We survived Yosemite! - Part 2

One third of Team Minivan woke up at 5AM in the dark to get ready for the E. Buttress.  The other four members of the team were going to do Royal Arches that day, also a huge climbing day for them.

The funny thing is, I normally would have a hard time getting up that early to do anything.  But to get up early to do something you are so excited about?  It was much easier.

Team Biskrem came by to pick Max and I up.  The approach was extremely familiar from last year, except that this time we are in a car instead of hiking.  I'm still not sure what we were thinking of back then.  But no matter.

We hiked up this talus field to get to the start of the climb.  The rocks were a bit loose, but not too bad.  As we try to make it up as fast as we can with our headlamps, we noticed two other guys hiking up much faster than we were.  They looked like they knew where they were going, cutting to the right.

Shit.  I think they are heading towards the East Buttress as well!

They quickly disappeared into the woods on the right of the talus field.  We tried to pick up our pace so that no one else behind us would pass us.

After getting a bit lost, we eventually found the start of the climb.  There were already at least two parties ahead of us.  And actually two more parties behind us as well.  It was just like Nutcracker again, except that it is not even 7 in the morning.  The last party that got there decided after a while that they did not want to wait for the climb with so many people ahead of them.  So they wished us a great day and hiked back.

As the sun came up, we could see El Cap across the valley from where we were, with sunlight shining on the dawn wall.  The weather forecast was great for that day, and we were grateful for it.

photo by Max

Team Biskrem went ahead of us with the intention of linking some of the pitches together with their 70m rope.  We had a 60m so we followed behind them in shorter pitches.  The first pitch was an easy pitch, and I gladly volunteered to lead the start.  Lucky for me, one of the parties ahead of us had taken a morning dump on the first belay ledge.   Not even covered by anything, just wide open.  Come on people, that is just disgusting.  At least put a few leaves on top of it.  I belayed Max up, then also belayed him as he lead up the next pitch.  I hung out at that pitch for WAY too long.

Another party near us on the 10c pitch
 - photo by Carlos

Beyond that, the next few pitches were amazing.  Lots of great cracks - some of them I found relatively strenuous.  I think a lot of it was also quite mental for me since this climb was a lot more exposed than Nutcracker.  I might have also thought that it was so because we were doing so many pitches so fast.  Because we were under time pressure to get to the top (with parties below and the fear of topping out in the dark), Max lead most of the pitches afterwards. We moved in a relatively efficient manner up the climbs.

There was a 5.10c bolted pitch that was busy when the four of us go there, so Carlos decided to pass them on the 10a variation.  It turned out to be a great decision since the following pitch was an amazing 5.9 roof that we wouldn't have otherwise got to do.

Carlos at the 5.10a variation pitch - photo by Adrian

During this entire time, I was the only woman climbing on the route (out of about 10 people).  So I was surprised when I heard some female voices down below us.  I looked down and noticed that they were climbing relatively quickly.  They had started the climb at around noon, and by the time we were on the last pitch at around 4PM or so, they were right behind us.  It turns out the two women were simulclimbing, which means that they were very confident at that grade (and super strong!)  It was extremely inspiring to watch them climb.  I know I would never ever be that hard core, but at least it's good to see that there are women out there kicking ass!

the descent - photo by Carlos

The descent required some unroped 4th class climbing upward before heading down to a dramatic gully.   After that, it was three rappels down.  We had lost Team Biskrem on the last few pitches because we were stuck behind the two Brits that were ahead of us (the ones that had passed us on the approach earlier that morning).  When we finally found them again on the descent, they were really thirsty and begged us for water.  Team Minivan apparently just don't have the habit of drinking water or eating, so we had both to offer.  

We decided to forgive the two Brits for passing us and let them rappel down on our rope, though the two women found them a bit rude as well and were reluctant to let them use the same rope.  

The gully was pretty narrow at first and it sounded like we were talking in an old cathedral.  Our voices reverberated through the gully and beyond.  At the end of the day, all the tension dissolved and everyone was relieved to be descending in daylight.  

When we almost reached the bottom of the descent, we noticed that the YOSAR helicopter was flying around the Nose of the El Cap.  The helicopter noise filled up the valley, as we watched intensely on what they were trying to do from across.  

After returning from the trip, we found out that YOSAR had done an incredible rescue where the helicopter flew extremely close to the cliff to save two Austrians.  The leader had taken a fall and severed his thumb on a sling that was wrapped around.  Lucky for him, the detached thumb landed on the belayer's ledge.  The helicopter was so tiny that we could barely see it on El Cap.  Here is the full report from YOSAR, definitely worth reading.  RESPECT for YOSAR!

Following our successful day, we celebrated with pizzas at Curry Village.  It was the best food EVER!

By the end of the week though, we were so sick and tired of eating pizzas.  And I almost overdozed on PB+J.

to be continued...