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Is Climbing in Yosemite Still Worth It? · Phil and H Travel - Is It Worth It? Top Travel Destinations Explored!

• 0:00
  I want you to close your eyes for a second.
• 0:02
  Imagine you're at your desk. The fluorescent lights are
• 0:05
  humming. Maybe you're stuck in traffic
• 0:07
  and you just. You need out.
• 0:08
  Yeah, you picture yourself in Yosemite.
• 0:11
  You're channeling your inner Alex Honnold.
• 0:14
  You've got the racks slung over your shoulder, You're pulling up
• 0:17
  to the valley floor. Golden hour light is hitting El
• 0:19
  Capitan and you're just going to casually scale 3000 feet of
• 0:24
  granite and. Then grab a celebratory beer at
• 0:26
  the lodge. Exactly.
• 0:28
  It's the ultimate climber's dream, isn't it?
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  The Reddit individualism, the silence, the the conquest.
• 0:35
  It is, it is a beautiful dream. It's it's the dream that sells
• 0:39
  millions of dollars of puffy jackets and carabiners every
• 0:41
  single year. But, and I hate to be the one to
• 0:45
  pop the bubble right at the start, but if we actually look
• 0:48
  at the logistics that, you know, the hard data and the current
• 0:51
  reality of the park, that fantasy is about to hit a very
• 0:55
  literal, very expensive granite wall.
• 0:58
  I had a feeling you were going to ruin this for me.
• 0:59
  I've been reading through this guide Vertical Ambition, and
• 1:02
  honestly it felt like a splash of ice water because the reality
• 1:06
  it describes is less majestic solitude and more gridlock.
• 1:10
  Widlock is putting it politely. I mean, the picture painted here
• 1:13
  is so starkly different from the Patagonia catalog spread.
• 1:17
  Totally. Instead of that breezy, solitary
• 1:19
  climb, the reality is often a six hour traffic jam that makes
• 1:23
  Los Angeles look like, I don't know, a high speed racetrack.
• 1:27
  Wow, you aren't casually strolling to a secluded campsite
• 1:30
  now you are fighting a gladiator battle for a 10 by 10 patch of
• 1:34
  dirt that cost more than a decent motel room used to.
• 1:37
  And the real kicker? And the kicker is, when you
• 1:39
  finally touch the Rock, You realize you are woefully, maybe
• 1:43
  even dangerously, unprepared for the sheer scale of the place.
• 1:48
  That's really the hook of this entire deep dive.
• 1:50
  We are stripping away the romance of Yosemite to focus on
• 1:53
  the brutal logistics, the genuine risks, and what this
• 1:56
  guide calls the contrarian surprises of the climbing Mecca.
• 2:00
  So here's our mission today. We need to figure out if the
• 2:03
  holy ground of rock climbing is actually worth the pilgrimage.
• 2:06
  Is it a cathedral or is it a trap?
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  It's the ultimate question for any modern adventurer, right?
• 2:13
  And answer it. We have to grapple with three
• 2:15
  massive surprises that just they defy the common wisdom.
• 2:20
  OK, what are they? 1st the era of the dirtbag
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  climber is dead and buried. You cannot live on $5 a day in
• 2:27
  Yosemite anymore. The economics just don't work.
• 2:30
  OK, that's a big one. Huge. 2nd for I'd say 90% of the
• 2:35
  people listening to this, the best climbing isn't on El
• 2:38
  Capitan. Really.
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  Where is it then? It might be in a parking lot or
• 2:41
  on some hidden Dome you've never even heard.
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  Of and the third one. This was the one that really
• 2:45
  stuck with me. The third one is the most
• 2:46
  painful. The various part of the trip
• 2:48
  isn't the vertical drop or the exposure.
• 2:51
  No, it's the grocery prices in Yosemite Village.
• 2:54
  That is profound and and deeply depressing.
• 2:57
  The fear of death is secondary to the fear of a $20 burger.
• 3:02
  Pretty bikes. But before we get into the, you
• 3:04
  know, the nitty gritty of the wallet damage, we have to set
• 3:07
  the tone here because despite all the hassles, there is a real
• 3:10
  emotional stake. Oh, for sure.
• 3:11
  We are talking about one of the only places on Earth where the
• 3:15
  physical geography forces you to confront your own mortality in a
• 3:19
  way that, and this is the paradox, it makes you feel more
• 3:22
  alive than you have in years. That's the emotional hook and
• 3:25
  it's why people put up with all the misery.
• 3:27
  But my role today is to be the wet blanket.
• 3:30
  I can see that. I need to set the logistical
• 3:33
  stakes. If you take one thing away from
• 3:34
  this opening, it's this. Yosemite is likely the most
• 3:38
  administratively stressful vacation you will ever take.
• 3:41
  Military grade planning, That's what the guide says.
• 3:44
  It requires military grade planning.
• 3:45
  If you show up hoping to just wing it or go with the flow, you
• 3:50
  will be miserable. You'll be sleeping in your car
• 3:52
  outside the park gates. Period.
• 3:54
  So let's unpack why that is. Why has it become so intense?
• 3:57
  I mean, it wasn't always this way.
• 3:59
  The research points to something called a free solo effect.
• 4:01
  This is a massive cultural shift.
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  Ever since the documentary Free Solo won the Oscar and the Dawn
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  Wall hit Netflix, the demographic of the park has
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  fundamentally transformed. Yosemite used to be a sort of a
• 4:13
  fringe wilderness area for outcasts.
• 4:16
  Now it's treated like a gymnasium.
• 4:18
  A gymnasium? Yeah.
• 4:20
  You have this massive influx of what we call gym climbers.
• 4:23
  Right. And we need to clarify this
• 4:25
  distinction because I think a lot of people assume climbing is
• 4:27
  climbing, but there's a huge difference between pulling on
• 4:30
  plastic holds in an air conditioned gym in Brooklyn or
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  London and, you know, staring up at a real granite face.
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  It's a. Completely different sport.
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  It's not even close. In a gym, the route is
• 4:42
  color-coded. You know exactly where your hand
• 4:45
  goes, the holds stick out, you get strong, build endurance.
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  But then these gym crushers, these people who were super
• 4:51
  strong indoors, they arrive in the Valley and they just get
• 4:54
  shut down. Why?
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  What's the disconnect? Because granite climbing,
• 4:57
  specifically trad or traditional climbing, is about subtlety.
• 5:02
  It's about friction. Explain that friction aspect.
• 5:04
  What does it actually feel like on the Rock We'll.
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  Imagine a sheet of glass that's been sanded down just a little
• 5:09
  bit. That's what polished granite
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  feels like. You often don't have a hold to
• 5:14
  grab onto, So what are you? Doing.
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  You're smearing. You're relying on the surface
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  area of your rubber shoe sole pressing against a blank slab of
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  rock. You have to trust physics.
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  You have to stand up on your feet when your brain is just
• 5:27
  screaming that you were going to slide off.
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  A gym climber looks for a handle.
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  A Yosemite climber looks for a ripple.
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  And the mental game is different, too.
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  In a gym, if you fall, you catch on a bolt every five feet.
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  It's safe. Exactly.
• 5:40
  In Yosemite, you're placing your own protection.
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  You're shoving these metal cams into cracks in the rock if you
• 5:46
  place it wrong or if you run it out.
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  Run it out. What's?
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  That it means you climb, say, 2030 feet above your last piece
• 5:52
  of gear while fall isn't just a little swing anymore, it's a 60
• 5:55
  foot whipper. The consequences are real.
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  So you have this huge skill gap, but you also have an expectation
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  gap. We talked about that fantasy of
• 6:04
  the solitary fish on the ledge. Social media just perpetuates
• 6:08
  this lie. Oh, it's all a lie.
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  You see a photo on Instagram of someone dangling their feet over
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  the void. Total silence.
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  Golden sunset. It looks spiritual.
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  But the camera frame crops out the reality.
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  The reality is that on any popular route, there are likely
• 6:23
  three other climbing parties on that same ledge.
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  You can't. No, you're literally tangling
• 6:28
  ropes with strangers. You're waiting for them to move.
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  You're smelling their sweat. And that silence.
• 6:34
  That silence doesn't exist in the way you think.
• 6:36
  Yosemite Valley is a Canyon. It's an amphitheater.
• 6:39
  It traps sound. You're 3000 feet up, but you can
• 6:42
  hear the RV generators echoing off the walls.
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  You can hear the shuttle buses beeping down below.
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  That is such a vivid, disappointing image.
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  The RV generator echoing up the dawn wall.
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  It really highlights the geography problem.
• 6:54
  People forget how small the actual valley is.
• 6:56
  That's the critical context. The park itself is huge, but the
• 7:00
  famous part, Yosemite Valley, is essentially A7 mile long ditch.
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  That's it. And we are pouring 4 million
• 7:07
  visitors a year into that ditch. So it's not a wilderness
• 7:11
  experience. No, and we need to stop
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  pretending it is. We need to frame this as urban
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  park management. The defining context of your
• 7:19
  entire trip will be scarcity. Scarcity of what?
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  Scarcity of everything, camping, parking, solitude.
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  It's a resource management game for the second you arrive.
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  There's also this concept in the guide of the stadium that the
• 7:32
  park has become a performance space.
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  I find that fascinating, the idea that you aren't just an
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  observer of nature, you're the show.
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  Think about it. You're on El Capitan.
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  Below you in El Cap Meadow are hundreds of tourists with
• 7:45
  binoculars in these massive telephoto lenses.
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  They are watching you. You're the gladiator.
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  You are the gladiator. If you get stuck, they watch you
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  struggle. If you fall, they gasp.
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  It adds this whole layer of psychological pressure.
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  It's one thing to be scared because you're high up and your
• 8:01
  leg is shaking from exhaustion. It's another thing entirely to
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  be scared while a tour bus drives underneath you and you
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  know 100 people are tweeting about that guy stuck on the
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  ledge. Precisely if you can't handle
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  the pressure of performing or just a feeling of being watched,
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  this might not be the spot for you.
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  It's a very public arena. You are part of the exhibit just
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  as much as the Bears or the Waterfalls.
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  OK, let's move from the philosophy to the concrete
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  experience. Let's say we've done our
• 8:30
  military grade planning, we've accepted the crowds, we are
• 8:32
  arriving. What is that first 24 hours
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  actually like? Because the drive in is supposed
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  to be part of the magic. Well, let's look at the approach
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  logistics. You're likely flying into Fresno
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  or San Francisco. You rent your car.
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  You drive the hours inward to the Arch Rock entrance and the
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  first impression described isn't majesty.
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  It's brace lights. It's brake lights, a complete
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  standstill. It's the paradox of access.
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  You're surrounded by these massive pine trees.
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  The air is getting crisp, your anticipation is building, and
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  you are idling. For how long?
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  You're watching the bumper sticker on the Subaru in front
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  of you for 45 minutes an hour, but then eventually you get
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  through it and you hit the Wohwona Tunnel.
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  Oh, the tunnel. I feel like even people who
• 9:14
  haven't been there know this moment.
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  It's the classic desktop wallpaper moment.
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  It's legendary for a reason and the transition is just so
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  jarring. You are in a dark tiled tunnel
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  for what feels like a long time and you pop out and suddenly the
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  whole world just it opens up. El Cap, Half Dome, all of it.
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  You see El Capitan on the left, Bridal Veil fall on the right,
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  Half Dome in the back. But here's the interesting
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  thing. The guy describes this as an
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  uncanny valley feeling. Uncanny valley like like it
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  looks fake. Exactly.
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  It looks like a matte painting from an old Hollywood movie set.
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  The scale is so NASA, and the air is often so clear that your
• 9:52
  brain can't quite process the depth.
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  You lose perspective. Totally.
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  You look at El Capitan and you think, oh, I could walk over to
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  that wall in 5 minutes. In reality, it's miles away.
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  Numbers just fail you at that point, don't they?
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  You can say 3000 feet. They do. 3000 feet of granite is
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  just an abstract number. It doesn't become real until you
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  squint and you see these tiny microscopic specks of color on
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  the wall, and then you realize, wait, those are people, and they
• 10:17
  are barely moving. That's when the scale breaks
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  your brain. But then you descend into the
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  valley, you navigate the loop, and you head to Camp Four.
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  And this is where the romantic history really clashes with the
• 10:28
  modern reality, because Camp 4 is the Holy Land.
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  It's where the stone masters lived, where the history of
• 10:35
  American climbing was written. It is historic.
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  It is practically a UNESCO World Heritage site for climbers.
• 10:41
  But the reality described here is pungent.
• 10:44
  Pungent. The guide calls it a refugee
• 10:46
  camp for Patagonia models. That is a savage, but probably
• 10:50
  very accurate description. It's so accurate.
• 10:53
  You have tents pitched literally guideline to guideline.
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  You have the smell of unwashed synthetic fabric, which holds on
• 10:59
  to body odor like nothing else, mixed with the smell of weed,
• 11:02
  pine dust and campfire smoke. It's gritty, it's dusty, it's
• 11:05
  loud. But there's an energy there too,
• 11:07
  right? It's not just misery and dirt.
• 11:09
  Oh absolutely. That's the flip side.
• 11:11
  Despite the conditions, everyone there is speaking the same
• 11:14
  language. You walk to the bathrooms and
• 11:17
  you hear snippets of conversation about beta.
• 11:20
  Beta. That's the climber sling for
• 11:22
  strategy. Exactly.
• 11:23
  Did you stick the move? How was the run out?
• 11:25
  Did you send? It feels like being at the
• 11:28
  Olympic Village for dirtbags. There was this electric buzz in
• 11:32
  the air. Yeah, that sense of tribe is
• 11:34
  powerful. Even if you're just there to
• 11:36
  scramble on some boulders, you feel the weight of history.
• 11:40
  You you can look at a rock, Midnight Lightning, for example,
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  and think Yvonne Schwinnard touched that.
• 11:44
  Royal Robins touched that. It's intimidating, but it's also
• 11:48
  infectious. It creates this feedback loop of
• 11:51
  excitement. You ignored the dirt and the
• 11:53
  crowds because you feel like you're part of the lineage.
• 11:55
  OK, so the vibes are high, but let's talk about the finances,
• 11:58
  because the guide calls Yosemite a wallet vampire, which I think
• 12:02
  is a fantastic and terrifying term.
• 12:05
  This is where we need to pull out the spreadsheets because
• 12:08
  there is a huge misconception that climbing is a cheap sport.
• 12:11
  It's just rocks. Right.
• 12:12
  Nature is free. That's the whole point.
• 12:14
  Nature is free, but access to it in Yosemite is aggressively
• 12:18
  monetized. The guide breaks down the costs
• 12:21
  into tears and the accommodation is the single biggest variable.
• 12:25
  Let's start with the dirtbag dream.
• 12:28
  Can you still do it cheap? Is that even possible anymore?
• 12:31
  It's getting harder and harder. The dream is Camp 4.
• 12:34
  It costs between 6 and $10 a night.
• 12:37
  Dirt cheap. That sounds amazing.
• 12:39
  It does. But, and this is a huge but,
• 12:42
  it's mostly a lottery system now.
• 12:44
  You can't just show up and claim a spot like you could in the
• 12:46
  70s. You have to apply online weeks
• 12:49
  or months in advance. So the price is low, but the
• 12:52
  availability is almost 0. Exactly.
• 12:54
  It's like winning a scratch off ticket just for the privilege of
• 12:57
  sleeping in the dirt. OK so say you lose the lottery,
• 12:59
  which you probably will. What's the mid range if you
• 13:02
  aren't rich but you need a place to sleep?
• 13:04
  You're looking at housekeeping camp or Curry Village.
• 13:07
  Now listen to this value proposition because it drives me
• 13:09
  crazy. You are paying between 150 to
• 13:11
  $200 a night. OK.
• 13:13
  That's hotel pricing. That's downtown city pricing.
• 13:16
  And for that price, what do you get?
• 13:18
  You get a canvas tent with a door, maybe a bare light bulb.
• 13:23
  Wait, hold on, $200 for a tent with no bathroom?
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  How do they justify that valuation?
• 13:30
  Monopoly, pure and simple. Where else are you going to go?
• 13:34
  It's pure supply and demand. You were paying for the
• 13:36
  location, not the amenities. The sheets might be thin, the
• 13:39
  tent might be a little moldy, but you were sleeping under Half
• 13:42
  Dome and they know you'll pay for.
• 13:43
  It And then there's the high end, the Aulani.
• 13:45
  Formerly the Majestic Yeah, This is for the one percent, 600 to
• 13:50
  $1000, sometimes more per night. This is for the wealthy climber,
• 13:55
  or more likely the wealthy tourist who wants steak dinner
• 13:58
  in a fireplace after looking at the cliffs.
• 14:00
  But for most of us, that's completely out of reach.
• 14:03
  And it's not just where you sleep, it's what you eat.
• 14:05
  The guide talks about the Walmart strategy.
• 14:07
  Yes, if you buy your food inside the park, you're going to bleed
• 14:10
  money. The smart move, the only move
• 14:13
  really, is to buy absolutely everything in Fresno or Modesto
• 14:16
  or wherever you land before you enter the park.
• 14:18
  Stock up on ramen. Ramen, tuna, peanut butter,
• 14:21
  whiskey you cook on a Jetboil that keeps your food costs down
• 14:26
  to around $15 a day. But if you succumb to the park
• 14:30
  pricing, say you're exhausted and you just crave a burger.
• 14:34
  It hurts. A mediocre burger is $20, plus a
• 14:38
  pizza is $2530. The grocery store inside the
• 14:41
  village has a markup of about 40% over standard retail.
• 14:45
  It's captive market pricing at its finest.
• 14:47
  And don't forget the hidden costs.
• 14:49
  I was shocked to read about the showers.
• 14:51
  You have to pay to get clean. $5 and that isn't for some spa
• 14:55
  experience. That's usually to stand in a
• 14:57
  line for 20 minutes to get a dribble of lukewarm water before
• 15:01
  a timer cuts you off, and that's rough.
• 15:02
  Then there are guide services. If you aren't an expert and you
• 15:05
  want to climb a classic route safely, a private guide is going
• 15:08
  to run you 400 to $600.00 for one day.
• 15:11
  So if we total this up for a hypothetical 5 day trip, what
• 15:15
  are we looking at? The guide gives us three basic
• 15:18
  bands. The dirtbag approach.
• 15:20
  If you get lucky with the Camp 4 lottery and eat nothing but
• 15:22
  ramen, you might get away with four to $600.00.
• 15:25
  The weekend warrior staying in those expensive 10 cabins eating
• 15:29
  a burger or two is 1500 to $2000.
• 15:32
  And the guided comfort trip. You're easily looking at 4 to
• 15:35
  $5000. That is wild. 5 grand to sleep
• 15:38
  in a valley. And here is the expert analysis
• 15:41
  on value from the guide. The value is high only if you
• 15:46
  are self-sustaining. If you bring your own gear, your
• 15:49
  own food, your own tent, it's magical.
• 15:52
  If you rely on the park infrastructure, the beds, the
• 15:54
  cafeterias, the quality to price ratio is terrible.
• 15:58
  You are paying premium prices for minimal comfort.
• 16:00
  OK, so we know it's crowded. We know it's expensive.
• 16:02
  But let's say we're committed. We're going.
• 16:04
  The guide outlines 3 great traps that ruin trips.
• 16:08
  This is the stuff that if you don't know about it, you're just
• 16:10
  going to have a bad time. This is the most critical part
• 16:13
  of the deep dive. I think Trap number one is the
• 16:15
  recreation.gov lottery. This is the permit system to
• 16:19
  just enter the park, right? Not even to camp, just to drive
• 16:21
  in. Correct.
• 16:22
  During peak season, which is basically April to late October,
• 16:27
  you need a reservation just to drive your car through the gate
• 16:30
  between 5:00 AM and 4:00 PM. The trap is thinking, oh I'll
• 16:33
  just grab one a week before. And I assume they're long gone.
• 16:36
  They vanish in minutes. They release a batch months in
• 16:39
  advance and then a tiny batch 2 days before.
• 16:42
  It's like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets.
• 16:44
  You are sitting there at 6:59 AM hitting refresh, heart pounding,
• 16:49
  700 AM hits. You click and it says sold out.
• 16:53
  So what's the hack? How do you beat the algorithm?
• 16:56
  The guide mentions an Alpine start.
• 16:58
  The hack is to beat the clock. You enter the park before 5:00
• 17:01
  AM. The Rangers don't man the booths
• 17:03
  until 5:00 or 6:00 AM. If you drive through the gate at
• 17:06
  4:30 AM, there is no line, there is no need for a reservation,
• 17:10
  and you are legally inside the park for the day.
• 17:12
  So it's a secret is just extreme sleep deprivation.
• 17:15
  Basically, but honestly if you're there to climb in the
• 17:17
  summer, you should be waking up that early anyway to beat the
• 17:20
  heat on the wall, so it kind of forces you into a better
• 17:22
  climbing schedule. OK, so wake up painfully early.
• 17:24
  Got it. What's trap #2?
• 17:26
  The valley loop traffic, The geography of the valley roads is
• 17:30
  a nightmare. It's a series of one way loops.
• 17:33
  If you miss your turn. Say you missed the turn off for
• 17:37
  El Cap Meadow because you were looking at the view.
• 17:39
  You can't just make AU turn. You can't.
• 17:41
  You might have to drive a 45 minute circle in bumper to
• 17:44
  bumper traffic just to get back to where you were 500 feet ago.
• 17:48
  It is soul trushing. You can literally watch your day
• 17:51
  evaporate sitting in your car. So how do we fix this?
• 17:54
  Just don't drive. Exactly.
• 17:55
  Bicycles. The guide calls bikes the
• 17:58
  ultimate cheat code for the valley.
• 18:00
  You park your car once at your campsite, and you never move it
• 18:03
  again until you leave. The valley is flat, you can ride
• 18:07
  from Camp 4 to the base of El Cap faster than you can drive
• 18:10
  during peak hours, and you weave right past all the RV's.
• 18:13
  I love that image. Bypassing the gridlock on A10
• 18:16
  speed OK trap #3 this one is specific to the climbing itself,
• 18:20
  the gear hall and tunnel vision. This is a physical trap first
• 18:24
  and foremost. You look at a climbing guidebook
• 18:26
  or an app and the approach to the climb looks short.
• 18:29
  You think, oh, it's just a 15 minute walk to the base?
• 18:31
  But it's not a sidewalk, is it? No, it's usually a 45° slope of
• 18:36
  loose scree rocks that slide under your feet with every
• 18:39
  single step. And you're likely doing it with
• 18:42
  a 70 LB hall bag on your back because you're bringing water
• 18:45
  and gear for a big wall. So people just burn out before
• 18:48
  they even start climbing. They vastly underestimate the
• 18:51
  physical toll of just getting to the climb.
• 18:54
  By the time they touch the rock, their legs are shot.
• 18:56
  And the tunnel vision? Part.
• 18:57
  That's the psychological trap. Everyone comes to Yosemite with
• 19:00
  a checklist. They've seen the movies, they
• 19:01
  want to climb the nose on El Cap or Snake Dyke on Half Dome.
• 19:05
  They're the famous routes. Sure you want to climb the
• 19:08
  classics. But the result is that you spend
• 19:10
  your entire vacation waiting in line at a Blaze station, staring
• 19:14
  at someone's butt while they struggle with a knot for 20
• 19:17
  minutes. That sounds miserable.
• 19:18
  You travel all that way just to wait in line vertically.
• 19:20
  It is. The fix, according to the guide,
• 19:23
  is to embrace the obscure. Go to the cathedral Spires, go
• 19:27
  to Tuolumne Meadows in the High Country.
• 19:30
  The rot quality is exactly the same.
• 19:32
  It's the same granite Baphilith, but there's nobody there.
• 19:35
  So you have to ask yourself, do I want to climb the route or do
• 19:39
  I just want to climb? That's the question, do you want
• 19:41
  the Instagram photo or the actual exerience?
• 19:44
  Let's shift gears to safety because we talked about the fear
• 19:47
  of dying making you feel alive. But beyond just falling off the
• 19:51
  mountain, what are the specific, maybe less obvious dangers the
• 19:56
  guide highlights? Gravity is the obvious one,
• 19:58
  yeah, but the subtle killer here is the granite Polish.
• 20:02
  We touched on this earlier, but it's worth diving into.
• 20:04
  You have to remember millions of rubber climbing shoes have
• 20:07
  stepped on these exact same footholds over the last 50
• 20:10
  years. So it actually changes the rock,
• 20:12
  it wears it down it. Polishes it like a marble
• 20:15
  countertop. On the popular routes, the rock
• 20:18
  is slippery like glass. You go to step on a foothold
• 20:21
  that looks totally solid, and your foot just skates off.
• 20:24
  That is terrified. It feels like climbing on ice.
• 20:27
  The guide recommends peeping your hands because the granite
• 20:30
  crystals are so sharp they'll shred your skin.
• 20:32
  But trusting your feet on that Polish requires a mental leap of
• 20:35
  faith that most gym climbers just don't have.
• 20:37
  And then there's the heap. The guide calls the walls
• 20:40
  reflector ovens. This is simple physics.
• 20:43
  A S facing granite wall reflects solar radiation perfectly.
• 20:48
  It acts like a giant mirror. It could be a pleasant 70° in
• 20:52
  the valley with a breeze and 110° on the wall.
• 20:55
  You're getting cooked from both sides.
• 20:57
  You are baking from the sun above and the rock reflecting it
• 21:00
  from below. Dehydration is a huge risk.
• 21:03
  There's a story in the notes about a rescue on Royal arches
• 21:07
  related to this. Right?
• 21:08
  Right. A climber cramped up so badly
• 21:10
  from dehydration that they couldn't move.
• 21:13
  Their muscles just seized. They had to be haul off the wall
• 21:16
  by the search and rescue team. And they had been drinking
• 21:18
  water. That's the crazy thing.
• 21:20
  They drink plenty of water, but they drink only water.
• 21:24
  They flushed all the salt out of their system.
• 21:26
  They had no electrolytes. So the take away is bring the
• 21:28
  salt. Electrolytes are not optional.
• 21:31
  If you don't bring salt tablets or a mix, you are a rescue
• 21:34
  waiting to happen on a hot day. Now we have to talk about the
• 21:37
  wildlife. Bears, I think everyone knows,
• 21:40
  don't feed the bears, but the behavior described here is
• 21:45
  unsettlingly intelligent. The Yosemite black bear.
• 21:50
  The guy describes them not as Grizzlies, they aren't going to
• 21:52
  hunt you down and eat you, but as oversized raccoons, they are
• 21:56
  master thieves. They call them car peelers,
• 22:00
  which is a terrifying visual. It's not an exaggeration.
• 22:03
  These bears have learned the mechanics of vehicles.
• 22:05
  If you leave a scented item, even just a tube of toothpaste
• 22:09
  or a candy wrapper, in your Honda Civic, a bear can hook its
• 22:13
  claws into the top of the door frame and literally peel the
• 22:16
  door open like a sardine can. They know the leverage points.
• 22:20
  It's incredible. So bear boxes in the campsite
• 22:22
  aren't just a suggestion. It's federal law.
• 22:24
  It's federal law. If you leave food out, you get a
• 22:26
  huge fine and worse, the bear gets a taste for human food and
• 22:30
  eventually has to be put down. So it's life or death for the
• 22:32
  bear. And on the wall, it gets even
• 22:34
  crazier. How do you deal with bears when
• 22:36
  you're 1000 feet up? Well, if you're sleeping on a
• 22:39
  Portalage, a hanging tent, you have to hang your food bag below
• 22:43
  you on a separate tether. Why below you?
• 22:45
  Because if it's on the ledge with you, a bear might actually
• 22:48
  traverse the Cliff face, shimmying along these tiny ledge
• 22:51
  systems to get to it. That is a nightmare scenario,
• 22:55
  waking up to a bear sniffing your face on a portal edge 1000
• 22:58
  feet off the ground. It happens.
• 23:01
  They're incredible climbers. OK, we've arrived at the most,
• 23:04
  let's say, distinctive part of the logistical nightmare.
• 23:09
  We have to talk about the poop tube.
• 23:10
  We have to discuss it. It's the elephant in the room or
• 23:14
  the PVC pipe in the room. And break it down for us.
• 23:16
  Why do we need a tube? Can't you just, you know, go?
• 23:21
  If you are climbing a big wall which takes multiple days, you
• 23:24
  cannot just do your business on the wall and toss it.
• 23:26
  That used to happen in the 60s and 70's.
• 23:29
  The base of El Capitan became a legitimate biohazard zone.
• 23:32
  It was. Disgusted.
• 23:33
  Can't even imagine. So now the ethic and the rule is
• 23:36
  pack it in, pack it out. Everything.
• 23:39
  So walk me through the mechanics.
• 23:40
  You're hanging off a Cliff. You have a specialized bag.
• 23:42
  You do your business in the bag. Then, because you can't have a
• 23:46
  bag of waste just swinging around where it might RIP, you
• 23:49
  put that bag inside a sealed PVC pipe, and you haul that PVC pipe
• 23:53
  up the mountain with. You and then all the way back.
• 23:55
  Down and then all the way back down for days.
• 23:57
  That is true commitment. You are literally hauling your
• 23:59
  own waste for three days up a Cliff.
• 24:02
  It is, and the guide puts it perfectly.
• 24:04
  The indignity is the price of keeping the rock clean.
• 24:07
  If you aren't willing to haul your own waste, you have no
• 24:10
  business being on the big walls. It's the unglamorous reality
• 24:14
  behind those heroic photos. So we've got poop tubes, we've
• 24:18
  got car peeling bears, we've got traffic jams.
• 24:22
  Let's do a vibe check. What are the highs?
• 24:24
  Why do people put up with all of this?
• 24:26
  Despite everything we just said, the highs are transcended.
• 24:29
  The guide describes the summit of a road called Nutcracker.
• 24:32
  It's a moderate, beautiful route.
• 24:34
  The writer describes sitting on this tiny Spire at dawn, eating
• 24:37
  a squished bagel, and suddenly a hawk flies by.
• 24:41
  But because you were so high up, the hawk is thermaling below
• 24:44
  you. Wow, that image looking down on
• 24:48
  a bird in flight that completely changes your perspective on your
• 24:52
  place in the world. It does.
• 24:53
  And the silence for those 20 minutes on the summit, above all
• 24:57
  the valley noise, it's just wind and rock.
• 25:00
  That's the cathedral feeling. That's the drug that keeps
• 25:02
  people coming back. And the lows just to keep us
• 25:05
  grounded in reality. The aggression at the crags when
• 25:09
  you pack that many type a adrenaline fueled personalities
• 25:12
  into a small space. Tempers flare.
• 25:14
  I've seen fistfights break out over who is next in line for a
• 25:17
  route. Seriously.
• 25:19
  Oh. Yeah, and the noise collusion,
• 25:20
  people blasting techno music on Bluetooth speakers at the base
• 25:24
  of a climb, it just kills the nature vibe instantly.
• 25:26
  And let's not forget the hygiene reality, the pure misery of the
• 25:30
  Curry Village showers we mentioned.
• 25:31
  It's a distinct low standing in a puddle of muddy water,
• 25:35
  shivering, waiting for a timer to run out, it reminds you that
• 25:39
  you are just one of 4 million cattle moving through the
• 25:41
  system. So hearing all this, if I'm
• 25:44
  listening and thinking you know what this sounds like way too
• 25:46
  much stress. I want the climbing but I don't
• 25:48
  want the hassle. Are there good alternatives?
• 25:51
  Yes, the guide offers a great worth it matrix with some
• 25:54
  fantastic alternatives. If you want the granite but you
• 25:58
  hate the crowds, go to the Eastern Sierras, Bishop or
• 26:02
  Mammoth. That's high desert, right?
• 26:04
  A different vibe. Yeah, it's vastly different.
• 26:06
  Open sagebrush, huge mountains, but you can camp for free on BLM
• 26:10
  land. No gates, no lotteries.
• 26:12
  It's a much more chill Wild West vibe.
• 26:15
  What if you want that big wall experience the hanging off a
• 26:18
  Cliff for days part? But you don't mind sandstone
• 26:21
  instead of granite? Go to Zion in Utah.
• 26:23
  Zion is crowded too though, right?
• 26:25
  I've seen the pictures of the Narrows.
• 26:26
  It is crowded, but the guide argues the shuttle system is
• 26:29
  better managed and the town of Springdale right outside the
• 26:32
  gate has actual good food. You can climb all day and get a
• 26:35
  gourmet meal at night without being price gouged quite as bad.
• 26:39
  What about internationally? Any Yosemite lights out there?
• 26:42
  Squamish, British Columbia climbers call it Yosemite N It's
• 26:46
  a giant granite monolith called the Sheaf.
• 26:49
  It looks and feels just like Yosemite Rock, but the town is
• 26:53
  right there. You can walk from the brewery to
• 26:55
  the base of the climb in 20 minutes.
• 26:57
  No entrance fees. Friendly Canadian vibes.
• 26:59
  And if you absolutely must do Yosemite if it's on the bucket
• 27:02
  list and you have to check it. Off then combine it.
• 27:05
  Do 2 days in the valley. For the icons, see El Cap.
• 27:08
  See the falls, than get in your car and drive up to Ptolemy
• 27:11
  Meadows. That's the high country.
• 27:13
  It's the high country, about an hour drive up from the valley
• 27:15
  floor. It's quieter, the air is
• 27:17
  thinner. The rock has these golden knobs
• 27:20
  on it. It feels like the Yosemite 50
• 27:22
  years ago. OK, let's wrap this all up with
• 27:24
  the final verdict. Is Yosemite worth the hassle?
• 27:26
  Let's break it down by who you are.
• 27:28
  OK, if you are a dirtbag or a hardcore dedicated climber, yes.
• 27:34
  But with an asterisk, it's a rite of passage.
• 27:37
  You cannot call yourself a trad climber and not test yourself on
• 27:40
  the cabinet. But treat it like a mission, not
• 27:42
  a vacation. You were there to work.
• 27:45
  What if you're a mid range couple?
• 27:46
  You climb a bit, You want to hike?
• 27:49
  Maybe you're staying in one of those pricey tent cabins.
• 27:51
  Yes, but only if you plan ruthlessly.
• 27:55
  Wake up at 4:00 AM every day, except that you will be
• 27:59
  exhausted. This is what we call Type 2 fun.
• 28:01
  It's miserable in the moment while you're sweating and
• 28:04
  scared, but it makes for a great story at the bar later.
• 28:07
  For climbing, No, absolutely not.
• 28:09
  It's a logistical nightmare to manage safety and kids at the
• 28:12
  crag there. For sightseeing and ice cream?
• 28:14
  Sure, but be ready for traffic that will make your kids scream.
• 28:18
  And finally, the luxury traveler, the one staying at the
• 28:21
  Ahwani. Maybe the ahwani is beautiful,
• 28:23
  it's historic, the views are incredible.
• 28:26
  But the guide warns that because they have a total monopoly, the
• 28:29
  service often doesn't match the price tag.
• 28:31
  You might be paying $1000 a night and still get slow service
• 28:35
  because where else do you need to?
• 28:36
  Go. So the final synthesis, despite
• 28:38
  the Disneyfication, despite the costs, despite the poop tubes.
• 28:42
  We have to say, yes, it is worth it.
• 28:45
  There is simply no other valley on Earth that looks like this.
• 28:48
  The density of vertical relief is unmatched.
• 28:51
  And the rock itself. When you actually touch that
• 28:53
  rock, when you jam your hand into a crack that has been there
• 28:56
  for millennia, all the cynicism, just it evaporates.
• 29:00
  It remains a cathedral. It's annoying, it's expensive,
• 29:04
  but it's holy ground. I love that.
• 29:06
  So actionable take away. If you're listening and you're
• 29:08
  going to do it, how do you do it right?
• 29:11
  The best strategy is late September or October as climbers
• 29:14
  call it. The kids are back in school, the
• 29:16
  heat breaks, the crowds thin out just a bit.
• 29:19
  Book your campsite 6 months out to the second.
• 29:23
  Bring bikes. Do not forget the bikes and wake
• 29:26
  up before the sun. And as the guide concludes, to
• 29:28
  experience the wildest place on earth, you have to submit to the
• 29:31
  most rigid urban management. It's a paradox, but it's the
• 29:35
  price of admission. It is.
• 29:36
  Just remember to check your knots.
• 29:37
  See out there.