[TR] Half Dome - Snake Dike 11/30/2013

[Pete04]

Trip: Half Dome - Snake Dike

 

Date: 11/30/2013

 

Trip Report:

As this was my last weekend to get some mountain adventure for 2013 and possibly my only weekend to get in any ice climbing this winter, I aimed for an Ice Gully ascent of Shasta. On Thanksgiving night forecast winds on Shasta were over 80mph, myself and my partner for the weekend decided to ditch that plan. Looking around at different objectives, we came up with an outline of a plan for North Peak's North Couloir. Knowing that this wasn't yet a solid plan, when I was asked: "What should I bring?" My response was "Everything." With a 4Runner filled with randonee, ice, and alpine gear we headed to Yosemite to see what we could find.

 

Pulling into the Curry Village climbing store our latest plan was stopped by two facts: they didn't sell the ice screws we needed and the highway was closed. Back to the drawing board, we picked up a copy of Yosemite Valley Free Climbs and headed to Swan Slab for a few warmup routes and some inspiration. We decided upon Half Dome's SW Face (Snake Dike). The R-rating was over my head to lead, but my partner insisted he was comfortable on runout pitches and climbed fast so the shortened winter day would be a non-issue.

 

We were on the John Muir Trail pre-dawn but unexpected colds slowed our approach getting us to the base of the climb at 1100 - no big deal. Unfortunately, our over confidence continued and we sat and waited to "give space" to an apparently slow party one pitch above us. We didn't start until about 1200. The first pitch was very slow going as the exposure got to the leader at first. As I would not have lead it at all especially the second pitch, he regained his composure impressively and led a nice climb from there on out at an average pace. Unfortunately, an average pace starting around 1300 on the second pitch puts one on the Class 3 section right at nightfall. We should have done this math and bailed after the second pitch. Again, overconfidence and a desire to get in one noteworthy peak prior to the end of 2013 led us to not think about this and just keeping moving up. I led the last pitch (5.2R) by headlamp as we were unsure of a decent anchor and he was comfortable soloing the pitch if need be and I was not.

 

The summit of Half Dome was fantastic and desolate at night, but with visibility not extending beyond my fading headlight otherwise no-brainer navigational tasks became difficult. Where's the summit? Where are the cables? Where's the route? We made our way down VERY slowly and got on the hiking trail around 2200. Thinking it was all gravy and nothing but a 9mi hike out on a very obvious trail we must have lost focused and were soon bushwacking. Perhaps the Half Dome trail is obvious during the day or with people on it, but at night and with no prior planning it wasn't. We ended up just heading W-SW towards the trailhead thinking we'd run into the trail eventually. Somehow we ended up between Grizzly Peak and Liberty Cap. Out of energy, tired of walking through apparent bear dens, and out of navigational ideas we crashed at 0230 and woke at dawn. My chronic insistence on ALWAYS bringing a down jacket, just in case, was justified. When the sun came up it was obvious where we were, we headed back uphill and hit the trail with still four or so miles left. All in all it was a good trip, a memorable but albeit invisible summit, and many lessons were learned, errr re-inforced.

 

 

Gear Notes:

A half rack was more enough. Not a lot options for pro.

 

Approach Notes:

Stay low on the climber's trail when you get to the slab. The trail leads to SE face climbs if you get too high.

[keenwesh]

nice mini epic, many others have preceded you and many more will follow. The first time I descended half dome my partner and I spent an hour or two scrambling around the 4th class slabs on the north side in between the NW face and sub dome. Idiots!