[TR] Washington Column, Yosemite Valley - Electric

[devinejohnny]

Trip: Washington Column, Yosemite Valley - Electric Ladyland (VI 5.10a A4)

 

Date: 7/5/2008

 

Trip Report:

Late this June I met up with an old high school buddy from Minnesota. Darin and I started climbing together, bouldering after school at the gym. How far we’ve come. Darin now lives the nomadic climbing dream in his van, sending hard routes all across the west, working a few days here and there as a freelance film artist when needed. As a high school teacher in Tacoma, I had three hard earned months of vacation to play with. Darin and I began dreaming months ago about meeting up in Yosemite and working our way up the coast to Squamish, and that is what we did, with stops in the Meadow, Tahoe, Humbolt, and a number of smaller crags and people along the way.

 

This TR is about our first big send of the summer, Electric Ladyland, which ascends the ridiculously steep north face of Washington Column. It is located somewhere between the classic though relatively pedestrian Prow, and the impressive Astroman. The route that we took up the wall was not purely Electric Ladyland, but arguably more ascetic. Instead of starting directly up the grassy cracks and ledges that make the historic start, we did the first two pitches of the Prow, wandered right into a couple pitches Ten Days After, and finally meet up with Ladyland for pitches 6-14. We spent a night ferrying loads to the base, a night at the base of the route, and five nights on the wall.

 

Electric Ladyland goes straight up the dirty looking stuff down low before hitting and following the overhung, right facing corner system.

 

This is looking left at the start of The Prow, how we began.

 

Our approach to the wall was this: bring lots of supplies, go have fun and hang out, do some climbing when we feel like it, but don’t try to kill ourselves. With all the media that speed ascents and fast alpine climbing gets today, I feel that climbers are loosing touch with the art of hanging out on a wall. I know lots of people who have failed to make it up a wall and I think it is primarily because they tried to emulate a style and speed beyond their ability. HAVE FUN! Take some beers, hang out, bring good food, laugh; that’s how you make it up a wall (in my humble opinion).

 

PBRGD worth it's weight in gold (or it's weight in the bottom of your haulbag, which i think is actually more).

 

Anyway, we geared up with our third wall member, Mark, in Bishop at his “compound.”

 

Sorting gear.

 

The cam rack. And then there were the nuts... and pins... and pulleys... and...

 

We spent two days bumping loads of gear, food, water, and beer to the base of the climb. I have a friend who works for the Yosemite Institute, so we had a awesome place to stay in Foresta (how nice to not play hid-and-seek with the rangers for once). After we had all our stuff at the base, we climbed the first three pitches of our route and fixed lines back to the base. This was Darin’s first route in Yosemite, ever. He freed the first pitch at 5.10a. However, he did take a fall… on the first piece… of the first pitch… of his first route in Yosemite (bad omen?).

 

Getting ready for the final pack at the base.

 

The next six days were all pretty much the same. It was up with the sun, bust out 1-3 pitches, set the ledge up around 4 or 5, then hangout until dark. Every pitch was rightward traversing and 10-20 feet overhung. With a team of three, one of us would lead, then one person would start cleaning as soon as the line was fixed, leaving the third climber to first lower out the haulbag, then themselves for the infamous ‘space jug.’ In four days we didn’t see a ledge big enough to stand on. Before our fourth night, we gunned out 3 pitches because the topo labeled a feature “The Very Temporary Ledge.” We were disappointed. It should be named “The Very Temporary Half-Butt Stance.” This was one of our more interesting bivies. Our double portaledge barely had two points of contact, and Mark’s single ledge directly below us was completely free hanging.

 

Our first day of full commitment. The ropes are pulled up at this point and would no longer reach the ground anyway. Only one way to go...

 

First bivy (with a cool afternoon updraft)

 

The second day on the wall was a one-pitcher.

 

 

I started the third day with an A3 pitch.

 

I tagged the camera out and took this shot.

 

Here's looking down at Mark on the fourth night as he free hangs in his ledge below The Very Temporary Ledge.

 

Here's a seven shot sequence looking up to down.

 

This is my first A4 pitch, starting out the fifth day. Forty feet of shallow copperheads with beaks in between them. Yikes.

 

We saw two parties climb Astroman, a couple parties head around the corner for the South Face, but no other wall climbers at all. There wasn’t much evidence of recent ascents on Ladyland, either. We encountered some faded anodized biners, lots of cobwebs and veggie, but there were some comforting ASCA bolts from a 1999 retrobolt. There was plenty of fixed gear, but not nearly as much as you find on the more common trade routes (according to Mark, who has been around).

 

On our last day we had two pitches to take us from the Eagle's Nest to the top. We also had four litters of water between us. It was just enough to get us up, down, and back to the van before I collapsed (I actually bummed some water from some kaki short clad day hikers about a quarter mile from the van). Coming down the descent was pretty sketch with a huge haulbag. I spent more than a little time just wiggling down on the pack itself, like an upturned turtle.

 

Gear Notes:

We brought lots of stuff from small beaks to double #6 cams and we used it all. I would say bring lots in the small cam range; TCU's and such. The lower graded cracks will eat cam hooks. Beware the 5.8 flare.

 

Approach Notes:

Park at the Ahwahnee Lodge and use the bear boxes there. Hike the trail back towards the Column (goes under Serenity Crack). Look for an open area after about 15 min with a cairn on the left. There were some low hanging power lines when we were there. Follow this back into the woods and there will be a sign for climbers in about 6 different languages. Go up hill.

Edited July 30, 2008 by devinejohnny

[willstrickland]

Nice one! What about some more TRs from the trip?

 

BTW, no north face on the column, Astroman was originally the E. Face of the column.

[Douglas Ober]

Nicely done Johnny. Nate had been passing on the news of your Yosemite drinking extravaganza while we were on our own trip.

 

I'd like to come down to the beach and do some aiding practice on those wooden pillars supporting your porch...cam hooks on rotted wood sounds like fun.

 

Nice work!

[Lix]

Is that the Darin of Prarie Walls fame, out of the climbing mecca of Rochester?

[pink]

good effort, man the column is a beautiful wall.