When Henry and I first arrived in Yosemite, my stoke to climb much of anything was pretty low. Our campsite in El Portal was 40 minutes out of the park and offered all the social life that retirees in rental RVs could dream of. Oppressive heat baked every wall, and day by day the Valley seemed more like a concentration camp for hoardes of ill-informed tourists than a climbing destination.
After being cited by park rangers on our third day of climbing I was ready to throw in the towel, and had Henry not been on this trip I probably would have.
Nonetheless, the pile of aid gear we had both amassed beckoned to be used, and with some inspiration from Nick and Dave (and assurance there’s no rangers hiding in the stovelegs) we set off.
I should note that both Henry and I wanted to climb pure alpine style, that is without fixing and hauling to Sickle. In hindsight our early arrival at El Cap Tower meant we could have done this, but on Nick’s advice we compromised by hauling every pitch (including Pine Line and first four) but fixing lines from Sickle and sleeping on the ground. Personally I think this is a big concession in style, but it possibly avoided an epic and got us ahead of the crowds, so I'm happy we did it.
Day 1: Jug to Sickle. Henry led every pitch to arrive on El Cap Tower at 5:20pm.
Day 2: Mini epic on the Texas flake. Originally Henry was to take the first block, but we swapped for me to lead this pitch. Didn’t die. Henry flashed the King Swing and I recovered from a pretty bad bonk to lead from Grey Bands to Camp 5. The GreatRoof was seeping with slimy algae, which made backcleaning the entire thing (so that Henry could lower out) a pretty spicy experience.
Day 3: Bit of a slow start while 4 all-star NIAD teams passed us. Triple-crowners Nick and Danford, Connor Herson, Tom Herbert, YOSAR rangers… we felt like the only gumbies on the wall! I led the wild bolt ladder clipping 3 bolts in the top 30 meters and we followed the final NIAD team down to the valley floor.
Overall a pretty cool end to a pretty cool trip, and possibly my last log here. I've started to realise I'm not quite eloquent enough to express how I feel on bigger objectives in writing, and most often I simply don't want to.
Back in Sydney in a bit
Dolt run. Averaged 50 mins per pitch until stovelegs traffic slowed us. Learned how to aid in a tree the day before.
Goal was to keep up with 3 French wizards who overtook us on the footstool (both their seconds freeing everything to Dolt). Mission was kinda accomplished.
- with
Henry Burt
After being cited by park rangers on our third day of climbing I was ready to throw in the towel, and had Henry not been on this trip I probably would have.
Nonetheless, the pile of aid gear we had both amassed beckoned to be used, and with some inspiration from Nick and Dave (and assurance there’s no rangers hiding in the stovelegs) we set off.
I should note that both Henry and I wanted to climb pure alpine style, that is without fixing and hauling to Sickle. In hindsight our early arrival at El Cap Tower meant we could have done this, but on Nick’s advice we compromised by hauling every pitch (including Pine Line and first four) but fixing lines from Sickle and sleeping on the ground. Personally I think this is a big concession in style, but it possibly avoided an epic and got us ahead of the crowds, so I'm happy we did it.
Day 1: Jug to Sickle. Henry led every pitch to arrive on El Cap Tower at 5:20pm.
Day 2: Mini epic on the Texas flake. Originally Henry was to take the first block, but we swapped for me to lead this pitch. Didn’t die. Henry flashed the King Swing and I recovered from a pretty bad bonk to lead from Grey Bands to Camp 5. The Great Roof was seeping with slimy algae, which made backcleaning the entire thing (so that Henry could lower out) a pretty spicy experience.
Day 3: Bit of a slow start while 4 all-star NIAD teams passed us. Triple-crowners Nick and Danford, Connor Herson, Tom Herbert, YOSAR rangers… we felt like the only gumbies on the wall! I led the wild bolt ladder clipping 3 bolts in the top 30 meters and we followed the final NIAD team down to the valley floor.
Overall a pretty cool end to a pretty cool trip, and possibly my last log here. I've started to realise I'm not quite eloquent enough to express how I feel on bigger objectives in writing, and most often I simply don't want to. Back in Sydney in a bit