Trip Report: South By Southwest, Hotline, EPIC!

As many of you know, my climbing partner Justin and I epiced on our trip to Yosemite a few weeks ago. Here's a trip report for that weekend. Pictures are all from Justin's camera.

Day 1: Justin and I met up with Cory and Laura at the rockpiles bivy outside of Yosemite on the 140. Our objective for the day was "South by Southwest", a classic 5.11a that ascends to the summit of Lower Cathedral Spire. Depending on how fast we moved, we were also thinking about running up "Braille Book" (5.8) on Higher Cathedral rock.

South By Southwest, first climbed by the late Walt Shipley and Keith Reynolds in 1993, is a beautiful and exposed route to the an aesthetic summit. The first two pitch is forgettable, but you quickly get to the business: a short 5.10d finger crack to an exposed hanging belay, followed by a wonderful 5.11a traverse. Protection is super solid and the climbing is great. Cory and Laura climbed ahead of us and Cory did an amazing job making the 5.10d and 5.11a sections look effortless. Justin also did a great job leading the stout and tiring moves right off of the belay before crusing through the 5.11a underclinging section. I'm always amazed at how easy the people I climb with make things look!

The four of us gained th summit with impressive views of El Capitan and the rest of Yosemite Valley. It's a great little summit and well worth the effort. On the way down, we decided not to go for Braille Book. It was hot, and the hike up the approach gully had really drained us --- a dip in the cool, snow-melt fed waters of the Merced seemed more and more enjoyable. On the way to the bridge, we bumped into a friendly bear and met a guy who had just soloed the Muir wall -- impressive!

We then made our way for beer and pizza at the Curry pizza deck -- a great way to end a nice day of climbing. Over pizza, Justin convinced me to give Hotline (5.12a) a try. I was somewha anxious, but he assured me that we could easily aid through the hard stuff. Plus, the third pitch is reputed to be the best 5.10 handcrack in all of Yosemite Valley --- even Ron Kauk has called Hotline the definition of classic. It was hard to pass up!

Day 2: After a cup of coffee and breakfast at Degnan's, we headed up to the valley rim on Highway towards Hotline on Elephant rock. Ordinarily, Hotline is approached by crossing the Merced river. However, during peak snowmelt, the river is hard / impossible to cross so the recommended approach starts from the valley rim and heads down a steep canyon towards the river. The approach was heinous, like skiing down a steep slope where every step sent showers of dirt and pebbles downhill. To top it all off, poison oak was everywhere!

The climb itself was beautiful. Justin made short work of the difficult and strenous fingercrack crux of the first pitch. When I followed him, it felt a lot harder than "5.10c." The next pitch is the hardest part of the climb -- 5.11d fingers, followed by a 5.12a traverse. Since neither of us was strong enough to climb it free, Justin aided through it. I was pretty impressed at how easy he made it look! I made a feeble attempt to follow the pitch free but eventually resorted to pulling on gear and tension-traversing through the 5.12 section.

The third pitch was amazing -- a 150 foot handcrack that seemed to go on forever. No wonder it's such a classic! Justin was gracious enough to give me the lead and I was happy to lead through this amazing crack. I then flailed my way up the next 5.9 section --  I definitely need to improve on my wide crack technique. Thankfully Justin, master of the old-school, burly, and wide cracks that characterize Yosemite climbing was there to give me pointers, patiently waiting as I groveled up the crack. The last 5.9 pitch was Justin's and he easily floated. We then rapped the route, arriving at our packs at around 2pm.

Here's the first fateful decision that eventually led to our epic and forced bivouac. Having gone through the poison oak once, we somehow formulated a crackpot plan. Instead of going back uphill the way we came, we'd head down towards the river. Our plan was simple: we'd try and find a place to cross and hitchhike back to our car which was at the valley rim. If we couldn't find a place to cross, we'd just keep going until we hit the bridge some 3 miles away. One way or the other, we'd get across and hitch a ride back. At the time, the plan seemed reasonable. Our belays high up on Hotline had given us a commanding view of the river and we spied a few places where the river widened into calm pools.

We started down and arrived at the Merced pretty quickly. Unfortunately, the 'calm' pools that we thought we had seen from the belay were actually raging with snowmelt. Undiscouraged, we started hiking towards the bridge. Unfortunately, our path was choked with poison oak, thicker than we had passed through on the way down. Our 'plan' was quickly unravelling. After negotiating the rough, poison-oak choked terrain on the riverbank, we came a place where the river split into three streams, flowing around several small islands.

The first stream wasn't too bad and Justin swam across pretty easily. We set up a Tyrolean traverse between the island and the bank, shuttling our gear across. At this point, we were all very optimistic. The flow wasn't really that bad, and we were confident that we could negotiate the other two. We quickly packed up our gear, and started wading through the second crossing. Unfortunately, the flow on the far side of the island was strong. After much deliberation, we decided that it was foolhardy to attempt a crossing, especially as darkness was falling and we were soaked from wading and swimming in the river. The section of river was no more than 40 feet across.

Given the circumstances, we thought it best to bivy on the island. It was our first forced bivy and we spent it huddled in the dirt next to a fire we had built to stave off the cold. I spent the night with my legs stuffed into my backpack and one of our ropes for a pillow. Not the best of circumstances, but we made the best of it. The most maddening thing was listening to traffic on the far side of the river all night long -- the road was literally 100 yards away.

Day 3: We woke up the next day eager to get out of there and back to civilization. We knew that people were expecting us and that they'd probably be worried. We swam back across the river and began walking towards the bridge. Unfortuntely, the rugged terrain was so steep that we couldn't pass through. Swallowing our pride, we realized that we would have to hike back the way we came. Our shortcut has cost us an entire day.

We reluctantly started back, even trying to cross the river once more at another point. Eventually, we were resigned to the long hike back up. I was thirsty beyond belief. The 90 degree temperatures, lack of water and food, were beginning to take their toll. Desperate, I filled up my Nalgene with water from the Merced and drank it. The risk of contracting giardia was worth it if it kept me going. Justin did without. We ate the last of our trail mix (our only food) and hiked back up.

Arriving at our car, we found a note from the Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) --- we had been reported missing and overdue. We drove back down to the Valley floor, stopped off. I ran into the shop and bought two scoops of ice cream and 2 liters of gatorade. We called YOSAR and told them that we were all right before calling our friends to tell them that we were safe.

A stop by Taqueria El Agave in Oakland, our traditional post-climbing stop, finished off a somewhat-longer than expected weekend.

Aside: This experience made us realize how lucky we are to have friends that care -- as soon as Justin and I were overdue, they sprung into action, calling around, figuring out what climb we were on, notifying the search and rescue squad, and working to find out where we were. We later found out that YOSAR had sent some people down the gully to see if they could find us. Having not found us, they were on the verge of initiating a much larger and wider search before we called them. Thanks to them, and the great community of Stanford friends who were all worried --- sorry for that! =)

1. Cory leading on South By Southwest (5.11a)
2. Admiring the view on the summit of Lower Cathedral Spire
3. Justin and I
4. Laura and I
5. A small brown bear by the El Cap bridge
6. Can't beat taking a bath in the river ..
7. Justin aiding through the 5.11d + 5.12a section of Hotline
8. The best 5.10 handcrack in the Valley!
9. Justin leading the last 5.9 pitch
10. The Merced, raging from snowmelt. Not calm at all!
11. Vince does not like poison oak
12. Justin negotiating the first crossing
13. Success!
14. Shuttling gear across via a Tyrolean traverse
15. Can we make it across? My smile seems optimistic!
16. Back at the car, safe and sound
17. The island in front of the tower was our home for the night

Polly on Sacherer Cracker

Dean Potter Solos El Capitan

This is an old video that's been floating around for awhile but I
remember being blown away after watching it for the first time. A
bunch of my climbing buddies have seen it too and we'll jokingly
repeat some of Dean's lines as we climb our much-less-crazy climbs. To
give you an idea of how crazy this is, consider that most parties take
around 2-4 days on that route. I think he did it in 5 or 6 hours.
Crazy!
 

Redemption on the Nabisco Wall: A Yosemite Trip Report

Having been away from Yosemite for the better part of three months,
busy with school work and side projects, I was pretty excited to
return. I was especially curious to see if my time spent bouldering
and climbing indoors would translate to increased fitness and ability
on real climbs. I was also keen to participate in an aid climbing
clinic offered by the Stanford Alpine Club. I'd always considered my
lack of aid climbing skills to be a major deficiency; on my ascent of
Half Dome last year, I pretty much left all of the aid climbing to
Chris and Justin and wasn't able to contribute much during those
sections.
 
My original plan for the weekend was to learn aiding on Saturday and
then spend Sunday trying some harder cracks; my ultimate goal for the
weekend was to lead "Five and Dime," a 5.10d crack whose supertopo
description reads:

A climb so good they named a whole cliff after it. This stout 5.10d tests your jamming ability at a variety of sizes. The crux is hanging around to place gear on the steep wall. If you can lead this, you have mastered Valley 5.10.

 
However, the night before, we realized that the aid climbing workshop
would seriously cut into our time and so we hastily decided to do Five
and Dime first thing on Saturday morning before the workshop. I was a
bit anxious --- 5.10d isn't much of a warmup and it was harder than
anything I had ever done --- but I had rehearsed the moves previously
on toprope and decided to go for it. The lower section was tricky. I
hesitated for a bit at a cam placement in a slight flare, but
eventually pushed through to the business: 10 feet of burly finger
crack to a long, pumpy section of hands and off-hands crack. Once in
the tough section, I relaxed considerably and was able to fire through
without much difficulty, though the relentless jamming definitely left
me drained by the top!
 
Chris toproped the climb before leaving to meet up with the people
driving up for the workshop and Cory led the climb without much
difficulty. A stuck #2 camalot gave me a bit of a headache -- I had to
rappel down to it and fish around for awhile with my nut tool before
freeing it. I ran back up to the road and then we drove down the Pat
and Jack Pinnacle. Cory and Chris were great teachers, showing us all
of the tricks of the aid climbing trade, but there was no substitute
for practice.
 
I roped up and started awkwardly leading up "The Tube", a thin 5.11a
lieback crack. The traversing crack left me off-balance and hopelessly
tangled in my aiders. Eventually the crack pinched down to near
nothing; luckily Chris had a never-ending selection of small gear.
Periodically through the hour and a half lead, he'd send up
ever-smaller aliens for me to place. Three moves of 'harder' aid (a
cam hook, half of a black alien cam, and another cam hook) and a few
easier aid moves brought me to an impasse.
 
I was about eight feet from the top, standing on a cam hook, when the
crack petered out. The piece below was a questionable offset alien
that I wasn't sure would hold a fall. Without any placements, I tried
to see if I could make a few free climbing moves to gain the top. I
snaked my left foot up on a knob and stepped up. Of course, when I did
so, my cam hook immediately jangled out of the crack -- I had
forgotten that cam hooks don't stay in without constant pressure!
 
I let out a stream curses and felt stupid for not wearing my climbing
shoes; instead, my running shoes were now skating around on the knob.
Realizing that the hook was still attached to my aider, I reeled it
in, only to discover I had pulled up the wrong aider. Pulling up the
other aider, I spent a few seconds trying to finagle it into the
crack, with no luck. Finally, I just decided to pull the last moves
--- better to try and fight through the last moves than give up and
take a fall on questionable gear! Feet bicycling furiously on smears
and knobs, I heaved myself onto the ledge in classic 'beached whale'
style --- no points for smoothness here. Chris, of course, was
laughing the whole time. I had to see his point: I had narrowly
avoided a fall on what should have been easy 5.8!
 
We spent the rest of the day toproping the tube; I took a hang at the
crux moves -- an insecure lieback-cum-gaston move that left me
panting. Cory, of course, floated the climb --- his ability to cruise
routes is matched only by my ability to lie, cheat, and thrash my way
up. By then, it was getting dark, so all of us headed to the Pizza
Deck where we downed beers and split pizzas. Paul's girlfriend even
sent up a cake for Paul's birthday.
 
The next morning, we decided on a late start. We took our time
breaking camp, cruised into the Ahwahnee hotel for free coffee before
heading over to the Cookie Cliff. (As a bit of history, the Cookie ---
one of the best crags at Yosemite --- was where I had an accident last
year and sprained my ankle. I fell off of Wheat Thin when I botched a
clip; because of this, I've always felt I had 'unfinished' business
with the climb)
 
We started off on Outer Limits (5.10b) and climb that promptly
destroyed me. It's long and unrelenting and burly and awkward in that
way that only Yosemite cracks can be. Seems like the almighty,
whatever his powers, could not have been distracted to make perfect
splitters anywhere in Yosemite! :) I ended up taking one hang, right
under the final section. Cory and Chris both toproped the climb, then
"Crack A Go-Go" (5.11c).
 
After lowering, I wasn't really sure if I could climb Wheat Thin.
Outer LImits had wrecked me, and we still had to climb Beverly's
Tower, a stout 5.10a, just to get to the base of Wheat Thin. Cory said
no problem, that he'd lead it. Cory led Bev's Tower cleanly and
confidently, and before we knew it, we were at the base of Wheat Thin.
At this point, I changed my mind. I think I knew that if I didn't
confront my fears and anxieties about the route, I'd never return.
Drinking some water, and resting on the ledge made me feel a bit
better.
 
I got my gear together and started up. While the climb didn't feel any
better this time -- my feet blew out a few times on the tenuous
lieback moves up to the first bolt --- I did protect the climb better
this time. I was confident that even if I did fall, I wouldn't go on
the same ride I did the last time, when I clipped a ledge and sprained
my ankle. By the time I got to the top, I was totally gassed, but had
done the climb without falling; apparently, gym climbing doesn't help
much with climbing outdoors! But importantly, I had gotten back on the
horse.
 
We finished the day with a quick toprope up Butterballs (5.11c) before
heading to the El Agave for good mexican and beers. All in all, a
great weekend, with two great partners who patiently taught me how to
aid, put up with all of my crazy neuroses about various climbs and my
overall slow, awkward, and flailing climbing style.
 
Pictures:
1 - Me leading Five and Dime (5.10d)
2 - Chris toproping Five and Dime
3 - Cory on The Tube (5.11a)
4 - Me, making a "I've got to squeeze a monster turd" face on the Tube

Ukelele on El Cap -- Awesome!

These guys are awesome! Given that you have to lift *everything* on a
big wall that you take, I can't believe these guys took a Ukelele:



Full TR:

http://pullharder.org/2008/08/27/the-nose-epicly/

Trip Report: Snake Dike, Half Dome + Tuolumne Meadows (June 2008)

At 5.7, Snake Dike is probably the easiest technical climbing route up
Yosemite's Half Dome. However, despite its easy grade, leaders still
face runouts of up to 40 feet, especially on the easier sections of
climbing. I've wanted to do this route for many years but hadn't found
the opportunity to do so. In May, Eu-Jin and I finally decided to
go. Because the top of Half Dome is a goal that many people in the Bay
Area would like to attempt, I invited a bunch of friends to join us.
While we climbed Snake Dike, they would reach the top of Half Dome via
the more conventional cables
route.

We left on a friday, stopping at In 'N Out for the obligatory pre-road
trip meal before stealth camping at the Rock Piles just outside of the
park. The approach hike to the base of Snake Dike is quite long; to
get an early stat, we elected for an alpine start, waking before dawn.
Eu-jin, Young, and I departed Happy Isles first, trying to get an
early start. We made good time, reaching the top of Vernal falls in
about an hour and a half where we departed the main trail, heading to
the base via the climbers trail that winds its way past Liberty Cap
and Mt. Broderick. Around Lost Lake, we sighted a juvenile bear as it
ambled lazily across the trail before dissappearing into the thick
brush. While we made very good time getting to the climber's trail,
the last hour of the approach was difficult, traversing through many
broken 4th class ledges. We reached the base at the same time as
another party; since we were climbing as a team of three, we let them
pass us since they would move faster with two people.

I was a bit worried about the first pitch given its reputation for
being slippery. To my surprise, the moves were far easier than
expected and I gained the belay without much difficulty. With the crux
pitch dispatched so quickly and easily, I relaxed and brought Eu-Jin
and Young to the belay. Young climbed very well on his first outdoor
climb, negotiating the moves without much difficulty. The rest of the
climb was a nice, low-angle romp. However, I still had to pay
attention on the later pitches --- even at 5.4, a 40-foot runout gives
you something to think about! As the angle receded, we unroped and
started hiking up the last agonizing 1000 feet of low-angle slab.

The summit was quite jarring. The last time I was here was after my
ascent of the Regular Northwest Face. At the time, a storm had chased
the hordes of tourists from the summit leaving it deserted when we
topped out. This time, the hordes of tourists were out in force; from
the crowds on the hike in, I knew they would be there, but the sheer
number of people still surprised me.

We were all very tired on the hike down (I didn't pack enough food)
and we found ourselves slowing down to a grind. However, we made it
back down to Happy Isles. We met up with our friends and ended the day
with beers and pizza at Curry Village.

Gen, Craig, Aathi, and I went back to the rock piles to sleep while
the rest of the group departed for home. We woke the next morning and
enjoyed a nice buffet breakfast in El Portal. Craig and Aathi left to
see Tuolumne while Gen and I spent the day in the Valley, cragging at
the Five and Dime cliff with Chris Chan, whom we met at the Ahwahnee
hotel. After cragging, Gen and I went to Tuolumne to see if we could
do a short backpacking trip in the high country. To our surprise, the
campgroud was closed and there was still quite a bit of snow in the
high country.

With our trip in doubt, we decided to wait until the next morning to
see what the rangers at the Wilderness center advised. We had a nice
dinner at the Tioga Pass Resort before heading down to bivy above Mono
lake. Unfortunately, our tent pole snapped resulting in a sagging,
misshapened tent. The backpacking trip was looking more and more in
doubt. The next morning, we checked with the ranger who advised us
against proceeding due to the heavy snow and high winds. We agreed and
went day-hiking instead, reaching the top of Lembert Dome and cooking
a nice lunch with the food we had bought for our backpacking trip. A
quick bouldering session at Tenaya lake ended the day before we headed
back to the Bay area.