The High Sierra - The Incredible Hulk

The Red Dihedral

(3rd in a series of posts about my 2012 trip to the High Sierra)

And so we busted a move up to the Sawtooths, a tiny little subrange of peaks (no, not those sawtooths)

We didn't climb any of those, but we climbed one behind.

The cheeseburgers were looking at us.

The sun was so pretty driving in, I just kept taking pictures.

We camped in the weird campground at the trailhead to the Incredible Hulk.  Its a really weird campground.  In the morning on the way to the Hulk I got legitimately very (very) lost wandering around the campground in the predawn darkness looking for the shitters.  In the end, I never found them, but when I finally found my way back to the campsite, Neale was pissed.

We did almost the entire hike in in the dark.  This is in the morning near the base of the peak.

Neale got serious about starting the climb.

I was wearing shorts, but that was dumb, because it was really cold.

The famous Red Dihedral pitch.  Neale did something really unusual on this pitch, which was struggle.

I thought it was pretty hard, too.

After that, the climbing got fun and cruisy.

In this photo there are two women (look closely) that we said hi to during the approach.  They were so unfriendly that I thought for sure they must be bigshot awesome climbers.  I tried to give them a second chance by hollering enthusiastic nonsense across the wall, but they ignored me.  I think this portion of the wall holds mostly easier climbs, and they were still on this route after we had nearly finished the descent, and lost sight of them.  So, in addition to being lame people, I believe they were also lame climbers.  

Not to be deterred, Neale insisted on sending that shit.  His goal is that splitter on the wall above.

I parked myself on a beautiful, comfy belay ledge, finally warm in the sun.

The route finishes with this awful squeeze through this horrible hole.  Any smaller, and I wouldn't have fit.

Its a round peg through a square hole, but it had to go, so I forced it.

SUCCESS!

hulky.

The descent is really lame.  Very big, very loose blocks.  Ankle danger was extreme.

Me, looking around for how to downclimb this surprisingly challenging looking step.

Then Neale figured out the secret - there was a passage under the boulder.

Long, loose, and lame.

Striking, isn't he?

Walking back to the campground.