Yosemite advice - hiring a guide for a hard route

I'll be in the Yosemite area with some free time on June 6, 7 and 8, but without partner or gear other than shoes and harness. I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions, recommendations or advice on hiring a guide in Yosemite.

I figure it's worth it since it might be my only chance to do something hard there since I am going back to school in September and have a baby on the way in October, and I'm in the best shape I've ever been in, possibly never to regain it after all the changes coming.

Ideally I'd like to do Astroman or The Rostrum. I assume you can get a guide even for those, although with a "hard" route premium. I've never hired a guide before but I figure this is a bit of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Any thoughts?

I hate to Piggy-Back off someone else's post, But I have some similar questions about guides out in Yosemite. I'll also be out there this summer, In late July, possibly by myself. Any information would help me also.
Any info about who to contact, Prices, half-day, full day, multi-day.
Basicly any other suggestions, recommendations or advice on hiring a guide in Yosemite, would be helpful.

Thanks guys

Get on the forum at supertopo.com (supertaco). That is where all of the Yosemite climbers hang out. You might even be able to snag a Yosemite legend to drag you up something, they are all there spewing daily.

http://www.yosemitepark.com/Activities_RockClimbing_GuidedClimbs.aspx

The previous posters are correct--the Rostrum (or at least some of its pitches) will likely be closed in early June.

Also keep in mind that Astroman faces east and will be pretty hot in early June.

Finding a guide for the Rostrum or Astroman might be more difficult than you think.

I'd suggest creating a tick list of exactly what you'd like to get on and try calling the NPS (listed above) to see what guides are available (and willing) to do the requested routes.

Otherwise, for regularly cragging you've got several options starting with going through the sanctioned (permitted) guides of the Park Service can land you time with some of the Valley greats like Billy Russell, Jobee Whitford, Scott Stowe......

Another option is our favorite rogue guide Karl "Baba" Bralich
peaklightimages.com/

Then there is always the Camp4 message board.

Good luck, have fun!

~Susan

http://www.themountainguide.com/

Doug is the man

That's a tough one. Personally, I don't think anyone has any business on Astroman or the Rostrum unless you're able to swing leads or are indebted to a rope gun, but that's my personal philosophy, not yours.

I also agree with the poster who advised against trying it unless you're pretty solid on Valley 5.11. No offense, but Squamish 5.11 is soft in comparison. I'd advise hopping on something like New Dimension first. With only one .11a pitch, if that doesn't feel really doable, then I'd think five pitches of solid 5.11 with lots of 5.10 sandwiched in between will be a bit much.

Having said that, I emphathise with your plight. I've got two kids, career, mortgage, etc. Unless one or all of those things goes away (not likely), I have a hard time envisioning getting back into respectable enough shape to try either route. About ten years ago, a buddy and I spent a week doing the Cookie/Arch Rock circuit and got pretty solid on .11a and bs, but still felt unprepared for either route. Now, looking back, maybe we should have at least tried.

You might get lucky and find someone in Camp 4, but that could be either really successful or really epic, assuming you even find someone within the short time frame you have.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

It turns out I should have been more optimistic about hooking up with a partner as it looks like I have. I understand all the comments about being solid at the grade and I really can't say whether I am or not. All I can say is that I'm pretty sure I could follow it efficiently, hence the idea of a guide. Now the plan will be to do some other routes on Saturday and if we feel it's a good idea, go for it on Sunday. My partner has climbed it before and in excellent style, and is willing to do the hard work; however, I would like to swing a few leads of course.

Even if we decide not to do it, for whatever reason, I'm looking forward to what might be my one-and-only chance to do a few classic routes in the Valley at a time when I'm as fit I'll probably ever be.

Jed Pointer wrote: The time to test things is 3-4 days before, not the day before. You won't recover. Just go for it and rap if need be. Astroboy isn't such a bad tick.

I take your point. I realize I was wrong on my timing too, we'll have Friday to do some cragging since we won't be able to get into the Valley early enough to start a long route. That way we could rest up a bit on Saturday if need be. Either way, I'll make sure I don't put myself in too much of a hole.

Peter,
Contact Yosemite Mountain School about hiring a guide. YMS is the only commercial operation legally permitted to provide rock climbing guide services in Yosemite National Park at this time.
Cheers
Chris

Thanks again for the thoughts everyone. Here's how it went:

A friend and partner from when I lived in Colorado, and MP.com regular Josh Janes contacted me regarding this post. We managed to arrange to hook up for the weekend. Josh had done Astroman previously and was willing to lead any or all of the pitches.

After a very late night, we arrived in the Valley on Friday morning with three hours of sleep under our belts and jumped on The Great Escape. Josh led the first two pitches and I led the second two with a few hangs.

After another three hours of sleep we got an early start for Astroman. Josh led every pitch. Although swinging leads would have been better style, I'm very happy to have done the route at all, and very happy that Josh was able and willing to give me the tour. I think that if there was a likelihood of me coming back to improve my style on it, leading a few pitches might have made sense, but without having taken the time to acclimate myself to Yosemite in general, and with the route being essentially at my limit, I would have slowed us down way too much.

I surprised myself by freeing the Boulder Pitch, but I was seconding and had Josh's excellent beta. A few hangs along the rest of the route, most notably entering the Harding Slot, didn't detract from the enjoyment of this awesome climb.

We were making excellent time to the top of the Slot, but we slowed down after that as the sun and fatigue set in. We were still in the sun a pitch after the Slot, so we waited a bit on that ledge for the shade to arrive before starting up the Changing Corners pitch.

We made it down with enough light and time to get pizza at Degnan's.

Descent beta: sandals suck. I switched back to my climbing shoes for most of the descent.

On Sunday we weren't moving too quickly, but with a day available to us, and for me the feeling that I might not be back to the area for a long time, we decided to head up to Tuolumne and settled on Hoodwink which was plenty for us after the previous two days, and a fun way to cap off the weekend.

Thanks again Josh!

Good work Peter, and good to run into you out there randomly. Getting a good tow once in a while is how we get better. What an intro to Yosemite!

Sounds like a good trip. What was the cost for the guide?

JF

JF, I think a guide for an all-day route with a "hard route" premium clocked in at something like $350, but as a number of people have pointed out, it's not clear whether you could actually get a guide for Astroman.

i don't get it. having never hired a guide, i am not understanding why astroman is not something that one would guide..?

Graham Rogers wrote:Good work Peter, and good to run into you out there randomly. Getting a good tow once in a while is how we get better. What an intro to Yosemite!

It was good to see you again, and funny how random it was. I see from your profile that you've been out to Squamish; drop me a line if you're heading that way again.

Peter

Steve Kahn wrote:i don't get it. having never hired a guide, i am not understanding why astroman is not something that one would guide..?

I've never hired a guide either so I have no idea what I'm talking about, but there has to be some practical limit to what a guide will be willing to undertake with a client, especially a client that is a complete unknown to them. So the question is whether Astroman is above or below that limit for most or all guides. I could certainly see a guide being unwilling to take a client on Astroman unless they had previously guided the client and had an understanding of their abilities and a trust in their belaying, judgement, etc.

Of course we could just call up the local guide service and ask....

I was waiting for a buddy to get off the Zodiac as he was really going slow. Sitting in Camp 4, a 17 year old kid from Canada came strolling by and we kinda talked about Astroman, I wanted to lead all the pitches and he wanted to follow all the pitches, perfect. Except for that FU*KING Harding Slot it was the most fun I ever had. He even led the changing corners pitch (only) but now he climbs 14b easily.......I agree with the opinion that guides in the Valley will get you up most anything, but finding a cool partner should not be to hard either. Have a riot, and take more water than you think.