Ascents of Royal Arches Route

We got off route!!!

Superb friction! The rap stations were almost as exciting as the route itself!

Started in the dark to beat the heat, but it took us 10 hours to climb&rap anyway. Got a tiiiny bit hot on the raps Goofy lead first 3 pitches, then we switched leads.

Our rest day didn't feel like a rest day, baking like lizards on hot slabs. Had to do it mostly in approach shoes cause the rock was so hot and out feet were cooking in our climbing shoes. 215up 145down.

World record! Most bails in a single day. Let me explain my rationale. The night before, tony and i had poured through the guide to decide on the ultimate 'big day'. We had decided to wake up at 530. Unbeknownst to us, this would serve perfectly to maximize bail opportunities. Tony even was ready on time in the morning. We started up royal and after i lost the route and accidentally simul climbed off route into a 10+ roof traverse, we got back on track only to see the rest of the actual route covered by a turbulent waterfall. To be fair, we had actually been told about this, but we thought it would be a 'japanese trad waterfall'. We retreated, and also let the opportunity to link into crest jewel via the hiking summit go to the wayside. 2 bails and its not even 10am. Luckily astroman goes into shade at 1030! Unluckily we forgot to borrow dylans rps. 3 bails. Drove to el cap for south by south west. Left the car, realised it faces south or south west or some combination there of and would be copping intense sun. East buttress was consulted but yosar was doing rescue training. 5 bails down, we spied the moratorium. Known for seasonal wetness on the last pitch, we were ready to climb wet 11b just to get something done. After 1 (albeit incredible and varied corner) pitch, i brought tony up. He gingerly clipped in and told me that he had shat his pants and needed to go down. We sat on this el cap standard belay ledge admiring the beautiful day that had somehow forced 6 multi pitch bails on us in the space of 9 hours. We went back to the camp 4 toilets so i could bash the mirror with my head and tony could bash the toilet with his insides.

About seven hours car to car. The raps took almost as long as the climb.

Lovely reintroduction to ymite granite

First Climb in Yosemite a great way to get some meters. unfortunately there is alot of discontinuous climbing on the first 6 pitches but otherwise lots of fun pitches higher up. In regards to the descent rappelling the route it sucks hahaha

22 hour epic. The waterfalls flowing down the slabs made it feel way harder than 5.7!

What an amazing day! Started at 6am, got to the top around 2pm and back down at 4pm. My first big climb of this scale and what a great classic to have done. I loved this climb because it has so much varied climbing from off widths, chimneys, slabs, laybacks... The pendulum was really interesting as I had never done one before (got it on my third try thankfully). Was pretty hot 30 degrees so the feet got uncomfortably hot at times but it was great to cruise up so much awesome rock. Even though it was busy, people along the way were friendly and we had a great time doing this with experienced friends who waited for us at the top and showed us the way down, stopping to make sure we knew where some of the tricky to find abseil points were. Makes we want to go back and climb some more classics!

Freed the spicy slab... not sure it was worth the sweat and worry of falling into the corner below the pendulum. Fun (crowded) route.

Swung pitches with Nick. Did to the end of pitch 15, then rapped. 8.5 hours up (not hurrying), then 3.5 down (single 60m rappel, bit of trouble near the end). Mostly easy 5th class or 4th class. Exact pitch count/set may not match book or list above.

This climb is generally easy, route-finding is rarely difficult, and most of the rappel route is quite clear and easy -- only a bit tricky near the ledgy base.

More time to rapp than climb. Valley noobs reality check. Fun times!

Simuled, badly. Got off route and fell on a slab move on pitch 6, Dan later fell seconding on the tree aid move and I strained my calf holding his weight.

Great day out