Prow C2F 5.6

July 2011 I was taking my "lead test" at Planet Granite in Sunnyvale. We were real climbers now I thought. We can lead climb. Although looking back this wasn't the major accomplishment I though it was at the time, it got the ball rolling for what would be my obsession for the next year and still is. I still remember my first trip to the Valley, realizing I didn't have any of the gear I needed to climb there. I didn't know how the hell to use a cam or nut, let alone what a good placement looked like. I went and bought a set of nuts and proceeded to climb everything I could with these nuts. I obviously wanted to progress, and ended up selling just about everything I own to buy a rack. Once I had the rack, my life was over.

At this point all I thought about was climbing. Aid climbing had not come on my radar yet, but I was excited to free climb. I spent most weekends through the winter in the Valley and was starting to become a half way decent free climber.

In Yosemite I always find myself looking up. It's hard not to look at the immense granite walls and think, someday.... I now knew I needed to learn this aid climbing stuff, so I redirected my focus. I spent a few months practicing on different c1 routes and spent A LOT of time jugging. After a few months of practice I was finally getting the hang of aiding and was now just kind of slow, instead of horribly slow.

I spent months trying to convince various other noob wall climbing friends that we should go for it and get on a wall. Some of my friends refused to learn how to aid climb, so they were out, and others were willing but did not have the time. Finally, I ran into an old coworker who was up for it. I knew he climbed, but had no idea he was into walls, and had done a few already.

He wanted to do Zodiac....in two days.... Some of you probably saw my other thread "Zodiac noob beta," which I posted partly because I did not feel prepared for Zodiac as my first wall, and mostly because I did not feel ready to do it in two days. I borrowed some pins and heads from my friend Brad Young (mtnyoung) and he gave me some encouragement (although he knew I was gonna die fer sure!)

When we showed up in the Valley on Thursday (6/7) Zodiac was packed. I was pretty happy about this haha. I said let's go check out Washington Column since we only have two and a half days to climb something. We scoped out the Column and saw The South Face was packed, but The Prow was empty. This seemed like a good way to go because the aid is at least c2 so it will be at least a little more exciting for John since he has some experience on walls, and not too difficult for me. Decided, we are doing The Prow.
As we were filling up our water at the Ahwahnee, they had a security guard watching us! HAHAHAHAHA. Have to watch them dirtbags I guess?!

That day we hiked up to the base with plans to fix the first three pitches that afternoon. When we got to the base we saw a soloist starting up the route....crap! Luckily he was super cool and said he was going to stop at the top of the first pitch and we could pass! We decided to do the 10b alternate start, which was very fun free climbing.
We stopped at the half way belay on the 1st pitch to let the soloist get down.
The second part of the pitch takes cam hooks really well, as it suggest in the supertopo.
John blasted up the first two pitches, and then it was my turn to lead the third. The first half is c1 and pretty basic (make sure to back clean!) The second half of the pitch consisted of clipping fixed pins and copperheads, mixed in with some thin gear. This was the first time I had really done this, and it was a little exciting stepping up onto OLD gear. It all held and when I reached the top of the 3rd pitch, we were done for the day. We rapped down to the ground, and left our ropes waiting for us in the morning.
I usually don't sleep well before a big day of climbing. I normally have a mix of excitement and nerves that don't let me sleep. But after driving into the Valley super late, getting very little sleep the night before, and hiking and climbing that day, I fell asleep right away (I think the beer helped too.)

4:30 is just way too early to wake up. We had went back and forth the night before about just finishing the route the next day or hauling more (including a portaledge) and spending a night on the wall. John is all about going light and fast so we decided to send the route the next day. This being my first wall I was a little worried about going fast, but I was up for it...until we woke up at 4:30. We both looked at each other and without saying anything both knew we wanted to go back to sleep. But a little suffering is part of walls right? We manned up, cleaned up camp, and headed back to the base of The Prow.
Time to jug! Jugging from the top of the first pitch to the top of the third was a little rough since it was overhanging. I had practiced jugging free hanging lines before this, so luckily I wasn't too slow. We decided to skip a hauling device since we were going with a really small bag.
After jugging and then hand-over-hand hauling the bag, my forearms started to cramp...sh#t. I have never had my forearms cramp before, but I think the lack of a warm up and trying to hand-over-hand haul a skinny rope took its toll. Oh well, stretch it out, man up, and lead the fourth pitch. I got up the pitch without my arms hurting, sweet, maybe I just needed to warm up. I start hauling...no bueno, arms hurt. Sh#t, Ok, new plan. Hand-over-hand hauling is stupid even with a relatively light load. I set up a basic body haul setup, this was slower, but saved my arms. Ok this should work better.
John starts up the fifth pitch and I chew on some beef jerky and drink some water to hopefully help with the arms. He gets through the pitch no problem, and it's time for me to jug. BTW the blown head on this pitch is still blown as of 6/8. You can use a beak on top of it, but when we did it there was a cord attached to the bolt above it, and you could use that as the lower clip in point instead of the head. I jugged the pitch, and my arms felt just ok.
Ok arms are working, time to lead. I start up the seventh pitch and arms are fine. Wooohooo! I don't have to be a wuss and let John lead everything. The seventh pitch anchor shows two bolts on the topo, but there is one bolt, one good pin, and a bomber #1 camalot placement. I was able to move pretty quickly aiding this pitch and was proud of this.
John made quick work of the eighth pitch. The walk over to the fixed pin during the traverse was exciting! We both agreed that hammering that pin in on the first ascent must have been truly wild. John unclipped the first few fixed pieced and bolt so I didn't have to lower out, to speed things up a bit.
Since we were making good time we decided to stop and eat lunch on Tapir Terrace. It was really nice to be able to sit down on a ledge for the first time in awhile.
I led the ninth pitch, which Chris Mac said he would call more c2 than c1 and I would have to agree. However, if I was wearing free climbing shoes this pitch would have been easier. I wish I had these as it would have made the second half of the pitch go much faster. The anchor at the top of the ninth pitch used a fixed pin and good cams (can't remember what sizes).
The next few pitches went fast. It would have been nice to have free shoes for the eleventh pitch too. The aiding was easy, but free climbing would have been fast and a bit more fun.
Would like to thank Mark Hudon for helping me understand the butterfly knot style anchor. Super fast, easy, and clean (although this picture isn't the best example.) The left bolt has a butterfly knot with a long loop, and then this is equalized with a clove hitch to the second bolt. The picture isn't that clear, but you get the idea. Mark was nice enough to answer some questions I had about anchors, and now this is the setup I will use all the time.
To be honest I was kind of surprised when we topped out with a lot of day light left. I knew were moving pretty fast, but I thought when I was leading my aiding was slow, I guess I don't give myself enough credit :) . We did it though. My first big wall summit. It was a mix of emotions that I didn't picture having when I thought about making it up my first wall. I was tired, hurting, and stoked. I expected to be ready to jump on another wall in a few days, but at that moment I just wanted to be down and drinking water and eating...and then beer.
When we made it down, we did the mandatory "we didn't die" high five, and walked back to the car and then headed to camp 4. That night I was excited I sent my first wall, but I had this weird feeling that I sort of wasn't ready to jump on another one. It was hard work, scary, and now I'm hurting. But I was still stoked. The next day I woke up and my mindset was more in the place of where I thought it would have been. I was stoked. I was excited for the next wall, and now, every day that passes I am wanting more and more to get back up on a wall. There it is, I'm hooked.

Thanks for reading