This September I was able to spend several weeks in the Valley with my good friend Don. We got up a bunch of great climbs and still managed to leave a little bit for next time. Here's what we were able to do.
- Muir Wall - First six pitches
- The Nose VI 5.9 C1 31P - 4 days
- Serenity cracks 3P 10d
- Royal Arches 16P 5.7 & Crest Jewel 10P 5.10
- E. Buttress of El Cap 13P 10b
- Regular Route on Halfdome VI 23P 5.9 C1 - 29 hours car to car
On our first day in the valley we decided to get on the start of the Muir wall. Our plan was the climb the first 10 pitches to Mammoth Terraces, rap down, pack, and finish out the climb. Unfortunately, after a long hot day we had made it only 6 pitches and decided that we would be better off heading down. After much deliberation we decided that we should try the Nose because it would be a little easier.
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| Big walls = lots of gear | | |
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| Moby Dick, the beginning of the Muir |
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| Don following on P4 of the Muir |
We were able to fix the first four pitches of the Nose and then finish it out in four days. I think that we could have done it faster, but all of Europe was on the Nose. After fixing the first four pitches we rapped down and packed the next day. After packing we jugged our lines in the evening to enjoy the cool hauling temps and get an early start the next day. Much to our surprise we were awoken the next morning by people arriving at our ledge at 4:45 in the morning. Since we were still in our sleeping bags we decided to let them pass. Then out of no where we noticed people appearing in the stovelegs as well. We later found out that they had fixed to Dolt hole P7 and started jugging at dark of thirty. So, despite our best efforts to get an early start we were forced behind several different parties. Other than being a little slow our first day went by smoothly and we ended up staying the night on Dolt tower.
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| Don on sickly ledge |
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| Traversing into the Stovelegs |
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| Looking down the stovelegs |
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| A little higher in the stovelegs |
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| Getting close to Dolt tower |
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| The next couple pitches from Dolt tower. One of which requires bumping a #4 for a very long ways. |
Our second day started out normal enough. We climbed a few pitches and got to El Cap tower, beautiful ledge, when all of a sudden we heard a helicopter coming through the valley. It flew to El Cap and then right below us. Clearly to rescue someone from the Nose. We later found out that a guy had botched his lower out into the stovelegs and broke his femur. Now that my nerves had been rattled I took off on Texas flake, a chimney with 1 bolt in 40 or 50 ft. It was a little spooky, but reasonable. Lucky for us we weren't done with the jitters yet. Part way through the next pitch a massive block broke free and exploeded climbers left of us. Now both of us were even more freaked out than before. Don finished leading the pitch and I quickly followed. I now had the privelage of doing the king swing. This involved Don lowering me 100 ft. down and then me doing a massive pedulum to reach another crack system. Most people have to try this several times before they get it. I was scared as is and decided that I really didn't want to have to try more than once. I just ran as hard as I could to the right and then took off back left. To my surprise I reached around the corner and grabbed a hold and carefully made my way to the crack. What a relief. From here we climbed several more pitches and finally reached the top of P19, an ok bivy for 1. This ledge was just big enough for one person to lay on their back with one shoulder touching the cliff and and other hanging in space. We managed to sleep here by the well known method of spooning. I spooned with the haul bag, and Don spooned with me.
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| You can see the blade of the helicopter. Very close to the cliff. |
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| Looking down Texas flake |
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| Don on bootflake |
The next day we woke up early, which couldn't have come soon enough. I know that neither of us got very much sleep. We decided to climb the first pitch of the day and then eat breakfast and hang out on a much bigger ledge, the one the brits slept on, and watch them climb the great roof. This improved our moods considerably. Basking in the sun for a couple hours 20 pitches up a route is pretty fun. After a while we started climbing again and climbed P21 to below the great roof. On this pitch we got a massive core shot on our lead rope. Luckily, we hauled with a dynamic just in case this exact thing happened. So we swapped our lead line for our haul line and continued on. Note, nerves still on edge. We eventually ended up at camp V, base of P25, and stayed the night with the Brits.
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| Don on the great roof |
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| Great roof |
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| Looking down from the great roof. |
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| Pancake flake. Beautiful. |
After another evening of so so sleep we got up early and the race was on. After a bit of big wall politics we determined that me and Don were taking off first. I started the day off by leading the glowering spot. Don followed quickly and was off on the next lead when all of a sudden I noticed two people climbing like madmen towards us. It wasn't long before I realized that it was Dean Potter and Sean Leary. They had climbed to where we were in 2 hours. I couldn't believe how fast they were. It was nuts. Turns out they just broke the world record on the Nose by climbing it 20 some seconds faster than Hans and Yuji. Incredible. Anyway, the rest of the climb was more of the same. Classic pitch after classic pitch. After four days on the wall we were starting to move better togethor and we topped out right as it got dark. What a great climb.
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| Dean Potter gaining on us quickly |
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| Don leading up to camp VI |
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| Looking down changing corners. |
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| Me and Don above Changing corners. Photo by Kibum |
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| Don after changing corners. |
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| Looking down |
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| A couple pitches from the top |
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| 2nd to last pitch |
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| The tree at the top of the Nose |
After several days of lounging around we got on Serenity cracks. A super popular climb as we found out. There were 4 or 5 parties in front of us. We swapped leads up the thing and made it part of Sons of Yesterday before bailing because there was a slide show that we wanted to see. We were both able to onsight every pitch we led. The highlight for me was onsighting the crux 10d fingers pitch. Really rewarding.
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| Looking down the first pitch |
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| Looking down the crux 10d fingers. |
The next day we climbed Royal Arches 16P 5.7 into Crest Jewel 10P 10a, 2400ft of climbing altogethor. We simul climbed royal arches in four hours. Took a little break and then started the hike to the base of Crest Jewel, which is described in the book as the best climb of its kind and grade on the planet. 10P of pure friction slab. It turned out to be amazing. I think that there were less than 20 positive holds in 10 pitches. I really enjoyed it. From the top we hiked 5 miles to tuolomne and hitch hiked back to the valley. All in all a great day.
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| Don hiking towards the start of Crest Jewel |
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| The view of half dome from the top |
After a well deserved rest day we climbed the E. Buttress of El Cap. I had heard mixed reviews about this climb. Turns out I didn't really like it that much, but the setting was spectacular. I did really enjoy the first couple pitches and one of the pitches towards the top that was climbing on chicken heads. We got to the top and made our way down in time to go for a swim in the afternoon sun. We followed it up with a few margariitas and had a great evening.
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| Don enjoying the chimney on the first pitch |
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| Our route took the line between sun and shade |
The highlight of the trip for me was climbing the Regular Route on Half Dome VI 23P 5.9 C1 in 29 hrs. car to car. We started the hiking at 3:30 in the morning. Oddly enough we wasted a bunch of time just trying to get to Mirror lake in the dark. After some confusion, mirror lake was dry at the time, we finally found a trail and started up the death slabs. We thought the trail would be hard to follow but it wasn't at all. A few hours later we got to the base just as it was getting light. Much to our dismay we saw herds of people at the start of the route. Thankfully everyone let us pass once they found out we were trying to do it car to car. After taking a 2 second break we started up the route and didn't stop until we got to big sandy ledge 17 pitches up. We took a 15 min break and watched the sun set before heading up the final head wall. We slowed down substantially here and had some route finding problems right before the top. Instead of taking the undercling bit we took the fourth class traverse to 5.7 slab. What a massive waste of time, oh well. After some shennanagans we finally topped out at 3AM, 21hrs after we started the route and 24 hours after we started the hike. At this point we ate the rest of our food and drank the rest of water and started down the tourist trail. MISTAKE. We were so tired that it ended up taking us 5 hours to walk down 8.5 miles. Next time I will definately take the death slabs down. We would have been down hours sooner. Regardless, we went to curry village and enjoyed the breakfast buffett before retiring to camp 4 and our sleeping bags. This is no speed record, but I had an incredible time and learned what I am capable of. I can't wait to do this route in half the time in the future.
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| Don on the Robbins traverse |
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| Looking up the chimneys |
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| Looking down the chimney |
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| Mt Watkins |
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| The valley at sunset |
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| Thank god ledge. Very cool. |
Turns out we climbed Half Dome just in time because the next day the weather changed and there was thunder and lightning everywhere. We decided to head to Red Rocks for a few days. Unfortunately, we found more of the same weather there and decided to just head home a few days early. Overall it was a great trip. I can't wait to get back and spend more time down there. It is truly a magical place.
