PHOTO COURTESY OF KENNY KARST, DNC PARKS AND RESORTS DIRECTORS BRUCE BROSSMAN, DAVE BENGSTON, AND WAYNE MERRY STAND BEHIND A CUSTOM CAKE IN THE SHAPE OF YOSEMITE’S GRANITE ICON HALF DOME IN CURRY VILLAGE. A celebration 40 years in the making was attended last Saturday by the Yosemite Mountaineering School’s first director, Wayne Merry. Merry visited Yosemite from his distant Canadian home in the Yukon last November to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his historic party’s first climbing ascent of The Nose route on El Capitan.

“This place has always been home to me,” said Merry of Yosemite National Park. Merry grew up in Fresno, and founded the Yosemite Mountaineering School in 1969. “I wouldn’t have missed this reunion for anything. And just look at this cake. Wow.” Merry was referring to a 120-pound, multi-layered cake shaped like famed granite monolith Half Dome. The custom creation was the work of The Ahwahnee’s veteran pastry chef Paul Padua.

During the late-morning ceremony, held outside on the Curry Village deck adjacent to the Yosemite Mountaineering School office, Merry shared anecdotes with wellwishers and two other directors, Bruce Brossman and Dave Bengston. Brossman, who flew in from Flagstaff, Ariz., took over the school’s leadership after Loyd Price (absent from the festivities); and Bengston is now the fourth and current director.

For further information regarding the Yosemite Mountaineering School, visit www.yosemitepark.com/Activities_ RockClimbing.aspx, or call 372.8344.