Living on the Ledge

In the last week we've dispatched two Big Wall climbs. That's three nights spent living on the ledge. It's an unusual style of camping out but I do quite like it, especially as we've been really lucky with the weather.

After our success on Washington Column, we set off on our second big aid route: Leaning Tower. We were attacking the underbelly of the beast: America's most overhanging wall. The lower part of the tower averages 110 degrees, the upper part 95 degrees. When Harding first led it in 1960 he placed 111 bolts! This is a full on aid route.

So what does a big wall aid trip involve? A lot of climbing gear (every single piece we own), aid climbing gear (2 sets of jumars, mini traction for hauling, 2 sets of aiders (ladders) and lots of daisies), 2 ropes, lots of water – 3 litres per person per day, food, stove, warm clothes, waterproof clothes, bedding (thermo-rests, sleeping bags, emergency bivvy bags) and the poo kit! It's not physically possible to climb and carry all this stuff, so most of it goes in a haul bag.

Simon carries the haulbag on his back to the base of the route (because it's grey, he looks like a dustbin), while I carry the climbing gear and ropes. Then, Simon has to get to to top of a pitch - “by any means possible”. He ties in the lead rope and hauls up the haul bag on the haul line. I then jumar up the lead rope, taking out the gear that he's placed. Obviously, the more overhanging the wall, the harder it is.

Pigs Might Fly - our haul bag in space, with the poo tube swinging free (must get a screwgate karabena for that!)

Ahwahnee Ledge.  Sleeps 4 apparently!

Our first night on Leaning Tower was spent on Ahwahnee Ledge (named after the luxury hotel in the Valley). It was 10' x 2' – very spacious indeed – at least for 2 people. This ledge even had a static line fixed in place for us and dinner was waiting behind a rock – someone had thoughtfully left us a tin of Stagg Chili – yum!


Everything has to be clipped in at all times – us, the haulbag, our sleeping bags and any other bags of clothing or food. I guess if it was windy, you'd have a bit of a nightmare keeping everything under control, but it was nice and calm for us.

Once everything is in order, it's just a case of chilling out until sundown. So far Si has insisted on travelling light so no books. Might sneak a sudoku into the next mission bag though!


Working on the tan. Question is: which way's the beach?!

There's usually a boulder or a corner to hide behind when using the facilities (whilst the other person sings loudly). Simon was enjoying peeing over the edge, until I pointed out that he might be peeing on the team below! Solids go in a biodegradable ziplock bag which then gets packed away in the poo tube. So far, all the bivvy ledges we've used have been clean, but they do smell – a lot!

Before sunset, there are lots of sudden whooshing noises as the swallows swoop past and then at dusk, we're surrounded by sonic beeping as bats navigate their way around. If you choose a south or west facing route, the rock stays nice and warm long after sunset! The nights have been very starry so we've spotted lots of shooting stars, satellites, Mars, planes – maybe even a UFO or two!

When there aren't tins of grub waiting for us, we usually tuck into freeze-dried packets of food. So far we've tried Black Bean Tomale Pie (v good), Jamacan chicken (ok), Nepalese Lentil Curry (yuck), tiramisu (v tasty), mocha pie (added too much water), and huevos rancheros (with added sachets of stolen Tabasco). I'm looking forward to trying spaceman ice cream on our next trip.

Even when in our sleeping bags, we stay strapped into our harnesses. I wish mine didn't have plastic gear loops that stick out! Luckily, all the ledges have angled inwards so no problems with rolling over and off the edge so far!

Mornings involve a pre-dawn cup of tea before we start all over again!

Great Ledge, Leaning Tower Bivvy 2- bigger than Ahwahnee, but less flat!

Incidentally – there was another tin of chili waiting for us on our second bivvy on Leaning Tower too. Thank you chili-fairy! M

Why Aid Climbing is Scary....

Loaded up ready to start Leaning Tower West Face

Now, I thought that pulling on the gear was fairly straight forward, if not a little strenuous.  But I've now discovered it can be a little hair-raising.  Up until Leaning Wall the gear has all been good, and the protection that has been fixed has been there when i needed it, and been in good condition.  Not so on the first pitch of West Face of Leaning Tower (C2)...

100 feet up on pitch one, at about 110 degrees overhanging, after some good bolts, if not a little bit spaced, I reached the spot of a "Bashie" (a piece of metal beaten into a crack in the rock with a hammer, and attached to a piece of wire).  The head was in place, but the wire was long gone.  Giving me about 10 feet to the next piece of fixed gear from what i was hanging on.

Hmmm.... I'm not going to be coming down on the first pitch!!

I scouted around for options, the only one being an old shallow bolt hole in the rock, about big enough to stick my fingertip in.

Time for some hooking action.

The hook sat in it OK, but the base was still far away from the rock when i weighted it (due to the overhanging nature of the pitch).

This is quite scary.  Next placement.  That RP isn't so good. Lets test it with body weight...

POP.... I drop back on to the hook which appears to be working its way out of the bolt hole.  Heart rate is definitely up.

This is definitely more like it.  Try again with that RP 2 (a few mm squared of brass on the end of a wire wedged in the crack).  Deep breath.  Body weight.  Its holding! Next piece looks like a small Cam.

My heart is pounding in my ears as I stand as high in my aiders as gravity and my own strength will allow.  The RP is directional so I'm trying to keep it down and right as I lean up and left to place the Cam (a spring loaded device that "cams" into cracks), in a shiny thin horizontal crack I can't quite see into.

Its going to hold.  Body Weight.

Gravity kicks in as the cam pulls out.  I don't have time for a deep breath.

Airborne...

Slight jolt (the RP pulls.)  Big jolt (the hook pulls.)  Before i know it I'm 10 foot below the last good bolt, hanging at a funny angle in space due to all the gear hung over one shoulder.

Damn.  Only one thing for it.  

I tried again....

S

The Joneses first Big Wall

Washington Column

So the time had come for our first Big Wall Adventure.  The training had been done, the book consulted, techniques mastered (...), and the kit purchased. 

A 4am start and a pre-check of the approach and first pitch the day before ensured that we were first in line to get started on one of Yosemite's most popular big walls - South Face of Washington Column.  Our early start really paid as we passed another team floundering in the dark on the approach.

Simon leading Kor Roof

Marian "Cleaning" the gear having just pulled over the roof.  You can see our plush bivvy ledge below

Some straight-forward aid climbing and our first taste of proper hauling of "the Pig" (haul bag) gained the first ledge which was to be our bivii.  It mostly smelt of wee, but we secured a higher spot which was more bearable.  We then climbed the infamous Kor Roof and Marian discovered that cleaning the gear on a big overhang can be quite troublesome....  We climbed a bit more and fixed a rope back down to the ledge. We then spent the evening watching another team on the Kor roof using their headtorches!!

Below us, was Yosemite village where there were many campfires glowing.  Above us, the clear sky twinkled with thousands of stars, and opposite, we could see the dark mass of Half Dome silhouetted against the night-sky.  At the base, middle and 3/4 mark we could see headtorches flashing as, like us, other big wall teams prepared to settle in for an uncomfortable night.

Day Two was another pre-dawn start with jumaring up our fixed ropes (using special devices to haul ourselves up the free hanging rope),  to our high point of the previous day. 6 more pitches of climbing on the open walls of the Column and via the inevitable offwidth and chimney section (free climbed), we got to the top. Hurrah!  Only the retreat past several slower and floundering teams to go....

At this point I would like to say thank you to the British Army for two things (they had taken several days to ascend the route and we met them on their way down):  firstly, for showing us how to clean a pendulum, which we learnt on a ledge half way up.  (I had failed to notice there were any to do and hence we hadn't practiced that);  secondly, for supplying us with most of a rack of offset wires which Marian removed from cracks all the way up! (They clearly didn't have a purple hex and nut key - essential tools for the removal of stuck wires - M)

Got to the van with headtorches on and feeling pretty smug.  I started to plan the next Big Wall....

S

Lost Arrow Spire Tip

This was a big adventure that we had been working up to - an iconic Yosemite climb.  Lost Arrow is a pillar of rock detached from Yosemite Point.  The tip is about 800m above the valley floor and 40m away from the main face.  The plan was to abseil in from Yosemite point, climb the tip and then set up a tyrolean back to the main cliff.  This required much reckoning!

The climb itself is quite tricky - beyond our climbing ability, so we had to aid it.  We bought all the gear we needed (now on first name terms with the folks in the mountaineering shop), and the day before, we consulted Simon's book on aid climbing and practiced ascending, cleaning pitches, abseiling passed knotted ropes and setting up a traverse.  All set then!  Nothing to it!

Up early for the epic 3 hour walk in.  We were carrying 3 ropes and a lot of gear.  The sun beat down on us as we made our way slowly up the gully, passed the dried up Yosemite falls and on to the Point.  Here we looked across at Lost Arrow, and I felt slightly sick!  The abseil in was longer than our longest rope so we tied one end of one rope to the in-situ bolts, backed up with a convenient tree, then tied the other end of this rope to another rope and threw it over the edge.  Si disappeared and I was left alone to double check we had everything.  A voice drifted up from the void "Maz, can you bring the guidebook!" - oh yeah - that might come in handy.

Soon we were both in the gully between the tip and the cliff.  Si got his aid climbing gear ready and I tied the end of the abseil rope to the back of my harness.  Si set up the third rope as he ascended the Arrow.  Most of the placements involved ancient rivets (which we had to tie off with the wire tips of nuts), bashies (hammered in bits of metal with wire hangers), dodgy cams placed in peg scars and the occasional bomber nut.   When Si was at the top of a pitch, he tied off the rope and then I jumared up it, collecting our gear as I went.  Halfway up pitch 2 I discovered that jumaring  along a traverse and cleaning the gear at the same time wasn't as simple as the description in the book!

A couple of hours later, we were both stood on top of the spire.  The abseil rope was still connected to the main cliff (good start) and I had hold of the other end.  We fixed this to the assortment of battered bolts and faded slings at the top of the tip so that the rope was taut and Si set off back to base (you didn't think I was going to go first, did you?!).

The wind was quite strongly through the gap and the ropes were being sideswept in a big loop.  After much swearing and cursing, Si made it back to base and I re-threaded the rope so that we could pull it through.  Then it was a quick check to make sure I'd collected all our stuff before I launched my self backwards and began the arduous task of jumaring up the rope back to Simon.  Much relieved self congratulation and a long hike back to the village for some well-deserved beer followed.

Later, Simon told me that this aid route had been high-lighted as unsuitable for beginners!  Oh!!

The Gentle Art of Thrutching

The climbing in Yosemite has so far been crack-heaven. "Thin fingers" to "flared Chimney" and every width in between. Learning the necessary techniques has so far been an on-the-job affair, and mandatory training at that. Our first Yosemite "offwidth" was about 30cm wide, 30 metres into the pitch and several metres out from the last good protection! Sustained fist jamming was consolidated on the very same pitch.  (Sacherer Crack 10a, El Cap Base).  Our chimneying has been learnt on the flared featureless chimney of pitch 6 of East Butress on Middle Cathedral Peak, (below).  The Americans have several descriptions for the techniques required - arm barring, leg bar, back and footing and a few more.  However, I find our British word "thrutch" describes the whole range rather nicely and more realistically.

One thing they've definitely got right over here is "taping-up".  (The practice of covering the back of the hands with climbing tape to protect the skin whilst crack climbing).  My initial scoffs have turned to a very real interest into how to make these "tape-gloves", after increasingly trashed skin on my hands. S