Yosemite Week Two Plus

After bailing on the East Buttress of Middle Cathedral, I took a day off. I blogged, read, and generally relaxed. The following day, I got together with Paul again and we tried to climb Nutcracker, a classic 5 pitch 5.8. When Paul reached the top of the first pitch, he suggested I trail the second rope so we could bail from the top of the second pitch, because it was so freaking hot. I brought the rope up, and, despite getting a cooling breeze at the top of the second pitch, we decided our hearts weren't in it right that moment, and bailed. I spent the rest of the day relaxing.

On Saturday, I thought that Shaun, Katie, and Shaun's friend Ben were going to be arriving, so I made no plans. As it turned out, they got delayed in Reno because Shaun's bag didn't come in on his flight. All week, an event called Yosemite Facelift had been going on. I had been taking advantage of it in the form of free slideshows, films, and beer in the evenings, but hadn't participated, yet. I decided to help out since I had no other plans, and spent the day picking up trash around the Yosemite Creek trailhead and campground. Every day, everyone who helped pick up trash was entered in a raffle. I won dinner for two at the Mountain Room, a nice restaurant here in the valley. I can't wait to take advantage of that. I could use a great meal!

Sunday, I still didn't know what was up with Shaun and company, so I hooked up with Hannah and her friend Chris and met up with a bunch more friends of Chris at the North Face Apron of Middle Cathedral. It turns out that most of the climbs at this crag are hard and run-out, mostly with high first bolts (like 25 feet high). Hannah and I ended up climbing one pitch, the first pitch of a climb called Fall Guy, recently put up by Chris's friend, Bob. We were going to do the whole 3 pitch climb, but the party ahead of us took a long time on the third pitch and we decided to bail. I had to aid the low crux of this "10a" slab. I pulled through a higher crux, but it wasn't pretty.

Monday morning, Shaun and company found me and got registered at Camp Four. After they had setup camp, we went to Glacier Point Apron to do "the best 5.6 in the Valley", The Grack, Center. I led all three pitches, with Katie seconding (her first multi-pitch climb!), and Shaun and Ben swung leads. The clean, aesthetic, low-angle splitter crack of pitch 2 was quite enjoyable, and everyone enjoyed the climb.

Katie, Ben, and Shaun at the base of the first pitch of The Grack, Center

Looking up the second pitch of The Grack, Center

View from the top of the Grack

Katie following third pitch of The Grack, Center

Shaun leading third pitch of The Grack, Center with Ben belaying

Katie and Me at the top of The Grack

Tuesday, Katie had to head back to Winnemucca, and Shaun opted to hang out with her until she left. Ben and I decided to climb a 3 pitch 5.8 called The Caverns. From the base of the route, I got a hold of my friend, Matt, who had driven out from San Francisco the day before, but had, so far, eluded contact. Fortunately, it was a short approach, so I hiked back down and got him and we did the route as a party of three. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was Matt's first multi-pitch! We ended up doing the route in 4 pitches, as Ben stopped a little short on the second pitch, and we were a little rushed on the final pitch, as it had sprinkled a little, and was threatening more serious rain. The rain never materialized, though, and we made it up without difficulties. We made it back to Camp Four in the nick of time for me to renew my campsite, and Matt headed back to SF, after sharing some tasty chips and homemade salsa.

Matt following second pitch of Caverns

Blood for the Blood God!

Ben following the 2 1/2^th pitch of Caverns

Wednesday, Shaun, Ben, and I went back to Glacier Point Apron, and climbed a 2 pitch 5.8 called Harry Daley. The first pitch started with challenging friction climbing right off the deck with no protection. After down-climbing several times, I pulled the moves, and got up to a good stance where I could get gear in. The rest of the first pitch was pretty mellow. The second pitch started with a slightly wide hand crack through a roof which turned out to be quite easy and a lot of fun. The crux came higher up on a section of finger crack. Ben did an excellent job leading the second pitch.

Ben below the roof at the start of the second pitch of Harry Daley

Shaun jamming deep at the top of the second pitch of Harry Daley

When we got down, the apron had gone into the shade, and, in a major change from the previous couple weeks, this left us a bit chilly, and seeking sun, so we headed to the Church Bowl area, and I led Church Bowl Lieback (5.8). Wow, that was a fun, burly climb. It was pretty much sustained, nearly vertical laybacking all the way. There were some good stemming rests, but you definitely had to look for them. I psyched myself out a bit when I ran it out a ways above my last piece, thinking I was going to a good hold, only to find that it wasn't so good after all. I down-climbed, got another piece in, then pulled the move. I got a good scare for a second, though.

Thursday, Shaun and I climbed After Six, a popular 6 pitch, 5.7 (or 5.6 in the older books...) while Ben took the day to do some hiking. Shaun took the lead on the first (and crux) pitch, but backed off after getting intimidated by a tricky, awkward move. I pulled the rope, re-led the bottom on his gear, and finished the pitch. It was definitely tricky and intimidating in places.

Shaun near the top of the third pitch of After Six

Friday, Ben, Shaun, and I went to climb Royal Arches (14 pitches, 5.7 A0). We left camp at 6AM to drive to the trailhead, and were at the base of the route around 6:30. There was a party ahead of us, but they moved quickly. I made it up the first pitch chimney fairly quickly and efficiently, despite some intimidating moves pulling around chockstones. Pretty quickly, Ben and Shaun had to put up with me being bitchy about moving quickly. I tried not to be too sour, but, with a party of 3 on such a long route, we really needed to be efficient. We actually made reasonably good time on the route. Climbing on 70 meter ropes, we cut out a couple of pitches by belaying part way through 4th class pitches rather than climbing them as separate pitches, and made it to the top in 12 pitches by about 4:00PM.

Shaun leads the second technical pitch of Royal Arches, while a party passes on the left

Me and Ben: 2/3 of the Bearded Guys Climbing Team

Ben follows the 4^th class traverse on pitch 8 of Royal Arches while Shaun Belays

Ben at the 10^th pitch belay on Royal Arches, waiting to climb

Ben leading the 12^th and final pitch on Royal Arches

View of the Valley from the top of Royal Arches

That's where things got sticky. We intended to walk off via the North Dome Gully descent. Unfortunately, I had the descent directions mixed up and we went in the wrong direction. After failing to find the descent trail, a little strife amongst the party, and a lot of frustration on my part (not with the people, but with the situation), we decided to go back and descend via the rappel route. This required leading back across a slightly heady 5.4 slab. Ben led it the first time. I led back across. It was probably 6:00 by the time we started the rappels. On the first rap, I missed the bolts for the second station, and ended up stopping at a cluster of trees which our 70 meter roped just reached to, and managed to knock my headlamp off and drop it down the cliff in the process. I had failed to get it clipped properly onto my helmet. Oops. With Shaun's headlamp running low on batteries, this left us with one fully functional headlamp. Great! Shaun took over leading us down the rappels, since he was doing better than I was at seeing the stations, got us back on track, and did an excellent job of getting us down quickly and safely. It was a little stressful, but, in hindsight, a good climb. It was definitely fantastic to get down. :-)

Today, we are resting. I took a shower, then made myself a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich for brunch. It's great to relax after a long, hard day. Tomorrow, Shaun and Ben head out. I will probably hang around until Wednesday or so, then consider heading to SoCal.

Route List for 9/24 - 10/2:

• Nutcracker Pitch 1 (5.8 Trad, followed clean) and 2 (5.4 Trad, onsight)
• Fall Guy Pitch 1 (5.10a, followed with aid)
• The Grack, Center (3 pitches, 5.6, Trad, onsight)
• The Caverns (4 pitches, 5.8, Trad; Onsight pitch 1,3, 4; followed pitch 2 clean)
• Harry Daley (2 pitches, 5.8, Trad; Onsight pitch 1; followed pitch 2 clean)
• Church Bowl Lieback (5.8 Trad, onsight)
• After 6 (6 pitches, 5.7 Trad; dark pink-point pitch 1, followed pitch 2-3 clean, onsight pitch 4-6...or something like that)
• Royal Arches (12 pitches, 5.7 A0, led some, followed some, all clean)