While the new Marvel-produced film was quite smashing, a mountain peak parading under the same name in the Eastern Sierras is even harder hitting than gamma power.

Located on the Sawtooth Ridge, the Incredible Hulk (11, 120 feet) is reputed to have one of the largest granite walls in the High Sierra. Surprisingly, this impressive face wasn't free-climbed until 1975, though the original first ascent using aid techniques was completed in '70. The first ascensionists named this route Yggdrasil (so awesome), but it has since come to be known as the Red Dihedral (5.10b), this name being inspired by the crux 4th pitch on a, you guessed it, dihedral of subtly reddish hue.

The approach hike was starkly beautiful, if not somewhat ghastly. Starting in a veritable labyrinth of RVs at the Mono Village camp, Nate and I successfully navigated this hurtle, continuing on through old growth Ponderosa forest before emerging into an open sagebrush scrub desert. Farther along we entered shimmering groves of aspen. Aspen, as you may or may not know, are ranked among my top ten favorite trees, and probably my top five favorite deciduous trees of all time (maybe I'll post a complete list sometime).So the aspens were great and the sage smelled fine. Our approach beta told us that at roughly 2.5 miles we had to veer off the main trail and head cross country up a valley toward the peak. The valley was obvious, but (and this is where Gimli's nay saying began to irk me) where to cross the stinking festering marshland of the former Dagorlad in between us and the razor-sharp rock beyond? We were soon forced to remove our shoes and 'Nam it through some mud and marsh grass before crossing a small stream at the far side of the beaver-made mire.After that we totally had to hulk-out (look at those muscles!) by the stream before gaining control of our wild anger. Looking up Little Slide Canyon we got our first views of the peak. The Hulk is the peak on the far left, just right of the outer canyon wall.No joke, the f*ing Emyn Muil scree and talus field after the bog was indeed razor-sharp. Nate had a little boohoo (i.e. he was Wolverined) happen to his leg on the loose granite. After many hours of enjoyable suffering we finally reached our lovely base camp, only to find it already inhabited by a great host mosquitoes. Some climbers were rappelling a route on the impressive west face of the Hulk when we arrived.
--Can you spot them in the picture below?--
Hint: They are near the bright smear of orange rock (called the Sunspot) in the upper center of the Hulk.Wow, such a beautiful rock! Are we actually going to climb that?
Bright and early the next morning we set off on our adventure. The first pitch was roughly 150 feet of 3rd-4th class climbing on decent rock. Unfortunately, there were two parties ahead of us, making falling objects from above a greater likelihood. On the first roped pitch the only significant move is pulling over a 5.8 bulge.
"Hmm, this move feels a little awkward. I'll just stem my arms, work my feet up, hand goes in that perfect crack and..."
-!POP!-
"Yep, that was my shoulder. Ouch!" My arm goes numb for a few moments. Then pain for a few more. "Wow, what a great sensation! OK, back to climbing." That little incident certainly made the following 1000 ft. of climbing a little less pleasant.
The crux pitch was pretty intense, though thankfully fairly early on in the climb. Sustained 5.10 crack moves up a perfect dihedral with a slightly overhanging bulge at the end, this done at 10,500 feet with a small backpack and a lame shoulder pushed my limits for sure. I remember feeling such a rewarding moment of relief after attaining the belay. Such a good rest.Looking down from the ledge after the 5th pitch. About 600 ft. up, or roughly the half way point of the 12 pitch climb. Heady. Had a fine lunch of bagels here. Also where Nate decided to go pee off the cliff. Lucky for me an unexpected wind picked up and blew it in my face, salting my wounds. Nate getting started on pitch 8.A fine belay spot indeed.This gully of hellish scree seen from above we deduced would be our route off this Thing or Hulk or Abomination or whatever it is. After 9 or so hours of climbing we attained the north ridge, a small plateau of 3rd class talus and giant granite blocks. We walked this for about 300 feet until it reached an exposed ledge 2 feet wide leading to the final two pitches. The first of these being a 5.8 crack system filled with blocks, which I considered to be a somewhat unpleasant pitch. Little did I know what lay ahead.The final pitch started with a simple 5.8 move leading to a ramp covered in loose gravel which in turn led to what our beta claimed was a 5.6 chimney. Probably more realistically a 5.8 chimney. Under normal circumstance this would be not too big a deal, but its small. In fact its just the width of a smallish person. This means that the small daypack and rope I was carrying on my back weren't going to fit at the same time as me. A struggle ensued.
"OK, good idea Nate. I'll just tie the rope and pack onto the rope ahead of me. I can push them up ahead of me as I climb. Shouldn't be a problem" Brilliant. But wait, the chimney tightens up at the top you say? Oh, it actually turns into a tunnel!? So Cirith Ungol must be just around the bloody corner, right? More hilarious struggling, some very obscene words and wild accusations thrown in for good measure and......I am through. Onward to the summit! Only a quick scramble away. The silly question of the "true" summit is actually up to debate here, as the Incredible Hulk formation could be considered a sort of broken off north ridge spur of the Mt. Walt-Incredible Hulk-Eocene Peak ridge, which has various slightly higher points. The Hulk we climbed and summited is bottom center, us having climbed the side in shadow on the right.On top we find a summit notebook in a a Pelican case. Also contained therein we find the mythic Incredible Hulk bouncy superball and a Hulk pen light. Wow, bestowed on us, the treasures of the wild Earth! But seriously an awesome and epic climb. Certainly the longest and most vertical of my life.
The decent starts with 300 plus feet of slightly exposed 4th and low 5th class down climbing. This sort of giant staircase leads to a solid rappel anchor from which you drop 90 ft. into the notch on the south side of the Hulk. Sadly when we pulled our rope after the rap', it got caught. A super bummer. Not dangerous in this situation, but a rope lost nonetheless. Wanting to yank on it, just totally Taz-out on it, is not really a good option as you don't want to loosen any rocks above. Lucky for us another party was trailing us and freed our rope before their rappel.
As the sun dropped away beyond the horizon we began the final stage of our decent. This involved sketching down some of the most whack pebbly scree of my life, and that's saying a lot. In the dark, this was actually a pretty unpleasant ordeal. Beside my shoulder still being sore as I write this, the climb and everything was totally incredible, amazing, invincible, fantastic, uncanny, and all the other fine super-hero-oriented adjectives you can think of.
There are some climbers a little ways below the red diarrheahedral (1/3 of the way up on the far right edge of the formation) in the photo below, collect 'em all!

these nice people have been kind enough to give Growing Awareness a front page spread on their website. looks pretty nice.

http://growinggoodness.com/

Its that time of year again everybody.

The always-popular Helsing Junction Sleepover will be August 15th-17th 2008. It will be a benefit event for local farmers affected by last winter's severe flooding.

Some of the acts slated to appear:

Calvin Johnson
City Center
Explode into Colors
Gary May
Hooliganship
Jared Snyder
Karl Blau
Knot Pine Box
LAKE
Mirah
Pine Hill Haints
Rushin' Disco
Sunmay
Tender Forever
Valet
Vanessa Renwick presents short films
and more to come!

Check out the website for more info

http://krecs.com/helsing/

Spread the love and tell all your friends.
And don't wait a minute longer, start planning your trip now!

Looking up the valley. North Dome is in the middle with two of the three Brothers on the left and Sentinel rock on the right. Sequoia, Douglas-fir, Sugar and Ponderosa Pines dominate the forestscape.
Climbing the first pitch of Stoner's Highway (5.10c) on Middle Cathedral. Turned out to be too hot to climb in direct sunlight. The granite is highly reflective and blinding in the full sun. Sweaty hands can be quite a drag on smooth granite. El Capitan will never cease to amaze. 3300 feet of beautiful glacially-polished rock.


Climbing lower down in the shade of the grand oaks.
Finger crack rydaz for life.

Saturday:

6:30 pm - Nate and Jade depart San Francisco in Morgan's car heading east.
7:56 pm - Stop in Oakdale to get burritos and chimichangas. Stop at a grocery store for coffee. Its closed.
9:35 pm - Stop at a diner in Groveland for coffee. They are just closing. The coffee is free!
10:22 pm - Arrive in Yosemite Valley. Drive to Camp 4. Its full. Drive to other campsites. They are full. Nate's deliciously stinking leftover chimichanga is a liability because of bears. We need a site with a bear box. But maybe we can just pull over on the side of the road and guerilla camp behind a boulder? Lets look for a spot.
10:50 pm - Nate doesn't come to a full stop at a stop sign. A NPS Ranger pulls behind the car with flashing red and blue lights. Nate pulls over. Ranger takes license, registration, etc.
Ranger: "You fellas been drinking at all tonight?"
Nate: "Oh no definitely not sir."
Ranger: "What about those two beers in that six pack there? Where's the rest of the pack? When did you purchase that?"
Nate: "Oh that. Ahh that's from home. We just brought two to drink after we climb."
Ranger: "What about that travel mug in the console. What's in that?"
Nate: "Just coffee..."
Ranger: "Can you open it for me?" Sniffs the cup. "OK its empty. Smells like coffee"
Ranger: "Where you headed?"
Nate: "I don't know. I mean we can't find a site in the park..."
Jade: "Do you know of any sites outside the park?"
Ranger: "Yeah, about 25 minutes down 140. OK guys I'm gonna let you off with only a warning this time."
11:02 pm - We depart Yosemite looking for a place to camp. Morale is low.
11:45 pm - After numerous failed attempts we finally find a campsite. Sleep.

Sunday

7:48 am - Drive back to Yosemite.
8:33 am - Nate finishes his chimichanga. Jade eats a lemon and some bread.
8:55 am - Start organizing gear. The tactical clink is deafening.
9:20 am - Hike to the base of Middle Cathedral rock. Find the Central Pillar of Frenzy route. Walk up the small snow field to the face.
9:22 am - A Korean team is at the bottom of the route. One of them has a piton hammer. Hmm? They are preparing to practice aid climbing on the Central Pillar, a 5.9 route. We request they let us go first as we are free climbing the route and will be moving faster. They graciously acquiesce. We flake out our ropes.
9:36 am - Nate begins lead in the cold shady right-facing corner. Jade is belaying from the snow with cold feet.
9:58 am - Nate finishes first short pitch. Belays Jade up. Jade cleans gear.
10:35 am - Nate starts up second pitch, a thin hand crack.
10:54 am - Nate reaches the bolted anchor. Jade follows up.
11:18 am - Jade reaches second anchor. We decide to wait at the anchor and let a two-person team from San Francisco pass us. The Koreans seem to have lost interest in the Central Pillar in favor of a harder route to the left.

11:35 am - The view across the valley to El Capitan is unbelievable.
12:01 pm - Still waiting and admiring the incredible views.
12:22 pm - Nate starts on the third pitch. 1/3 of the way up is a somewhat intimidating overhanging crack. The second on the team before us took a little slip on it. Nate slowly surmounts it without much difficulty and disappears from Jade's view.
12:44 pm - While belaying, Jade is shaking uncontrollably trying to overcome his intense need to urinate. It is nearly unbearable.
12:50 pm - Nate is off belay at the third anchor. Jade takes care of business. Morale is high.
12:55 pm - Jade begins third pitch.
1:00 pm - Jade reaches the little overhanging section. Struggles with it. Gets a good jam and pulls through. The section above is a wide fist crack. Jade has no experience with fist cracks.

1:29 pm - After some difficulty Jade reaches the third anchor. His hand is a little scratched up and bleeding from the fist jamming.
1:35 pm - Nate starts up the fourth pitch.
2:00 pm - Jade follows up. Its a great 5.9 pitch of smooth and rhythmic crack climbing.
2:38 pm - Morale is high. We rest at the fourth anchor and admire the views while we prepare for the final pitch. The fifth pitch starts out with easy class 5 terrain albeit with some loose rock and heads up through thin chimney.
2:58 pm - Nate begins the fifth and final pitch. Nate forgets the tow line on the ledge. (The second rope. In this case needed for rappelling down the face or for emergencies). In the chimney Nate is smiling: "this section is so much fun".
3:29 pm - Nate reaches the fifth anchor, 600+ feet above the valley floor. Nate tells Jade to bring up the tow line.
3:35 pm - Jade starts on the final pitch. The chimney is very fun. Lifting over the little overhang at the top of the chimney Jade feels a tug from behind. Hmm. The tow line appears to be caught. Jade can't continue. "The line is caught. Lower me down to free it!"
3:46 pm - Nate lowers Jade back down to the fifth anchor. Jade removes a bite of rope wedged deep in a crack, haphazardly coils up the line and slings it over his shoulder. Slight dip in morale.
3:54 pm - Jade starts up the fifth pitch carrying the tow line.
4:04 pm - Jade reaches a stuck piece of gear. Struggles to remove it. It wont budge. Jade continues up. Morale is low, but its a fabulous pitch of climbing.
4:20 pm - Jade reaches fifth anchor. The view is quite nice. Nate prepares to rappel down and free his stuck cam.
4:29 pm - Nate removes his cam after much difficulty and frustration. Continues rappel.
5:30 pm - We reach the snow at the bottom of the face after 4 rappels down the 600 foot pillar.5:45 pm - Set up camp at Camp 4. Dinner. Sleep.

Monday:

9:47 am - Jade and Nate head over to the Cookie Cliff to climb some harder single pitch crags.
10:13 am - Nate sits. Jade basks in the sun.
10:48 am - Hike to the base of the cliff.
11:20 am - Nate starts up the Outer Limits, a 5.10c crack/flake route in full sun. Encounters a few dicey sections.12:02 pm - Jade attempts the climb. Its just not happening today.
2:13 pm - Jade and Nate climb an awkward 5.7 chimney. Not bad, but a relatively uninteresting route.
4:01 pm - Nate gets on Catchy. Leads up a short 5.9 crack pitch to a nice ledge. There is no bolted anchor.
4:21 pm - Nate continues beyond the ledge up a beautiful 5.10d finger/hand crack. Encounters some difficult moves. While belaying Jade battles a gruesome horde of mosquitoes.
4:51 pm - Jade follows up.
5:02 pm - Jade rests in the middle of the finger crack section.
5:10 pm - After some doubts and difficulties Jade finally surmounts the crux just before the belay ledge. Its a pretty tough but wildly fun route. We rappel off Catchy.
6:00 pm - Drive back to the Bay.

Tuesday:

9:00 pm - Tim, Jonah and Jade depart Graymalkin house with Morgan's car.
9:10 pm - Pick up large pizza from Mississippi Pizza.
9:20 pm - Stop at Jeff and Lena's to pick up camera and coffee
9:30 pm - Drive to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. Engage in 'za frenzy en route.
11:30 pm - Arrive at Timberline. Do we need a Snow-Park permit? Nah. Suit up, pack up. Its below freezing.

Wednesday:

12:00 am - Start hiking up the snowy Cat-track of the South Route. Sky is clear, wonderful stars. No moon, no wind.
12:43 am - Grooming Cat approaches from behind with hideous roaring and abominably bright lights. We dodge left just in time and escape.
1:16 am - Reach top of first chair lift. Rest inside cement structure. Extremities are cold. Portland's lights can been seen shimmering in the distance.
3:03 am - Reach the top of the upper Palmer chair lift after long slog on Cat-track. Rest. Play on the cables. Try to keep warm. Jonah is concerned about frostbite. Tim's water bottles are frozen shut.
3:37 am - Continue upwards. Hit some icy sections with interspersed rock outcroppings. It is very dark and cold. We are unsure of the route w/o any landmarks in sight. Tim unleashes compass skills. Jonah's concern over coldness intensifies.
3:55 am - Jonah goes poopy near a large rock. All his previous concerns are abated. Slow progress upwards.
5:25 am - We reach icy ridge of the Trainge Moraine on the upper side of the Palmer Glacier. Sun begins to rise. Mt. Jefferson barely visible to the South. Light provides for easy route finding.
5:45 am - Rope-up. Cramp-on. Time for the climb. Hood's shadow visible on the Western horizon. The three sisters can be seen South beyond Jefferson.
5:55 am - Start climbing. Tim on lead. Jonah in the middle. Jade cleaning the rear. Morale is high.
6:06 am - Navigating some icy fins, Tim drops his frozen Nalgene. It tumbles a few hundred feet down the Palmer Glacier. Slight drop of team morale.
6:38 am - Route steepens, snow deepens. Tim places a picket.
6:40 am - Jade cleans picket. The climbing is steady and fluid. As the light grows, the views get better.
7:01 am - First view of the fumaroles. Smells like sulfur and farts (sulfur from the mountain, farts from the pizza). Hood is an active volcano--whoa, that's awesome. (Later, Tim will claim the gases from the fumarole upset his stomach).
7:12 am - Begin steep traverse through deep snow to the Hogsback.
8:02 am - Reach the Hogsback. Breakfast. Jade has no appetite, but manges to force down two pieces of Stonewall's spicy soy jerkey. Tim and Jonah eat their semi-frozen sandwiches. We take a long rest and discuss the route. Pearly Gates? Bergshrund? Traverse to the left? Old Chute? Discussion rapidly degenerates into nonsense punctuated by flatulent outbursts. It must be the altitude. HACE is suspected.
8:35 am - Still on the Hogsback. Decide to leave our rucksacks.
8:50 am - Begin final ascent up the steep snow ridge above the Hogsback toward the headwall. Moderate exposure on both sides. Morale is high.
9:20 am - Reach top of snow ridge just below the headwall. Pearly Gates to the right. We take the left traverse variation.
9:21 am - Tim begins lead on the traverse. 250 foot fall exposure on 55+ degree snow/ice slope. It gets technical. New tactics required.
9:24 am - Tim places a picket. "This section past the pro gets very icy." Jonah begins traverse.
9:30 am - Jonah reaches picket. Forgets to clip through. Expresses reservations "I don't know about this." Tim is moving slow, ice daggering and working hard to kick steps. He places a second picket.
9:32 am - Jade gets a solid stance, puts Jonah and Tim on belay.
9:33 am - Tim expresses reservations "I don't think this is gonna go. I am coming back." Jonah begins retreat from traverse. Morale is very low.
9:40 am - Jonah reaches a solid stance with Jade. Add second ice ax for a double ice ax anchor, continue belaying Tim.
9:45 am - Tim reaches safety. Rest. Should we go on? Try the Pearly Gates? We could. Hmm. Jonah feels uncomfortable. Tim and Jade feel it would be very irresponsible to continue.
9:49 am - Begin descent. Jade leads down. We are roughly 250 vertical feet short of the 11,249 ft (3,429 m) summit.10:35 am - Reach Hogsback. Retrieve rucksacks. Rest. Morale restored.
11:00 am - Unrope. Begin sitting glissades. Glissade conditions are quite sub-par.
11:16 am - Jade and Tim: "Where's Jonah?" Jade and Tim call "Jonah!" Jade blows e-whistle. No response. Tim begins re-ascending to find him. Jade begins descending to find Tim's missing Nalgene. Morale is low.
11:29 am - Double success. Tim finds Jonah. Jade finds Tim's water bottle. Continue descent. Morale is very high.
11:48 am - Jonah retrieves his poop in a blue bag. Carries it out.
1:00 pm - Reach Timberline Lodge parking area. Did we get a ticket for not having our Snow-Park pass? Nope.
1:15 pm - Begin drive back to PDX. Tim and Jonah pass out immediately. Jade is drifting in and out of sleep the whole way, but uses the force to not go astray.
3:30 pm - Arrive back at Graymalkin.

Thank you Lena for the camera. Thank you Morgan for the car.

Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir, joined by Jackie Greene, John Molo, and Steve Molitz, will play a show together tonight in support of Barack Obama at the Warfield Theatre in SF, CA.

I am a production assistant for the live video simulcast of the show streamed via the "Internet" on www.iclips.net at approximately 7:30pm PST. check it out. should be fun/ny.

grey poneytails for Obama.