The latest from here...............

It was a great weekend. We camped in the Dome Rock area of the Southern Sierra and attended our climbing clubs annual event, and when we pulled up there were quiet a few folks that had showed up. Its always nice to see old friends, some of whom I only see at this event. Many of you have been here and we used to drum afterwards, back in camp around the big fire when the slide show was over. The presenter was a medium sized lady who I could put my arms around easily when I hugged her, but was really a super human of an adventurer! She has the woman’s speed ascent record for El Cap, what takes a strong party several days, she did in a 12 hour push in Yosemite, and this is just the tip of the berg in her list of achievements. But, her smile and personality were golden!
After we got back to camp, we did a night time ascent of Dome Rock, which required being roped up for that 800’ of vertical rock, and wearing a headlamp. It was really dark and the stars were splattered across the blackness. We had the speed thing going too and did the complete climb in around 20 minutes………all 7 of us.
Drumming Sunday night was big and had a surprise visit from our friends of the Mescal band. We played with them for several vollies of drumming and percussive entries and we were all smiling in the end. We did afterhours music too and I left the grounds at around 1 am.
Took a great flight into the backcountry yesterday. We flew way over to the south end of the park and landed on a mountain top at around 8000’. We did the job we came for and had about 10 minutes to check things out. The view was fabulous though it’s very dry back there and no snow really anywhere. The smell in the air the whole time was Sage and it reminded me of many good times. We picked some in a reverent way. We flew over Mineral King on the way back between the passes. I’m going again Friday, this time to the Kings backcountry. I can’t wait!