Ascents of The Nose

4 days and 3 nights in the wall (el cap tower ->great, camp 4 ->crap, camp 6 -> super slippery) with prehauling to sickle ledge. Amazing and exhausting experience!

Unfortunately didnt get a chance to get further than 6 pitches up the shnoz this season. Anthony and I did a 'dolt run' to practice speed climbing. I went with antons 'intermediate clove hitch' method of breaking up the death loop as opposed to the self belay because im not stoked about lead falling onto a device im wearing. The only sketchy moment was forgetting to undo one of the cloves and pulling a nut out from above. It was my only piece and i couldnt place above so i had to shimmy down and replace the nut. After that i just waited for tony to get up and put me on belay. Ultimately more research on this as well as the route itself would be needed for the holy 'niad'. A 3 or 4 day ascent might be a prerequisite.. Or 2 days with hammocks and only bars and drinking peoples piss off the wall to avoid hauling? Still stoked to get up on the 'best rock climb in the world' and look down the dawn wall with howling wind to juice up the exposure even more.

Climbed free up to 11a, aid the rest. We bailed at pitch 9 because of a hand injury.

When Henry and I first arrived in Yosemite, my stoke to climb much of anything was pretty low. Our campsite in El Portal was 40 minutes out of the park and offered all the social life that retirees in rental RVs could dream of. Oppressive heat baked every wall, and day by day the Valley seemed more like a concentration camp for hoardes of ill-informed tourists than a climbing destination.

After being cited by park rangers on our third day of climbing I was ready to throw in the towel, and had Henry not been on this trip I probably would have.

Nonetheless, the pile of aid gear we had both amassed beckoned to be used, and with some inspiration from Nick and Dave (and assurance there’s no rangers hiding in the stovelegs) we set off.

I should note that both Henry and I wanted to climb pure alpine style, that is without fixing and hauling to Sickle. In hindsight our early arrival at El Cap Tower meant we could have done this, but on Nick’s advice we compromised by hauling every pitch (including Pine Line and first four) but fixing lines from Sickle and sleeping on the ground. Personally I think this is a big concession in style, but it possibly avoided an epic and got us ahead of the crowds, so I'm happy we did it.

Day 1: Jug to Sickle. Henry led every pitch to arrive on El Cap Tower at 5:20pm.

Day 2: Mini epic on the Texas flake. Originally Henry was to take the first block, but we swapped for me to lead this pitch. Didn’t die. Henry flashed the King Swing and I recovered from a pretty bad bonk to lead from Grey Bands to Camp 5. The Great Roof was seeping with slimy algae, which made backcleaning the entire thing (so that Henry could lower out) a pretty spicy experience.

Day 3: Bit of a slow start while 4 all-star NIAD teams passed us. Triple-crowners Nick and Danford, Connor Herson, Tom Herbert, YOSAR rangers… we felt like the only gumbies on the wall! I led the wild bolt ladder clipping 3 bolts in the top 30 meters and we followed the final NIAD team down to the valley floor.

Overall a pretty cool end to a pretty cool trip, and possibly my last log here. I've started to realise I'm not quite eloquent enough to express how I feel on bigger objectives in writing, and most often I simply don't want to. Back in Sydney in a bit

Flashed NIAD 9 hours. First time climbing The Captain

Dolt run. Averaged 50 mins per pitch until stovelegs traffic slowed us. Learned how to aid in a tree the day before.

Goal was to keep up with 3 French wizards who overtook us on the footstool (both their seconds freeing everything to Dolt). Mission was kinda accomplished.

1 and a half pitches.

19h05

Bailed from Sickle Ledge after Rob injured his ankle. Unfinished business. Planning to go back for this one.

Realisation of a long term dream to climb El Cap. This was our second attempt after the aborted effort a week earlier. Cheated a little bit by jugging fixed lines to Sickle, thereby skipping the first four pitches that we had already climbed the first time. Hauled to Sickle on a warm day, then waited for the cold weather to blast off. I was questioning our strategy while jugging the fixed lines in the cold rain at 2 am, but it blew over and we had great sunny, cool conditions for the next four days. Lost about four hours on the traverse into the stove legs when I got the lead rope stuck in a lower out sling. Had to wait for a couple of slow Canadians behind us to catch up and free it. Other than that it was smooth sailing to the top. Only saw two other parties on the route. A couple of fast Swiss guys passed us at camp IV, and Thomas and Christoph the crazy Germans climbed behind us from the great roof to camp VI, then went in front the next day. The bivy on top was magic, made even better by the deep sense of satisfaction that came from finally achieving a multi-year goal.

First attempt at the Nose. After climbing and hauling to sickle we waited a day before blasting off. Ended up behind a couple of other parties which slowed things down a lot. Bivied on Dolt first night. Ran into a traffic jam on top of the Boot Flake and had to wait ages, then struggled with the King Swing. Tried maybe 10 times before taking a bad swing back into the wall and injuring my hip and ankle. The party in front of us threw me a line so I could pull on to Eagle ledge. Spent a very uncomfortable night there. Climbed two more pitches the next day, but gave up due to pain in my hip. Rapped to Dolt that afternoon, spent the night, then rapped to the ground the next day.

3d 2 nights on wall, night at top plus prefix and hauled to sickle.

Super fun. In 9 hours with Dan.

Dedicated second on my first big wall. I'll have to come back and swing pitches, at least take all the C1's, on my next go.

3 days, 2 nights

5 days. Nailed by a thunderstorm day 3. climbed through a snowstorm day 4. Got the adventure we were chasing!

Epic. Lots of free climbing up to 5.9 and pancake flake 10a. Aided the harder pitches. First day just lead fix and haul to sickle. Day 2 up to el cap tower. Day 3 to camp V. Topped out next day at 4pm and in the valley by dusk. So psyched for NIAD next time!