christ, dissappear for a fawk'n day n' everyone starts misspelling yer fawk'n name!
mike n' i, on my first attempted ascent of yw sans guide did the first 2 1/2 pitches proper, then went stupid right just short of the pin anchors (my fault, but fawk, there's pins up that slab and seemed logical at the time! - i have no giddamn memory of what happened after that short of the memory of abject fear while wallowing through endless amounts of moss n' shit until i lead out, at least 2 pitches later after following some very hard shit mike did, on the last bit of rock w/ desperate holds requiring cleaning 3 or 4 inches of leaf and ant-shit - i whined a particuliar tune of bruce springstein that vouched safe my immortal soul and gave me the proper nubbin
in some ways, i prefer that first ascent of the proto-yw more than any other