mutz

Cool, guys, thanks a lot for the help!

Trip: Slesse East Pillar Attempt and SE Couloir Descent - Date: 9/26/2017 Trip Report: A few weekends ago, Jimmy and I spent two nights and days up at Slesse camped at the propellor cairn. Here are some notes from the trip that include details on our East pillar attempt and a descent of the SE couloir from the summit. Day 1 - East Pillar attempt I think Jimmy and I were more excited to just be away from life and the computer for a bit, so we both failed to set an alarm. Our plan was to wake up and climb the East pillar in a day, with an intention of returning down Marc Andre's new descent route. I opened my eyes at what was probably a good 530 or 6. The fact that I didn't know the time reflects our over-confidence and lack of planning, both of which we would pay for later. We did breakfast, coffee, then headed toward the approach to the route. [img:center]https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/17vM8_tAz5Vhtv5lMT_n1Zqa5OpddqTE83GPk4ZDJqkBHIs_x8NNWMz9bAWryeLqxrKOZsyknnKEU4_Jb1selr-TDErp2eZ9OC26fzrySOaM48X20rhBug6Mpq1dXGgcsZI1GWOvM8OjWfbAT1I-0mGf9qjDyHuu1aY=s0-d-e1-ft#http://chasingmastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ridge-crest-below-east-pillar-copy-1024x682.jpg[/img] Jimmy nearing me where the ridge crest meets the East Face/Pillar. The propeller cairn is on the slabs in the lower right. Approach I was more interested in the direct approach up the slabs, then heading up what are supposed to be 3 pitches of 5.8-5.10 terrain to the start of the book pitches. This approach method is documented in Blake's book, Cascade Rock. I was less interested in the other option, which was to gain the ridge crest that runs down from the route to the notch used to access the NEB from the propellor cairn side. In the end, Jimmy and I decided to go with this second approach option, which was listed in other books (specifically Fred's red guide). It required a full 60m pitch + some simul-cimbing of what varied from 5.5 to 5.8 to gain the ridge 100m up from the notch. We then did another 5.9 pitch which passed left around a roof/capped ramp, over a slab with a piton or two (we found a second one on the descent), and up a one-move-wonder-but-still-challenging-in-approach-shoes-left-slanting-wide-crack to some small trees. From here we simuled and simul-soloed (placing faith in terrain belays) to reach the base of the first 5.10 pitch (pitch 2 in the Mclane guide). Most of the ridge crest from this point contained really easy scrambling on heathered slopes and boulders, but we simuled as I've promised myself lately that I would push for simul-climbing rather than soloing in an effort to reduce controllable risk. I'm beginning to believe that simul-climbing is actually a lot less riskier but not too much slower if done right. We would continue in this fashion through the initial 5.8 corner to the base of the 5.10 pitches. At the base of the 5.8, we found two rotting pitons which we would later use on the descent. The approach could be done in 2 hours at reasonable pass by a fit party. Route attempt Jimmy led the first 5.10 pitch in two, splitting it up mostly due to some route finding challenges above the left-facing corner and proceeding flake. His second lead deposited us at a belay under a small roof feature on two quarter inch bolts. This total first pitch is probably 40 meter in length, with 10 m of climbing after passing the bolt mentioned in several guide books. From this bolt above the flake, go up and move left around the small overlap/corner and then up through the small overlap. Though we had planned to lead in blocks, I took over the lead at the bolted station in hopes that I would be able to move faster as the better rock climber between the two of us. To my own dismay, I felt gripped and out-of-touch climbing up the technical face where I found protection via set space, rusty button heads. I clipped two, then reached the third after placing some small cams behind a hollow-sounding flake that did fortunately hide a great pin. At this third buttonhead, I gave paused to whether the route went right or left. Unable to find the fourth bolt marked on the topo to guide me, I traversed to the left, reversed the moves, climbed up, reversed the moves, then longingly looked out right to what seemed to be easier climbing. I started out right, but then stopped midway through some moves I didn't want to reverse . It seemed like the right path, but I didn't want to find myself well above the old rusty button heads on harder terrain. [img:center]https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/oAR5Df5go9Lf6n-7BKe47F3lFExU4QKGDSsYg5tJ_cIy3iW-OZK8eVQGyrcCquQHfDSy9YDjeftbVxGSdSWxXAjSi5WcP5pW7cLghYzXxR7XU-u8b1CXP8XR5LAd5Eq1=s0-d-e1-ft#http://chasingmastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DSC08601-1024x683.jpg[/img] First 5.10 pitch route finding [img:center]https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/w6hblqExpQONFQaH5SUxyJlci9NPI0SAaEbZ5sqMI2_MYey4UglEUYlP-8ACD0ttQqq5y602YAbLourBa3-e6QyBCDF-vg90qCubPlR8JNXm5Y97h_gI=s0-d-e1-ft#http://chasingmastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DSC08602.jpg[/img] Good pro! We were only two pitches up at this point, but Jimmy and I took tally of our situation. We decided that it was time to go down. While only noon or so, we were on track for a long route at our current pace. This followed by a long, complex, and unknown descent (the SE couloir descent I'll discuss below). Without any bivy gear whatsoever, we were both interested in coming back stronger and more prepared than pushing our way up into a forced bivvy. Learning from our failure In camp that night and in the following days we would discuss turning around. On one hand, with so much day left, it seemed a funny choice: why forsake a spectacular 'tick' because it would have involved a little bit of suffering? We were through some of the harder climbing already (there were just a handful of 5.10 pitches). Through consideration of our decision, I think we both have come to admit that we have moved past the glorification of suffering and epics, and become more willing to acknowledge mistakes in evaluating our preparation, skill level, the route. Suffering and epics are sometimes part of the game, but they are not what I enjoy about climbing. Looking back, I am thinking climbing through those moves encountered on the east face. I know I could do so with poise, BUT, it would take me more time to choose to accept the risk. I was unable to commit to that commitment under the time pressure. I think what I had failed to do, and a huge reason for the lack of confidence I felt in committing to moving up on my pitch (and more generally the route) was the huge gap between my expectations for the route and reality. I expected moderate climbing on discontinuous cracks that could be protected to a reasonably degree. Instead, I had found face climbing on marginal protection via hard-to-inspect in-situ gear. The situation was challenging to confront and reason through in that moment. Dissecting our failure on the route even further, I would also identify these other causes: Our lack of ability to build a set of expectations on what we would find from guide book literature. Cascade's Rock indeed describes the climbing on the East Pillar as an "inobvious line via face..." climbing. Somehow we read passed this. The time-and-place decision making due to our lack of research reduce our confidence: "should we take the direct approach or gain the ridge near the notch and traverse from there?" I think these sorts of discussions, when just starting the day, are a far cry from the excellence in execution often required for complex climbing objectives. Lack of the appropriate gear. Bivvy gear, pins, or bolt kit would all have made continuing up a more reasonable choice for us. Quite coincidentally, near the time of writing this, I found this article by Arno of the Rock Warriors' Way: https://warriorsway.com/the-importance-of-doing-a-thorough-thinking-process/. Arno's suggestion of defining a goal, the consequences and a plan seems like one way to consider taking a more calculated approach to planning an objective like this in the future. Whatever, the approach next time, I am excited to go back for the East Pillar. It represents a challenging climb from which I will probably learn a lot more. The "improbable" line it weaves just left of the East Face is appealing, the ambiguity of the features from afar leave me wondering what will be up there. It will be fun to return stronger physically and mentally. Day 2 - North East Buttress and SE Couloir descent option [img:center]https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/5XYdTTT3XRJ1-OUdjJzfFjM1S-g2JxY1fEnpA6xgKI5AEKtqxc1SeiubNK5PfUo_pHGDAjcjfyDY-Oy3-Hj1Fp3rAiIZfWZon2gFZ1jrcIgqmUsBn4rt=s0-d-e1-ft#http://chasingmastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DSC08644.jpg[/img] The classic NEB shot Our feeling of lack of preparation then leaked into the rest of the weekend. We had headed up to camp at the start of the weekend with route information for North Rib, NEB, East Pillar, and Navigator Wall. The evening of day 1, we contemplated what to tackle with our remaining time and energy. The Navigator Wall seemed too ambitious given our experience that day on the East Pillar, and returning to East Pillar with a more developed strategy and set of expectations, though somewhat enticing, didn't seem logical. We had climbed the NEB before, and climbing the North Rib would required inventing a new approach from the propellor cairn (feasible, has likely been done before, but an unknown to us at that moment). In the end, we decided to climb the NEB, but then to investigate a new descent route pioneered by Marc Andre Leclerc. We brought a very lightweight bivvy kit so that we could try to link the NEB into the North Rib via the crossover if we reached the summit after the former in some ungodly time. With a minimal bivvy kit, we would be able to decide on the summit after the NEB if we wanted to push into the day and evening or instead just begin the new descent option. North East Buttress We left camp at 3am and got to the summit around 1030am after simul-ing the entire route, which I guess went in something like 4 hours after accounting for the approach. We did it with a 60m rope and a double rack between .3 and 1" cams, with a single #2 and single #3. We shortened the rope to 40m for most of the climb but used the entire length when simul-climbing through the 10a crux pitch. This allowed Jimmy to build a belay above on a nice ledge before I reached some of the more difficult climbing passing through the roof. We did five pitches total. In all: 1) one from library ledge to a book pitch below the 5.10, 2) one approaching and through 5.10 to next good ledge. 3-5) Then three more simul blocks, split as we met a friendly party of two near the summit. [img:center]https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/ilYWHJb1QzS2AmuTWPw0Jv7kaA63Kdav2SvOHaTqMDcFK-UxRt97w2Ay9L52CXagnLBYfj7ML8CHpo1ziRILy_fQKEML6iW7VPJat5NhPflzCP9tt_6_DOGzzufaGsRw=s0-d-e1-ft#http://chasingmastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DSC08630-683x1024.jpg[/img] Jimmy climbing through the 5.10 pitch on the NEB SE Couloirs Descent While the climb took us 6.5 hours from camp at the propellor cairn to here, the descent took us about 7.5. It was long, complex, and much more technical than the crossover. Marc Andre provided more than enough information to tackle it, but I'll elaborate here to provide a second opinion for those that are looking. We chose to take the descent in order to understand the value it might add as a way down for future climbs on Slesse. Hopefully some details will allow you to descend it in a faster manner than we did should you choose to take it. First high-level thoughts on this descent option: The south couloir as a descent option is optimal for those who have a reason for getting to the back of the east side of Slesse or the propellor cairn. It is not necessary in any manner for folks headed back to the car without stashed gear. The crossover descent, while it feels long, is much simpler and more appropriate for most parties. Parties considering this route should have ability to rappel/down-climb hundred and hundreds of feet of complex terrain with lots of loose rock. The descent is much more complex than the crossover. There aren't many mandatory rappels, or maybe any, if you are comfortable down-climbing 5.7. There exist only a few n-situ stations or obvious paths to follow. Most of the descent is 3rd class at a minimum with many 4th and low 5th areas. I wouldn't call the route-finding difficult, but it requires making many small route decisions over its entire duration. I would break it down this way: Summit to base of 1st set of cross over rappels - We traversed along the summit of Slesse to the south, following the cairns to the two rappels made by most parties to get off the summit block. These rappels (or down-climbing) deposit you on scree slopes on the west side of the summit. To the north (skiers right) is the direction taken to the cross over descent. Here the SE couloir descent heads left. You must reach the col that can be seen below the South summit of Slesse. You can get there by down-climbing a couloir just to the left of the ridge crest straight down the hill in front of you, and then by wrapping around on 3rd, 4th, and 5th class terrain to reach this col. A faster way might be to create a new rappel station on the top of tower/out-cropping to skiers left, and then to rappel onto the scree slopes. From here you would then traverse to the col, having skipped some circuitous down-climbing. Col to summit of South Summit of Slesse - To reach the top of the south summit, you can do what I did - lead a crazy pitch of 5.10 on stacked blocks in approach shoes, or you can take the easy way around. I recommend the later. When Jimmy followed the pitch I did in approach shoes, he literally yelled "Jeennnnggaaa" as a good joke. To take the easy variation, scramble up the buttress beneath the south summit from the col on low 5th terrain. Traverse to the right when it reduces in angle. Do this INSTEAD of heading straight up through the somewhat attractive but steeper looking corners above. They are more challenging than appears from below.. Gain the summit. Scramble from the south summit of Slesse down to the SE Couloir - Relatively straight forward. Down-climb to the south on third class screen slopes and gullies until you reach a short 5th class step. I lowered Jimmy down on a belay through this final step after we spent a lot of time trying to find a good anchor. I then down-climbed on the far skiers right. This puts you in at the top of the SE couloir. [img:center]https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/M85fQGEfWOw5okFH8iDyvitt7LaK2HUUZEriElRg7m9kOXWOvQgzfXvV0hSSVEzWs8h3UhK12HMvzsx8CmuEXnaF3OG630VgXJQjdB4tnIryVNT6fvbj=s0-d-e1-ft#http://chasingmastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DSC08651.jpg[/img] Looking up towards Jimmy as we down-climb the south summit of Slesse Descending the SE couloir to the split - Stay in the SE couloir until you can trend out on grassy ledges out left. Stay just to the left of the couloir on the grassy ledges, but do not wrap around the ridge to skiers left more than 20m or so from the gully at any point After descending 200-300 feet, we rappelled off a block or two on the grass ledges (4th class slopes). When the couloir split was about 50m below us, I lowered Jimmy the length of the rope so he could keep scouting ahead, then dropped the rope to him and started down-climbing. Here, one must eventually return to the main gut of the couloir to descend the last 10 meters to the split. [img:center]https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/f0NWO1nTIgrFsI5ZX-W_NgjbNuPJm59nB6gAMfi5ymw1u3sw9jTtWLOcFaLY-V8bQbNI42zh0I2eihDXSkdFTommmV7MFETt_OV4l6bz2LDOm1BAR27Q=s0-d-e1-ft#http://chasingmastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DSC08656.jpg[/img] Jimmy headed down the heathered boulders just skiers left of the SE Couloir [img:center]https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/m_grz-onUqMKpLxgAM2jqnIxxxFd0-3OKcYjpUwQK8X4Ks3w-4H5Eni07i6kxMy2isEbmAmkf0pcxZzIWBXL860VdQG-zrTT5HJ1Vdp1FEm8uPkJf0RU=s0-d-e1-ft#http://chasingmastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/DSC08659.jpg[/img] Jimmy at the base of the SE couloir with just one last bit to go. From the split of the couloir to the slabs way below - Take the left split, which runs down underneath the navigator wall. Make 3 rappels, we left or found several single nut rappels that we trusted. These exist but it will require a careful eye to find them. The first is on the Navigator wall side of the couloir, the next two on the other side. A third 30m rappel puts you a short scramble from the heathered slopes directly beneath the Navigator Wall. Contour skiers left across these slopes aiming for the large rock horn. Traversing the last few meters to this horn is exposed and hair-raising. Rappel from this horn 30m onto a grassy ledge. From here, you must traverse skiers left and down again to more solid rock on heathered footholds and rock that is poorly held by the slope. Be careful. After your gain better rock down and to the left, begin looking for stations again. From here there are 4-5 rappels down to the slabs below. Some of them are older, some younger, and it seems they are for different rope lengths so take your time with this last part of the descent to make sure it is done right. I wish I had more pictures to go along with the above, but I think competent parties who have the right skill level for this descent will do great as long as they give themselves plenty of time. Link to my blog with this TR: Slesse East Pillar Attempt and SE Couloir Descent Chris

A few weeks ago, Eric Wehrly and I headed up to Half-Moon to attempt some sort of squeeze job between routes that already exist on the NW aspect. One of them, Digging for Dreams, made it into Cascades Rock and we were curious what else might still be lingering (see: http://blog.alpineinstitute.com/2012/04/first-ascent-diggin-for-dreams.html). Of course, Eric and I didn't make it to Half-moon because of our short attention span. We cut off early to Wallaby and climbed what may be new terrain (or really old terrain - we were not sure based on what I remember being Fred's non-descript descriptions, or maybe Stecks?). Regardless, it was an adventure for the soul. We left no trace of our passage, so the line's next 'first ascensionists' should have just as much fun as we did. One photo I captured makes the climb look worthwhile: During our adventure we spotted some interesting terrain on Half-Moon that I do believe is was climbed. I went back this weekend with Jimmy to check it out. We probably should have been concerned that the gaping Bombay flare would block passage to the stellar looking pitches above, but alas, we are young and stupid. With big cams in tow, Jimmy and I wandered up to the base of the West ridge of Half Moon beneath this feature. We climbed an approach pitch that turned out to be both harder and most interesting than expected. From here, Jimmy then embarked on his quest for glory up into the gaping flare, henceforth known as "The Maw." The Maw: Disintegrating footholds and a suspect nut placement that nearly pulled off the block when tested led to some decent small cams that allowed Jimmy to reach the roof. He then stemmed, crawled, and tunneled his way towards the light. After plugging the #5, Jimmy then "rode the sail" so to speak - exiting the chimney required placing full trust (both hands and feet) on a refrigerator door sized flake. Miracles worked themselves and around the corner he went to bring me up. Following this with a pack was not easy. In the end, our route ended up shorter than the neighbor next door to the left ('Digging...'), but we still found adventure to say the least. Beyond the Maw we found 3 more pitches of fun finger and hand cracks. P1: 5.8 (20m) Belay beneath the Maw in extremely suspect rock. It quickly turns to higher quality stone offering fun a fun thin hand crack. Belay on 1-2" cracks between glued flakes and blocks in the back of the flare. P2: 5.10- (25m) Enter the Maw. Climb right from the belay up past a few delicate horn features to find a few small cams in the broken face. Continue up into the upper reaches of the flare, then climb towards the light. Exit past the flake and belay on the second ledge beyond. P3: 5.10- (30m) Climb up a seamy crack to the right of the rotten chimney via delicate lay-backing of the arete. Continue up to wide cracks and a belay on the slab on large cams. P4: 5.10- (40m) Aim for the middle of the three cracks (finger-size), climb this, and continue up amazing finger and hand pods to a belay under a roof. P5: 5.9 (40m) Traverse right around the corner, and then up small hands leading to a #3 crack to the top. At the hand-traverse that finishes with a mantle on a rotten block, continue traversing right to reach the top of Choi Oi Tower. Though Eric didn't join us on this adventure, he was there in spirit. Because of the nature of the climbing and because we are skeptical of his boyish blond hair at 50, we've decided to name the route: "Uncle Wehrly's Toupee." It may share part of one pitch with Digging for Dreams, specifically the start of our pitch 3. More photos here

You guys totally crushed Jamie! Awesome. heard you and Ellie encountered a note about a lost party in the summit register!

Nice!!

A quick report after scooping Acid Baby this weekend. The route is dry except for the pitch off the ledge. I did some icicle bashing and some lie-backing on an upside down verglass coated horn to get through the 10m of the ledge, but after that beautiful clean, dry, granite. Other than that the goods are for getting. Brought the rack suggested in Cascades rock,...great. 1x4, 1x3, 2x#2 -> .3, 1x blue and purple metolius 10 slings/draws are plenty The road is essentially snow free, bring a bike. The effort required to ski anything below the lake makes skis a questionable tool at best unless you are heading up to ski in general. I think walking on across the middle of the lake is at an end for the season except for those who are quite bold. Let it begin.

haha. yes, JasonG, I was on Fallen Angel, and yes, tanstaafl, you've got to love the optimism!

Oh, and Eric's wife had to come pick us up. I don't think she must like me very much. Last time he and I went out, we missed our check-in time and she was on the verge of calling S&R

Ha! It went something like this: -checked the engineering of the gate locking system just to be sure Eric and I couldn't outsmart the system - no luck -slammed two beers each -filled out pack with the remaining food we had - 1 satsuma and a pack of shotblocks and started walking -we saw our first car on mosquito rode, after 1.5 hours of walking down the logging road. they were going the wrong way and wouldn't stop, -it was now dark and raining, and we still didn't have service -finally made it to a bunch of homes, unfortunately no one would open the door for us: two sketchy males walking around at 730pm on monday night -finally stood in-front of on-going traffic and waved our arms, forcing the next car to stop (2nd one we had seen in 3 hours now) -convinced the guy to give us a ride to the general store, where the store manager allowed us to use his phone and sit and drink beers while he told stories of living in the country, and they were definitely good stories... The end.

We drove up the road about a mile, and that was in a mazda w/o snow tires. With good traction you could probably do two miles now. There seems to be logging activity every morning on the road during which they open the gate. We passed through at ~645am (open), but it was locked when we returned (~5pm). We then had to return the next morning for the car (~630am, open again). Drive through at your own risk!

I cannot for the life of me get my copy and paste content to show up here, sorry for the plug, but going here instead. http://chasingmastery.com/exploring-the-sisters-west-ridge-of-north-twin/

(Photos here, cannot be bothered with trying to upload them). If I have learned anything about “winter” climbing on the west slopes of the Cascades, its that getting the conditions just right is both luck and an art. Sure if you get a big high pressure window and ice flowing down tree trunks its one thing, but for the rest of the year, finding good sports action is hard. After bailing on much grander plans that required a better weather forecast and snowpack, Eric Wehrly and I decided to do a little short day jaunt into the sisters with skis. We were stunned by the fun climbing and the great conditions we found. Great sticks into ice and snow between discontinuous gullies that hold 3, 4th, and easy mixed terrain made the West Ridge quite enjoyable. Approach We followed the standard approach to the west ridge of North Twin Sister. This entails driving Mosquito Lake road until you can go left on a logging road that parallels the middle fork of the Nooksack river. There is plenty of beta out there, I am not going to repeat it here. Most of the time, this is eventually blocked by a big metal gate, managed by the logging company, 5 miles in. Eric and I thought we were quite lucky to see the gate open and blasted right through it (mistake??). We followed the road via GPS coordinates he and I had put together before parking the car where snow on the road made further travel unlikely. When done as a summer scramble, most folks either run the road or take bikes, depending on how light they are going. We had opted for skis to make the best of a snowpack we expected to find at about 2000’-ish. We left our tennis shoes in the car and did the approach on skis, separated by some brief sections of road walking. A GPS of some kind is quite useful for the approach as there are many spurs on the logging road you are following. The technology exists, you might as well use it. We arrived at the base of the west ridge after some fun conversations and easy uphill. There were just a few sections of Cascade shenanigans, like crossing a of a small creek. Here, we were both either seasoned enough or dumb enough to not take our skis off and did a sort of stem move across rocks to regain the bank on the far side. Instead of following the approach to the ridge for the last half mile, we opted to contouring on the north side of the rib of North Twin that becomes the west ridge. This seemed necessary based on growth of the trees along the ridge that would have made pushing skis uphill difficult. I am still recovering from the amount of bush-whacking he and I did this summer, so we avoided the unknown at all costs. See track. Climb In summer the climb is a 3rd/4th class adventure where proper route-finding makes it a very manageable solo affair. I estimated that between the deep winter snowpack and some melt freeze cycles, we would find good snow and mixed travel conditions with just a bit of technical movement. It would only be hard if we wanted to make it that way. Thus, we left the rack at home and brought harnesses and a short rope only for any necessary rappels to drop into our descent ski. Our climb was a nice argument for new school versus old school. Eric brought two straight shafted tools, each with wrist straps. I didn’t even know people used those anymore. I carried more modern weapons (pair of Grivel Matrix sticks). My curved tools didn’t plunge as well as Eric’s 90s era mountain axe’s. Conversely, I had quite a bit of fun as we tooled and swung our way to the summit, seeking out easy ice and mixed climbing where it could be found. There was a good melt-freeze neve in several of the small couloirs, and even some alpine ice in others. Though we brought crampons, we stuck to boot-only climbing, probably out of laziness more than anything. There were a few crux sections where we made scared ourselves just enough to feel accomplished. At one point, Eric and I both completed a full “straddle move to beached-whale to double alpine knee” maneuver to top out on one of the lower steps. I might have even done a bit of O-dub-ing in that section to keep it real. We topped out, bagged the summit, then picked a line for the descent after an assessment of the snow conditions and avalanche hazard. Descent Eric, a grand-master of skiing improbable lines in the Cascades, led the decision-making on the terrain we would descend. He and I dug into the layers just below the summit to find an expected dense rain crust with a well-bonded 4-5 inch, highly non-reactive layer on top. It would probably take a bomb to make anything go big, so we skied what was probably the most aggressive line possible, but not without a few ski cuts and otherwise good terrain/group management. The most dangerous aspect of the descent was probably heavy sluff on the rain crust that locked you into your turns. Our descent from the summit was probably some of the most variable skiing I have done this year, ranging from a nice, carve-able, styrofoam wind slab to the hard rain crust. Below 4500 ft, we found a fun spring corn-like texture before it got soupy. We skied our way to our original up-track on the north side of the west rib, contoured a bit, then made it through the trees back down to the road. A few free-heel pushes later, we made it back to the car, again with intermittent road walking. Now for the moment of chance we had been waiting for. Would the road be open, like the arms of a loved one, beckoning us home, or closed, like the gates of Mordor, committing us to a long walk to reach humanity.

Recently climbed the Nose on El Capitan in a day. It was so much fun that I wanted to share some of the details so someone else can go get it! Below I have copied and pasted the post, but don't want to deal with the photo uploads. For better formatting and photos, see: http://chasingmastery.com/climbing-the-nose-in-a-day/ When Jimmy and I shipped down to Yosemite, I had two goals for my few weeks there. The Nose with Ben and Lindsey, and the Nose in a day. Due to stellar planning and good luck, Ben and Lindsey we knocked down our 3 day ascent on this mega-classic without too much hassle. Objective 1 accomplished. It was during our climb, however, that I became even more enchanted with climbing 27 pitches in a single day. We were passed by several NIAD (“Nose in a Day”) parties and it looked like SO MUCH fun. At one moment, it would be the three of us, hauling our big ugly pig up this super-classic wall, then the next second, they would go shooting by. Shouts of “OFF BELAY”, “LINE’S FIXED!” (….then a minute later….) “YOU’RE ON BELAY!” “OKAY, CLIMBING!”, would indicate they were approaching. Next, there would be an amicable moment where they would very nicely request to pass, we would oblige of course, praising these folks as gods, they might pull on a few of our pieces, and then they were gone. Just like that, silence again. Just us and our pig. Before even arriving in Yosemite I had been thinking about the NIAD for several months and the moments above just tipped the scale a little bit further. At this point I knew I had to do it. The pace at which even the slowest day-parties passed us was impressive and mesmerizing. Little did I know before my own undertaking of the route with my party Jimmy, the adventure becomes nearly aerobic – no move too hard (thats not that point), just moving and moving and moving. Its almost like one of those 10,000+ days of vertical in the backcountry. I knew that Jimmy and I were physically fit enough to take on the NIAD, the next step was to do a little bit more research “how”. Research Now that the Nose in a Day is becoming quite a popular objective for able climbers, a wealth of information is available online for willing suitors. Some blogs to start with are John Middendorf’s (admittedly not the style in which most people are doing it today but interesting all the same), and Cory McLean’s (who did it with is brother in about 21 hours by short-fixing the whole route). Maybe most useful is this very beta intensive post on the UK Bouldering site. In addition to reviewing some of the material on-line, I made the following observations of the teams climbing past us during wall-style ascent: **Parties with 10-15 hr times were short-fixing the entire route, with the exception of Sickle, which I will get to later. Simul-climbing is not typically efficient enough. **The style in which the leader moves up generally depends on his climbing level. Nearly every pitch can be aided very easily at C1, but this is obviously slow. There do seem to be a few pitches where most folks do go into full aid mode. These are the horizontal bit of the Great Roof and the Glowering Spot. Believe it or not, if you’re climbing Yosemite 5.11, just about everything else can be “french-freed” with a reasonable amount of energy. **In addition to deciding how much aid to employ, the leader typically chooses one of two methods for short-fixing. The first is to use of a Gri-Gri to manage slack in the system, and the second, the old school, or maybe new school, “Pakastani Death Loop” (PDL). This latter method is less complicated than it sounds – just one big loop between you and the anchor. Don’t fall. **One party we witnessed used a short (40ft) tagline to catch up gear when the follower arrived at a belay. Now originally, when Jimmy had proposed the idea of doing the Nose in a Day, I was skeptical, partly because I had a certain attachment to doing it in a reasonable time, not as an absolute suffer fast. He had said to me several times, “Chris, its the Nose in a Day, not 14 hours, not 18hrs, but a day.” I never liked that idea. I had trouble coming to grips with the idea of beating the hell out of ourselves for 24 hours straight. But, after a strong season of rock climbing, and watching these other teams, my stance changed a bit. I relayed the above observations to Jimmy. With some intelligence, we would be able to put together a strategy that would make the day fast and fun. Though we never explicitly decided on goal, I think that we were expecting to finish around the 16 hour mark. ============== Strategy: There was a lot to be figured out for our first day trip up the Nose. Unless you are doing it with someone who has done it before, you probably have a ton of questions and possibilities buzzing around your head. In the end, here are some of the strategy elements we discussed before our own attempt. Managing parties on the wall – Save the rainy days, on nearly any other day during the typical season in the Valley there are bound to be several parties on the Nose. The challenge, when deciding to go “daying”, is determining how many. Stop by the meadows each afternoon and take a quick count. While there are bound to be a few parties, note those that might be fixing to Sickle or Dolt with their bags, before returning to the ground that evening, and those that are above the Great Roof. Its conceivable these later folks may end up finishing the next day if they are fast. If there are more than six or seven parties, you should probably make an alternate strategy. Let’s be honest: unless you are Alex Honnold or Hans Florine, folks won’t necessarily LOVE being passed. One way to work around the crowds is to start in the afternoon and climb through the night. Another is to start very early in the morning, say 2am, and pass as many folks as you can while they are pretending to sleep. Make a strategy for the Stove Legs – EVERYONE seems to recommend doing a Dolt run. The benefit is that you figure out how to deal with the complexities of traversing pitches with back-to-back lower outs in the Stove Legs. As an added bous, there are a number of ways to optimize for time on the pitches below Stove Legs through better gear management and back-cleaning. Someone with a lot of walling experience would be able to recognize these opportunities on-sight, but we aren’t all climbing gods and most of us can definitely benefit from a practice run. The most common strategy for tackling the Stoves Legs seems to be as follows. First, simul-climb up the fourth class terrain above Sickle. When the leader reaches the set of anchors above the strenuous 5.9 flare that leads out onto the face, he or she clips the rope here, and is then lowered out as the follower continues climbing up to the aforementioned anchors. When the leader has descended far enough, he or she should swing rightwards across into the low 5th corner. From here, a confident leader can either run it out or back clean all the way up to the lone bolt on the face under the small roof out right (this comes after climbing through nice 5.8 cracks), and seems to be commonly annotated as “Option B”. At this point, he or she should fix the rope briefly, allowing the follower to jug the remaining distance to the first anchors mentioned above, lower out to low-5th corner (now below the leader agin), and then jug another 15 feet to a set of anchors on the face to the right of the corner. Here, he or she can put the leader briefly back on the belay Finally, the leader can un-fix the rope, be lowered a few feet, and penji to the final Stove Legs Crack out right. This crack is followed for 25 ft, before another anchor is reached. From here, let standard short-fixing antics begin once again! Planning the route – There are a myriad of ways to block out the route between you and your partner. First, if you led the Dolt Run above, then obviously its best you lead it again day of. There are two other complexities on the route that require some mandatory Yosemite 5.10 “facey” granite climbing, the Jardin Traverse and the Lynn Hill Traverse. Many people have climbed the Nose many times and never gone up Jardin. This variation avoids the King Swing, which some folks won’t want to miss, but it should be considered as a fast alternative if you are a 5.10+ climber. The Lynn Hill Traverse is tricky as well, but allows you to skip a pitch and to avoid a lower out. While the taking a left turn onto Jardin Traverse seems to be a decision dictated by the number of parties on the King Swing, the Lynn Hill variation is more of a matter of whether you are up for the 5.10+ face moves. Whichever way you decide to go at these junctions, keep in mind that either you or your partner might be more efficient at (or the only one capable of) handling these challenges. Being honest and upfront about this might save you a whole lot of time. In addition to segmenting the route to fit the strengths between you and your partner, its worth considering breaking the route into blocks by time. In Han Florine’s audiotape on the Nose, he discusses why this, not number of pitches, is an ideal way to split it up. Basically, some pitches just take a lot longer than others to lead. After watching the clock on some other “warm-up” routes, I’ve found that 3-3.5 hour blocks are ideal for me. I find its better that I leave a little in the tank so I’m hungry for more (and have some brainpower left for following) than to dig myself into depletion each block. At ~3.5 hour intervals, if you are fast enough, leader 1 can fire to Dolt from the ground, leader 2 would bang it to the base of the Great Roof, and so on. Efficiency is key – The idea of pulling on cams all day long might not sound enjoyable to some, but the efficiency gains over figuring out moves on any given pitch are innumerable. There are a number of other things the leader can also do to ensure they are burning as little energy as possible. Lighten up your harness. For example, you won’t need the #4 or aiders for most of the pitches. Resting, waiting, cleaning of gear on your harness? Clip into a piece. When climbing a consistent crack, you can connect your daisy to your highest cam then alternate between pushing it up and sitting on it and moving your feet. Only carry enough food and water for your block. Avoid placing nuts – they slow the whole train down. Place little gear and back-clean where possible; this helps you and the follower. Similarly, when following, consider that lower-outs take time. More often than not, its faster, easier, and just as safe to just briefly unweight the rope, free the rope, and take a little swing (all the cool kids are doing it). These lower-outs are some of the only times I take to really back myself up closely with a Gri-Gri. When we all learned to aid, someone told us that you should always back up your Jumars. This is true, but understanding how to prevent them from popping in the first place makes this pretty unnecessary most of the time (I’ve NEVER had a Jumar come off the rope). Now although following can be a time to rest, be aware that the leader may be waiting for you mid-way up the next pitch. Get up there quickly, pass up gear he or she needs, then take your moment to rest when you are belaying. Food and water -Deciding how much water to bring can be challenging. For instance is 5L is enough for a 15 hours ascent? Too much? Another benefit to leading in blocks is that it makes this thinking easier. Say you plan to complete the route in 5 blocks – each about 3 hours in duration. Well then 5L would be .5L per person every three hours. I find it easier to think about how much water I’ll want every few hours, than for 15. Food choices can be daunting as well, though typically less so, because some of the calorically and nutritionally dense space food available today. For a climb like this where you’ll be working at a relatively hard pass, failing to replenish electrolytes as you go may mean you bonk half way up the route. Planning on 150-200 calories an hour, with an emphasis on foods high in easily digested carbohydrates. Supplementing with gels, which often contain BCAAs, caffeine, and other high-performance ingredients, is a great way to go, especially given their size and weight. Figure out how much food and water you want, make a system with your partner to ensure you hit your goals for eating and hydrating as you go. Its easy to forget to eat when the climbing is never ending. On longer moderate climbs where you are moving all the time and its important for the leader and the follower to both stay hydrated, the two, can carry a .5L water bottle. In the case of the Nose, led in blocks, this would mean that each time you switch out, the leader can fill his/her pockets with food for the next few hours (bars and gels), fill a bottle on his harness, and off he/she goes. The leader can then ingest a little from when they are waiting for the follower (out of rope or gear usually). Pre-stashing – As I mentioned above, one option to lighten your load is to pre-stash water and food midway up the route, perhaps at Dolt. If you really want to go light, you could throw a pair of shoes and water at the top too. If considering this, first, don’t litter and make sure animals won’t touch it. Second, consider that unless you label it VERY VERY clearly, a thirsty soul may reach it before you do. Tant pis. Have a back up plan. ======================================== Play by play from the day (and night): Of course all of the above beta is a direct result of the many discussions Jimmy and I had while planning for the NIAD, and our experience on the route. Our original plan was to do a run up Moratorium to East Buttress and a Dolt Run before hand. Between these, we would stash water on top of Dolt, then more water and our shoes at the top of the East Ledges descent. Unfortunately, or fortunately, our plan to climb the NIAD was accelerated by the well-needed rain that has bit hitting California. This foiled our plans for pre-stashing and forced us to commit to the route without doing a Dolt Run. The day before we stopped by the El Capitan Meadows to check on the crowd situation – 6 or so parties as we could tell. Most of these parties we lower on the route, and we figured the folks above the Great Roof would be finishing that day. Given the number of the people on the route, we decided to wake up at midnight (yes, midnight) and go from there. We returned to Camp 4, made a quick meal and hit the sack. Jimmy’s phone buzzed silently at 12am. He may have gotten a little more sleep than I did. I wasn’t feeling tired when we originally laid down, and continued to replay sections of the route in my head. We got up and brewed a coffee at midnight – that felt weird! After trying to use the bathroom one last time before heading up for what we planned to be a 15 to 16 hour day, we hopped in the car. Between the car and and the short hike to the base of the route, we were both pretty quiet, which I find typically on the approach to build climbs. Upon arriving at the base of Pine Line, the 5.7 pitch that marks the start of the route, there were to two tents camped underneath. At 2am, after weighing down our harness and a few jokes, I headed up on the first block. I felt like I was immediately in zone. Flowing through move after move, I hit the top of each pitch, fixed the rope and kept going. Jimmy followed quickly, jugging up in the dark. Sometimes I would turn off my headlamp while waiting to enjoy the evening air and quiet on a route that is typically busy like a city block. Eventually Jimmy’s headlamp would come bobbing into view below. He’d arrive at the anchor, put me back on belay, and pass up the gear sling if I wanted it. On these lower pitches, I used a death loop at each belay, which either meant stacking the rope on a ledge before heading up, or letting it hang between myself and the anchor down the blank face. Without the Gri-Gri to deal with it become enjoyably aerobic to just climb. The simplicity and fluidity to it was amazing. We managed the Stove Legs quite well, and within 31/2 hours had reached the OW pitch below Dolt Tower where Jimmy took over. From here we began to pass parties, one just getting ready to go on top of Dolt, one after the Jardin Traverse at Eagle Ledge, and so on. Jimmy essentially soloed the first pitch of Dolt tour as the horizon began to glow. This pitch requires a short rappel before climbing back level with, and then above the height of Dolt, meaning that I had a large lower out to perform. Jimmy set up for short-fixing as he got his first anchor, and once fix I began lowering out. Due to my own ignorance, I didn’t ask him to leave me enough rope, so, after lowering out 10 feet or so, I had to unclip the loop from my harness, and take a big swing into morning light. After coming to a rest with my feet against the wall, I threw on the jugs and caught up to give Jimmy a below. And so our adventure continued, up and up and up. I took over shortly for the climbing between the Jardin Traverse and the Lynn Hill Traverse. We had decided to take a left turn due to the two parties waiting on the King Swing. One of them were a set of girls, who kindly shared their psyched about being peed on by the party above them. Twice. Seems to be quite the experience on El Cap. At the Great Roof we ran into some old French men, where things got really fun. Between my interest to try to communicate with them in broken French, and our agreement to climb the Great Roof at the same time, we were all having fun. I had my good fun trying o carefully pronounce “dessouss” instead of “dessuss”, in my articulation of our plant to pass them, and before I knew it Jimmy was charging up the Pancake flake as I once again took a big swing lowering out the Great Roof. Things really got fun as we approach Camp 5 and realized there were two parties jostling each other to be the first to the top. In exchange for allowing us to pass, we tagged up a rope for the first party on the pitch above the Glowering Spot. At the ledge above the Glowering Spot, I fixed our rope for Jimmy in the huge mess of an anchor the party had created, stacked my 70ft on the ledge, and climbed over them (after a lot of friendly banter!). From here I knew the climbing well: strenuous hand cracks that vary between two inches two four, some gentle face climbing just below Camp 6, Changing Corners, and the three back to back pitches where all you need are reds and greens and a little 5.8 free climbing magic. At Changing Corners, I short-fixed again, and to my joy and surprise, a Japanese climber hanging out on his portaledge threw me on belay Talk about friends! “I am on belay!”, “I love it, I am on belay”. There is nothing like going from being 40ft run-out on 5.10 terrain to having someone throw you on a Gri-Gri. Unfortunately I very shortly ran out of rope and had to wait for Jimmy, who was still on his way up to Camp 6. Once moving again, I free-climbed the rest of the 5.10 glory hands on Changing Corners before yarding through the bolts, where I caught up Jimmy on an well-equalized anchor. From here we continued on and on. I led a few more pitches before handing it off to Jimmy for the final crack pitch and bolt ladder. At this point, my biceps were cramping hard. Each time I pulled on a sling I had to then straighten out my arm and let the cramps pass. He led up the bolt ladder like a champ, leaving only that occasional draw for my to clean. After some brief civilized communication about going in-direct to give Jimmy more rope, he made it to the top and I followed suit. We both tagged the tree and set to revel in our victory. ============================================= Final kit: **Water: Two .5L Nalgenes, one each for leader and follower + 4L water bladder (5L total) **Food: ****3 Probars and 3 smaller bars and a few caffeinated gels for my three blocks (about 250 calories every three hours) ****Another 1500 calories of nuts, chocolate, and dried fruit, which I ate while waiting at belays **Rope: ****60M 10mm Sterling Marathon (really durable, feels thinner) ****40 ft 7mm tagline to pass up gear – this ended up being a great length AND size/weight. **Layers: ****OR Ferosi pants, jacket (sun-shade and wind protection) and OR Astronman shirt. The shirt is really light, and has a collar to avoids slings rubbing on your neck all day. I did end up wearing the jacket a few times but would have survived without it. ****Between us we also brought a LW synthetic jacket in case someone bonked or something. **Rack: ****BD offsets .1/.2, .2/.3, .3/.4, .4/.5 ****11 (3 single length slings + 8 draws) a few extra biners – Draws are easier most of the time because you aren’t putting that much gear in, and not climbing that far, the rope drag just isn’t that bad. ****3 lockers in addition to what we personally carried – when short-fixing, I was typically using a non-locker on one bolt, and a locker on the other ****Set of RPs and #7, #8 and #9 DMM Offsets – Maybe placed each of these once. ****Single set of Metolius Blue – Orange (.2-.4) – You don’t need a lot of small stuff ****2x BD C4s .5, 3x .75, 1, 2x#2 1#3, 1#4 ****1 cam hook for the Glowering Spot ****1 BD gear sling for the follower, with a tiny locker that stays with the sling to connect it to the tagline **Other gear: ****Two Jumars for follower ****3 ladders, as the leader often didn’t need any, but two are helpful for the Glowering Spot and the Great Roof. We had big wide ladders but the follower would be better off with LW alpine aiders ****1 Wag Bag (leave the route clean!) ****2 headlamps ****Helmets! ****Small harness knife ======================================================================== Notes on training As I mentioned, the Nose in a Day had been in Jimmy and my sights for quite a while. We had had some time to consider how we would train. In general, for the last few months, I’ve probably annoyed him with my comments to “stop thinking so much” while climbing and, “you probably don’t need that piece huh?” Luckily our partnership, despite my pushiness at times, has persisted through all that through all that! From a fitness perspective, Jimmy and I are both coming off a fairly substantial aerobic base. He is a mountain guide in Denali in the summer and guides ice in NE during the winter. My base training looked a bit different because I had a full time job (before I quit it). I was biking to work 6-7 hours a week, hiking every week after work, and doing big ski touring days on the weekend. After quitting, I did a bunch of moderate and long days in Washington and Chamonix. Once he and I got together, we started to focus on including a big day of climbing every week (15-20 pitches). In Squamish, some good routes for this include link ups with the Grand Wall, and also then doing some combination of Borderline, Angel’s Crest, and High Plain’s Drifter. On these days and others, we focused on constant movement, transitions, and efficiency. On top of all that, through fairly constant climbing, I’ve pulled my on-sight grade up to mid-5.11, and did some of my first 5.12s. I really think that the aerobic base, paired with a ton of long climbing days, and additionally a bunch of strength and technique building through hard cragging, made the actual climbing on the Nose feel fairly mild. In addition to sharing our training background and climbing ability before arriving in the Valley, its worth talking about what we did when we got there there. Jimmy and I climbed the following valley classics as practice days: Rostrum – Stacked, strenuous granite climbing to warm-up after arriving to the Valley. A lot harder than the climbing on the Nose, but great to build strength and confidence. That, and its really good climbing. (6 hours or so) South Face of Washington Column in Day – This climb is very representative of the rating distribution on the Nose, just a lot shorter. Because it is so crowded, its good chance to learn how to climb over people too! (10.5 hours) Moratorium to East Buttress (16p or so) – I led the entire Moratorium, when mildly wet at the crux, in about 3.5 hours, then Jimmy then led East Buttress in 5 hours or so, on which we simul-climbed for 4 or 5 pitches. Now, our times on these routes were incredibly fast, which goes to show that it there is a huge potential here to improve your speed and do well day off. Here are four important things you can do while training: Times each route on phone or watch. Watch how long it takes to go come off-belay, lead a pitch, and put your follower on. Also time the follower, when either climbing or jugging. This kind of feedback is invariable in that it forces you to be brutally honest about how fast you are climbing. Understand where you are spending time and what can be improved. Once you have these times written down, its vital you discuss how to move faster AS A TEAM. For example, you might get frustrated as you wait an hour for your party to clean a roof. A discussion between the two off you might both provide your partner with new advice on how to aid the roof, but also help to identify where placing protection differently would have made it substantially easy to follow. In one case on Washington Column, I had totally blocked Jimmy from any upward progress because I double clipped a piece to another fixed lower-out sling. This required about thirty minutes for him to work through. Try leading long blocks. Maybe 3 hours is right for you, maybe its longer. Watch your times on each pitch as you hit 3 hours. Does it start to take you a lot longer to get up? Are you slowing down without realizing it? Focus on speed short-fixing with a Gri-Gri AND with a death-loop. Both of these seem fairly necessary to me to hit sub-15 hours times. See what you are comfortable with, and make sure you can set up the anchor quickly when you get there and keep moving. It should take a two minutes or less. ============================================= Final reflections: All the beta aside, the Nose was one of the coolest climbing experiences I have had in my career. As someone who loves long enduro-fests, this one was the ultimate – it takes you up the one of the most classic rock climbs in the world. The rock on the Nose is stellar, and generally passing parties is pretty simple. I would highly recommend the route to folks that are up to the challenge which, upon reflection, is somewhat agnostic to wwether you climb high 5.10 or 12+. The more important skills required are 1) to be able to move all day long and 2) a high level of comfort with being short-fixing, jugging, and maybe being runout on easy ground. It was a big climb for Jimmy and I both us, and we both took advantage of some well-earned calories and rest days afterwords. On the way out of the valley, he and I talked about how being able to do the Nose in a day turns the wall into a crag. Pretty cool idea!

Having trouble posting things here, see: http://chasingmastery.com/climbing-the-nose-in-a-day/ Such an awesome climb, one of the best of my life in terms of its uniqueness.

My partner Jimmy and I will be presenting at Second Ascent tomorrow night (Wed, Nov 2). Come get some free beer and check out some stories from climbing on the road. https://www.facebook.com/events/1800379990246150/