I had finally made it to Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Valley is THE PLACE for many rock climbers!!! A literal mecca for climbers across the globe. In this one place, many factors come together to form a nearly perfect arena for rock climbing; mild weather, beautiful scenery, and incredible granite walls perfectly suited to climbing.
I had dreamed of climbing in Yosemite for months and knew this trip I had to push my limits and set out for a wall.
My roommate Madison talked my friend Carlos and I into climbing our first wall together. Not only have neither of us ever climbed a wall, but we barely new each other. We had met a few days before on the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral. Carlos was a Yosemite Local and was excited but nervous to get on his first wall. The route we decided to climb was the South Face of Washington Column. A popular route that makes for a great first wall. We spent a day or two practicing how to haul, fix ropes, aid climb and jug. We borrowed a friends haul bag and carefully packed it with only necessary gear for the trip (lots of water, food, sleeping pad/bag, wag bags, ropes and gear) the night before. I was definitely nervous about forgetting to pack necessary gear and rechecked multiple times that I was ready to go.
We woke up early and got to the start of trailhead around 7:30 a.m. Although the hike was only a little over a mile uphill, we found it pretty strenuous with our 50 pound packs.
We racked up as fast as possilble and were ready to go around 9:00 a.m. Below is Carlos looking up at the first pitch with over a thousand feet of climbing in front of us.
I lead the first pitch which started off with a 5.8 corner and then traversed across a slab to nice anchors. This pitch was kind of hard to follow and the hauling wasn't to easy, especially since it was my first time hauling. By the time Carlos followed up the pitch, the belay area was a mess. We kind of figured it wasn't going to go to smooth since we didn't have any experience.
We switched leads at the second pitch and Carlos attempted to free climb the 10.B section, which ended up actually being an 11.C corner due to us going off route. Fortunately Carlos was able to french free through it and then combine the second and third pitch to speed things up.
The picture to the right shows Carlos hauling up the haul bag while I'm getting ready to jug up to the third pitch belay.
On top of the third pitch lies dinner ledge. An amazing bivy ledge with great views. This is where we left the annoying haul bag and started to pick out our sleeping spots. With a lot of daylight left we decided to aid the fourth and fifth pitches, then fix a rope back down to the ledge.
Reorganizing on dinner ledge before the 4th pitch. Although it was incredibly windy, the sun made for a really warm day.
By 1:00 p.m Carlos started to aid the iconic Kor Roof. You can barely spot him over the roof. This pitch was long and took Carlos a while. While following the roof I found doing a lower route on a fixed sling very useful. I will definitely remember hanging 15 feet out from the roof spinning in circles from the strong wind.
Pitch 5 is considered to be the crux pitch and I was stoked to be able to lead it. This was my first time ever aiding on gear and the pitch was amazing. It starts with a two bolt ladder and then traverses under a roof until a pendulum swing is to be made to get the leader right next to the anchors. I found offsets cams to be bomber on many of the aid pitches.
After Pitch 5 we were able to fix a line with a 60 meter rope and rappel back to dinner ledge where we met another party of two older men from Scotland. By the time we started to eat and relax is was already around 7:00 p.m.
Dinner Ledge was definitely one of the coolest spots I've ever slept at. I watched headlamps of climbers flash back and forth on Half Dome and Glacier Point Apron as I fell asleep.
Unfortunately the next morning we got a later start than we wanted. After eating breakfast and cleaning up our spot, Carlos and I started jugging up the fixed rope to pitch 6 around 9:00 a.m.
Pitch 6 was definitely the roughest for me. Maybe it was the exposure, but I felt very uncomfortable aiding the pitch. It started off traversing left under a roof and then followed a thin crack upwards. As I got to the end of the roof my offset cam popped out and I took about a 15 foot whipper. It was a clean fall and actually pretty fun! Towards the end of the crack there were some mandatory blind 5.7 free climb moves. For some reason getting out of my aiders and free climbing intimidated me, but I was able to pull through.
(Right)
Pitch
7 belay.
Carlos Led Pitch 7 (above). It was a very long straight crack and he had to back clean a lot! I was able to jug up very fast as I followed. We trailed the original haul line with us so we could tie two 60 meter ropes together for the rappels.
Pitch 8 was arguably one of the best pitches on the route. I free climbed through a perfect 5.9 hand crack and then traversed into a chimney, which seemed to turn into an off width towards the end of the pitch. This took a ton of energy as I squeezed my body and LOTS of gear upwards inch by inch. Carlos would agree that the pitch would of been much better with out a back pack. In the picture to the right you can barely see him pushing his way up the chimney.
Pitch 9 was tricky and involved a of mixed free climbing and aid. The pitch goes out right and up from the chimney, then up some more to belay in a big tree. Nice!
By the time we started up pitch 10 (right) the sun was well on its way down. Carlos led this pitch with a mixture of aid and free climbing. It is the hardest free climbing pitch on the route.
After we summited the 10th pitch we decided to skip pitch 11, which was a 5.6 loose gully due to time. Carlos had work early the next day. We put on our headlamps and made 5 (2, 60 meter) raps back to Dinner Ledge where we quickly grabbed the haul bag and made three more 60M single raps to the base. I was completely exhausted and we still had to descend the trail back to the car. By the time we made it back to our tent it was 1:30 a.m. That was a long day. We were in desperate need off food, water, and sleep. Our first big wall was a success.
If I had any recommendations I would say make sure to bring offset cams and micro nuts as they are very useful in the aiding sections. Try to fix to at least the 5th pitch the first day, if not the 6th. If you can get to the 6th you will set yourself up great for the second day. Also, don't waste time like we did in the morning. If we started an hour earlier we would of been able to summit in the light. Overall things didn't go as smooth as what we wanted but we learned a ton and stayed safe. It was a great time!
No comments:
Post a Comment