UKC

Is it still an absolute shocker to register and get a place?
What's it likely to be like on the 21st of September.

Cheers

E

In reply to Enty:

You have to ignore the rules on start times and queue up early. We were too british last year, turned up on the dot and never got a place. In some respects the other first-come first served spaces in the other Yosemite campsites are better if you prefer a bit more personnal space and dont mind a drive. A very worthy trick is to book yourself into the Yosemite clean-up as they have reserved spaces... the event is brilliant: cleaner crags, no problem with mixing climbing and clean-ups and some great evening events.

In reply to Enty: If you're hiring a car it's easy, just turn up a few hours before the ranger gets there and you'll be close to the front of the queue. Without a car it's harder as the public transport doesn't start that early so you'll need top get there the night before and just bivvy in a one of the sites, or you can stay at the backpackers campsite in the village and have a walk early in the morning. You're not really allowed to stay at the backpackers campsite without a permit but it works on an honesty box system and gets checked by the rangers less. Also if you get caught sleeping in camp 4 without being registered they normally give you a telling off and move you to the backpackers site anyway.

Great advice. It looks like were going to arrive in the early hours so we'll probably bivvy and join the queue.

E

In reply to Enty:

Perfect timing look a few posts down on this thread:

http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=1217638&msg=12180...

Last year if you purchased a glass (at quite a reasonable price) you got free beer for the whole event. We saw John Long, Dean Potter, Peter Croft and Tim O'Neil to name but a few... at no charge. Lynn was in Yorkshire woman heaven. I was in liberal purgatory of course (they should charge more and put the money into more help on the cleanup!).

In reply to Enty:

We were queueing from about 6am-ish for camp4.

To be honest the other campsites are much more pleasant (leafy, green, etc), vastly larger pitches, generally flat (quite a large part of Camp 4 has a gradient), and in the case of Upper Pines rather near to the quality all-you-can-eat-for-a-tenner buffet in Curry village and best of all you can book in advance.

In terms of getting around there's shuttle buses all over the shop.

In reply to Enty:

A point I forgot to make is that due to the facelift the queues will be worse (another reason to sign up or go elsewhere).

In reply to John_Hat:

Like what he said.

I wouldn't go back to camp 4 but then you've got to go once haven't you?

In reply to Enty:


http://tinyurl.com/324aza7

In reply to Enty:

If youre going in summer then camp up in Tuolumne Meadows - specifically at White Wolf. Just a beautiful campsite in a fantastic place.

Then when you have a trip on for one of the big routes move down to the Valley - use the tactics described here to get on Camp 4 - or Upper Pines is nicer - more spacious - get the route done then go back up to Tenaya Lake and swim and drink beer.

In reply to Enty:

Andy Kirkpatrick recently wrote a post on this in his blog with some good advice

http://www.andy-kirkpatrick.com/blog/view/ten_tips_for_the_valley

In reply to robw007:

We liked White Wolf, good if you want to mix climbing in the Valley and Tuolumne, cooler at night (we got too hot in Sept in Camp 4) on site bouldering, better to aclimatise if you are doing anything high.