Gumbies on Half Dome: a Regular Northwest Face Trip
Report
Yosemite National Park,
July 15-19, 2007
By: Tad Hunt, with help
from Derek Lee and Patty Phan
Rack
 Packing
for the hike back down
1 #5 (new) Camalot C4 (very useful -- take this instead of
#4) 1 #3.5 Camalot 2 #3 Camalot 2 #2 Camalot 2 #1
Camalot 2 #0.75 Camalot 1 #0.5 Camalot 1 #0.3 Camalot1
#0.2 Camalot (Not needed)1 #0.1 Camalot (Used once)
1 Red
Omega Pacific Link Cam
1 Orange Alien 2 Red Aliens 1
Yellow Alien
1 Green Alien
1 Blue Alien
1 Red Wild Country Zero
1 Green C3 1
Red C3 1 Yellow C3
Double set of nuts
1 set of
Leeper camhooks
14 Quickdraws 8 24" slings 2 48"
slings 1 stick-clip
1 Alpine equalizer 1
Web-o-lette ~20 locking carabiners ~20 non-locking
carabiners 1 Pulley 1 Petzl Pro-Traxion 1 Swivel 1
Cat's paw (useful for us, but not necessary if you build a clean
power point)
2 60m Lead ropes 2 60m 8mm static (one haul
line, one lower out line)
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Gear and Food
|
Group gear 1 Fish deluxe haul bag (9000 cu in --
plenty big enough for the three of us) 6 1 gallon jugs of water
in the haul bag 1 Jet-boil with group-cooking-system pot
(1.5L), and 1 canister of fuel 1 3.5 gallon florescent green
poop-bucket 6 wag-bags extra AA batteries (for the
radios) Needed, but forgot to pack: extra AAA batteries for the
headlamps
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Per person
1 bivy sack 1 sleeping bag 1
softshell/fleece 1 stocking cap 1 raincoat / windbreaker
(handy for late night chilly belays) 1 helmet 1 harness 2
daisy chains 1 Gri-Gri type device 1 ATC type device 1
pair of climbing shoes 1 pair of approach/aid shoes 1 pair
of knee-pads 1 radio 1 full water bladder:
Derek: 1L
Patty: 2L+daypack
Tad: 2L+daypack
Aiders:
Tad: 1 pair Metolius easy
aiders Patty: 1 pair Metolius easy aiders Derek: 2 pairs
Black Diamond Etriers
|
Food 6 packets Instant oatmeal 4 mountain house
dinners 6 Snickers bars 2 bags of nuts 2 Twix bars 2
packs of Starburst 6 individually wrapped string cheese
sticks 1 large chunk of Gouda cheese 6 very dry and crumbly
bagels (I think we ate a total of 3) 6 extra large totillas 1/3
jar peanut butter 6 tea bags (caffeine, only used 2) 12
coffee candies (more caffeine -- we ate all of these) 1 Nalgene
(1L) bottle for sun-tea (caffeine) and Cran-razz energy drink A
bunch of energy drink mix (we used much less than expected)
|
 Derek
humping the pig up the trail
|
Tad 4 Cliff Builders Bars 1 Small packet of
sweet-and-spicy trail mix 1 packet of Sharkies organic energy
chews (yummy!)
Patty and Derek 8 Cliff bars /
Luna bars
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Pitch by Pitch Beta
Pitch
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Leader
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Second: Cleaner
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Third: Pig-wrangler
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Beta
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P1
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Derek
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Tad
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Patty
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Start in the corner below the bay tree. This is the 4th class
start and avoids rope drag on the first pitch.
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P2
|
Tad
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Derek
|
Patty
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Helpful to have someone stay with the pig. Be careful
about crossing haul line with fixed lines.
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P3
|
Derek
|
Tad
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Patty
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Start the climb on the left side of the belay. Go up or just a
bit left before the traverse to the 5.8 corner.
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P4
|
Derek
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Tad
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Patty
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The 5.9 tight hands after the 5.11c (aided through that) was
really fun!
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P5
|
Tad
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Derek
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Patty
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I pulled on gear through the 5.9 fingers section. Be
careful to keep the haul line free from the lead line.
Patty lowered out the pig.
|
|
Beta for fixing the first 5 pitches
We were able to fix a 60m dynamic rope from P5 down to P3 with
about 10 feet of rope to spare. The rappel was basically straight
down. We again fixed a dynamic 60m rope from P3 down
to P1 with again 10 feet extra. Finally we fixed a 60m 8mm
static rope from P1 to the ground.
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P6
|
Derek
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Tad
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Patty
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Derek found the 5.9 polished fingers fairly difficult and
pulled on gear / aided to pass it. The 5.8 section was
fun. Derek passed the rap anchors and set the belay on the
main ledge just above. There were plenty of good cracks for
gear, including a bomber large nut in the right corner. Set
the #5 Camalot in the wide crack to protect the climb up off of
the belay ledge.
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P7
|
Tad
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Derek
|
Patty
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The tree is in bad shape. I backed it up with a #5
Camalot in the big flake up left, and Red Alien in the small
crack behind the tree.
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P8
|
Patty
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Tad
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Derek
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Lots of rope drag. Patty belayed in the gully, about 5
feet below the real belay station (on the main face as you exit
the gully). I moved the belay up when I got there.
Need to be careful to keep the pig in control because this pitch
starts with a big traverse. It definitely needs to be lowered
out. I got hit on the left hand by a small rock while at
this belay station.
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P9
|
Derek
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Patty
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Tad
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Derek took the 'high road' across, the crux of which is a walk
across a short section with few handholds (Good practice
for Thank God Ledge). If your second is nervous, it might
be better to take the 'intermediate road' across, it looks
like there might be more handholds. The high road is not at
bad at all though. Also, be very careful about loose rock
on this entire pitch. When I lowered out the pig, it almost
knocked a microwave sized block off of the lower ledge.
Also be very careful of loose rock on the 'up-and-left' section
at the end of the traverse.
Derek also back cleaned the far right traverse to avoid rope
drag.
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P10
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Derek
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Patty
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Tad (lowered out)
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Robbin's traverse -- Stick clip useful to speed things up,
some bolts have long reaches. The pendulum was quite easy and
fun!
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P11
|
Patty (2 falls)
|
Tad
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Derek (lowered out)
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Traverse right across the face versus going straight up right
after the belay. Patty first went this way and took a 8
foot fall when the holds ran out! This pitch takes patience
because the gear up high and left is bad. When I jugged up,
two pieces of gear were hanging on the rope -- they had pulled
out from the tension.
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P12
|
Derek
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Tad
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Patty
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Protect high in the crack on the outer flake before stepping
across into the 5.11 (aid for us) corner. Be careful when
turning around not to cross the haul line with the lead line.
Keep a lower out line under tension for most of the haul to keep
the pig away from the big blocks and from getting jammed in the
chimney on this one.
The step across is balancy and was much easier in climbing
shoes.
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P13
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Derek
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Patty
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Tad
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Derek ran together with P14 and most of P15. Haul
outside the chimney. Be careful about the haul line and
fixed line for the third. Must keep both of these outside
the chimney. We wasted a lot of time trying to flip the
haul rope out, and then even more time because Derek had to
rappel down far enough to flip the third's line out. Also
lower-out the pig on this one.
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P14
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Derek
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Patty
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Tad
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Ran together with P13-P15.
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P15
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Derek
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Patty
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Tad
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The top of P15 curves around to the right. Be careful to
keep the haul rope (and the third's rope if you have one) out of
the chimney. Haul (and the third should jug) on the face.
We ran out of rope about 30 feet shy of the belay stance shown in
Supertopo.
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P16
|
Derek
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Patty
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Tad
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We belayed this pitch in the top of the chimney itself, about
30 feet below the belay shown in Supertopo because we were out of
rope. This made for an uncomfortable and awkward position,
but it wasn't the worst belay I've ever been at. Also it
made hauling difficult due to a lot of friction and rope drag.
Our solution was to put a directional on the haul line at the
regular P15 belay, and have the third push the pig up out of the
chimney. Then the third lowered the pig out from the
directional. This worked out well. There are some
ratty slings at the normal belay for this pitch just after you
exit the chimney.
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P17
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Derek
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Tad
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Patty
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Be careful lowering out the pig. Also, if it's dark,
don't climb too high. If you find yourself passing a ledge
system that diagonals up to the right, take it. Don't keep
climbing the double cracks, because you will have to downclimb
onto Big Sandy. Derek climbed too high because we couldn't tell
where to go. #4 Camalot would be useful on this pitch. We
only brought an old #3.5 and new #5. The #3.5 worked, but
it was pretty sketchy walking it up the layback off of the ledge
for quite a while before getting something else in. This is
the only place the #4 would be useful, the #5 worked out quite
well in many other locations (belay anchors, wide cracks, and of
course the chimney after Thank God Ledge).
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P18
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Derek
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Patty
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Tad
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The traverse was difficult to tension across. Derek set a
bad #0.1 Camalot half way so he could reach the right
crack. Not sure if a big swing would have worked instead.
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P19
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Patty
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Tad
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Derek
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Stop climbing in the alcove. Patty climbed the first 30
feet of P20 before she realized that she went too far.
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P20
|
Patty,
Tad
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Tad
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Derek
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Plentiful fixed gear, and a stick clip made this pitch easy to
aid. There is a traverse from one corner over a flake into
another corner about halfway up, that was made easy because of
ratty sling attached to a fixed piece. Be very careful how
the ropes run here -- the flake is pretty sharp. Don't clip
the rope into the piton down low in the crack following the
traverse. Clipping it will make for horrible rope drag and
run the rope over a dangerous edge.
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P21
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Derek
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Tad
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Patty
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Thank god ledge -- be very very careful with the haul line
(and the third's line if the third is jumaring). There is a
big rope-eater ledge below Thank God Ledge with about 10-15 cut
ropes hanging off of it. We managed to keep the haul line
and the lower out line out of it while lowering out the pig, but
when Patty lowered herself out, it almost got stuck when she
pulled it. Luckily a big last-ditch heave on the line
pulled it free.
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P22
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Derek
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Patty
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Tad
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The first bolt ladder is missing the fourth bolt. Stick
clip useful to clip the next bolt. A skyhook could have
been used as well on a small edge. The second's traverse was easy
with a medium size Leeper cam hook. Be careful lowering out the
pig from the belay -- there is a horn right off the belay that we
got the pig stuck on (took many hours in the dark to free!).
Other than that one thing, the face is clean. We eventually
had to cut one of the haulbag straps to free it.
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P23
|
Tad
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Patty
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Derek
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Supertopo misleading. No pendulum at the end of the
higher traverse. The arrow apparently implies a free
section, not a pendulum. Then the climb goes up to the
right, before moving back left on big ledges. (Probably
obvious in the daylight, but it was pitch black when we got
there).
|
2007-07-13 (Friday)
We were about to embark on our first real bigwall experience. Patty
and Derek had climbed Washington Column twice before and bivied on
Dinner Ledge. The second time I joined them up to Dinner Ledge and
rapped back down to the ground because I needed to be at work the
next day. Good experience, but not really preparation for the climb
we were about to jump on. We left the Bay Area late in the evening,
and hit the road, arriving at Hardin Flat around 11PM, where
we crashed for the night. I figured I would have a hard time falling
asleep, flush with anticipation and nerves, but I didn't have any
trouble and was out like a light.
2007-07-14 (Saturday)
 Tad
strapping on the haulbag
Woke up early, cooked breakfast, and headed into the Valley.
I took turns with Derek switching between carrying the haulbag and
his huge heavy pack. Lucky Patty got to carry almost an equal
size load, including the Florescent Green Poop Bucket.
After packing up The last few things on the pig, I started hiking at
about 7:00 AM. I humped the pig up to the top of Vernal Falls.
Derek caught up to me somewhere about half way up the endless
staircase. My ass muscles (Glutes) started hurting about 5
minutes out from the parking lot, even before I started the uphill
battle on the trail. Lesson #1: The haul bag with about 65
pounds of gear in it is very uncomfortable. I was so glad to
get the pig to the top of the falls and give it to Derek in exchange
for his 65 pound pack. No less heavy, but more comfortable.
After chatting with the tourists ("you guys are crazy!"),
we took off up the trail with Derek in the lead. I caught up
with him before Nevada Falls. We took another break at the top
of the falls, and Derek continued with the pig across the flats past
the backpackers camp, and part way up the steeps on the far side.
Then I took over and humped it up to the '2 miles to half dome' trail
junction. Derek took over again, and carried it the rest of the
way to the saddle.
 Patty
ascending the Staircase From Hell
We waited there for our friends Jeremy and Dan Truong to meet
us with some extra gear they were kind enough to carry up.
Jeremy led the way to the base, down the climbers trail with me
following. It seemed to take forever, but we finally made it.
The afternoon and evening was spent filtering water, cooking dinner,
and figuring out our plan of attack. Originally we were going
to fix three pitches following the hike, but we were wiped out, and
there were a bunch of other parties busy fixing or planning on
blasting off early in the morning.
 Tad:
The human haulbag with legs
The spring at the base was running and is just left of the bay
tree at the start. You can't miss it! The water was nice and cool. We
ended up pumping 8 or so gallons, 6 of which we stowed away in the
pig.
The route was pretty crowded. There was a party of 3 Spaniards
from the Barcelona area planning a two day ascent, a party of two
(Chris and Nicole) who fixed three pitches today, and another party
of two guys (Ken Zeemack and Doug Sprock) that arrived up the Death
Slabs minutes after we dropped our packs.
We decided to go last in line on Sunday to start fixing, and not
blast off until Monday. The other parties negotiated amongst
themselves, with Ken's team going first, followed by Chris and
Nicole, followed by the Spaniards. Chris and Nicole had 3 pitches
fixed so they passed Ken and Doug who only had 1 pitch fixed.
2007-07-15 (Sunday)
 Derek
aiding pitch #4
We started up following three other parties. The team of
three Spaniards planned to start around 5:30AM or so, but they didn't
get off the ground until about 6:45 AM. Their third climber
didn't clear off of the P1 anchors until about 8:30AM. We
started climbing shortly thereafter, around 8:45 AM.
Derek took the first pitch, and the adventure commenced! Our
plan was to climb and haul the first six pitches, then and rappel and
fix on the way down. Things went mostly according to plan.
The sun was pretty low by the time we climbed and hauled to the top
of P5, so we decided to stop there. We left most of our gear
there. Derek went first, and fixed the ropes on the way down.
Patty went second, and I went third. We finally landed around
8:45PM as the twilight faded. We left the pig and most of the
gear (except a few cams and slings to backup the rappel anchors) at
the top of P5. Using an auto-block backup was key to safely
rapping the skinny 8mm static line.
 Patty
belaying Derek on pitch #4
It took a bit of practice to get the hauling efficient. On P1,
Derek set the anchor too low, the system had a twist, and the
ascenders had little clearance to slide on the rope before hitting
the cliff edge. He also forgot how to set up a 3-1 system.
Derek had a hell of a time hauling on P1 because we had not yet
learned know how to build a good anchor to haul off of.
I went second on the first pitch, and I didn't start climbing the
second pitch until around 11AM. P2 was enjoyable, though
I pulled on gear pretty extensively after I got past the initial easy
section. No shame here! Our goal was to get to the top in
any way possible. Hauling wasn't too bad on P2, although we
were doing 1-1 hauls, and the second had to unstick the bag a couple
of times. We should have been doing 3-1 hauls to make things
easier while the bag was heavy. We started using the Spanish
Burton later in the game when Patty helped us remember how to rig it,
and it made a huge difference. We didn't really return to 1-1
hauls until the final push when the haulbag was much lighter.
P5 was also a fun lead, again with some easy climbing off of the
belay to a 5.9 section where I again pulled on gear. By the
time we all arrived at the top of P5, the sun was nearing the
horizon, and we decided it would be best to rappel instead of
climbing up to P6. This was our first exposure to the beautiful
orange sunset painting the rock that would be our partner for the
next few days.
2007-07-16 (Monday)
 Tad
atop pitch 8 where the route transitions onto the main face
 Starting
the 550 foot long jug
The day began at 3:45AM when we groaned awake. We
ate breakfast and started jugging the fixed ropes by 4:30 AM.
This was the first time we had jugged so far, and the first time on
fixed ropes without enough slack in them to tie backup knots.
Our solution to replace the backup knots was for the first two (Derek
followed by me) to back ourselves up with a Gri-Gri below the lower
ascender, and the third (Patty) to tie knots as usual as she unfixed
the bottom ends of the rope and brought them up with her. The
Gri-Gri method is almost as safe as tying backup knots, with the
exception that the Gri-Gri probably would not catch an upside-down
fall. On the plus side, once we got about 15-20 feet from the
anchor, the Gri-Gri self fed, so we didn't have the hassle of
stopping to pull the slack through or tie knots. Jugging 550
feet took us quite a while, but we finally made it to our stash of
gear at the top of P5.
Around midday, when I realized how slow we were going, I asked my
partners "so... What's the turnaround point? When do we
decide to bail? Time and Pitch?". Sensing for
themselves that it was a long way to Big Sandy, they stonewalled me:
"We'll decide later"... "Let's just see how far we
get." ... "We're not going down!". Of course
they knew that once we were even higher, the chances of turning
around dwindled, and that I would be committed by then. I'm
glad they blew me off, it ended up being an awesome climb, even if it
did take us over twice as long as expected!
 Patty
belaying Derek on pitch 9 while grabbing a bite to eat
 Patty
leads the crux aid pitch at dusk while Derek belays
Patty started P11 just as it was getting dark. She noticed
Derek was really tired (another lesson: keep eating and stay hydrated
throughout the day) and decided to take the hard C2 aid pitch.
Patty first tried to go up the right facing corner just to the right
of the belay ledge. She ran out of holds and pitched off taking
a 8 foot fall. She then went further right, aiding off a bad
piece to get across the face. She then headed up and eventually
got in a bomber #0.75 Camalot behind a flake. She moved left
into the right facing corner and placed the red Omega Pacific Link
Cam. She then set the red Zero, and back cleaned the link cam.
While trying to place the link cam again, the Zero popped and Patty
went flying down, taking a 20 foot whipper. Her nerves were
shot and she almost gave up, but after a breather, she exclaimed "I
got greedy and used my hands in the good crack!". She
tried again and was able to set a bomber nut. She finally made
it to the ledge and I seconded and Derek followed a bit later.
Patty gave an amazing performance -- continuing after two falls (one
big whipper!) the hardest aid pitch on the entire climb, and she
built a great double anchor system (one for hauling, one for us) up
on the bivy ledge. Derek's comment: "Patty was a rock-star
on P11!"
Whoo. What a long day. Our goal was P17, Big Sandy, but
we barely made it to P11 by 11PM, where we bivied. I had
a hard time cleaning P11, because I didn't know how to use the easy
aiders to clean a traverse (another lesson: lengthen the straps which
will uncross your feet and take the weight off of the lower
ascender). I was also pretty sketched out and tired from the
long day. I had a hard time transitioning from the vertical
jumaring, to climbing the horizontal ledge system at the top. I
remember asking Patty how hard the traverse was, and how good the
piece at the start of the traverse was (#1 or #2 camalot I think)
since I was about to clean the piece below it, while hanging on it,
and it was the only thing keeping me from a huge pendulum if it
pulled while I was on it. Did I mention that I was sketched?
Patty said the right things to keep me calm, and once I committed to
free climbing up onto the ledge, my sketched-ness disappeared, and it
was indeed pretty easy.
 Patty,
Derek, and the empty poop bucket, readying for sleep atop pitch 11
By the end of the day, it was clear that we needed to put
Patty in charge of rope management whenever possible. She was
so much better at it than Derek and I. At anchors that Patty
built, we never ended up with tangled ropes that needed re-stacking
and they always fed out to the leader cleanly. This was not
usually true for Derek and I. We would usually have to re-stack
the ropes once or twice, and fight with tangles around the haul line
and the other ropes seemingly endlessly.
I definitely lucked out on the bivy ledge. I had the flattest
spot. Of course it had it's drawbacks... My head and shoulders
were in the end of the chimney, which wedged them in tight. I
kept waking up because my shoulders were falling asleep from the
pressure. And, did I mention that I got the
'piss-smelling-spot'? No? Yup, I got to sleep with the
smell of urine all night because we all pissed off of my end of the
ledge. I can't really complain though. I put on my Ipod,
and was asleep long before the first song ended. Patty got the
short end of the stick on the bivy spot on this ledge. I took
the spot closest to the chimney, Patty took the center, on an uneven
rocky area, with a big hole between it and the wall (termed the pit
of despair) that we filled with all of our loose gear and then shoved
the pig in on it's side. Better than the hole, but not
particularly comfortable! Derek got a mediocre section at the
other end of the ledge. We probably got around 6 hours or so of
sleep, before we were up and at it again.
2007-07-17 (Tuesday)
 Tad
waking up after his first ever bigwall bivy
Another long, long day. Derek really enjoyed the chimney
climbing, and everything went well until we ended up with a
rope management nightmare in the upper chimney after running out of
rope running P13-P15 together.
The first problem was that the haul line ran in the chimney for
P13-P15, when the haul beta recommended hauling outside the chimney
(very good advice). So we spent a while flicking the haul line
back and forth trying to get it out of the chimney. Eventually,
just as we were about to give up, we got it out.
 Derek
enjoying leading the chimney on pitch 13
That wasn't the end of our difficulties. The third's jug
line (mine) also ran in the chimney, and since Patty cleaned all of
the gear for Derek to use on the next pitch, (since we naively
thought he would be climbing before I got there) my rope didn't
travel safely enough for jugging. After some flicking that got
us nowhere except for lodging the rope deeper in the chimney, Derek
eventually had to rappel down the face far enough to flip the rope
out then jug back to the anchor.
The long jug on P13-P15 varied between pretty easy (back against
another chimney for the first part), followed by a very steep steep
vertical-to-overhanging section, followed by a practically
free-hanging section near the top, right before I came up-and-over
into the top of the chimney.
 Tad
belaying Derek on pitch 13
As usual we had a big clusterfuck of ropes all tangled up and
snared in cracks below the pig. Patty was still working on them
when I got there, and then wouldn't you believe it, but my rope got
stuck in the same cracks. I had to down-jumar about 5 feet
(turns out this would be good practice for later) barely had it
cleaned up and untangled it from everything else before it was time
for me to start jumaring. By the time I climbed to the top of
P16, it was full on dark, and we still had one pitch to go to Big
Sandy. We were pretty psyched now though, because we were so
close to our goal for the day.
Derek had an awesome and bold lead on P17: the double-cracks.
He climbed by the light of two headlamps (luckily, I brought an
extra). It starts with a class 4ish downclimb from the belay
onto a big flat ledge before the real fun. The crack begins
with a wide (tipped out #3.5 Camalot which gets better higher) crack
that you layback by pulling on recessed holds, right above the ankle
breaker ledge. The first problem was that the #3.5 was in our
anchor. We didn't realize this until Derek was on the ledge
after the downclimb. Doh! Luckily, I was able to
replace the #3.5 with the #5 and send the #3.5 down to him on the zip
line. He walked it up as he went, as that was the only piece
that worked there. It was tipped out for the first 10 feet.
The #4 would have been bomber. Because of the way the climb
went (a traverse right-and-down before going up) chances are that a
fall anywhere in the first 30 feet of the crack would result in a
ledge fall.
 Dusk
approaches while I chill in the top of the chimney
Derek really enjoyed this pitch, so much so that he kept going
up when he should have bailed out to the right up a ramp onto the
bottom tier of Big Sandy. He ended up on a small ledge above
Big Sandy, and had to climb down-and-right back to the anchor.
I went second on this pitch, and after getting a belay on the
downclimb from Patty on the static lowerout line (which she kept
tight so there to avoid a possible shockload), I jumared up the crack
to Derek's high point, before realizing that in approach shoes, the
topout and subsequent downclimb onto Big Sandy would be pretty
sketchy. I then down-jumared about 15 feet (another lesson:
what a pain in the ass!) to the ramp, and self belayed with the
ascenders up the ramp to Big Sandy. This turned out to be a
good idea anyway, because I was able to use some of gear to direct
Patty's rope it from getting wedged in some cracks.
Finally by the time we all arrived on Big Sandy, it was after 2AM.
We were too tired to cook dinner, so we downed some snacks and then
crashed. Since Patty had the worst bivy spot on Monday night, she had
first pick, which was the top ledge the furthest away from the edge.
I got the bottom tier: the most exposed, but flattest ledge.
Not a problem! I was asleep the moment I turned on my Ipod and
settled down. I think the top tier turned out to not be so
comfortable, because as I settled down, Derek called down asking if
there was any room on the bottom ledge. I replied in the
affirmative, with the caveat that I got the flattest section
They elected to stay where they were. Yeah, and guess what, I
had to sleep on top of a dried up puddle of urine. Some
dickhead pissed on the bivy ledge instead of off the edge.
Asshole. Luckily (if you can call sleeping in a urinal lucky)
it wasn't too bad, because it was after all -- Big Sandy. I
scooped up a bunch of sand (tiny granite flakes, really), and spread
it over the urine, which worked pretty well. Anyway, I was so
beat that a flat spot was luxury!
2007-07-18 (Wednesday)
 A
groggy Derek waking up on Big Sandy
Morning arrived way too soon. We're awake and moving by
about 6AM, after a roughly 3-4 hours of sleep-like-the-dead.
We skipped breakfast, instead just munching on some nuts and energy
bars. I belayed Derek back up his off-route traverse from the
night before, so he could clean the remaining gear. By the time
we started climbing P18, it was about 8AM. Patty belayed
Derek as I re-packed the haulbag, which was noticeably lighter and
emptier with the all of the crushed water jugs.
We were down to just under 1 gallon of water left in the haulbag
after filling the water bladders and the Nalgene. We also added
a tea bag and cran-razz energy drink mix to the Nalgene. If you
try this, note that it doesn't taste great, but it gives you a nice
cran-buzz. Since we weren't expecting to spend another night on
the wall (who were we kidding? How long could 6 pitches take,
anyway?) I packed the sleeping and cooking gear low down in the
haulbag, and kept our coats and the food near the top. This
turned out to be a good choice.
 The
view above: Patty aids pitch 19 while the Visor and Diving Board
loom overhead
P18-P20 were fairly straightforward aid (for us) pitches.
Derek had a difficult tension traverse on P18, which he backcleaned
enough that Patty didn't need to lower out, and Patty had a traverse
under a roof on P19 just off of the belay. She enjoyed her
pitch so much that she kept going past the end, and didn't realize it
until she was about 30 feet into P20. She lowered back down to
the alcove, and built a clean but cramped belay. I jumared to
her high point (this time remembering how to clean the traverse on
the easy aiders), and then clipped directly into a piton and a fixed
nut while Patty put me on belay and pulled up the slack.
Compared to the previous day in the Chimney's we had full sun
exposure after 2PM and it was getting hot. The alcove was a
nice shelter from the sun.
 The
view below: Exposure straight to the ground as Tad jugs up from Big
Sandy
P20 was a lot of fun. The aid climbing was very
straightforward and the rock was great. I had a scare near the
top, when I had to go from aid-to-free to step up into the belay.
I detached my right easy aider from the last piece, and then took it
off of my foot. I then unclipped my left aider from the piece
and clipped it to my harness, then took it off of my foot. I
made the free move up the crack, and then got this sinking sensation
in my stomach. "Oh Shit!", I thought, "I
didn't clip my right easy aider to anything after I detached it".
I looked down from a fairly strenuous position, and there it was --
pinned between the rope and the rock. With some careful
downclimbing and pulling on gear, I was able to barely reach it.
Phew! Hauling was easy on this one. I actually had the
haul bag at the belay, and the ropes all stacked before Derek arrived
after cleaning the pitch. Yee-haw!
As the day wore on, ominous thick dark clouds were building up over
Tuolumne and Glacier point, blowing westward down the valley from
behind Half Dome. It looked like the two banks of clouds were
connected somewhere behind the cliff Blue sky remained above us
all day though, so we got lucky, but we were apprehensive most of the
afternoon and evening.
 Dark
clouds cover Tuolumne while Derek crosses Thank God Ledge
Next up was P21, which starts with a traverse across Thank God
Ledge, followed by a squeeze chimney. Derek started out walking
across the ledge, but before long was inchworming his way across.
He started climbing shortly before Patty finished jumaring up to the
top of P20, and she had the #5 Camalot needed for the chimney.
He gave it a good shot anyway and then decided that the #5 was
necessary. Patty was at the belay by this point, so we sent it
over on the haul line, being careful to keep the haul line out of the
rope-eating-ledge below Thank God Ledge. There must have been
at least 10 cut ropes hanging off of that thing.
 Hauling
the pig up the Zig Zags
By now, we yet again were well along into the beautiful orange
light, which meant darkness soon. Derek hurried up the rest of
the chimney uneventfully. Since we were running out of daylight
and dark clouds threatened, we figured it would be faster if I
followed and Patty jugged. Somehow (it made sense at the time,
I swear!) I ended up with Patty's daypack, perhaps because it was
smaller, so we figured it would be an easier grovel up the chimney
with it. In any case, I quickly followed, stopping on the ledge
just long enough to take a photo on the way across. I started
inchworming early on, and was moving along fine, until the crux of
the traverse. While trying to clean the #3 Camalot, I got it
jammed in the crack. After a couple minutes of futzing around
with it in a fairly strenuous position I decided "screw it, we
have another one left, and we've gotta get moving. Besides the
next pitch is a bolt ladder, and the last pitch is just 5.7.
I'll buy Derek a new one". So I left it and kept going,
finishing the traverse uneventfully, and then grunted my way up the
chimney with a pause or two while I huffed like a locomotive to catch
my breath. Let me tell you, climbing a squeeze chimney with a
pack on is hard work!
 Thank
God Ledge at dusk
Just after I arrived at the belay, we realized that I had
Patty's headlamp (in her daypack, of course!). Doh! By
now it was pretty much twilight, the beautiful orange glow had faded,
and she still had to do a huge lowerout for the pig and then for
herself. By the time we had the pig hauled far enough for her
to start it was full on dark. She had to do the lowerout and
the subsequent jug (which included unsticking the pig from the
chimney) in the dark without a headlamp, and we didn't hear nary a
complaint. There's a term for someone like that: hardcore.
Patty certainly earned the title many times over on this climb.
Our systems were finally starting to come together. Derek was
off and climbing within a gear exchange and a rope stack or two after
I arrived at the belay, just before the twilight faded so much that
the colors were gone. I actually belayed and hauled at the same
time, and tried to keep the haul line from getting tangled up in
Derek's lead line, and Patty's jug line. Belay-belay-belay...
Holler to Patty to check on her progress... Haul-haul-haul... Holler
to Derek to check on his progress... Stack-stack-stack.
Shuffle... Repeat. Oh yeah, and from time to time, look
at the view. We're finally -- on Day #3, as darkness claims us
-- getting our systems dialed... Well, that's what it looks like
until you hear this next part.
As dusk turned into night, all of the clouds threatening clouds
disappeared, and small little puffy clouds appeared in the valley
below us. The temperature started to drop and the wind picked
up.
 Great
view from the pitch 19 belay
Derek had an mini adventure on P22. Initially traversing a
little too far left off the belay, then finding a missing bolt (the
fourth of five) in the first ladder, and learning how to use the easy
aiders to aid climb. Yes, that's right, for some reason we
decided to not only exchange my pack with Patty's, but Derek also had
her aiders, and she had his. So that jugging in the dark with
no headlamp I mentioned before? Yeah, that. She had to do
that with the sucky-fall-off-your-feet aiders. Did I mention
that she is hardcore? Anyway, back to Derek. We brought a
cheater stick, so he was able to clip the top bolt with a bit of
work. Next up was a short pendulum, to a move that the super
topo says this about: tricky cam hook or offset nut move.
So, according to Derek, the cam hook was bomber, and now he trusts
them much more. Before long he was moving on up the second bolt
ladder.
While Derek was on the second ladder, Patty arrived at the belay
after unsticking the pig from the chimney (which sent it on a nice
swing over to the belay) and groveling her way up. What a sight
she was, as I got her a headlamp -- ropes stacked and hanging all
over. She looked more like a rope monster than a human! Anyway,
as you can imagine, we had a bit of rope stacking to do to untangle
the mess. I would hazard a guess that this restacking took at
least an hour or more. In the meanwhile, Derek had made it to
the belay and was ready to haul in short order. He pulled up
the slack in the haul line, but we had him hold off hauling until
Patty jumared to a point above the haul line because the ropes were
crossing.
Eventually we had the ropes untangled, and Patty moved off the belay
and began cleaning the pitch. Once she got high enough, I
started lowering out the pig as Derek hauled. Our haul beta
assured us that this was an easy haul, just lower out the pig and
haul away. Reality is never so easy. If you plan to haul
this pitch, keep in mind that about 15 feet left of the belay, there
is one downward pointing flake/horn, and wouldn't you know it but we
got the haulbag strap jammed up about 10 inches behind it (not that
we knew it then).
It went something like this. Envision the position. Three
climbers in the cold, windy, darkness on the side of a cliff, about
100 feet apart hollering back and forth:
Derek: The Pig is stuck Tad:
I can't really see it with this dim headlamp, try hauling it some
more. Derek: [after trying to haul some more] Nope,
it's not coming, can you see it? Tad: [after peering at the
bag that the headlamp is barely illuminating] No, It looks like it
might just be under a little lip. I'll try bouncing it on the
lowerout line while you haul. 1...2...3... HAUL...
1...2...3... HAUL... [etc] Derek: Nope, no go. Tad:
[very loud with much animation] Dude, Haul the shit out of it!
Time passes ...
Derek: [after hauling the shit
out of it, I know because I could hear strange grunting noises from
time to time] still nothing, it won't budge with me bouncing it on
the lowerout, and Derek hauling with all his might. Patty:
Try lowering it. (Ah, a breath of reason)
More time passes while Patty continues cleaning, and I settle in
for a long wait as the temperature begins to drop. I put my
beanie on under my helmet, zip up my softshell and fleece, put my
hood on and hunker down uncomfortably. Derek is not so lucky,
he has no beanie, and is already wearing his lightweight fleece.
His windbreaker is in the pig. The clock is ticking, and it's
getting pretty late.
Derek: Uh... how do I do
that? Patty: Take the tension off of the Pro-Traxion Derek:
[After some time passes] OK. How do I do that?
I should mention that none of us
has ever practiced how to unlock the Pro Traxion when it is under
tension.
Tad: Uh..... Setup a mini 3-1
haul in front of it with the ascenders Patty: Yeah! Derek:
OK. Walk me through it Tad: Uh... put an
upside down ascender on the tensioned line, and connect a sling
through a carabiner high up on the anchor, and then .... Uh...
Patty? Patty: Yeah... do that, then ... Uh....
 Patty
hauling while belaying Tad on pitch 20
Turns out that none of the three
of us can figure out how to setup a 3-1 haul, especially not being
right in front of the gear. We're pretty mentally wiped out.
Patty is almost done cleaning the first bolt ladder, and she just
wants to get up to the anchor to help setup the mini-haul.
However, Derek and I convince her that it would be a better idea if
she rappelled down to the bag and tried to unstick it. After
much cajoling, we convince her to go down.
Patty: [Arriving at the bag] Yo
dudes, it's stuck under a lip, you have to lower it Derek:
Try jiggling it while I haul, maybe it will come loose. Patty:
[jiggling it, trying to flip it upside down, etc, etc, and starting
to get annoyed] It's not gonna work, you have to lower it! Derek:
Try some more!
Patty eventually worked
her way over on top of the pig (the bolts go up diagonally, so she
was more on climbers-left of it before), and then got a good look on
the right side.
Patty: Shit! The strap is
jammed about 10 inches up behind a downward facing flake. It's
impossible to get the pig unstuck without lowering it! Tad:
Shit! Derek: Shit!
Patty: OK, I'm gonna come
up now... Wait! I could cut the strap! Tad:
[immediately, almost before the words are out of her mouth] YES, DO
IT! Patty: OK. I need a knife.
Luckily, the bag way slightly lower than my belay, and I still
had the lowerout line connected, and I had a small knife in my
pocket. Phew. Quickly I lowered her the knife, she sliced
the stuck strap (luckily there are 2 straps, and only one of them was
stuck), freeing the pig! Whoo. Then she tied the strap
back together, jumared back up to her highpoint, and Derek commenced
hauling again. It was a big lowerout, but the rest of the haul
passed uneventfully.
Big lesson learned here, and one that Patty picked up on right away.
When the pig gets stuck, do not ever haul the shit out of it.
Be prepared to lower it off of whatever it is stuck on. Hauling
it as hard as possible takes all of the stretch out of the haul line
(even static lines have quite a bit of stretch to them), and make it
nearly impossible to get tension off of the haul system in order to
lower the pig. Also, (and we didn't think of this at the time
so it's a damn good thing we didn't unlock the Traxion), make sure
you have a backup prussic on the tension side to hold the weight
while you unlock the haul, otherwise the pig will go for a fast ride
down to the end of the haul line, then rip the belay right off the
wall.
2007-07-19 (Thursday)
 Tad
happy about starting the final lead around 2AM
Thursday began sometime while we were on P22, dealing
with the stuck pig. The story left off with the pig finally
breaking free thanks to Patty's thinking (I would say quick thinking,
but hey... it took hours to unstick that thing!). By then it
must have been well into the early morning hours.
 The
final pitch fades off into the night. "C1F", what the
heck does that mean, anyway? Very thin aid placements followed by
mandatory freeclimbing
After the pig arrived at the belay, and my line was fixed, I
setup the lowerout and then tore down the anchor. I was moving
pretty slowly at first, being very careful to setup the lowerout with
help from Patty talking me through it from above to make sure I
didn't screw anything up. This is was the longest lowerout yet
for me, although I think at least one of Patty's was longer.
While my headlamp was very dim, at least I had one!
After the lowerout, I pulled the rope, coiled the rope, and hung it
from my harness before I started jugging. The jug was pretty
steep, but uneventful. I was glad to make it to the small ledge
that Derek and Patty were on.
 Derek
looking tired and happy at the pitch 23 belay
We were definitely into the coldest part of the night by now.
The small wispy clouds below us hovering over Yosemite Valley turned
into chilly cold clouds rushing up the face past us. The only
saving grace is that the wind wasn't howling, so I never got too
cold.
When I got there, they both looked completely wiped out. At
least Derek finally had a wind shell on, so he wasn't quite so cold.
We were all operating at about a tenth or normal speed. I
offered to lead the final pitch, which turned out well. After
racking up, I took off my wind shell, and left it with Patty because
she was extremely cold.
I was excited to lead this pitch. The first part of the pitch
is a very slabby slab protected with a tiny crack along the bottom of
a roof. It goes at something around 5.7, and has a few fixed
pitons. Since I was so tired I aided this part. Luckily
we had plenty of tiny gear with us because I needed it, including a
micro nut in a sketchy placement where the crack switched from
horizontal to vertical. We had only a single micro nut, so
after I made the next placement I backcleaned it in case I needed to
use it later. After the initial section, the difficulty eased
off and I was able to get in some bigger pro. Bigger meaning up
to about the red Wild Country Zero.
 A
giddy Patty belaying Tad on the final pitch
Eventually, I had to switch from aid to free to finish up the
slab. It ends on a long ledge with a piton, just after you come
out from under the roof. I stopped there, and consulted the
topo. Hmm. Which way to go? It looked like
up-and-right would go, but left-and-down was also an option. I
hollered down to my partners to see if they knew, but they didn't
have any better ideas than I did. Suddenly, I saw a light
above. There were tourists up on the top, looking over the
edge! "Yo, nice night eh?", I hollered. "Yeah!"
I received in reply. I thought I was looking for a pendulum, or
possibly a traverse to the left, but at least now I knew where the
top was! The topo shows an arrow pointing down-and-to-the-left
at the end of the roof, so I clipped the piton and went left.
 Topout!
Patty finishes the final haul with Tad's help
The ledge was about a foot wide, and I must have walked it at
least 40 feet, over some grass and mossy sections, before it jogged
down steeply. Hmm. I thought, this can't be right. Back
up to the Piton to reevaluate. I decided that my original
up-and-right thought must have been correct after all, so I plugged
in a cam, clipped it, and unclipped the piton. The rope drag
was already pretty bad, and I thought that the piton would make it
worse. Up I went, eventually finding a stuck cam right before
topping out on a ledge.
I followed the ledge over into the corner and stopped to evaluate my
next steps. The rope drag was horrible, and I still had the
“mantle move” left to do. I could see it, climb up under a
roof, then mantle onto another ledge. Wait a minute, I could
actually start to see some stuff that wasn't illuminated by my
headlamp! Dawn was practically upon us! The horizon was
starting to glow.
I strenuously pulled up about 25 feet of rope and left it in a pile
at my feet. Then I plugged in a cam or two and climbed, pulling
the mantle (which was quite fun), and and doing some more scrambling
around a boulder sitting atop the next ledge up. I was pretty
sure that this must be the top, but I couldn't find the bolt shown in
the topo (it really is there, Patty and Derek found it
later).
 The
final belay ledge from above
"Whooo!!! Yeah!!!" I hollered down, I'm on the
top! "Whoooo!" echoed back in reply. Now I just
had to build an anchor. Hmm.. no cracks... no bolt. Now what?
Eventually I noticed that the next ledge up had some huge broken
blocks on it, so I clambered up there, pulled and pulled with all my
might to get some slack, and slung one with the rope to build the
anchor. This took a while, and by the time I was ready to belay
Patty up, I didn't need my headlamp anymore.
Eventually the anchor was built and extended back onto the ledge I
was on before. "Patty, belay is on!" I yelled down.
"Climbing" wafted back up, and then shortly thereafter "up
rope"..."UP ROPE!". The rope drag was so bad
that I couldn't feel her at all. What I thought was the last of
the slack -- wasn't. Pulling up the slack was so hard that I
eventually resorted to basically putting her on a haul, with an
upside down jumar on the rope to pull up the slack with. Even
so it was hard work, and I was down to my T-Shirt by the time she
arrived at the belay.
 Victory!
While hauling Patty's rope up (not the same as hauling
Patty!), one of the tourists scrambled down to our ledge and gave us
PB&J sandwiches.... and a jug of wine! The sandwiches hit
the spot (even though Patty's got stolen by a critter when we weren't
looking!), but one small swig of the wine was enough for me to say
"woah!, that's enough of that!".
Finally, Patty was at the top, and just Derek was left down on the
face. Patty built a haul anchor, and we decided that I would
haul, figuring the hauling would be more difficult than belaying
Derek up. I took up the slack, and Derek lowered out the pig
and up it came. Anyway, after some sillyness with Derek rapping
down from the anchor or some such thing, and trying to climb back up,
(but giving up because the rock was all wet -- remember those clouds?
as the sky brightened all that moisture condensed on the rock), and
jumaring instead, he was on his way up. Patty was having a hell
of a time pulling up the slack, even using the haul system I setup to
bring her up. So, we switched places and I belayed and she
hauled.
 The
lack of sleep begins to show!
Shortly after 5AM, Derek finally topped out and joined
us. I left the belay at about 2AM, so the last pitch
took 3+ hours for us to climb and haul. It started getting
light just as I reached the belay. According to the sunrise
calculator I later consulted, that must have been about 4:19AM.
We hung out at the top for a while chatting with the tourists and
basking in the sunlight, happy to be on level ground again.
Topping out at dawn was awesome, and made the struggle completely
worthwhile. It seems your memory becomes selective the moment
you get to the top. I was psyched, where for the past few days
I was worked, and miserable half the time.
 Derek
cranks out a huge jump!
Our work wasn't yet done however. Now Derek and Patty
had to we had to marshal the pig down the cables, and I had to hike
back to the base to pick up all of the gear we left down there.
I packed up a load in my daypack, taking as much as I could fit,
including a rope. Patty and Derek took the rack everything else
in the pig. I headed down, and was at the base by about 10AM.
While down there, I ran into a party just getting ready to fix the
first few pitches. They congratulated me on the ascent, and
graciously refilled my water bladder with some water they had just
finished pumping. I packed up the gear, noticing that there was
a green C3 sitting on top of Derek's backpack, in full view. I
thought that somewhat strange.
As I started back up the climbers trail, I ran into two climbers that
gave me high fives in congratulations. It turns out that they
bivied at the base, and started up at first light. They
listened to us holler back and forth all night, and said something
like "you guys did awesome, you held it together, nobody
panicked, you stayed safe, you're all still friends, and you made it
to the top!".
 Obligatory
summit photo. Yeah, we climbed Half Dome!
That's right, you heard correctly -- they started up at first
light on Thursday morning, and were back down at the base by around
10AM the same day. That climb that we started on Sunday?
They did it in 4 hours. It took us 4 days (depending on how you
count)!
I later found out from Supertopo their names are Jon and Dana.
If climbing Half Dome in 4 hours wasn't enough, they finished the day
by climbing the Nose on El Capitan, doing the both of them in a total
of about 18 hours!
As if that wasn't enough, they also returned all of the gear we left
on the route! Remember the #3 Camalot I got stuck? They
handed it back to Derek and Patty at the top of the cables, along
with a nut we got stuck, and some other stuff we left for the
lowerouts. If that weren't enough, that green C3 I found on
Derek's pack, that's a cam we dropped sometime Monday, that they
found at the base. Awesome guys, returning booty gear like
that!
I hiked back up to the saddle, and relaxed for a couple of hours
while I waited for Derek and Patty to work their way down the
cables. Turns out that they started a bit too late, and the
cables were already clogged with tourists. Patty belayed Derek
down on the outside, and eventually we were all back together.
 Woah,
we climbed that? No way! Patty and Derek on the Diving Board,
nothing but air below
 Dirty
friends return to the Half Dome parking lot 6 days after setting out
We hung out there for a while, then repacked the pig and the
backpacks with fairly equal loads and headed down the trail. I
started with the Pig and humped it down to the river. I could
walk because I wanted to get to the river and jump in before the sun
got too low. I made it there, stripped down, and jumped in.
Ahhh. luxury. I swam around for a while, then climbed out and
dried off. Shortly afterward, Derek and Patty showed up dropped
their loads and jumped in. The river was extremely refreshing,
and exactly what we all needed to recharge for the rest of the hike.
I traded the pig
off to Derek, and we headed down the Muir trail. No staircase
for us on the way down. Somewhere below Nevada Falls, I took
the pig because it was hurting Derek's back. Then we decided it
was getting late, and we wanted to get down faster to make it down
for dinner in the Valley. So we all started running. I
don't remember who started it, but once we started we didn't want to
stop. I ran with the top heavy, un-balanced pig leaning left
and right. The tourists must have been stunned to see us.
3 grungy, dirty, climbers, running down the Half Dome trail after 6
days in the backcountry, still wearing the same clothes we started
in. Running, mind you, with 65 pound packs on our backs!
We made it back
to the parking lot around 7:15PM, and ended up eating dinner at the
bar because the cafeteria was closed and the Mountain Room had a 45
minute wait.
After dinner,
Derek drove around the Valley for a while, looking for a campsite.
Derek was pretty much falling asleep driving, and we couldn't find
any open sites. So I took over, and drove us out to Hardin
Flat, where we crashed around 11PM, making for roughly a 40 hour
nonstop day.
2007-07-20 (Friday)
We forgot our food in the bear box in the Half Dome parking lot, so
we drove back to the Valley, arriving early enough to eat breakfast
in the cafeteria. After breakfast we picked up the food from
the bear box and drove home. Lucky we got home early enough
because it was Danielle's birthday, and a bunch of friends were all
meeting for dinner to celebrate! What an adventure!
The End!
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