We had a great family vacation this July 2009 that included a good mixed of backcountry camping, peak grabbing and pure granite rock climbing.

Our base of operations was from a beautiful house owned by Pat H's brother in Squaw Valley near Lake Tahoe. It was a perfect place to recoup from our flight into Reno and situated just south of Donner Summit for rock climbing and north of the beautiful Desolation Wilderness.

We started the trip out with a couple of days up on Donner Summit. This area has endless rock climbing opportunities on perfect granite. Slabs to cracks. We weren't too efficient and I got a little frustrated trying to locate named climbs in our guide book and the ones we picked ended up in the sun so it got pretty toasty. None the less we got some excellent climbing in, the best of which was a three pitch lead. I dragged a third rope and manage to get three followers to the top. (Some of you all saw me practicing this at Carderock!).

For the first back country mini trip we chose to hike into the Desolation Wilderness at Eagle Lakes trailhead and camp at Dick's Lake. Spectacular scenery was everywhere as well as walls and boulder problems at every turn. I wish I'd brought my sticky shoes with me. At the lake side camp site we set up the wind was screaming as it did all night, at times sounding like a freight train. I was worried that the goal of tagging Dicks Peak the next day would be in jeopardy. Another person there at the lake said the winds had been topping 90mph on the peak.

Some point during the night I rolled over to silence. The wind had stop. Hence, as early as I could get the troop moving, we set out from camp toward the first goal of Dicks Pass at 9,500feet. The 1000 feet climb from camp took just long enough to coincide with second breakfast then onward to the peak itself.

The climb to the peak was quite exciting covering some exposed forth class, at least on the route I ended up on. There was a small amount of whimpering from the girls and Alexandria and Mimi had a brief discussion about how dad was "crazy". But the views from the top were incredible. From the 9,975 feet peak we descended the other side making it all up as we went.  Some smooth going, some very much not so smooth! Scree, talus and snow fields all mixed together to keep the excitement high.

We'd originally planned to spend a second night at the camp but the girls all wanted to high tail it back to the house and ice cream. I preferred to camp another night but they enticed me with "Dad you can climb at Donner all day tomorrow". Ok ok. The mosquitoes were bad enough that sitting outside the tent drinking wine was uncomfortable anyway.  We reached the car at sunset making for a very long and tiring day.

After another day at Donner Summit climbing we set off for Tuolumne, grabbing back country permits at the Mono Basin Visitor Center. The plan was to camp outside Tioga Pass then head up to Glacier Canyon to camp the next day with the goal of getting to the top of Mount Dana after that. With Dana at 13,000 +feet I figured camping one night at 9,500 and then the next at 10,500 would give us time to acclimate for the climb to the summit.

We hiked up the creek flowing down from Glacier Canyon into Tioga Lake until we found a trail taking us into the canyon. We stopped for lunch as soon as we got above the trees and to scout a camp spot. It was still early and the plan was to setup camp then hike up to the glacier but Dana was feeling really bad. She just wanted to stop and sleep. So while she rested, Mimi and Alexandria hike up the canyon while Dana rested and I tried to spy our route to the Dana ridge.

Unfortunately the route description I had took us through a still existing snow field atop of a very steep scree field above a major drop. It didn't look like something the family would be up for. However to the right and straight up looked doable. So when Mimi got back I scouted a route up talus along side a huge snow field until I hit a cliff band. There I was able to find a forth class route up and through reaching the ridge without problem. I cairned the route on the way back to camp. 

The next morning Dana woke a little sluggish but otherwise feeling well so off we went. Everyone did great up my cairned route and we gained the \ first 1000 feet to the ridge in short order. After another 500 feet Dana started feeling bad again. We kept the pace extremely slow. The going was very steep and rough over the talus. My plan had been to tag the summit and then continue around to the Dana Plateau via the knife ridge. If we could get to 12,400 maybe the girls could continue to contour and I could get to the top. But as we continued it became apparent that Dana wasn't going to make the circuit. I carried her up about 500 feet my pack and she climbed the last 100 or so till we were all on the summit. There the girls collapsed exhausted. I descended the other side to see if the route could continue to the knife edge. It might be blocked by snow fields. I had to drop back down to 12,200 before I could get through. Back to the summit I found the girls slightly recovered but it was clear the big plan wasn't going to happen. We returned the way we'd come. And a good thing too. Just as we started down I could see clouds on the horizon and they quickly built up over taking us on our crawl back down. The rain started just as we hit the down climb through the cliff band. Some thunder and lightning affirmed our decision to abandon the original circuit goal. The weather passed soon and we broke camp and hustle back to Tioga Lake and the car.  Once we'd hit about 11,500 Dana started to feel good again. We hit the Whoa Nellie Deli at the mobile station for dinner where Alexandria made a huge cheese burger disappear in a blink. She hadn't eaten much of my dehydrated dinners. Dana didn't have much appetite.

The following day we entered the park and Mimi and I climbed some mix trad/sport routes on Dozier Dome. Dana was feeling horrible and had a bad fever. Back at the car (and my first aid kit) I found her temperature at 103.5! Ouch. No wonder she was dragging and didn't want to climb.

Next day we wanted to climb Cathedral. I figured I could get everyone up via the Mountaineer Route then park the girl in the saddle while Mimi and I climb Eichon Pinnacle.  But Dana was feeling terrible again and we moved too slowly to do the climb. Instead we when up Cathedral Lakes trail and then over the saddle toward Bud Lake and down the climbers trail along side Bud Creek. While disappointed not to get to climb, the loop was beautiful. The views of Cathedral from Cathedral trail are amazing. You don't get them from the climber's trail along Bud Creek.

Back to Tahoe for showers, laundry and beer! We met back up with Pat and for our last day on this vacation, Pat took us back to Donner and showed us around. We got in a ton of excellent climbing. Pat knew the routes and we didn't have to route find or wander about.  We climbed on the walls under the bridge and then on Snow Shed Wall. We did some trad routes and a bunch of top roped climbs.

	More photos on Google.