An account of an ascent of El
Capitan, via the Salathe Wall.
The climbers: Andrew (laybacking,
chimneys and hauling) and Liam (peg scars, off-width and moaning).
We arrived in the Valley, mid June
2000. After a week and a half, we had
climbed some great routes, but it was time to get our heads down for the
“serious” business of Salathe.
Salathe starts with the "Free
Blast". These ten pitches of clean
granite land you on Mammoth Ledges, and have been described elsewhere, so I
won't go into too much detail. The high
point for me was the Half Dollar.
5.10c Twin peg-scarred cracks,
lovely in the cool of the morning.
3" Wide 5.8 crack, Andy flew
up it, he loves this stuff!
5.11b roof to be passed on the
right, succumbs at A0 and 5.7 on the situ pegs and tat.
A party who were heading up the
Shield kindly let us pass them on this pitch.
5.10b peg scars in a slabby, left
facing, groove, with a small roof to turn near the finish, again very nice
climbing.
5.10d and A0 (5.11b free) Thinner
peg scars, past a small overlap. If you
have run out of small wires when you reach the overlap, do not worry, there is
a good-ish friend 1 placement just above the overlap, and a stiff pull gets you
to some bolts. We used the bolts at A0
to pass some thin slab climbing here.
When the bolts end, run it out up the slab for 30ft at 5.7/5.8.
This pitch gets 5.10b in the old
guide. Chris McNamara’s super topo
gives it 5.11. Clean slab climbing. One
or two of the bolts on this pitch are well spaced if you are aiding. There is a peg in an overlap that is hard to
reach; the topo seems to show a hook move at A2. I almost managed it totally clean, but got a bit gripped before
clipping the peg, so I pinched the peg's eye whilst getting my feet sorted:
about 10pts less aid than last time I was up here! Quite pleased really.
This is an interesting corner at
5.9, good laybacking and great gear.
Belays at the left hand end of the roof formed by the Half Dollar.
The half dollar is an 80ft high
flake of rock, which forms an overhang with its base, and a groove/chimney with
its right hand side. The crux is
gaining entry to the chimney groove. I
attempted to free it. It is graded
5.10c. Wandering along beneath the roof
is all very nice, big runners, footholds etc.
When you attempt to turn the corner, things turn nasty. The crack behind the flake pinches off, and
offers a couple of old peg scars for the next few feet of progress. The footholds disappear, and the rock
appears polished, as if by the climbers who have passed this way before. It took a couple of falls before I could
wedge myself into the 5.8 chimney above.
The chimney itself is well protected and steady.
5.7 Steady corners to a narrow open
ledge.
5.8 Steady corners etc. lead up to
the super spacious Mammoth Terraces.
Wander along the ledge to the left,
and rappel down to Heart Ledge, using the in-situ rope. If you have time, stop and grill a wiener or
two on the gas-fired bar-b-q that some one has left up there!
5.11c or 5.10 and A1 as we did
it. As we had plenty of time (but less
energy) we decided to fix the pitch above the Heart Ledge. A quick pull on the bolt, and some stiff
pulls on the layback flakes lands you on Lung Ledge. Watch the rope work, there is lots of potential for drag. Lung Ledge could be used as a bivy spot, but
it is not as spacious or flat as Heart.
I fixed a rope, and rappelled back
to Heart Ledge. From here we took the
fixed lines back down to the ground. As
we walked away from the base it was about 3pm.
The team that had let us pass them on pitch 3 were still below the Ear
pitch.
The following day was spent getting
the wall gear together, shopping and driving up and down between Camp 4 and
Curry Village, to buy all the things we had forgotten.
The weather in the Valley had been
so hot we decided not to take sleeping bags.
We both had bivy bags. I took an
Airline blanket that Andy had filched on the flight over. Andy had somebody's cast-off quilt that just
reached to his knees.
The rack. The rack. We _almost_ knew what to take in the
rack. Everything. I think we had 24 quick-draws. This was too many. We had probably 10 locking biners. This is not enough. You
can never have too many locking biners on the wall. We had everything from Friend 6 to RP0. We had Black, Green and Blue Aliens. The Green Alien was really useful: about the same size a Friend
1/2, but it seems to fit more placements.
I am not sure we used the Black Alien, Andy may have. I have read that people recommend tri-cams
for the pitch below The Roof. You
certainly do not need them if you have mid-sized Camelots (2 and 3), which fit
the flaring crack at the top of pitch 29 perfectly.
By 4pm we had most of the stuff in
the back of the van. Andy was in a mega
rush to get to the base of the wall and start hauling. We needed to get to Heart Ledges and settled
in to bivy before it went dark. No
point in starting off with an epic.
Andrew is strong. Andrew is
brave. Andrew is a hero. Andrew had volunteered to carry the pig to
the start of the fixed lines (for the second year running), and haul the bag to
Heart Ledge. All I had to do was get my
ass up there with the rack.
As I said my good-byes to wife and
children, I stuffed the rack and all the other gear into Andy's
squirrel-ravaged rucksack. I hurried up
to the base of the lines with the sack, arms full of ropes etc. In the rush I had not put on any insect
repellent. The mosquitoes at the base
of the wall savaged me. Happily a young
guy with his mum and kid brother appeared.
They offered me DDT, or some such, and I gratefully accepted. The 19 year old was setting off to solo the
Shield the next day.
I jogged back down to the van and
dumped the rucksack, and collected some other odds and sods. By the time I started the fixed lines I was
half-knackered and sweating.
Whilst hauling the fixed lines to
Heart, a few squally thundershowers arrived.
We were both on a hanging belay, trying to dig out the wet weather gear,
which seemed to be hiding, and not in its proper place. Andy (the Librarian) was not happy.
When we arrived at Heart, we
settled in for a very comfortable night.
We opened our first can of beer.
This stuff is great! Perfect for
walls: it takes the edge off your thirst, calms any butterflies, and helps give
you an appetite for dinner. The weather
was so warm we didn't even get the bivy bags out.
We woke up, breakfasted on Danish
pastries, tested the toilet facilities and packed up the stuff.
4th class. Hard work to haul/lug the bag along the
ledges!
5.9 Off-width. For some Salathe trip reports, more is
written about this pitch, than the rest of the pitches put together. Climb up to some pegs, swing left to another
peg, pendulum down and left for 30ft, then thrutch upwards for 80ft.
As I reach the first pegs, we heard
a jangling and shouting from above.
There was a party camped, in the most spectacular position, at the base
of the Shield, about one pitch above the Shield Roof. After his morning ablutions, the first man had set off up the
A2(A3?) crack above their portaledge camp.
The other guy was probably still in his sleeping bag, belaying. At about the 30ft mark, the leader pulled a
piece, zippered most of the rest of the gear and ended up 20ft below the
portaledge. The ledge was now looking
distinctly worse for wear, hanging down limply at one end where zipper man had
crashed through. They both swore a lot and then seemed to be OK. Good effort.
The pendulum lands you atop some
broken flakes. Try not to knock them
off. I had been practicing for this
pitch for the last month or two: how many other climbers seek out the cobwebbed
off-widths when they are at Fontainebleau?
The secret weapon is a Friend 6.
It fits in all the way up. I had
a big-bro 3 too. No expense
spared! This also fits well, but takes
longer to place. I was scootching the
Friend up the crack, and following up behind, time lost meaning. Poor Andy.
After much grunting and squirming, the sharp edge at the top of the
flake came to my hands, and the Hollow Flake was done.
5.7 Chimney. The big Friend 6 does the business again on
this pitch. Andy seemed to enjoy
it. Jugging chimneys is not much fun.
5.10a This is a vertical pitch with cracks and small corners. It went free, with the odd rest on gear.
5.10d or 5.9 and A1 as I did it.
A steady pitch which goes quickly.
This is one of the most notorious
chimneys in Yosemite. A huge flake of
rock forms a roof above the belay. The
crack at the back of the flake gets wider and wider, until it forms a body
width bomb bay. As Andy set off up the
pitch, more thundershowers were threatening.
I was quite happy - protected by the roof above from the worst of the
rain. Andy was up groaning and cursing
above. Lightning flashed. Thunder
rolled. He was near the end of the
rightwards traverse, and in a typical "can't turn my head" chimney
position, when a bolt of lighting and a clap of thunder sounded loudly
nearby. He finished the squirm in
record time.
The chimney jugging was
particularly fierce on this pitch.
The first of the really hard
pitches on the free route (5.13a), is also the first of the aid-all-the-way
pitches. Andy was in a rush to get to
El Cap Spire. I looked at the pitch,
and thinking "he is faster than me on aid" (he had done 2 walls to my
1, and is more impatient!) I said "do you want to do it?” This suggestion was met by a resounding no. "Don't blame him", I thought. 150ft of plugging in A1 pieces, and my aid
rhythm was returning. Place a piece,
clip in the aider, pull up, blah, blah...
Half way up the pitch I remembered how boring A1 climbing is. I am sure that A3 and upward could be fun
(if you have the head for it), but straightforward clean placements: yawn. It has _got_ to be more fun with a hammer.
5.10a wide crack. Andy aided the start and thrutched the
finish, just as it was going dark. No
bivy on El Cap spire for us. A US/Australian
team were camped out on the spire. They
had been 2 or 3 pitches ahead of us all day.
We settled in for a night in the Alcove, another very comfortable
spot. During the night I dreamt of an
elevator running behind the spire, which would whisk us down to the valley in
the morning. No such luck.
The 5.6 chimney to reach the spire
may be 5.6 if you are very brave and just stem it all the way. Andy chooses the sane option - a 5.10/A1
crack on the wall behind the spire. The
reach across to pull onto the spire was very entertaining. Andy chooses to haul from a single bolt,
plumb in the centre of the flat spire's top.
This involved the haul line doing a 90-degree bend over the granite
edge, and being dragged flat across the rock for 10ft. It is best to set up a hauling anchor in the
crack of the next pitch.
A1 with a 5.9 squeeze chimney. The A1 was typical A1 (don't get me
started), but the squeeze chimney was good fun - in a perverse kind of
way. The Friend 6 again showed its worth. The belay for this pitch is a block on a
ledge, with slings around it. I didn't
think it was, so I carried on up the A1 crack above. I ran out of rope about 20 ft short of the next belay, but rigged
some solid anchors, and hauled from there.
When Andy arrived he was not best pleased. He said I had stolen his pitch.
I completed the rest of pitch 23, which is a nice airy piece of free
climbing, first left then back right across a big ledge. This ledge would make a good bivy spot.
Andy lead this nice A1 pitch up clean,
right-facing corners, to a small ledge below the Jungle pitch.
This pitch runs with water and
oozes green slime. I think Andy had
been annoyed at my over-shooting Pitch 22, because he thought he would end up
with this pitch. As it was I did it
French free to start with, with wet A1 up the final left facing corner. The heat of the day had built up, so it was
nice to feel the water soaking through my shirt as I chimneyed up against the
ooze. The traverse left under the block
finishes with at a pair of old bolts. I
backed them up with 3 or four good cams.
This is one of the few hanging belays on the lower part of the route. The exposure was beginning to be felt. Back clean the traverse and as much of the
wet corner as you can, to speed up the cleaning. I really enjoyed this pitch - reminiscent of the English Lake
District.
5.10a. A beautiful hand-sized corner crack. The landing on the Block is a beached-whale affair. It was still early in the day. How early we could not say, because we
hadn't brought a watch. We were both
feeling tired so we decided to call it a day and bivy on the Block. We had read "the Block
sucks". After a night curled up on
its upper edge, whilst Andy slipped down towards the lower edge, we both
agreed: the Block _sucks_.
5.8 and A1. The pitch above the Block ends at Sous Le
Toit ledge. Sous Le Toit is not a
suitable place for a bivy, and makes the Block look palatial. The pitch involves two pendules leftwards,
and is tricky to clean. A lower out
line on the haul bag was useful.
5.7 and A1. With a 200ft rope these two pitches can be
linked. The placements are solid and
you can leave wires for runners, whilst leap frogging cams.
A1. Andy was gagging for this one, so I got to take the photos and
contemplate the swing. I berated him to
such an extent that he bravely back-cleaned all but a couple of pieces before
the lip. A fixed copper head and more
A1 lead to a belay above the lip. When
it was time to clean the pitch, I cast off the haul bag, triple checked my
juggers, and swung out into space. I
was trying not to think about fraying ropes as I gingerly jugged and spun my
way to the lip. I found Andy at a
hanging stance in the middle of a granite sea, with a lot of space below. A lonely but spectacular place.
Above the belay a single flaring
crack snakes its way for 200ft to Long Ledge.
As I set off I looked at Andy's belay spot and decided to run these two
pitches together. I was starting to
enjoy the A1 a bit more, taking pride in the occasional top-step manoeuvre, and
back-cleaning 20ft run-outs. Time
hung. Andy fried. I reached the bolts
mid-way and equalised them - perfect runner.
The crack gradually narrows from Friend 2 - 2.5 down to rp1. We had a Leeper cam-hook along for the last
part of this pitch, but I had forgotten to get it from the rack in the
bag. The last few aid moves had me
quite jumpy. I quickly got off an RP1
that was visibly slipping out of the crack.
I made another placement (better this time) and reached up to a sling
that was hanging from the bolt, level with Long Ledge. Long Ledge was off to the right. Time for 2 or 3 moves of juggy free
climbing, before mantling onto the ledge.
I hauled the bag, guzzled down
loads of water and tried to eat 6 power bars at once. Hmm dizzy, hmm hungry, hmmm...There were still four pitches to
the summit and I wanted off. From my reclined
position, looking southwards along the wall, I could see the wall continuing
vertical and then the angle eased towards the summit.
This pitch starts off the right
hand end of Long Ledge. Many accounts
describe a blind RP move to start the A1 crack. Andy tried this and was muttering until he found a perfect Friend
1 at knee level. Although this didn't
gain him any altitude, it allowed him to see the placements, and off he went,
only pausing to shout, "watch me" before the easy free climbing, up
the ramp, to the belay. I lazed on the
ledge and waved down to imagined wife and kids.
Andy fixed the lead line and
started hauling, so off I went, cleaning the pitch. It's hard to tell how hard the aiding was, because most of Andy's
gear had dropped out.
Above the belay is a pitch of 5.10d
or A1, which I aided at A1, naturally.
Above the crack a slab ends in a large roof. You may belay here, but I had decided to link the next
pitch. This involves aiding left on
some fixed pins, to reach yet another 5.9 squeeze chimney
The last pitch to the summit is a
steady slab with little protection. It
goes in about 5 minutes. The hauling
off the tree at the summit takes a bit longer.
It was about 7pm. The last pitch ends at a perfect flat
bivy. We took off harnesses and enjoyed
the summit euphoria. A peregrine soared
along 50ft below the rim.
Next morning we walked out to
Tamarack flat, and were met by wife, children and beer. I would recommend the Yosemite Falls
descent, in preference to this route, being shorter, easier, and it ends up at
Camp 4.