A Big Weekend in the Valley
Kat and I already had plans to be in the valley that weekend with a few objectives lined up. That all went to shit when I got a text from Kat saying that Steve (Schipoopi) Schneider had just called and asked if we could help him with some work he was doing on The Real Nose. Apparently Steve had been working on this route for awhile and had some fixed ropes stolen. He needed to re-lead a pitch and needed some help belaying and cleaning.
I called him up and sure enough he needed some help. For those non-climbers reading this that don't know who Steve is or what he's done, I won't get into it here. Just look him up. But needless to say, for amateur climbers like Kat and I, this was BIG. We had both taken his big wall class at ironworks, Kat recently and me the year before, but I didn't know what to expect. I've never been on El Cap for Christ sake!
On Saturday morning, we met Steve at the meadow, sorted gear and headed up the El Cap trail. I had purposely never hiked up to the base because I didn't want to go look without actually having the skill or the ambition to climb it. The ambition has always been there however, and I've wanted to climb El Cap for the last 15 years.
It's just one of those iconic routes that are engraved in the psyche of every climber. Everest is one of those and I don't care what anyone says. I know that Everest has become a shit-show of epic proportions with rich Texans who have never climbed being pulled to the top while they jumar a fixed line.
I don't personally care. I've read about Everest since I was a boy, I've lived in Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer and I love the Himali. If I ever get a chance to climb it however, it won't be with fixed lines and hopefully it won't be up the South Col. I've always loved the story of Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld just going for it in 1963 when they summited via the West Ridge and continued traversing over back down the South Col route. Balls. Huge balls. On a route that had never been done and a mountain that had only been recently climbed. These guys roped in an climbed alpine style up into the unknown.
On Saturday morning, we met Steve at the meadow, sorted gear and headed up the El Cap trail. I had purposely never hiked up to the base because I didn't want to go look without actually having the skill or the ambition to climb it. The ambition has always been there however, and I've wanted to climb El Cap for the last 15 years.
It's just one of those iconic routes that are engraved in the psyche of every climber. Everest is one of those and I don't care what anyone says. I know that Everest has become a shit-show of epic proportions with rich Texans who have never climbed being pulled to the top while they jumar a fixed line.
I don't personally care. I've read about Everest since I was a boy, I've lived in Nepal as a Peace Corps volunteer and I love the Himali. If I ever get a chance to climb it however, it won't be with fixed lines and hopefully it won't be up the South Col. I've always loved the story of Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld just going for it in 1963 when they summited via the West Ridge and continued traversing over back down the South Col route. Balls. Huge balls. On a route that had never been done and a mountain that had only been recently climbed. These guys roped in an climbed alpine style up into the unknown.
We hit the wall and turned right, trudging up the scree along the base of the Dawn Wall passing Armageddon, a difficult bolted slab climb that starts The Real Nose. We instead hiked up to the base of New Dawn and traversed left to reach a static line that would take us up to the third belay station for the route. Steve jugged up first and I soon followed. Kat came up as I hauled the pig. We repeated this on the next pitch, this time Kat heading up first and hauling.
We reached a plush ledge that would probably be a nice bivy for two. We set out to organize gear in a mess of static lines, lead lines and tag lines as Steve racked up to lead the next pitch. He put on this climbing shoes, asked me to belay and asked Kat to tag line up any gear he may need. The pitch, as I found out when I cleaned it was an A3+ with long lines of rivets, some with button heads and some without. He started by free climbing, traversing way left for about twenty or twenty-five feet before clipping a bolt and starting up the rivet ladder.
Although we had both taken Steve's class, it was clear that no instruction was happening today. Steve wasn't feeling too hot and it was a sink or swim/you better know your shit environment that morning. Steve called down to Kat for Peckers, keyhole rivet hangers, wire rivet hangers, doubloons, and she looked at me with a blank stare much of the time. I'd translate and say something like "well, the pecker is just another name for the Tomahawk which is the small piece of iron that actually looks like a tomahawk."
He made it up, I took him off belay and now it was my turn to clean. But I couldn't see his first piece of gear. Shit, I had to do a lower-off, a move normally used when following after your leader has done a pendulum swing, and Steve hadn't said anything about this. Well, I was on El Cap, I was 500 fee off the deck, and I better remember how to do this pretty fucking quickly and make sure Kat understands it as well.
I explained to Kat that we would be leaving the static line attached that Steve tag-lined up, and that we would need to leave one biner for the lower-off to work. I set it up, looked up, looked down and then went for my Gri handle and started in the diagonal angle in which this maneuver takes you.
Once I was dead vertical below the first piece Steve clipped, I started jugging up the route. I went from rivet to pecker to rivet thinking to myself how fucking awesome it would be to lead a pitch like this. Someday.
He made it up, I took him off belay and now it was my turn to clean. But I couldn't see his first piece of gear. Shit, I had to do a lower-off, a move normally used when following after your leader has done a pendulum swing, and Steve hadn't said anything about this. Well, I was on El Cap, I was 500 fee off the deck, and I better remember how to do this pretty fucking quickly and make sure Kat understands it as well.
I explained to Kat that we would be leaving the static line attached that Steve tag-lined up, and that we would need to leave one biner for the lower-off to work. I set it up, looked up, looked down and then went for my Gri handle and started in the diagonal angle in which this maneuver takes you.
Once I was dead vertical below the first piece Steve clipped, I started jugging up the route. I went from rivet to pecker to rivet thinking to myself how fucking awesome it would be to lead a pitch like this. Someday.
As I jugged up towards the anchor, I noticed that Steve had already lowered off the anchor I was headed to and had swung left, out to a lower anchor that had fixed lines attached heading to the left from there. I got to the vertical most point of the route and started to traverse the rivet ladder left to the anchor. Traversing when cleaning aid is a little strange at first. This is because your jumars are horizontal as opposed to the their natural vertical state they were designed for.
As I made the second move cleaning this traverse, my jumar popped, sending me down about a foot before the other jumar caught me. Shit! I found my breath again somewhere near the bottom of my jockies and I continued on. What I found was two nice looking bolts with slings coming from each, tied and equalized with a loop coming down from the knot and two opposite and opposed biners. A solid anchor, by SRENE standards. Yet now I needed to unfix the line, rap down and swing over to the other anchor.
As Kat was jugging the static line to get to the anchor Steve was at, I had to decide whether to leave these biners or thread the sling. I called down to ask Steve an he said that it really didn't matter, but grab the biners if you feel comfortable. Comfortable? Really? I'm now 650' off the deck on a flat as wall on a hanging belay after just popping off the traverse. Okay, what the hell, they're my biners that I gave Steve and I really don't want to lose them. I threaded the rope through the loop under the knot of the two slings, weighted my ATC and put in my back-up prussik. I doubled checked everything once more, took a deep breath, pulled my personal and started on down. When I was below the next belay I started my swing. It only took a few tries and I was clipped in to a bomber anchor and backed up with my Gri through the static line I would be descending. Whoot Whoot! What I fucking rush! Oh this is fun!
As Kat was jugging the static line to get to the anchor Steve was at, I had to decide whether to leave these biners or thread the sling. I called down to ask Steve an he said that it really didn't matter, but grab the biners if you feel comfortable. Comfortable? Really? I'm now 650' off the deck on a flat as wall on a hanging belay after just popping off the traverse. Okay, what the hell, they're my biners that I gave Steve and I really don't want to lose them. I threaded the rope through the loop under the knot of the two slings, weighted my ATC and put in my back-up prussik. I doubled checked everything once more, took a deep breath, pulled my personal and started on down. When I was below the next belay I started my swing. It only took a few tries and I was clipped in to a bomber anchor and backed up with my Gri through the static line I would be descending. Whoot Whoot! What I fucking rush! Oh this is fun!
We rapped down to the base of the route and pulled the last line so other climbers couldn't jug up the route on Steve's lines or steal his ropes again. What a day and it was only 5 pm. We hiked back out and said our good-byes to Steve. After that, Kat and I made our preparations for a night ascent up After Seven and a bivy on Manure Pile Buttress.
The bivy is of course illegal in the eyes of the park service but it being so hard to find a campsite and since we were technically sleeping on a ledge, we rationalized it in our heads. With headlamps attached to our helmets I started up the first pitch. The first pitch of After Seven is definitely a favorite of mine. The climbing is varied, the moves are fun and the protection is plentiful. We swapped leads up the rest of the climb and topped out at about 8 or 9 pm. As I was belaying Kat up the last pitch, a random headlamp popped over the wall and on to the summit. The free soloist proceeded to pull the tall boy of King Cobra out of his back pocket and offer me a sip. We all sat there and shot the shit while polishing off the tall boy. It turns out that this guy who I won't mention his name, was with YOSAR and he just rolled into the valley on his motorcycle that day.
The bivy is of course illegal in the eyes of the park service but it being so hard to find a campsite and since we were technically sleeping on a ledge, we rationalized it in our heads. With headlamps attached to our helmets I started up the first pitch. The first pitch of After Seven is definitely a favorite of mine. The climbing is varied, the moves are fun and the protection is plentiful. We swapped leads up the rest of the climb and topped out at about 8 or 9 pm. As I was belaying Kat up the last pitch, a random headlamp popped over the wall and on to the summit. The free soloist proceeded to pull the tall boy of King Cobra out of his back pocket and offer me a sip. We all sat there and shot the shit while polishing off the tall boy. It turns out that this guy who I won't mention his name, was with YOSAR and he just rolled into the valley on his motorcycle that day.
The next morning we were greeted by the sun spraying it's rays as it crested over Half Dome. I made coffee while Kat did her sun salutations before we packed up and hiked on down. Next, we drove over and parked at Curry Village, grabbing a bite and a walk through the Mountain Shop before heading over to The Grack.
The idea was for Kat to lead the whole climb. I had done it two months earlier with Al so I was content to follow and let her have all the fun. She ran it out like you wouldn't believe and her anchors were solid. We topped out, rapped down and made it back to Curry with most of the afternoon to spare.
We then drove over to the Le Conte boulder and did laps on the overhang aid route for the remainder of the afternoon, getting each other more and more psyched to go after the Kor Roof on Washington Column.
We then drove over to the Le Conte boulder and did laps on the overhang aid route for the remainder of the afternoon, getting each other more and more psyched to go after the Kor Roof on Washington Column.