Maria and I just returned from a week at The Lost Arrow Spire. Or as everyone I know calls it simply the Spire!
The Lost Arrow Spire is a long digit of solid granite that breaks away from the main cliff at Yosemite Point two hundred and fifty feet below, at the notch. Everything else is thousands of feet of vertical granite!
It is extremely hard to describe what its like to be at this magical place, or for that matter what it has become to me personally! Although I have never walked across the highline there, I feel a special affinity for this place. This was my eighth year in a row to make the pilgrimage.
My first trip was the July 4th weekend in 1998 with Darrin Carter, it was the el nino year that brought a huge February snow. With no map or compass. We got lost at the first creek crossing. We managed to get to the Spire after two, four hour, postholing, bushwacking, absolutely grueling cross country sessions. And an absolutely miserable mosquito infested, down hill sloping bive in between. I learned from that first trip that the Spire was not an easy place to get to! And once you're there, its tough to keep yourself fat, warm, and happy.
Some how, all that just added to the appeal of the place for me! After following Darrin and Shawn for years and last year just running up by my self with no slacking going on just to keep my streak alive, I knew I had to get involved. I also knew that Scott wanted to make the trip for his twentieth anniversary of his first walk. So we got together on it.
Scott and his son Adom, Damian and his wife Jeffie, Robi, Blair, and their baby daughter Makaya, Corbin and Clay, And Dylan, Maria and I, all met at the trail head on Sunday morning, for the seven mile trek to Yosemite Creek where we would all set up camp.
It was mid afternoon by the time we had all reached the spire, I turned around and went back to the car for another load. Damian and Robi started climbing the Spire.
When I returned about dusk, completely exhausted, Damian, Robi, Clay and Corbin were still out on the Spire. I guess Damian was half way through the second pitch when it got dark. They had to rap back to the notch, leaving rope and gear on the Spire, then had to jug the two hundred and fifty feet back up to the anchor tree!
They managed two drag themselves into camp about eleven o'clock that night.
In the morning Clay and Corbin finished it off, and started rigging. But It was about four o'clock in the afternoon by the time the walking started.
Clay, Corbin, Robi and Blair with the baby all had to be out that night, to make other obligations.
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