Yosemite Times

[bigwalling]

Well seems to be raining out so thought I'd post some pictures and words about what I did in yosemite. I spent 2 months in the valley and managed to climb 4 El Cap routes and solo After Six about 6 times. The rest of the time was spent drinking and hanging out with friends in the valley or at Coiler's place in Chinese Camp.

 

I arrived in the valley and the second I got there I dropped food off in a bear box in Curry Village and headed for the base of El Cap. I checked out Kaos and the Shortest Straw and decided I'd do the Shortest Straw as a warm up for bigger and better things. The next morning I woke up and carried my gear and some beer to the base to fix the first pitch. It rained the whole time I was climbing and it was good fun to stay so dry due to the steepness of the wall. The next day while hiking my last load I ran into someone who was planning on soloing Lunar Eclipse, but it was too wet to climb. So I told him he could come along with me as long as I got the odd leads. So we started the next morning and climbed the route in 4 days. It was good fun and hear are a few pictures.

 

After the Straw I rested for a while and then got talked into a push on Zenyatta Mondatta. I walked into the Cafeiteria and the next thing I know we are starting up the route that afternoon. We ended up taking about 33 hours, which we all thought wasn't that bad for us. Two of us had never even done a push ascent and my buddy never short-fixed. I epiced on the tenth pitch due to a missing feature, which cost us about 2 hours till I made the call to send up a "cheater draw"(stiffened quickdraw with duct tape). We were all worked after the route! Saddly I didn't bring my camera, so I have no pictures from the climb.

 

After more rest and laziness/massive drinking and eating I talked Zak and Aaron into another push. We decided to do the Tangerine Trip but started it with a variation. I led the first block and then jugged for the rest of the route. Zak had done the route 2 times before this and ended up taking the 3rd block which lasted for 9 pitches and led us to the top. He was super stoked on having led that many pitches in a row. The route took us 25 hours, which kinda sucked but we had fun so that was all that mattered.

 

My final completed route of the trip was Plastic Surgery Disaster. I was way impressed with the route and had wanted to climb it ever since I heard of it. We spent a bunch of time on the route and raged the whole way up the wall. None of the pitches are easy and there are plenty of chances to get really hurt or die.

The pirate cleaning pitch 1 on Plastic Surgery Disaster

The pirate leading pitch 2 on Plastic Surgery Disaster

The pirate leading pitch 5 on Plastic Surgery Disaster

The Suicidal Failure on Plastic Surgery Disaster

The pirate cleaning pitch 8 on Plastic Surgery Disaster

The pirate leading the roof on Plastic Surgery Disaster

The last pitch on Plastic Surgery Disaster

 

That has been my summer so far, I'm going to the Bugaboos for the next 3-4 weeks for more climbing then after that maybe some Squamish stuff and back to Yosemite.

[Alpinfox]

Very impressive!

 

 

What? No Sea of Dreams?

[corvallisclimb]

this kid is sick... climb A5! nice work Jake!

[MCash]

Sweet pics! Nice job.

[bigwalling]

Sea of Dreams, I honestly don't really have a big desire to climb it. It has seen lots of traffic and added holes. Plastic Surgery Disaster has seen 8 ascents(including ours), the Sea has seen a shit load. Classic line but I have enough other things I want to do that I may never get to the Sea.

 

Here is a funny story though, Eric Kolh(FA PSD) told me that Bridwell drilled on Plastic... when he repeated it. We found the exact bat hook he drilled and made it unuseable. My partner bypassed it with a head and a beak.

[JAFO]

Nice! Sweet pics too.

[layton]

A5, neat...way to sew it up though...jeeesh!