Royal Arches 5.10b or 5.7 A0

Here goes my first supertopo trip report. Enjoy. My wife Jessy and I awake at 5am on saturday and drive to the parking area for royal arches. We decided to do the alternate start under the light of our headlamps and I arrived on the ledge after the first pitch at 6am. So far it seemed like we were the first ones on the route. We stayed roped up and simul climbed up to the start of the fifth pitch passing a party of three euros and did not see anyone else for the rest of the day. Just like the boys who did snake dike We DID NOT SEE ANYONE ELSE. We pitched out some short sections but mostly simul climbed up to the penji. We don't have many pictures because we were trying to move fast but here are the ones we took. I just finished the penji and took my shoes off which worked well walking through the waterfall while linking pitches 9 and 10.
Here is a shot looking down the valley towards the cathedrals.
This is right after the penji and I am placing gear before the step down to the 4th class ledge
Jessy just at the end of the 4th class traverse loving the cold water.
The traversing pitches were wet but no big deal. We simuled up to the rap stations and then did the last wet slab pitch with shoes on. I was able to avoid most of the water by stepping over it and staying low by the old bolt. We were in the forest by 10:30am. The crux of the route came while trying to get to the rim where we had to cross this wet slime slab. Once on top we refilled our water bottles. Jessy still looks happy after 15 pitches and ready for the hike up to north dome.
We found the trail easily and soon we were on the slabs working our way up to north dome
It took us about an hour to get to the base of the climb where we had lunch and began crest jewel at 12pm.
I combined the first two pitches and moved quickly on the perfect rock with great friction. This route is great with awesome views of halfdome.
I think this is the 3rd pitch on supertopo which was the 2nd pitch for us where you traverse the dike and then head straight up.
It got pretty windy right before the 2nd crux pitch but we pushed to the top and we linked the last two pitches with about 10ft of simulclimbing to topout at 4:20pm. So about 9 hours of climbing. Here are some summit shots.
Looking back if we could have jumped in the car at the top of north dome it would have been a great day. But instead it was a good day because the descent worked us both. We tried to find the trail that leads to upper yosemite falls but failed to do so. We began walking down what looked like a climbers trail that turned into a deer trail and then no trail. We were in down mode so we finally made it to the approach slabs and worked our way to the north dome gully trail. We had no problem staying on the trail during the day and we were lucky to be experiencing the north dome gully with the sun still out. If it was night time it could have been a whole different story. We made it back to the car at 8pm. So approx. 14 hours car to car. My wife says she will still climb with me but never do anything that long again. As of today we are still married. She is an awesome partner who does not complain and climbs fast and hard. I am lucky to have her.
Sean