Me and Karen certainly captured both winter and summer on the same weekend, in fine California fashion.

On Saturday, we climbed the left couloir of North Peak in the Sierra (or at least we climbed up as far as there was ice). The small amounts of snow and ice made on the approach a bit tricky, but we got there without much issues. The climb itself was straightforward, while the brittle ice kept us on our toes. Overall great day! It was finished by pizza in Yosemite valley.

On Sunday, we headed to the swan slab area, which would normally be crowded - given that it was mid-November, there were very few people there! We did a multitude of routes and had a great time climbing in tshirts on the sun-warmed rock. We first warmed up on a short route before heading over to the 'aid route' (5.10a A0, even though it was damn hard to do those A0 moves). That was great, and we ended up doing a couple of more climbs before reaching full satisfaction. So we headed back, only stopping for fajitas in Oakdale.

	Morning tea before we go	Saddlebag Lake

		North Peak on the approach	North Peak

	Karen eyeing North Peak

	North Peak with the couloirs visible	the North Peak couloirs	our approximate route

	Karen with the North Peak couloirs	The right couloir (we keep heading left)	Heading down to the left couloir

	I am looking happy!	starting up the ice	rappelling down (too cold for more shots)

		one more rappel needed	Me with North Peak on the way out

			Me on the top first pitch of the aid route

	looking down the crack	Half Dome as seen from the first pitch belay	Karen coming up the first pitch

	Karen on the second pitch		made it down! that's the first pitch we just climbed (ugh)

	some 5.9 fingers		and now we go home