I returned from Yosemite yesterday after climbing The Prow (5.6 C2+) on Washington Column with Marco. This is my first successful big wall and I am feeling super, super stoked and satisfied, also super sore and worked from two long days of physical and mental effort.
4 weeks ago I had my first big wall experience with Marco and Mikayla. We attempted Lurking Fear on El Cap and we made the call to bail 6 pitches up. Our "speed shades", while stylish, didn't give us the aid we hoped as we crawled up the wall like a team of turtles (relative to our expectations) we started to stress about making it to the top within our time window. I walked away bummed that we didn't reach the top, but more so grateful for the experience and inspired to put in more work to figure out the big wall game.
Marco, Mikayla, and I in our speed shades after bailing from Lurking Fear
I received a text from Marco one night 2 weeks ago asking if I'd be interested in attempting a south facing wall in June, accepting the fact we were likely to suffer in the summer heat. Coming off the heels of Lurking Fear I was eager to get another crack at a wall, and psyche overriding common sense, I responded, "hell yeah! If we cook, we cook." We agreed The Prow was a good objective and to our luck, by the time the date rolled around the 90 degree temps in the Valley relented and gave us a window of pleasant 70 degree days.
Day 0 - June 19
Packing and driving day. I met Marco at his place in the afternoon after work and we began the chore of packing. Marco had just returned from a 3 week cruise for his graduate student work, having barely a full day at home before taking off again. We arrived in the park, dropped off our permit in the El Cap meadow kiosk then found camp for the night.
Day 1 - June 20
Waking up at 5:00 we headed to the backpackers camp to drop off our gear then find parking and were starting the hike at 6:10. I had the pleasure of schlepping the big haul bag with the portaledge making for an awkward weight distribution on top of the heavy pack. Hunched over, huffing and puffing and sweating buckets I followed Marco, who carried an equally heavy but smaller pack, casually strolling up the approach. I felt like I was taking rests every other minute, but we managed to reach the base of the route before 7:30. We repacked the bags, geared up and were starting the route just past 8:00.
Reaching the start of the climbers approach trail
Pitch 1 I lead Jo-Jo free climbing, a fun splitter crack that starts with a thin off-finger crux then steadily widens into comfy hand jams before some wide fist moves protect the finish. From the Jo-Jo anchor I continued into a C1 section up a thin crack to the anchors for the first pitch. I hauled with the Mark Hudon 2:1 haul system and found it to be slow, but comfortable. Our bags were probably just under 150 lbs.
Marco arriving at the first anchor
Marco lead pitch 2, possibly the aid crux of the route, thin C2+ interspersed with sketchy fixed gear. He griped about offsets and even the venerable black totem ripping out of seemingly solid placements. Steadily, he made his way through to easier aiding to the anchor. We had our slowest transition of the climb at this anchor, taking nearly 30 minutes. It would decrease with each pitch until eventually we were only spending 5 to 10 minutes max at the anchor before the next leader took off.
Marco leading pitch 2
Pitch 3 was my lead. Exiting a small roof to reach a C1 splitter crack up to a bolt, then C2 fixed gear and a few free moves to reach the anchor at Anchorage Ledge. I was starting to find a flow in the C1 section of this pitch, gaining an appreciation of aid climbing, at least on mellow splitter crack. After Marco jugged up the line we were feeling good to gun for pitch 7, Tapir Terrace, for the bivy for the night.
Me starting off pitch 3
Marco lead pitch 4, a bolt ladder into C2 climbing with a hook move before the anchor. As I jugged up the pitch I was struggling, it felt like every push upwards was taking way too much effort, and as I tired myself out I started to have second thoughts about pushing for pitch 7 ledge. At the anchor we discussed our options and decided I'd fix the next pitch and we'd return to Anchorage Ledge to bivy for the night. It would mean a longer day 2 but we get to rest up before the final C2 pitches and haul less weight to the summit. I lead pitch 5, which went quick thanks to it being mostly a bolt ladder. Misfortune would strike however, just as I was reaching the anchors, when I felt something fall off my collar and saw from the side of my vision the speed shades, sailing through the sky below me.
We descended back to the ledge and had camp set up around 5:00PM. We ate some snacks, drank some water then proceeded to nap in the glorious view of Half Dome for about an hour, feeling physically drained. After waking from the nap, we prepped our day bag for day 2 and ate dinner before tucking into our sleeping bags around 9:30PM.
My first night on a ledge was about as comfortable as I had expected, one of the straps on the portaledge slipped at some point in the night, tilting the ledge such that my head was on the downslope. Id wake up occasionally to scoot back up and create some distance to the edge, only to reawaken and repeat.
Taking in Half Dome from our ledge camp
Day 2 - June 21
We were creeping out of the sleeping bags at 5:00 and jugging our lines by 6:15. We had a big day ahead of us, with 5 pitches left to lead after jugging back to the high point, but it being the solstice, we had ample day light to work with. The next two pitches were the last of the C2 climbing, so we were eager to get them done and hopefully cruise to the summit. After jugging, hauling and faff at the anchor, Marco started leading pitch 6 at 7:10. Pitch 6 featured a puckering stretch on copper heads that Marco took like a champ, but before that he had some slippery piton scars that he kept ripping gear out of. Upon testing placements he audibly was cursing his gear shouting, "Stop ripping!" and I, sitting at the belay, unaware of his struggle, responded, "It wasn't me!", thinking he was accusing me of "ripping ass", which admittedly I was. Those dehydrated meals are not friendly on the digestive system. I finally dialed in my jugging technique on this pitch, and from there on out the jugs were way less strenuous.
The next pitch was the most intimidating lead I faced on the route, C2 dihedral to a thin C2+ arching crack with rope drag potential if over protected then a finish on 5.6 free climbing. Without the speed shades, this would be my slowest lead of the wall. I ended up climbing this long pitch in 2 pitches, making use of an intermediate anchor. I was grateful to have Marco closer to give me encouragement for the next section. The second half of the pitch starts with a traverse along a small ledge to reach the thin, arching crack. A few pieces of fixed gear and tiny cam placements later I was clipping a frayed wire on a head and soon after reaching a bolt and exiting the scary section of the climb.
Reaching the end of the traverse on pitch 7, before leading C2+ for the first time
Pitches 8 and 9 went smoothly. Our anchor transitions were efficient, I was getting the hang of the systems, order of operations, and the C1 climbing was cruiser after the previous pitches. The wall was coming into the shade by the time Marco reached me at the top of pitch 9. Stoke was high, the top was near, the turtles were sending!
Marco on pitch 8
Exhaustion was beginning to set in as Marco prepared to lead pitch 10. We were 8 hours in on the day with plenty of daylight left for summiting and making the descent back to the base. The final pitches would be bad for hauling so we docked the day bag at the anchor and took off towards the top.
Marco on pitch 10
90 minutes later I was finishing the 4th class scramble on pitch 11, dealing with heinous rope drag as I tagged the tree at the summit. We did it! I breathed a sigh of relief and waiting for Marco to follow, soaking up the now expanded view of the Valley, and looking back down the cliff in awe of the exposure.
Looking down from the top
On the summit!!!
After some time enjoying the top of Washington Column we started to go back down, rappelling the route. The upper pitches had some sketchy tat on the anchors for raps, and we ended up leaving a nut at one of them to supplement a single bolt and rusty pitons. Luck was on our side again as we made it through all of the rappels without getting our ropes stuck. It only took us 3 hours to descend the entire route, picking up our big haul bag and portaledge on the way down.
Marco coming down with the pigs
We were back on the ground at 7:20PM and had just one more unpleasant hike down the approach trail to finish the adventure. I am not sure how, but in spite of dropping weight, the bag was even more full and awkward to balance on the return.
The turtles sent! I am very grateful and appreciative of Marco as a partner, I can't imagine how I would have completed an objective like this without him teaching me a lot in preparation, always being up for an adventure and simply being an awesome human to spend a day (or several days!) with touching stone.
While I was swearing off big wall climbing in my head at many point on this adventure, telling myself "This is way too much work! This is too scary! I'd rather be free climbing!", I was already plotting in my head the next wall objectives as I went to bed back at camp that night. I guess that’s why they call it type-2 fun.
