Due to an epic winter and one of the deepest snowpacks ever recorded in the Sierra, the road through Tuolumne/Tioga Pass wasn't supposed to open until July. So it came as a big surprise when a few days earlier, the national park service declared it'll open the road on June 18, at 8am. Of course, few people consider climbing there so early in the season, due to the snow and cold temperatures, but the road side climbing can be amazing and uncrowded.

After a beautiful drive in, we started up South Crack on Stately Pleasure Dome just after 1pm in gorgeous weather. The first two pitches are stellar and as it is typical for granitic domes, get easier the higher you go. However, the 5.7 friction pitch gave me pause - I spent a while on the ledge mid-way before committing to the initial moves off it.

Afterwards, we drove to Daff Dome, where there was another car parked. As we pulled up and started getting our gear together, Peter Croft walked by, back to that car! We were both way too excited and took the opportunity to shake the hand of a legend (amazing, I just noticed from wikipedia that we share a birthday, as well as the name!). He was super friendly, we chatted about climbing and his upcoming summer plans - and we continued to Daff Dome, now completely ecstatic from this unexpected encounter. Since it was almost 5:30pm, we debated whether to do the first pitch of Bombs over Tokyo or climb West Crack, but we decided we have enough time to get to the top and climb the uber classic West Crack. The views were mind blowing and we enjoyed the soft evening light on top, with 360 views of one of the most gorgeous places on earth. After getting a good look at Fairview Dome, we got down and drove to the Whoa Nellie Deli for dinner, witnessing a beautiful sunset over Mono Lake - what a way to end the day!

Sunday saw us having breakfast in the same place - we were in no rush, since our route (Fairview Dome's regular route) was going to be in the shade in the morning, and we didn't expect competition. It was a bit tricky to find a place to leave the car, as the usual pullout was a big snowbank - but we found a spot just a 1/4 mile up the road, and bee lined through the snow from there. We had to step up on the snow bank right off the road, and were on snow the whole rest of the way - it actually made for a faster than usual approach! Since it can be sketchy climbing the steep snow cone to get to the rock of such routes early in the season, we brought lightweight crampons - which were a great piece of mind (although maybe not strictly necessary).

Getting established on the rock was the crux, I ended up climbing the first 15 feet with one rock shoe and one running shoe (to keep my rock shoes dry). There was a lot of sand covering the footholds, for extra excitement. Of course, the 5.9 crux was completely wet as expected, as was part of the 2nd pitch - nothing like snot-lined handjams to get your attention! The rest of the route was completely dry and a total blast... and did I mention we were in tshirts and in the sun the whole time? Actually, Melissa put on her windbreaker higher up, but I enjoyed the pleasant breeze. At the top, there was no wind, and the views were so amazing we ended up lounging around for a while. What an end to the weekend!

	Stately Pleasure Dome - yay!	Tenaya Lake & snowy Tenaya Peak

	The right hand start of South Crack, turned out nice	After the crux

	Sweet South Crack	Folks enjoying Tuolumne a different way	Kayakers visible in the photo

	Melissa on South Crack	Such a beautiful place

		Second pitch of South Crack - more goodness

	I hesitated for a long while before committing to the next section: supposed 5.7 friction	Somewhat of a nemesis	Last pitch

			Hiking up to Daff Dome in the beautiful snow

	West Crack seen on the right, with Bombs over Tokyo on the left (both amazing)		Starting up West Crack

		Beautiful evening light	On the first pitch of West Crack

	Second pitch of West Crack, knob paradise

	Third pitch - sweet knobby finger crack

	The clouds brought our jackets on	Melissa on our 3rd pitch	Happy on top of Daff Dome, with our next day objective in the background

	Fairview Dome with the glacier (as Peter Croft called it) at the bottom	Regular Route goes straight up the middle	Zooming in on the first pitch, debating on whether to go there tomorrow

	Can we go now? I'm cold!	I like orange, apparently	Mono Lake sunset, before we went to the Whoa Nellie Deli

		Beautiful morning - let's go climbing!	Feel so lucky to wake up in a place like this...

	Mt Dana	Tuolumne or Bugaboos? Ha!	Lots of snow makes for a fast approach!

	Aluminum crampons: 20 oz weight penalty, and you can be sure to get up to your route	Ready to race in crampons?	Left side of Fairview glacier has big chunks waiting to let go. Not a place to hang out..

	The first pitch seen above		Building an anchor in the moat

	The challenge is to keep stuff dry (succeeded, more or less!)	Rock shoe on the right foot, running shoe on the left foot - I switched it out here :)	After the wet section, which isn't visible from the photo

	Our belay perch	Looking back at our first pitch (from the tree)	Our second pitch (off the tree)

	Knobby granite - welcome back to Tuolumne!		It would be best not to be down there when these slide off

	Somewhere up there	The next pitch has a super fun little roof (5.9 or 5.7)	Going for the roof

		Past the crux

	Spectacular belay spot. Are we in heaven?

		Cheesy summit shot	The toolbox

	Lots of snow around Conness, as expected	Obligatory summit shot	Does this look more inviting for skiing, or climbing?

	Back side of Cathedral Peak (and Eichorn)	Drug Dome and Mariuolumne Dome have a while to go before the snow on top melts	Breath taking views from the top of Fairview Dome

	The meadows are flooded. In a month they'll be green!		On the way back to the car - the descent was faster than in summer!