https://imgur.com/a/Pn3npBb Full album with descriptions of the features.

I made my attempt at the Keyhole Route today. Goddamn. 16 miles with 5 of them scrambling over boulders. I had shit sleep, ate like 600 calories the day prior, and didn't drink enough water even though I drained a camelbak and two gatorades. By the time I got to the top of The Trough, a 500ft vertical scramble, I was so dehydrated that I vomited twice while looking at The Homestretch from that teeny tiny hole at the top. 100 feet to go, wasn't going to start vomiting and potentially passing out at a 45 degree angle 14.2k' up. Now I have to do it either next week or next year.

Technically the shitpost came from the mountain because for a brief moment I had a signal and tried to make this post instead of enjoying the majesty of nature in one of its most sacred places.

edit: I also got lost coming back on The Narrows and got to confront a fear of heights by climbing over boulders hundreds of feet above granite slabs. Won't do that again.

  • happybadger [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    3 years ago

    I was so pleasantly surprised by The Narrows. Despite hiking in that park regularly and specifically to places like Shelf Lake in those photos which is following animal trails up the side of a mountain (also doing psilocybin on the cliff above Black Lake), I've got a big fear of heights. It's big call of the void energy for me and exposure is something I try to minimise. There is certainly a huge ledge to The Narrows and if you gain momentum when falling or fall in the wrong spot you're cyberdead 2077. What the video and descriptions of a 3' walking area don't capture is the gradient of ledges before the big one. There is only one main path but it's all boulders so you can shift between higher and lower horizons. So many options that I followed the wrong set of boulders to the wrong Keyhole, and that time confidently enough that I could scramble all over them as if there wasn't a cliff below. When I redo the hike that section won't give me any more anxiety than the sketchy waterfalls scrambles elsewhere in the park. The only intimidating thing left is the Homestretch, which is a 100' climb up cracks in a granite wall at a 45 degree angle. But after the rest of it my only anxiety there is the uncertainty of the experience and knowing how hand-polished so much of the granite on other sections is. It's the part that requires multiple days of perfect conditions for me to trust the rock.