We made an early start to avoid climbing in the heat too much, and the first day went well. It was all pretty straight forward and we found ourselves putting up our protaledge with plenty of daylight left, which was lucky, because it was the first time we had done it! With Chris and I hanging off one bolt battling with this strange camp bed must have provided Masson with much amusement as he was sitting in his eating beef jerky!
We started the next day early as we were keen to press on and get to grips with the route. Once we reached Heart Ledge we had the added complication of having to haul our bags up after each pitch. They were heavy but space hauling made it easier. (space hauling is when someone dangles on the end of a rope and uses their weight to haul the bags up, it involves lots of sliding down the wall and jummarring back up, all pretty tiring). We had heard from some Spanish friends that one of them was soloing a route on the east side of el cap and had just started hauling her bags after the first pitch only to find they were too heavy to lift. She added another pulley in the hauling system to make it easier but they still wouldn’t come. She thought maybe they were caught below a little roof or something so she added a final pulley and they eventually started coming. When the bags were within 10metres of her she realised they were so hard to haul because there was bear on it! She swiftly lowered them back down!!
Climbing Salathe Wall, Yosemite
Now came one of the most daunting pitches of the climb, a monster off width, a type of crack you can either do or you can’t. It turned out on this day that Masson couldn’t. So he used a little bit of aid to bypass this section. Trying the route onsight was a massive undertaking, and he didn’t seriously think he could do it, but if you never try, you never know. At the end of the pitch we decide to see how much we could free but not to worry too much if we had to aid, and so slightly more relaxed we set about the rest of the climb.
Yet another off-width on Salathe Wall, Yosemite
We were aiming to bivvy on El cap spire that night. Before we were to get to this incredible bivvy there were some amazing 5.10 jamming cracks where everything just flowed perfectly and you could really appreciate being on El Capitan. When I was seconding one big chimney pitch I suddenly realised I had to do some tricky bridging or face a big swing. As I was wearing my trainers I wasn’t confident I could second the pitch. I shouted up to Chris for some encouragement, then unclipped the last bit of gear and committed to the 150ft swing. It was all pretty exciting stuff 18 pitches up salathe wall only attached to a centimetre wide bit of rope!
Seconding the Elephants Ear pitch, Salathe Wall, Yosemite
We arrived on top of the spire, a bit of rock we had seen pictures of tents pitched on. Looking forward to this luxury bivvy after hanging in our harnesses for the last 12 hours, we were gutted to see the top of the spire was anything but flat! It was still an amazing place, a 50 meter pillar completely detached from the wall. So we set up our portaledge as it was the flattest ting around and sat on top the pillar chatting and taking in the view.
El Cap Spire, Yosemite
After flaking through the ropes we realise the core on one of them was exposed, possibly from when I took my little swing earlier, so we wrapped it in finger tape to protect it. With 20 pitches of Salathe wall done and over halfway, we slept well that night.
We plan to next bivvy just below the headwall which means a long day ahead. Even though he hasn’t free climbed all of it Masson wants to see how the rest of it is for a future attempt. On one pitch he being pushed to his limits after over 2 days of really hard climbing, he has just enough time to warn us before he takes a massive 50fter. He gets flipped and lands heavily on his back. Chris and I look at each other and my stomach turns, looks like he should have really hurt himself. But just as we are thinking how on earth were gonna get him down, or up, or rescued, he flips himself over and dusts himself off, then proceeds to tell us how ”It’s a good job I like falling!” bloody lucky yank!
Trull belaying on Salathe Wall as Masson takes a big fall…
Masson took a back seat to relax his nerves and we aided up to below the headwall later that day. Because of how we needed to set the 2 ledges up (one above the other) all 3 of us were hanging off one cam and a rusty bong, the bolts backing it up were below us… was an interesting night and the most amazing bivvy I’ve ever had. There we were, on the most famous bit of rock on the planet, the sunset looking like the horizon was on fire. We were a day below the top and maybe a day away from being able to swim in the river, drink beer and get out of our harnesses…Tea was a hefty chilli wrapped in tortilla and lots of gummy bears with our legs dangling 2500ft above the valley floor. By now big blue was empty and we were low on water so it was a thirsty evening. It was a perfect still night so we could hear our friends near Zodiac jamming and wondered how they were getting on with their attempt to free their route. It was a bit surreal when all the climbers all over el cap started making monkey calls to one another! It sounded like there was a troop of baboons on a big wall! God knows what anyone in the valley must have thought was going on up there!
The next morning we climbed the great roof and aided up the headwall, unsurprisingly no one was psyched to try and lead the E8 pitches! Apart from Chris having a bit of a moment seconding the roof it was dreamy climbing in an amazing situation. Early in the afternoon on Friday, with considerably lighter haul bags than when we took them up to Heart ledge on Monday, we topped out on Salathe wall.
After finishing the last of our bagels and sorting gear, we started the painful east ledges descent. Masson and I carried a haul bag each and Chris got the bum deal being lumbered with the two portaledges. With all that gear and 5 or 6 abbs the descent was an ordeal in itself, but all that mattered was getting down and not being in your harness, clean clothes, and a proper toilet. And drinking something other than water!
Success on Salathe Wall!