A Failed Attempt on Charlotte Dome
They say when you don't complete a goal or back down from it, it lingers and will fester until you complete it. It's true. Last Memorial Day (2013) Kat and I had the idea over hiking in to Charlotte Dome from the west side and climbing it. If you're not familiar, Charlotte Dome is a beautiful 12 pitch 5.8 alpine climb in the high sierra's first climbed by Fred Beckey in 1970. It's also a 50 Classic Climb of North America. The hard part about the climb, however is that; it's challenging for the grade, route finding is tough, there's lots of run-out and you have to do a 12 mile hike in followed by a 2,300 ft scramble just to get to the base of the climb. Not to mention, you have to do the 2,300 ft scramble, 12 pitches of climbing, a 45 minute walk-off the back and then back down the 2,300 ft of fourth-class scrambling all in one day before it gets dark. Otherwise you're epiced and it's at a very high elevation and it gets very cold. And that's exactly what I've heard happen to a lot of friends and others that have attempted the climb.
All these things unfortunately got into my head the morning of our climb and ate away at my psyche until the head games I was playing with myself finally got the better of me. I led up the first pitch just to see if I could get my psyche back but unfortunately it didn't happen. Instead we bailed and headed up Gardnier Pass for some trekking and made a great weekend out of the trip.
I'm headed up again on Memorial Day 2014 and I'm excited for Kat and I to give it another go. This time however, we're ready for it.
All these things unfortunately got into my head the morning of our climb and ate away at my psyche until the head games I was playing with myself finally got the better of me. I led up the first pitch just to see if I could get my psyche back but unfortunately it didn't happen. Instead we bailed and headed up Gardnier Pass for some trekking and made a great weekend out of the trip.
I'm headed up again on Memorial Day 2014 and I'm excited for Kat and I to give it another go. This time however, we're ready for it.