Muir Wall, May, 1997

[Brad Young]

With Steve Dawson. Here's me leading pitch 4 (awkward):





The first bivy was in a (two-man) portaledge. What with getting everything to the base and getting started, this was at the top of pitch 4. Here's Steve starting morning two, pitch 5:





Pitch 6 is a thin A-3, straight left traverse. I led this:











The first three day's hauling were brutal. Steve doesn't weigh a lot, so he'd lead a pitch and try and try to haul, but without success. I had to jug and push from below, and/or jug up and counterweight the bag (which meant I jugged twice). But we were getting there.  Our second night was on Heart Ledge. Nice by anyone's standards:





That's one third of the route. More when I can post them.

[Brad Young]

Steve leading Pitch 13:





Pitch 14 (fabulous granite):





Steve leading 17. I lead this pitch when I did the Triple Direct in 1985. I recall medium stopper after medium stopper; backcleaning and reusing. I used one stopper 6 times on the pitch:





Starting pitch 18 (another pitch used by Triple Direct). No replacement bolts yet when we did the route:





Jugging pitch 19:





We got a little rain that evening bivied on top of pitch 20. That was the only bad weather we had. Steve in the portaledge with the fly on:





Me at the same bivy (after a little too much wine):





The Muir is a very long route, but by 20 we were over halfway. And by then we were fully "in the groove" of living vertically.

[mungeclimber]

kewl

[F4?]

where are your daisies?

[squiddo]

awesome stuff Brad

[MUCCI]

Now that's what I'm talking about brother!

The muir is on my list, as soon as I find a partner that digs the suffering of 30+ pitch routes!

WOEML looks great too, have you done that one brad?

Nice to see you got all of your big walls in before the mad bolters beefed everything up.  True Spice huh?

[F4?]

WOEML looks great too,

Jake should post up about his little zipper fall on WOEML he took a few years back.

[Brad Young]

Yeah, true spice with the old bolts, but looking back, I'm not sure I wouldn't have been perfectly happy with newer ones. I haven't done the Wall of Early Morning Light; closest I came was South Seas. I'll try to post up the rest of the now scanned slides after I am back home.

[Jake M.]

Actually that whipper (we can discuss others at another juncture) was on New Dawn, and it was the third pitch listed in the Supertopo, although we didn't have that book then.

In my effort to climb clean, I had left the hammer and heads in the bag, and was too far out to tag them up. The last 20-30 feet (of the 165 foot pitch) was old worn heads, and I had run out of carabiners so I was backcleaning quite a bit. Too much it turned out.

The last head before the fatty three-bolt anchor was a #3, but had just a few strands of wire left. I clipped and gingerly stepped up with my daisy and carabiner in hand. I couldn't reach it at first, so I stepped a little higher in my aiders, and went for the clip. The next thing I know I am falling away from the bolt, and flipped upside-down. I probably fell about 30 feet with rope stretch, after pulling another bad head on the way down. A big fat alumni-head caught my fall.

After the fall, I down-aided and tagged up the heads, cleaned the deadheads, and finished the pitch - what I should have done in the first place. Unfortunately the fall stopped our upward momentum, and we bivied then bailed the next day. I'd love to finish that route some day. I've also learned that climbing clean is a nice ideal, but on those "clean" routes that rely on lots of fixed gear, bring a few heads and pins with you just in case.

[Brad Young]

"and was too far out to tag them up."

This is the reason I always use a three rope system on aid walls. Lead, Haul and Tag ropes. The tag can be light, but I often just tag a second lead rope so I've got a backup. It's also good for lowering the (#$@^%$#) pig out on traverse pitches. And as a backup for the second while jugging.

[Brad Young]

I re-read my own post and I hope it didn't sound like I was putting Jake down. It's just that I learned aid from two masters and the third rope system is one of the things that they taught me that has always made the most sense.

Sorry you took the fall Jake. (And the route is still there when you're ready )

[Jake M.]

Hey Brad,
I didn't take it as a put down at all.  At the time, we carried the haul line itself, and could use it to tag up gear. But that only worked for the first half of the pitch since it was secured to the haul bag.  We also carried a small (5mm) and very short (probably only 25m) dedicated lower-out line. Definitely a flawed system, but one we figured out ourselves based on the fact learned how to climb from books - I don't remember them mentioning anything about a three rope system in either big wall book I had.

[Brad Young]

Pitch 22:





The upper corners on the Muir are clean and long. Pitch 24:





Steve jugging pitch 26:





Still in the upper corners. Way up there in these, Steve got on lead up the last corner. Very thin aid leading to our 6th (and last) bivy. As Steve took over the lead I was silent. He got up about 10 feet where it got really thin. He tried stoppers, cams, and thin pins. He couldn't get anything to come close to sticking. Finally he asked for suggestions. "Look on the back part of the right side of the gear sling." Pause. "Copperheads!?" Steve had never placed heads. But here, 10 feet up, nearing the top, totally in the groove, he learned well and quickly. Here he is leading the 27th pitch:




Me leading the last long (!!) corner pitch, number 28, as the sun gets around the corner:





The last morning involved sideways-and-up pitches to the summit. Complex. But we were motivated. Starting the morning with A3, pitch 31:





Pitch 31 starts with a tension traverse:





Me following the same pitch:





For the only time in nine El Cap summits, friends met us on top with food and drinks: The summit:





The Muir was great. I suspected then (and still do suspect) that it would be my last El Cap route. Nine times up, lots and lots of A3, more than a dozen A4 leads; that energy, the drive to climb this thing was waning. And the "take-away?" The strongest memory of the Muir for me is of Steve. We'd only done Skull Queen before this and so he had a ton to learn on the Muir. And he did. And, as with all the big things he and I have done together (from El Cap to guidebooks), it took an excellent friendship and made it even stronger. He's an amazing person.

[F4?]

Definitely a flawed system, but one we figured out ourselves based on the fact learned how to climb from books - I don't remember them mentioning anything about a three rope system in either big wall book I had.

The same book talked about Pitons, hemp ropes, prussics and swami harnesses...