooden slats offer footing at these poles—about every 10-12 feet apart. We wore belay gloves and chose to walk down between the cables like everyone else, but that plan was bad…years of thousands of boots have made that steep path as polished and slick as chicken grease on a KFC floor! I wanted my harness on with my personal safety leash clipped onto the wire, which would have allowed me to walk outside the cables—a mere 6 inches away from the KFC floor lay lovely grainy, textured rock that nobody uses! It wasn’t altogether terrifying but to stuck on this ant hill with people who’ve never climbed, but I must agree with Sarah’s assessment that it was, at best, “sort of fun in a sick way.”

When we’d been on the summit, I looked around and saw the excitement most people felt after what for some was a once-in-a-lifetime achievement—even if you hike up and do the cable thing, Half Dome is a big frigging rock! I mentioned this to Sarah before adding that we get to do this stuff almost every day this year, and we get to do it together. We’ve worked really hard to earn our opportunities and been lucky to have much support along the way, but we also know and appreciate that we live a pretty charmed life. Tuolumne Meadows is one of my favorite places to climb, and maybe even my favorite place to be, and I can’t wait to come back here again and again.

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, USA - Summer 2019 | Leave a comment

Cobble, Cobble: Maple Canyon July 27 – 30, 2019

Posted on August 13, 2019 by Sarah

Maple Canyon was not on the original Raff’s Summer 2019 itinerary. After lots of discussion over happy hour wine in Jackson Hole, we decided to head there next as a stopover on our way to Tuolumne.  We were originally planning to spend a week alpine climbing in The Winds in Wyoming, but we were feeling too rushed and decided to add the extra time to Tuolumne instead. 

Our travel day brought on a little feeling of sadness for both of us, almost like our trip was over.  I am not sure if it was because we were heading west, or if we were just tired.  We weren’t going home, and our epic vacation is still in its early stages, but we were both feeling a little down.  Nothing that a few days of cragging couldn’t fix.

We decided to splurge and stay in an Air B&B for the 3 days.  We got a great deal on a room in a Victorian mansion built in 1894 in Spring City, UT.  Spring City is a National Historic City with lots of old homes and a cute little downtown.  It was also only a 20-minute drive to the crag!  The place was great, and we were the only guests, so we had the whole house to ourselves. The only downside, there was no shower, only a giant tub!  I felt very olden times, rinsing my hair with the pitcher!

Spring City and Maple Canyon are in rural Utah.  There isn’t much around except for farming.  As luck would hold it, we encountered our second animal drive… this time it was 200 sheep!  We saw them headed toward us and just stopped the car to let them pass.  This time, I was able to document the evidence!

Maple Canyon is famous for its cobblestone.  The walls are basically different size stones all held together with sandstone. The stones range from golf ball size to beachball size.  When you climb, you use the stones and/or the depressions where the stones used to be as handholds and footholds.  It is a weird feeling to grab onto this stone and hope that it stays in place.  I only had one small one break off, and I was luckily balanced enough not to fall!

We spent 3 days climbing in different areas within the canyon.  We didn’t push our grades here as we were both worried about falling and hitting our ankles on the strange stones.  Instead, we just enjoyed the many moderate climbs in the shade.  The climbing was fun, a little like gym climbing.  A good place to spend a few days, but not at the top of our list to visit again. 

I’m glad we flexed our schedule to include Maple Canyon as a stop over and saved The Winds for another year.  Tuolumne Meadows is calling our name and having a place to call “home” for 2 weeks sounds lovely.

Posted in 2019- 2020 Still Mooning, USA - Summer 2019 | Leave a comment