NW Face of Half Dome in a Day



After our ascent of El Cap we took a couple rest days, spent a day cragging, and decided the next objective would be the NW Face of Half Dome (23 pitches 5.12b, 5.9C1, 2000+'). We wanted to take advantage of the warm temps since the route is in the shade all day and with the extended forecast calling for cooler temps and unsettled weather we decided to go for it. We would go for a light and fast approach to do the route in a day with only 3 liters of water and a double set of cams to 2" and one 3" cam, lots of bars and one warm jacket for belays if needed. We spent last Thursday hiking to the base of the climb via the "Death Slabs". We were the first ones at the base that day meaning we were first in line for this popular route. Later that evening several more teams showed up bringing the total to five. We let one team start ahead of us as they agreed to start 1 hour before us and would let us pass if we caught them. There were 2 teams that were going to spend 2 days on the route and would start later, one more in a day team would start right behind us. Friday morning we woke up at 4:00 AM and were climbing by 5:00AM in the dark as it does not get light till almost 7:00. Will led the first 6 pitches and was learning to short fix on the fly.  I took the next 6 pitches and we were making great time, and were only 2 pitches behind the team in front of us, we never saw the team behind us the rest of the day. Will took the lead for block 3 in the chimneys, at this time the pace slowed a bit as the jugging was slow in the chimneys and Will got off route on the pitch to Big Sandy Ledge. I took the last block starting up the Zig Zags using a mixture of free climbing and aid climbing. Made it to "Thank God Ledge" and walked the plank, ended up climbing on the outside of the chimney at the end of the pitch for some scary runout face climbing, what was I thinking.  On the next to last pitch I did a penjilum and began tension traversing to avoid tricky gear placements, finally I placed a bad yellow alien, weighted it and went flying across the face, Will said I was spinning around, upside down, scraping against the rock. I quickly composed myself and went for the same moves, this time a better placement allowed me to reach the bolt. I started leading the last pitch as the sun was setting, when Will joined me on top it was 7:30PM. We had climbed 23 pitches over 2000' of climbing in 14 hours, for a huge day, on the majestic face of Half Dome. Once on top we were both tired, hungry, and thirsty and still had  a 2 hour + descent ahead of us to make it back to the base of the climb were water and our sleeping bags awaited. We stumbled around in the dark trying to find the cables descent route, tourons have placed cairns all over the place making it hard to follow the correct path. We met a guy on top who was waiting for the team behind  us, and he pointed us in the right direction. Going down the cables was painful on the hands, the park had already taken down the posts and slats for the season leaving only steal cable to hand over hand down the steep slab. At the base of the cables we struggled again to find the trail back to the base but eventually we did and slogged down dirt, talus, scree, and manzinetta back to our bivy spot. We could see the head lamps of the team that was behind us high on the route, the had a long night ahead of them. We ate what little food we had, drank water, and crashed out, completely exhausted. Will said this was the single hardest climbing day he has ever had, it ranks pretty high up there for me as well. Saturday morning we made our way down the "Death Slabs" and back to the valley for hot showers and much needed food.

Overall this was the one the great climbs for me, to cover so much terrain in a day is just plain fun!

Half Dome

"Death Slabs" approach

Sunset from our bivy at the base of the route

Me heading for the base of the "Robbins Traverse"

"Robbins Traverse" Bolt Ladder

Will enjoying one of the airy chimneys

Will climbing a splitter crack with great views of the valley

"Thank God Ledge" with the Visor above

Walking the plank on "Thank God Ledge"

Pulling into the 5.8 Squeeze Chimney

Will stuffing his face at the breakfast buffet at Curry Village

Lurking Fear

El Cap and Yosemite Valley

After enduring a few days of rain in the Valley, Will and I decided to jump on El Cap. We climbed Lurking Fear on the left side of El Cap and turned out to be a great climb. We  spent 2 and a half days on the route with 2 bivys. We ended up hiking down in the dark , it is a long ways to the East Ledges decent route from Lurking Fear. We picked up a couple parties who had topped out on the East Buttress and were lost in the dark, so I guided them down the decent. By the way, to those Brits, I am still waiting on those beers you promised for keeping you from spending a cold night out on top of El Cap. The next day we were both quite sore from hiking down with heavy packs.

Will hanging out on the Captain

Bivy #2

Life is Good

Heading Down

Summit View at Sunset

Salathe Wall (El Capitain)

The Captain

The Salathe Wall on El Cap had been on my tick list for sometime, but for some reason things never worked out to get it done. When visiting Karsten and Andrew in Vegas back in March I asked Andrew if he would be interested in doing the Salathe and he was, Karsten who had done the route 8 years decided he wanted to get in on the action as well and a plan was hatched.
Andrew and I met up last Wednesday evening and began to rack up, Karsten would be driving in late that night. We met up with Karsten el cap bridge at around 6:45AM and headed up to do the Free Blast. Unfortunately there was a slow party beginning to start up the first pitch, we decided to hike some loads to the base of the fixed lines and give them some space. After hiking a load the second was just getting to the first belay. We decided to start up the route and informed them that we would be passing, I started us off linking the first 2 pitches to make the pass and began short fixing on the 3rd, the pass was complete. We made good time up the Free Blast, fixed a pitch above heart ledges, rapped down, ate some dinner at the bridge, hiked the remainder of our gear to the base and began to haul our bags to heart ledges, unfortunately a team of two beat us to heart but they had not climbed the free blast yet. We slept at heart ledges after a long day, I woke up being cold and wet, evidently the ledge I was sleeping on had a seep of water that I had blocked and I got soaked, so I was motivated to get moving. We ended up making it to el Cap Spire, that night, with Andrew leading the first block, me the 2nd block and Karsten the 3rd. I bonked hard at the end of my block and Karsten was so worked at the end of his block he was feeling sick, I think the effort we put in on the big first day was taking its toll. Andrew took one for the team and fixed a pitch above El Cap Spire in the dark. There was a team of 3 Koreans bivied in the Alcove and they had 2 pitches fixed above the spire, we needed to pass them in the morning as they were a very very slow team and we could not afford to be stuck behind them. We woke up early and quietly got our stuff ready, trying not to wake the Koreans. I took the first block and made good time until I hit the Sewer Pitch which I linked to "the Block", no one wanted to lead the Sewer so I took one for the team. This has to one of the worst pitches I have ever climbed, I soaking wet by the time I finished this waterfall of slime and awkward climbing with tricky placement. Andrew took the next block from "the block" to the Salathe Roof as the sun was setting. The Koreans asked us to fix lines, so we fixed ropes for them all the way to the Salathe Roof, something like 8 pitches, they were struggling and moving slow, so maybe we prevented a rescue. Karsten led the head wall pitch in the dark to "Long Ledge" where we bivied for the night, in the process he took a huge whipper just before the ledge when a piece pulled. The next day we climbed off and were on the summit by early afternoon, the decent down the East Ledge was casual.
Overall a classic route with good friends, what could be better!
 Unfortunately when we got down I discovered that a bear had broken into my van and made quite the mess. Most likely a momma bear broke out a window and put her cub in to the work as there is no way a full size bear could fit through the window. The damage was considerable and a bit of a downer, but we still celebrated our ascent with cobras and hit the pizza deck for food.

I decided I needed to leave the valley the next day, with the van damaged my options for staying in the valley were limited.

More pics to come when I get Karsten's!

Racking up

"look there's climbers up there"

Me leading the first pitch about to make the pass, el cap looms above

me leading pitch 4

Andrew leading off of Heart

morning on the heart

me leading below "the ear", photo by Tom Evans

Karsten in the Ear

Karsten on the Spire

"the Sewer"

Karsten riding the pigs

Andrew making it to "Long Ledge"

Karsten @ the "Long Ledge" bivy

on the Summit of El Capitain

Loaded down for the descent

Pizza Time!

Choinard-Herbert (Sentinel Rock)

Yosemite Valley

Yesterday I climbed the Choinard-Herbert route on the Sentinel, 15 pitches up 5.11c. Did the route with Branden who I have been climbing with for the last week or so and we had climbed before in previous years. We meet up at the trail head around 6:30AM and started the long approach, we eventually found the start of the route which involved some 4th class and low 5th class scrambling. We did one more roped up pitch to make it to the actually start of the route. The pitches down low involve some loose climbing but the middle pitches are quite nice, although more traffic would clean them up some. Some of the crack did contain some vegetation and a little dirt but gear placements were easy to find. Some of the climbing was exciting with commiting moves and the 3 5.11 pitches were burly and involved me pulling on some gear. I actually got off route will leading the 5.11c pitch and went for the aid variation which had me doing lots of pulling on old pitons. Another great Summit on Yosemite and  a long steep descent which was much easier in the light of day compared to my ascent of the Steck Salalthe on the Sentinel in the fall which involved a long painful descent in the dark.

Looking at starting up the Salathe Wall on El Cap starting on Thursday with my friends Andrew and Karsten.

Me leading the 10a face/traverse pitch

High on the route with Yosemite Falls in the Background

Looking up Valley to the High Country

Brandon on the Summit of the Sentinel

Early Spring Conditions in the Valley

The Yosemite Valley weather as been very unusual for late May, it is more like early wet spring conditions. All the waterfalls are going off and there is a good amount of seepage on some of the walls.  The good news is the weather is supppose to improve this weekend and be warm and dry for a while.

Yesterday I spent half the day rope soloing down in the lower Merced canyon, climbed about 15 pitches total, then  took a break, and on my way out of the park I stopped at Manure Pile Buttress and did 2 laps on After Six. Today looks like it will be a rest day as it is raining on and off in the valley and the forecast does not look great for Thursday.

Steck Salathe

Sunrise in Yosemite Valley                                                           

Dressed for Success

The Narrows

Double Armbar

Strenuous!

Glad I am not Claustiphobic

Valley Sunset

El Cap Sunset

Happy to be on the Summit

I was wanting to do one last big route in Yosemite before I left. I had been climbing with Kathy from Seattle, doing some long moderate routes and cragging. We knew Derrick and Ari were going to do the Steck Salathe and I suggested that we should do it as well. Kathy was a bit skeptical but once she found out it was one of the 50 Classic Climbs of North America, she was on board. I had wanted to do this route for many years but could never find a willing partner, luckily Kathy had no idea what she committing to.

We got an early start and began hiking in the dark, following the guidebook info which suggests the climbers trail leaves the 4 Mile Trail after .5 miles we stumbled around in the dark trying to find. Finally we decided to keep hiking up the trail til we hit the creek crossing which was probably 1.5 miles up the trail. After that the approach was straightforward and involved some exposed terrain and scrambling to get to the base. To my surprise there were 2 parties at the base of the route. We knew Derick and Ari would be there but there was another team that just beat us to the base of the route. This concerned me, and I was not looking forward to being stuck behind another party, plus they were hauling a pack which inevitably would be knocking rocks down on us.

The route was burly from the first pitch on, no real easy pitches on this route, it would be 16 pitches groveling, strenuous climbing. After about 5 or 6 pitches the party in front of us decided to bail, they had had enough. We quickly caught up to Derrick and Ari as Ari was stuck in the narrows. I got to lead the narrows pitch, which was very interesting and a bit spicy on the exit. Kathy started up the next pitch as the sun was setting. I would then lead the next 2 pitches in the dark to the summit where Derrick and Ari had waited for us. We topped out at around 9:30PM which was pretty good considered we had a late start waiting on the party in front of us and having to wait for them early in the climb. The decent was epic in the dark and took considerable time with the tricky route finding. Overall this was a huge day on an amazing route that I will never forget. Lots of chimneys and wide strenuous cracks with an alpine feel, that left us fully worked.

Everyone should do this one!