We survived Yosemite! - Part 4

We were heading towards the right side of this big thing...

Following our rest day, Max and I were aiming to do the East Buttress of El Cap.  While this is not a 5-star climb like the other E. Butt we did a few days before, it's an extremely popular route due to the fact that one can summit El Cap in a relatively short free climb.  The climb is 13 pitches, noted as more difficult than the other E. Butt.

Team Biskrem was also aiming for this climb on the same day.  We didn't get to talk to them the night before to plan it out though, so we weren't for sure whether they were going to climb it or  not.  They had gone to Toulemne for two days while we stayed around the valley.

We got up even earlier that day.  I think it was 4:30AM or so, so that we could leave the campsite at 5:00.  Team Weneedananny were getting up early also to climb and be back for baby Autumn at noon.  They dropped us off at the base of our climb and headed over to do Central Pillar of Frenzy.

It was pitch dark, and we progressed up the talus field with our headlamps.  The approach was going to take at least an hour, similar to the approach on Cannon in the Whites.  During our hike, we could see some headlamps on El Cap.  There were people up already, looks like on the Dawn Wall.  Before the sun came up, we heard a loud swooshing noise.  I looked up, and there were two parachutes open right on top of us, heading towards the valley.  They were climbers that BASE jumped on the descent.  Maybe it was Dean Potter?  That would be pretty impressive.

Then suddenly, at dawn, the light gently glows on the side of El Cap that we were heading towards.  The air was still chilly, but it brings hope of some warmth.  It was truly a beautiful and peaceful time of the day.

With the sun filtering into the valley, I started sweating under my layers of clothes.  But at least now I can hike the talus field without using my headlamp.  As I was about to turn off my headlamp, I looked up at the cliff that we were approaching.  It was near the Zodiac climb, and we had to cut more to the right once we hit the bottom of the cliff.  Max was about 50 ft. ahead of me, cutting more towards the right already.

I suddenly heard an unfamiliar low rumble noise.  With sheer luck, I looked up at the right spot on the 3000 ft. tall cliff, and saw a piece of rock the size of a piano (it looked sort of like a roof) peeling off the cliff.  It may actually be bigger than that, because it's hard to judge the size of anything with El Cap in the background.

ROCK!  I shouted, just in time for both Max and I to react and dive to the closest place to hide.  He jumped to a tree, and I hid under a really large boulder.  I seriously didn't know what else to do at that point.  Upon impact to the ground, the rock triggered enough of a shock to the talus field that it sent an avalanche of rocks down the area directly below it.  It kept going down until it hit the flat part of the hike, basically to the parking lot.  Lucky for us, we were not directly under the path of the rock avalanche.  But we could definitely feel the dust from the slide, as well as the earth trembling.

We escaped death by about 50 feet.

Are you guys okay?  A voice asked from above.

It wasn't God - just some dude on the Dawn Wall.  But we were glad that there were other witnesses there in case something did happen to us.

We decided to keep going for the East Buttress climb, but both of us were shocked from the rockfall.
Since that morning, for the rest of the trip we would have PTSD symptoms every time we heard a loud bang, even at the campsite.

By the time we got to the base of the climb, there was unfortunately a line of people.  To be exact, we were party No. 6 or 7.  A bunch of people must have all gotten there within 30 minutes of each other.  There was one party that got there behind us, but after waiting for another hour at the base of the climb, there weren't any more new climbers.

I heard a familiar laugh above from us.  I knew that it was Adrian.  We couldn't see them, but they were somewhere still on the first pitch, one of the harder pitches.   After a bit later, I saw Carlos, leading up a chimney with very little protection.  He moved up slowly and carefully.

Then suddenly, we heard a struggling sound from Carlos.
Then sound of fear as if he was slipping.
Ahhhhh!  He yelled as he took a lead fall down the chimney, with a lot of metal clanking noise along with it.
An extremely discouraging noise to any climber.

If I heard the story right, Carlos was caught by his own backpack and a nut that he placed way way below him.  Lucky guy.

This was around 8AM, an hour after we had gotten to the base of the climb.  We found out that Team Biskrem was Party No. 3, which means that there are still at least two parties between us and them.  And that Carlos was still struggling at the first pitch.

After some discussions with Max, we decided to retreat.  We probably would only get to start climbing at 9AM at the earliest, and there are 13 pitches.  In the best scenario, we would top out at around 5PM or 6PM.  But if there was any chance that we have to wait for a slow party above us, we would definitely top out in the dark.  The guide book made the descent sound really horrific, so we really didn't want to hike down El Cap in the dark.

It was an emotional retreat, considering what we went through earlier that morning.  Later on that day, we went to climb Super Slide.  But both of our hearts were just not there.  It did not satisfy our desire to do a more epic climb.

That night, we heard from Team Biskrem about their day on E. Butt.  It sounded really intense and much harder than the other E. Butt we had done just three days before.  They looked exhausted.

Photo of Carlos by http://www.alexandrebuisse.org/ 

Frustrated with not being able to climb E. Butt, we tried to see what the weather conditions were like for Snake Dike in the next few days.  Chance of thunderstorms, no good.  But do we want to be struck by lightning?  Another disappointment.  We really couldn't think of any other climb with 10+ pitches that was at the same level on such a short notice.

For the remainder of the trip, we continued climbing a few pitches here and there.
We will have to wait for the next trip to do the other E. Butt and Snake Dike.

One week is really not long enough in the valley!

We'll be back, East Buttress.

We survived Yosemite! - Part 3

I swear that I will eventually finish this trip report.  This will be Part 3 of 4 parts. - RM

*  *  *  *  *  *

I woke up the next day with really sore quads.  For some reasons, that is always the first part to go on my body.  It's either the descent or the ascent.   Definitely not from climbing, but climbing 1100 ft. in vertical distance was definitely the longest route that I have ever done.  The other climb that was close to that was Moby Grape on Cannon.  

Max was not affected by the previous day like I was.  He was ready for more adventures.  After some negotiation, I told him that I can climb at most 5 pitches on my rest day, although I did not feel like leading.  Fine by him, since he LOVES to lead all the time anyways.  It's amazing how climbing 5 pitches can be a rest day out here in Yosemite, because everything is so much larger in scale.  That would be like going all the way up to the top of Cathedral in N. Conway!  

Nothing too strenuous, easy day with 5 pitches.  Right?  

Let's go do Central Pillar of Frenzy, it's 5.9 and only 5 pitches.  Said Max.  

I knew that was a 5-star climb, and that Mark Synnott had also recommended that climb when I took the self rescue class.

It was not a rest day climb for me.  Frenzy was probably one of the most strenuous 5.9 I have ever climbed.  Totally Yosemite style, and totally sandbag.  Ask anyone that has tried it.  Especially climbers that are climbing close to their limit at that grade.  

What makes it special, is the first pitch.  It sets the tone for the rest of the climb.  At least two other people that climbed the route has told me that they could not wait to get off the climb.  As much as I enjoyed following it, I also felt somewhat that way.  

So, back to the first pitch...

It's an awkward, somewhat polished dihedral that turns into a bit of a chimney of some sort.  Max went up the climb and got stuck at the crux for a while before figuring out the beta (very unusual for him).  It was just not that fun.  

Then I followed up.  There were already several parties waiting for us to go up, but we got lucky and were party #2.  As I mentioned before, whenever there are parties right behind me, I get somewhat stressed and feel like I need to climb faster.  Either that or I just didn't wake up from my morning coffee yet. 

As I got to the middle portion of the dihedral where there is some semi-chimney, I struggled my way up and tried to wedge my ass on part of the corner.  When I did that, something slipped out of my harness and started tumbling down the climb.

ROCK!  Someone yelled.  But it was not the rock.  It was Max's camera that I forgot to sling onto my harness.  It bounced off he rock and the lens broke into a million pieces.  Max was pissed at my inability to take care of the camera and I was also pretty annoyed that I was not as attentive.  Needless to say, I do not have any photos to put on this entry.  Luckily, Aaron had an extra camera, so Max was able to take more photos after the mass camera destruction.

Don't worry, I bought insurance from Best Buy, so we're good.  He later told me.  It made me feel much better because that camera was relatively new.  I guess he knew that one day, I was going to be that person that drops his camera 50 feet down the cliff.  

I'm not finished yet.  With the dropping, that is.  

After being a bit frazzled from the camera destruction, I fumbled a bit when I was cleaning the pros.  I must have not clipped one of the draws completely back on my harness, and it flew down the cliff (again) as the people below us yell ROCK once again.  Payback time for dropping my No. 1 C3 the day before (not).

I swear, the people below us kept their distance after that.  We didn't really see them until we were on Pitch 3.  

The rest of the climb was amazing.  P2 had a beautiful, sustained thin hand then finger crack.  P3 had a big roof then some insanely large offwidth.  It's one of those pitches that you don't think would be that hard after the BIG roof, but then you go above it and realize that there is a lot more.  

Max ran that pitch OUT.  That's because he is that bad ass, but also because he had already used his best pieces of pro below the roof.  Lucky for him, there was a booty 4 or 5 stuck in the offwidth, and so he was able to clip his rope onto that.  Brian from Team Weneedananny climbed it a few days later and told us that he kept his #4 or #5 and just kept sliding it up.

P4 was a beautiful fist crack.  Also very sustained all the way up.  

P5, like a great symphony, wraps the whole theme of the climb up and has a mixture of everything from the first four pitches.  

The climb had a great view of the El Cap Meadows and the Captain himself.  I was relieved to have finished the climb, and wished that I was less tense than I was.  It was a lot of struggle for me, but definitely worth it.

The following day, we were both tired, and actually took a real rest day and went hiking at the Lower Falls.  

I will come back for you again Central Pillar of Frenzy.  Next time, I know what to expect from you.

to be continued...

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...