Skull Queen C2 5.8

I had just finished my final exams, and NEEDED to get off the deck. But where may one do such in the middle of December? Thankfully, the Valley gods graced us with a dry weekend and minimal snow just after my finals ended. Game on.
The team was as follows:
1) Elliot Faber AKA Faberaid

Faber is a crafty and unassuming 20 year old whose infectious psyche and enthusiasm is capable of clearing the heaviest of Yosemite storms. He is extremely talented with tools and is destined to become a great aid climber. He recently soloed the WF of Leaning Tower.
2) Zach Parke aka Zacksquatch
Zach is a multifaceted bike messenger with a quiet, yet uncontrollable affinity for climbing. Zach has his own company, Prototype, and makes handmade chalk bags, wall hammocks (see Mark Hudon's Shield TR), Aiders, and really anything you may ask him to. Buy his stuff. He also recently sent Mescalito.
3) Mark Seelos AKA Mittens
A veteran supertopo Troll, you may recognize me as an annoyance with nothing worthwhile to contribute to this forum. As such, take this trip report as an apology for all of those "Grack Redpoint" Posts. If you've climbed a wall in Yosemite in the last year, you may have seen me bailing off of it. Yet still determined to break "free" of my free climbing comfort zone, aid climbing is finally starting to become first nature.

Our friend Scott gave us the beta that the Column was the wall to do, and the route we settled on was Skull Queen.

We hiked out to the base the night before after cragging at the Cookie. We slept in that sweet little cave and started climbing at 5:15ish
We used the "SHORT FIXING" method, which kicks ass! The first four pitch block was mine, and I climbed fast, doing a ton of free climbing.
Zach Crushed the second block quick, but bloodied his finger while testing a micronut on the 6th pitch. (Fixed heads are missing on this pitch). Sadly, the only photo we got of Zach leading his block sucked, but Faber got a nice one of his feet.
Also notable in Zach's block is that he got through the 5.9 OW by standing ON the #5 cam and thrutching a few feet past it in approach shoes.
Next came Faber's block. The 9th pitch went fast with many fixed heads, bringing us to the Clance Stance.
This next pitch was the crux of the climb and Faber's Hardest aid lead to date. He crushed it and had fun the whole time!
The next pitch went fast: a spectacular paper-thin lieback flake slabbing out onto the top of the column.
We made the summit at 5:15ish, 12 hours after we started.
The NDG was EASY AS EVER, as much of the snow has melted and made the dusty kitty litter into hard packed dirt. It went fast and soon we were back at the base.
We met our friend Shaun and Faber's Faberette, Sarah, back in Camp 4 and after hanging out for an hour, Zach, Sean, and I made the drive back to Santa Cruz (enduro crux). We stopped once en route for Chalupas (no meat), which are ONLY good after a long day of climbing.
We all had a lot of fun, and were psyched to get such a nice weekend in the middle of Winter. We can't wait to climb another route! I see this as the first of many wall sends this year!
Thanks for reading!