The Triple Direct

The Triple Direct

Trip Report of an ascent of Yosemite's El Capitan via the 'Triple Direct' route.

Topping out on Higher Cathedral

Our warm-up route was NE Buttress of Higher Cathedral Rock - described in the guide as "Probably the best Grade IV in the Valley". 1200ft of cracks, chimneys and corners, and luckily for me, Andy got the 5.9 squeeze pitch.

We look across to our next objective, El Cap. The Triple Direct starts from the lowest rock and follows the Salathe Wall for 10 pitches to reach Mammoth Ledges, below and to the right of the Heart feature (left centre). It then follows the middle section of the Muir Wall, traversing away from the right ‘auricle’ of the Heart to reach the Nose Route at Camp Four – the last 14 pitches of the Nose are followed to the rim.

For more beta on the Triple Direct see: Triple Direct Background Info

Andy in Camp 4 sorting the gear into small hills. The Team Librarian is here deciding whether to stick with the familiar Dewey Decimal classification system for packing the ‘pig’, or utilise the local Library of Congress system.

Pitch 1 An easy corner leads to twin, peg-scarred, finger cracks…freed by Liam the stick finger man in the cool of the early morning gloom, probably revealing his misspent youth at Millstone Edge [a quarry in Derbyshire, UK, characterised by finger-jamming old peg sockets]

Pitch 2 The wide jam crack above the belay - proved a bit of a struggle first thing in the morning.

Pitch 3 This could be run together with pitch 2 but then you miss the opportunity of feeding all the belay ropes in to the rope-gobbling fissure on the left. If you feel your mate did the first two pitches too quickly, kill some time with the rap down to free them, jug back up to the belay, then drop them back in again for more (much-needed) jugging practice. Pitch 3 aids out right around the roof then follows an easy flake crack back up to the belay – very straight forward if you’ve just spent half an hour going up and down your own mangled belay lines….

Pitch 5 A fine thin crack, in the slab leads to a small overlap and (for us) aid on small wires...

Pitch 6 A friction slab, with lots of shinny new bolts to stand on. Here’s Liam in a similar position to the classic Robbins photo on the first ascent of the Salathe – the Half Dollar drools above….

Pitch 7 A fine 5.9 pitch up the open right-facing groove to reach the left hand side of the Half Dollar overhang, with well-protected and positive crack climbing to a hanging stance.

The Half Dollar a classic 5.8 sandbag of the Texas Flake variety. A bold laybacking approach in to the chimney and everything fell in to place, including me, several feet lower down. A humiliating and emotional head jamming session with some hard core fisting action allowed the comparative cool calm of the corner to be clasped. What in Gods name is the Ear pitch like on the Salathe? Wobble up the corner and don’t forget to wipe your ass on that section of the topo when you get to the good ledge.

Pitch 9 Talking of ass-wiping…Zoom up the easy groove system, diagonally left, as fast as your wheezing & dehydrated cadaver will permit, trying not to run the ropes through the in-situ turds on the ledges. Its really sad that there are people who are presumably up here for the same buzz as us but who skipped their toilet training classes…

Pitch 10 Easy pummelling up to Mammoth for re-hydration and sticky banana-flavoured mastication.

Next moring at dawn finds Andy and Liam engaged in a pathetic discourse:
Shall we do it?
My arm hurts...
Shall we do it?
My finger really hurts...
Shall we do it?
My knee hurts...
...ah, lets do it.

Shortly after we are looking up from the fixed lines to Heart Ledge. Four fixed lines from Mammoth Ledges to the base, from fixed double anchors. There are often lines ‘in situ’ at busy times. Waiting at the anchors between jugging sessions allows perhaps slightly too much time to reflect on their antiquity, the effects of UV on nylon, and the general gang-banging which they get from other parties….

Pitch 11: The 5.9 looks just fine for breakfast and only the most cowardly salvationalist would swing left on a hypothetical fixed line and jug up the wall to commence sun-bathing in rusty French on the capacious ledge above.

In the Crystal Chimney Liam leading on this classic section of the Muir – up the right hand seam then transferring to the left hand to finish.

Pitch 14: A few easy aid moves until you realise that yes, in fact it is now both quicker and easier to start free climbing the rest of the chimney. At the top of the chimney you are level with the Grey Ledges – the upper berth is better for a twosome. If that happens to have in situ Frenchmen unpacking a sickening range of ready cooked meals and brewing up coffee, try beating your mate to the excellent single berth on the left and slightly lower. While your mate jugs, you should have time to come up with a convincing argument as to why you need to bivie there, and why your mate would be far more comfortable strung out over on the left on that sloping ledge with the big spike in the middle.

Chowin' down on the Grey Ledges

A2 corner on the Muir Above the Grey Ledges two A2 pitches lead to a hanging belay at the junction with the Shield. The latter yawns out left having shared the past 16 pitches with the Triple Direct. From below, the Muir seems to take an improbable traversing line out right to escape the Shield Headwall.

Andy on the A1 traverse. Pitch 17: The first of three interesting traversing pitches which combine some easy aid, some well-positioned free-climbing and the odd pendulum (particularly if you cock up the free-climbing bits….). You’re right in the heart of the wall and the sensation is like being out on a big rolling sea of granite in a very small boat. A bolt ladder leads right and a short tension or swing allows you to temporally transform yourself from a languorous clanking frigger to a genuine free climber for a few minutes as you catch the edge of a perfect flake and explode up to the belay, ignoring the excellent pro which is difficult to use without terminal drag.

Andy climbing up to Camp 4 on the Nose. Pitch 18: Lower out across the wall on the right until you can easily free across to a loose looking corner system, which you cross, and hurry towards the beckoning attraction of ripping your boots off on the first spacious ledge for ages

Pitch 19: Another long easy traverse down and right to the base of a neat (wide) crack which can be pummelled with the odd ‘moving’ moment to Camp 4 on the Nose.

The Great Roof

Gilbert on the Pancake Flake, Liam and Nicolas on the bags

Bivi at Camp 5 - the remains of somebody's garden chair are seen hanging below! Camp 5 is a three storey affair, with the French downstairs on the couch, Liam upstairs in the king size double bed, and Andy relegated to the loft as punishment for his ruthless ledge-grabbing antics at Grey Ledges the previous night. The ‘loft’ consisted of spending the night sliding down the back of a flake while rolled up in a Karrimat (and smoking the entire expedition fag ration). Plenty of time to watch the world click clockwise past the stars….

Nicolas and Gilbert - team France 1999.By this time Liam is starting to realise why the rest of us are wearing gloves, and what those funny little knee pad things are on the French’ genoux’ are…Its not really true that its called ‘The Nose’ ‘cos that’s what you need to hold to avoid the stench from pissed up cracks at Camp 6…..

Andy at Camp 6 of the Nose route.

The "Changing Corners" pitch - all free at 5.13? While Liam nobly ran these two pitches together, the recently coagulated transcontinental conglomerate had an impromptu ‘crack’ at Camp 6. Sorry Liam, we tried to keep the noise down…The last time Andy was at Camp 6 on the Nose he enjoyed a torrential 16 hour storm, protected by a Boy Scout rain tarp ($5.99 from Curry Village). This disintegrated in the direction of San Francisco Bay after providing about 15 minutes of shelter….

Andy leading out from the "Niche"

Looking down the Nose from the "Harding Bolt Ladder"

Andy topping out

Happy!

4 a.m. and the US team (Mike and Dennis) tops out. The grunting and heaving of the sack over the last slabby, manzanita slab. Team work goes out of the window. A disjointed conversation is heard: "Pull the ____ sack man..." - "I'm pulling the ___ sack!". After five minutes a voice yells out across the valley "El Cap man, El Cap! Wee hooo!". It is Dennis's fifth time topping out on the Nose route (tenth time on El Cap?!), and the buzz is still there.

On Top Of El Cap with the three teams. The morning after topping-out, all three parties spent a couple of hours soaking in the beautiful surroundings and the overwhelming sense of achievement (relief ?!).

From left to right: Nicolas, Mike, Dennis, Liam, Gilbert, Andy.

Post-wall antics with Jos� Tequila...

For more beta on the Triple Direct see: Triple Direct Background Info