Some highlights from climbing around Yosemite and more...
My stomach shrank and my feet felt weak. Beneath me was 3000 feet of air all the way to the ground. My only connection to this world lay in a rope running up above me and disappearing over a roof. The bright white granite apron of El Capitan splayed out beneath me, and the trees far beneath looked like small bushes. A gentle breeze blew, and I slowly twirled on my lifeline, getting a 360 degree view of the scenery around me. I paused, thinking now would be a good time to take a picture, but the intense exposure of my situation put only one thought in my mind: Up.
This is a write up of +Vincent Casotti and my ascent up the Nose of El Cap in a single sub-24 hour push (Nose in a day). This climb in itself, recognized as one of the most famous in the world, isn’t the whole point though. It’s also about the journey, process, and fun that can be had with setting big goals (at least big for us).
Vinnie and I had met in college, guided some outdoor trips together, and learned the art of rockcraft from the same mentors. However we didn’t really start climbing together until May 2010 when we exchanged some emails and headed up Snake Dike. I still pull up that thread some times and get a good chuckle at our meticulous planning and discussion over what rack to bring, how much food, and how much water. I think we’re both planners.
At the time we were both pretty new to trad climbing. But it was clear we both had a hankering for long days outside climbing in natural beauty. We were weekend warriors: heading out late Friday night for 2 days of climbing before heading back to the Bay Area for other life commitments. Progression was slow.
Late one winter night, while gathered with friends at Pinnacles I hatched a plan to jump start myself out of newbie-ness: The Great Leap Forward (no relation to Chinese Communist politics). I dreamed up a 3 year plan: Climb South Face of Washington Column in year one, Climb Regular NW Face of Half Dome in year two, and finish year 3 with Nose in a Day.
Vinnie was crazy enough to think this would be a good idea, and we started our training. This was where the fun was: weekends out at the Leap, long days in the Valley. We scampered and scraped our way up amazing climbs, ticking off many of the ‘50 classics’ climbs in the Sierras. I can’t express how much fun all the OTHER climbs were that weren’t part of the major milestones. We learned from each climb, honing and refining our speed, technique, and tactics.
After deeming ourselves ready after a single pitch of practice (PO Wall), we charged our first goal: the Southwest Face of Washington’s Column. We stumbled back into the Ahwahnee parking lot 17.5 hours later, The year one milestone came and we crushed it: we were on track. https://plus.google.com/116793708900066114376/posts/VbCoyhB7XJh
Year 2 came along and we pushed ourselves on the Sentinel, Liberty Cap, and Tuolumne. We read and reread the topos, then spent a restless night below the face of Half Dome. We blasted off at 4 am and finished by 5 pm, climbing twice the vertical distance in less time than the first year goal: https://plus.google.com/116793708900066114376/posts/UZGxssLGe9h
Finally the big one. Our non-climbing lives had gotten busier but the goal was still there. We made it out a few weekends earlier in the season (Ho Chi Minh Trail was a blast!), but also spent a good amount of time training in the gym. On weekends where we couldn’t get out, we’d spend an afternoon in the gym training: 50, 75, and up to 100 lap sessions in the gym with a weight vest. My body got pretty crushed by these, but we learned to accept the feeling of fatigue and just keep climbing.
We’re free climbers at heart so rather than subject ourselves to the Leaning Tower, we decided the best practice was to get on the Nose and start honing our techniques there. Our first go was during the summer solstice, where we were introduced to climbing the world's most popular big wall, with 2 parties ahead and many more behind. We charged up to Dolt and then a couple weeks later, went up to p19, just before Camp 4, shaving time and getting some butterflies out of the way.
Summer came, temperatures rose, and the valley emptied out. We eyed the weather reports, knowing that our time window in late August, early September was coming up. Finally we had a free weekend to go scope out the descent (we’d never done anything long on El Cap before). A fun day out on the East Buttress of El Cap in the summer showed us that only a few people with a few screws loose were willing to get out in the heat. Except: Temperatures were great! Even when it’s 90 in the valley, a few hundred feet up a cool breeze keeps things relatively comfortable. We ran into Mickey and Jaysen on the way down (they had just finished the Shield), and they helped us identify the raps down the East Ledges.
All systems seemed ready to go. The weather looked roughly the same the next weekend and we decided to take a day off of work so we would have more time to get to the Valley and rest. Vinnie’s parents graciously volunteered to be a support crew for us, and drove us out there. Friday night we laid down to rest before our 11 pm start time, and unsurprisingly couldn’t sleep at all.
We hit the approach trail at 10:30 pm, clinking and clanking our way in the forest lit by our headlamps. Up above, El Cap shone silver in the moonlight. A quick scramble to the base, change of shoes and we were ready to go. I kept telling myself to remember to use my legs as much as I could. Things felt smooth, almost easy, as my fresh arms found the right jams and my feet found good holds. Silverfish crawled all over the wall, gleaming and scuttling over my hand as I felt for the next holds. Vinnie said he saw some frogs! I linked 1 + 2, then 3 + 4 up to Sickle without any drama. Each time I got to the end of my pitch, I’d fix the line, shut my headlamp off and take a few minutes to rest. The moon was bright, the air was cool, and we were on our way up!
A quick snack of energy bars/gels and Vinnie joins me on the ledge. I take off across Sickle, intending to do a little simul-climbing/penduluming through the Dolt Hole area. I punch out the 5.9 jams to turn the arete at the end of Sickle and soon I’m swinging around to get into the next crack system. I fix in at the bottom of the Stovelegs and wait as Vinnie deals with the rope getting caught twice along Sickle. Soon enough, he joins me and I take off on the glory hand jam pitch. Even the awkward wide pod sections feel fluid and secure, as I find foot bridging and foot stacking to work well.
The airy traverse on flakes takes me to the 3 and 4 inch section and the crack jumar mode begins. I alternate fist jams and shuttling our single #3 and #4 pieces up to the top of Dolt, clipping dubious fixed pieces along the way. I hit the top of Dolt and the end of my first block in my fastest time yet: 4:24
A large cache of water was waiting for us on top of Dolt, and we helped ourselves to some, knowing that we’d likely need more water later that day.
<Vinnie>
I took over for the second block to the base of the great roof. Linking the first two pitches is spiced up by our weight shaving strategy of bringing a single #3 and #4. As the crack is only that size, you never leave them behind but keep them with you as your only protection. We hit El Cap Tower and I chimney behind the Texas Flake. I head over to the far left edge, chimney up to the top, and flick the rope out for Leslie to jug. I fix the rope, then start up the bolt ladder. Leslie puts me on belay for the two cam hook moves at the base of the Boot Flake, then I start pushing a cam above me, pull a couple free moves, plug in a cam, then hit the top. I untie, thread my rope through the rings and clean my gear. Leslie jugs up to just below me and I start on the King Swing. I swing over, but forget about the second mantle and slowly swing back to the base of the boot. Now with my memory refreshed, I nail the second swing and fix the line for Leslie. He has some trouble with the second mantle and after a few attempts, I toss him a line to pull him over to Eagle Ledge. (Leslie: On one of the swings I end up swinging back badly and bash my hip and wrist into the wall. More on that later…)
One short pitch brings us to the base of the Lynn Hill traverse and the scary block right above the belay. I carefully step around it and head up for a ways to the traverse left. Using a mixture of free climbing, tensioning off the fixed tat, I make my way through this section. Probably the trickiest pitch to follow, Leslie jugs, swings and frees his way up. I make my way up to the 11c spot and Camp 4, but the 5.9 getting to the roof is slick and tricky as my arms start to weaken.
<Leslie>
From here we entered unknown terrain. Looming above us was the Great Roof, and we knew the hardest part of the climb was about to begin. I transitioned into aid mode, getting up as high as I could and using the crack and face to stem and reach my way up. I intended to back clean aggressively in the roof, so that Vinnie could just lower out. Approaching the horizontal section, I busted out our secret weapon: cam hooks! These babies were the key! Having only stood on a cam hook placement once before, I slotted it into the thin horizontal crack, gingerly weighted it and then committed. These things were great! I ended up just using the fixed gear and cam hooks in the horizontal section and it worked great. Soon enough I was whooping with delight at the anchor and looking back at one of the raddest aid pitches I had done.
While Vinnie did the lower outs to clean the roof, I headed up the famous Pancake Flake. Self-belaying, I moved up slowly and methodically, mixing free and aid to make sure I didn’t short-rope myself.
An awkward groove later and I was scrambling up blocky ledges to the top of Camp 5. I rested my arms a bit as Vinnie came up. The pitch up to the Glowering Spot was fun: a thin crack on the left with small pieces (Green C3 was great) transitioned into a crack on the right. Stemming along the two cracks allowed me to really step high in my aiders. I fired up the awesome C1 crack above the Glowering Spot (#1 and #2 were really good pieces here) and soon I was scrambling up to Camp 6. This was a nice belay ledge to sit back and relax. At this point I noticed my left wrist was feeling pretty bad. My fall during the King Swing must have tweaked it badly. Thankful that my block was over I fixed the line and kept moving my wrist to keep it limber.
Meanwhile, on the valley floor, Vinnie’s parents had set up an umbrella and lawn chairs and watched us through binoculars. They became adhoc tour guides for the tourists in the valley who came to check out who would be crazy enough to go hanging off the side of a cliff. Many people stopped by, asked questions, and looked through their binoculars. Knowing we had a support crew watching over us kept us stoked to finish in good form (and time)! +Marlin Thorman was kind enough to take a few pictures of us high up on the route with some beautiful golden light.
<Vinnie>
After a couple very relaxing belays, I was excited to begin my block. I made my way up the Changing Corners pitch, the last remaining “crux”. Too tired to free the 10 crack, I french free and reach the second bolt to swing around the corner. I stick my head around the corner and confirm that 5.14 is mind-blowingly difficult. After flailing for while, trying to get a 000 to fit, the tat hanging from the 5.11 A0 bolts is too much to ignore. At this point, I’m out of water and the cracks from here to the top blend together. I short fix at each anchor, not stopping, but also not moving very quickly as I pulled on gear. Finally I hit the final bolt ladder and back clean all but two bolts for Leslie to lower out on. I hit the top and fixed the line for Leslie to jug (and deal with a bit of exposure).
<Leslie>
Suddenly everything leveled out, and I could scramble along flakes towards the tree that marked the end. I fumbled with our rope, making sure it didn’t get caught on any rocks or bushes as I stumbled to the finish. 20:21:20 after we started the day before we were both safely at the top!
A few celebratory hoots and screams later we soaked in the views and the sunset, before slinging everything over our shoulders and hustling to the East Ledges descent path. Thankful that we had scoped out the descent the weekend before, we found our way to familiar terrain just as it got dark. The rappels went by quickly, and we stumbled through the gully to glorious flatland. Vinnie’s parents were waiting by the road with cold water which we gulped down happily. Sleep came easy that night.