We met up at the ahwanee parking lot at 10 and packed kit (one metolius halfdome size bag) and hiked up to the base. We brought the gear listed below..
-metolius halfdome bag
-60m dynamic and 8m static for hauling
-triple set of cams
-single set of offsets
-2 sets of rp's and 1 set of offset rp's
-set of cam hooks, talon, bat hook, med pecker
-spaghetti o's..
-1.5 gallons per day per person
-ect
We made it to the base at 2pm to find a party on p4 and just as we started up p1, he ripped and took a 20 footer which set an interesting tone for the afternoon.
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 Mickey gettn stoked! Credit: Jaysen |
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Mickey crushed the first pitch in under an hour and I jugged the line to the base of the c2+ pitch that apperantally used to be rated c3.
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 Mickey up p1 Credit: Jaysen |
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P2 was sustained and broken up by good pins, but otherwise i learned how to use Mickey's offset rp's real quick, even a cam hook. The last time i had been on this pitch my partner had blown the first move off the ledge to the pin and decked. It made the pitch seem kinda scary but once I got on it it was no big deal. I managed to remain calm through the duration of the crux climbing but once i made it to the thin hand crack before the anchors there was surely some long exhales. I moved into my crash course on hauling and couldn't believe how simple it was, not to mention i got to break in mickey's badass wall seat which i used at a wall ledge to stand on and dubbed it the "thank god ledge".
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 mickey and i on the ledge at the base of p4 Credit: Jaysen |
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Mickey crushed p3 which involved some c2F which he claimed as no big deal. This put us at our bivy ledge. Mickey wipped out his plush runout customs ledge and we settled in for the night. This being my first wall experience also made it my first ledge experience. Im from new york so there aren't any real "bigwalls" so working in yosemite this summer has been my intro. Drank a few cobras (forgot mickey was 16 and then realized it wasn't weird when he dident want one) and put down some spagetti o's (my new favorite wall and ground food) and tried to get some sleep. Had a really hard time sleeping and at this point realized that i had been mildly gripped the whole time i was on the wall. I have always been good with short spurts of scary situations but this extended reality was a new feeling to me. While it dident paralyze me, it was something i was surprised was there.
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 on the wall Credit: Jaysen |
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Woke up and I was up to lead P4, this pitch ended up being the crux pitch for me, near the top there were a few back to back hooking moves that I weighted very lightly, also 3 or 4 fixed heads. At this point the party above us bailed passed up as mickey was jugging and mickey took p5 through the reachy bolt ladder.
We arrived at the base of p6 and with the goal of making it to p8 we decided to retreat. We couldn't spend another night because i had work in the morning and also it was hard to motivate to climb the next 2 pitches just to rep. I surely got my first wall experience, I felt like i climbed some real moderate aid. Even when we were bailing we were stoked, not a single fall, not a single error, pure bliss and smoothness. I feel like that not how walls usually go..
Mickey is gonna post his photos in the comments ( his are way better than mine and there are more of them) and hopefully i'll be doing lurking fear, the nose or halfdome soon. So keep an eye out for us. And im always looking for wall pertners!
