| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2007-08-31 20:20:36 UTC-0400 |
| Description | Woody Hoburg Darren Verploegen Northwest Face of Half Dome Regular Route; 5.9 C1 Yosemite Valley, CA, August 19-24, 2007 Finally we climbed the route weve been obsessing over since we failed on it last summer. It still took us two tries this summer and a trip out of the valley to replace busted gear, but eventually we stopped making mistakes and got it done. My dad came out and tagged along with us on the approaches. He took lots of photos both from the base and from the summit, and even ferried my empty backpack uphill about a mile, saving us lots of time on the descent! It was great to have him around and to have a cheering section. ***** Try One: Failure ***** There are two options to approach. Last year, we took the slabs, which are steep, direct, fast, and often hammered by rock fall. This year we opted to hike around on the Muir Trail, a longer 7.5 miles, but a very gentle and appealing trail to schlep heavy loads on. The spring at the base of the climb was iffy, so we filled up our 5 gallon water bladder at Little Yosemite, half way up the approach. The Northwest Face is blessed with shade all morning and until about 2pm. Its always really nice to climb in the shade, and amazing how much faster we moved and how much less water we drank when we werent in the sun. On the day we approached, we arrived at the base of the route around 2, meaning we had to fix three pitches in the sun. On the bright side, we drank enough water to noticeably improve the weight of the haul bag! We fix and haul the first three pitches and then rap back to the ground and sleep at the base, giving us a huge headstart the next morning. Just before sunrise, we clipped our sleeping bags to our harnesses and started ascending our fixed lines. Since we both had ascenders (Darren used prussiks last year), we were at the top of pitch 3 within about 15 minutes of starting. A quick haul bag packing and gear racking and we were off, cruising up the pitches we knew well from last summer. As I started off on pitch 8, we noted that the pitch traversed enough that we ought to lower out the haul bag Darren ties the haul bag in short after I finish the pitch, and then uses the excess line to lower the bag out until it is under me, instead of letting it swing across the face. I got to the top of pitch 8 and started my normal belay business build an anchor, call off belay, set up the haul, put Darren on belay, start hauling. This time I had to wait while Darren tied the haul bag in short. Suddenly I heard the scariest rock! Rock! ROOCCKK!!!! call Ive ever heard out of Darren. Im not sure at what point I realized that it was our haul bag I think I saw a shoe out of the corner of my eye, telling me we had definitely lost gear. Darren was still yelling, so I could tell he was still safe, and I knew I was still on a good anchor. There was some silence, and finally Darren called up, Its all over. In about 10 seconds, we had gone from excited, moving well, and very sure we were going to make it up the climb, to the realization that we had just dropped all our sleeping gear, water and food, and that we would be rapping off. I immediately started thinking about when next summer we might come back to try for a third time, and more importantly, whether I would be able to contain myself for another year knowing I still hadnt completed the route. Its interesting what you think about in a moment like that; Im sure it would differ from person to person. I was very interested in how I would respond. I was pretty sure I would be angry at Darren for dropping the bag. I just kept expecting myself to become angry with him. But it never happened. I knew he felt 10 times worse than I did, and I knew he would do anything in the world to hit Ctrl-Z on what had just happened. I still didnt know how exactly it had happened, just that it had happened, that we now needed to rap off, and that we needed to keep thinking and be safe on all the raps. I rapped down to Darren and told him we could figure out what happened later. Turns out there was a group below us, and the haul bag narrowly missed one of them who was pooping in a bag on a ledge. He was happy to announce that our haul bag quite literally scared the crap out of him. They were both great guys, very cheerful and friendly considering we just threw a haul bag down at them. I was also a little worried about my dad, who could have been at the base and in danger of being hit by the bag, but it turns out he was off getting water and totally safe. The reason for the haul bag dropping was anchoring it in temporarily with a single non-locking biner -- the straps crossed over the gate and unclipped themselves. We vowed to in the future treat the bag like we would a person and always anchor it in with a locker. We rapped off, cleaned up our mess, hiked out, got dinner, went to bed, and slept in. The next day we had to decide what to do. Darren and I were both a little bummed and especially put off by the prospect of repeating the long approach with heavy packs that we had just done the previous two days. But, we knew there was only one climb we really wanted to do. We both wanted to go give half dome another shot, so we set about replenishing our food, and the exploded water bladder the only piece of damaged gear in the fall other than two carabineers and some trash bags. Turned out we needed a trip to wal-mart, but we scored two new water bladders, wall food, and some Quiznos. ***** Try Two: Success ***** We arrived back in the valley after our resupply, and Darren just had one of those great ideas. Its always hot and miserable on the approach and for fixing, so lets do the approach at night! So at 10PM we started back up the Mist Trail, armed and ready for three more days. We caught some zs at Little Yosemite, and then grabbed water and finished the approach the next morning. The benefit was getting the first three pitches fixed in the shade. We rapped back down as the sun hit, and enjoyed resting up under shade trees the rest of the afternoon. We were feeling good, and although I still felt a little sick of anything involving climbing, there was nothing obvious that might keep us from summiting. In the morning we jugged the fixed lines in the dark, packed the bag, and started up the aid section of pitch 4 by headlamp. We were making good time and soon cruised past our previous highpoint, on up a bolt ladder and pendulum, to a nice ledge at pitch 11. There, we grabbed lunch out of the haul bag. Our big wall cuisine consists of applesauce, canned corn, chocolate pudding, bagels with peanut butter, Gatorade powder, cliff bars, pop tarts, and some delicious jerky and dried strawberries courtesy of my mom and dad. During lunch, I mentally prepared myself for the chimney pitches above. Luckily, the 5.6 chimney was a lot easier than it looked, and when I thought the haul bag was permanently stuck a pitch above, Darren did some magic and it was free. Above on pitch 14, the SuperTopo described a 5.7 airy chimney. Never before have I been so scared and complained so much on a 5.7. All I had to do was stick my back on one wall and smear my feet on the other and shuffle up, but I was certain that I would spit out of it with no pro and land either on Darren or beside him in a big heap. I ended up getting C2 micro nut placements and aiding 5.7. Now thats shameful. Darkness was approaching, so we kept firing off the pitches until it got really dark at the top of pitch 16. There, we sat down and grabbed another bite to eat. One pitch above was Big Sandy Ledge, our bivy. Finally we got moving again and did that last pitch by headlamp, arrived at the beautiful, spacious ledge, and went to bed sleeping in our harnesses, still roped in. For me, mentally, the climb was over the next morning. We had completed the long 17 pitch day; we had gotten our food, water, and bivy gear up, and we were still alive and kicking. As far as I was concerned, there was no way we were going to have any trouble banging out the 6 pitches to the summit, and I was right. We slept in a bit to 7am, and then I started up the first of the three zig-zag pitches 3 pitches of sustained aid. Above, we crossed left on the ever-narrowing Thank God Ledge, and, what, wait a second, got passed!?!? The two guys had started at the base at 10 and blasted up the route in maybe four hours. Not too shabby for 23 pitches. They did a lot of simul climbing and short fixed everything they didnt simul. Awesome. Their names were Greg and Aaron; two great guys and a joy to chat with while they cruised by. The last couple pitches were pretty trivial; we topped out and enjoyed the pleasure of taking shoes and harnesses off, looking back down at the face, and laying on flat ground. Then we sped down the cables and out the Muir Trail to Curry Village just in time for pizza. Ive been obsessed with this climb for a long time, and it felt fantastic to finally do it. Thanks, Darren it was a lot of fun. -WH |