It's a wonderful day in the valley

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scottpedition

climber

Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 14, 2010 - 09:16pm PT

Snow is melting, the sun is shining, and wildlife is stirring all around the valley.

We started last night with hints of fire in Horsetail Falls and Valentine's red on Sentinel Rock.

I let my sweetheart sleep in this morning while I headed over for few bolt ladder laps on the LeConte boulder. Yowzers; winter has been cruel, and snowboarding with the kids did little to keep those legs in shape. Time to start working some one-legged squats or something.

After lunch, focused switched to Valentine's Day proper, cruising 'round the valley with my sweetie. A little over 19 years ago, we spent a week here, snowed in, on our honeymoon. Today, we ended up at the bridge, and hiked from there up Old Big Oak Flat road.

We even passed a familiar looking van along the way...

Scott

enjoimx

Big Wall climber

SLO Cal

Feb 14, 2010 - 09:21pm PT

Beautiful pictures. Lucky guy.

Captain...or Skully

Social climber

شقوق واس

Feb 14, 2010 - 09:27pm PT

Indeed. Makin' me jones for the place, as if I wasn't already.
'Gracias.

Peter Haan

Trad climber

San Francisco, CA

Feb 14, 2010 - 09:30pm PT

Thanks Scott, some nice photos too!

ryankelly

Trad climber

sonora

Feb 15, 2010 - 12:44am PT

Lovely photos. Was a perfect day in the Valley!

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Feb 15, 2010 - 01:25am PT

I just got back! I'll post some photos too...

...the van was awesome with it's new wheels/tires... probably scared a bunch of drivers passing them on the way out.

scottpedition

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 02:44am PT

Yeah, it sure is nice having clear, dry roads. Sounds like those new tires made it that much
better.

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Feb 15, 2010 - 03:31am PT

hey there scott... say, i had the same word come to mind:
lovely photos...

very nice stuff, thanks for the share...
:)

scottpedition

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 11:37am PT

Great photos Ed. Is that first one from up towards the spires? And the second near Manure Pile? There were 40+ people hanging out taking photos along Southside the night before.

You caught a wonderful view of Horsetail Fall. By late afternoon, I was thinking it wasn't going to light up due to the incoming cloud cover. Glad to see that I was wrong.

Thanks all for the nice comments; it looks like another wonderful day today. It's great when we get a burst of spring weather in what otherwise seemed like the middle of winter.

Scott

Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Feb 15, 2010 - 11:56am PT

The first photo was taken from the slopes east of the Spires, basically walking up from the Meadows Bridge, across South Side Dr. and finding the first creek bed. The snow's not too bad and you can basically walk on the ground once you get off the flats (though there are icy spots along the way 11S0269005, 4177567, 1296m).

I was with a crowd on the South Side Drive just on the bend of the Merced river (the one west of Yellow Pines, 11S0270055, 4178811) ... it wasn't that red because of the cloud cover,
but Photoshop is your friend....

I'll probably be back sometime this next week and then the following week. Requiring both the astronomical occurrence, the Sun setting with the proper altitude and azimuth with respect to El Capitan's Nose, and a red sunset, with the right atmospheric and meteorologic conditions, makes appreciating Galen's image all the more.

Srbphoto

Trad climber

Kennewick wa

Feb 15, 2010 - 11:58am PT

I hate both of you!

Mark Hudon

Trad climber

Hood River, OR

Feb 15, 2010 - 12:01pm PT

Yeah, you guys are pissing me off!

SteveW

Trad climber

The state of confusion

Feb 15, 2010 - 12:09pm PT

Nice photos, both of you!
Love the reflection one, Scott, and
your waterfall on the Captain is awesome, Ed!!!!

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Feb 15, 2010 - 12:10pm PT

One of the more interesting El Cap photos I've seen for showing up the features right of the nose. Great shadows.
My skis still think it's their time of year so I won't be back in the valley for a few more weeks. Thanks for all the pics.

Dirka

Trad climber

Feb 15, 2010 - 01:41pm PT

Bump for pics!

Carolyn C

Trad climber

the long, long trailer

Feb 15, 2010 - 02:11pm PT

As much time as I have spent there, I am still amazed at the beauty and magnificence of the place...like I am seeing it for the first time, and can't believe what I am seeing. Thanks for the photos.

scottpedition

climber

Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2010 - 02:55pm PT

Thanks for the background Ed; that's a great idea to apply the analysis you've done for Moon over Half Dome to Horsetail.

While we're busy pissing people off, here's a couple more with those morning shadows showing the relief. I have a couple of others I like even better than these two, but I haven't had a chance to pull them off the camera yet...