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Tenaya Peak- Northwest Buttress

After many years of looking at Tenaya while floating around in Lake Tenaya, I finally made the highly enjoyable assent up the beautiful NW Buttress.  My husband and I were treated to 6 pitches of clean granite, and moderate climbing. It was a great way to get a re-introduction to the vertical world after spending too much time behind a desk, and recovering from a broken wrist.

View from the route

In general living in the Bay Area requires an almost herculean effort to be a weekend warrior in terms of driving. We braved some serious traffic getting out of the City, but were treated to a great view of some mountain storms on our way. 2014-07-21_0045.jpg

… and saw a great sunset!

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We started the climb around 6:50 am, which for us is a large accomplishment! I think the afternoon thunderstorms were motivation enough to get out of bed. 2014-07-21_0040.jpg 2014-07-21_0002.jpg

First light hitting Tenaya

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The sea of clean, amazing granite

Having some fun on third (or fourth?) class slabs

2014-07-21_0008.jpg 2014-07-21_0009.jpg 2014-07-21_0017.jpg 2014-07-21_0010.jpg SuperTopo lists the climb as 14 pitches, but we found the beginning to be fun friction and fine un-roped. However, there was definitely a point at which we decided that a rope would be necessary. After so long away my head was definitely not up for soloing, even on easy 5th class. 2014-07-21_0018.jpg 2014-07-21_0011.jpg 2014-07-21_0012.jpg   2014-07-21_0014.jpg 2014-07-21_0015.jpg 2014-07-21_0016.jpg 2014-07-21_0019.jpg

Such a pretty anchor!

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At the top 🙂

2014-07-21_0022.jpg 2014-07-21_0025.jpg 2014-07-21_0024.jpg 2014-07-21_0026.jpg 2014-07-21_0027.jpg After hanging out for a while, we noticed the clouds getting more plentiful and lower in the sky… so we decided to get off the summit before any rain or thunder. We descended on the tree ledges to get back to the car. 2014-07-21_0029.jpg 2014-07-21_0030.jpg 2014-07-21_0031.jpg 2014-07-21_0032.jpg 2014-07-21_0034.jpg 2014-07-21_0033.jpg 2014-07-21_0035.jpg 2014-07-21_0036.jpg 2014-07-21_0037.jpg 2014-07-21_0038.jpg

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Enjoying the warm summer rain

We ended up getting to the meadow and the car right as the storms and rain rolled in… perfect timing down to the minute. That didn’t stop us from enjoying a swim in lake Tenaya before the long drive home.

Hiding in the car from the downpour and HAIL.

 

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