This morning the Loobster and I headed for Yosemite. We wanted to do a climb or two at Arch Rock and then get organized for our planned one day ascent of the South Face of Washington Column. We didn't even leave town until 8 a.m. and so arrived at the parking lot a little after 11 a.m. After getting organized we climbed the talus to the base of Gripper, a super classic at Arch Rock.

Since it was my idea, I drew the first lead which is 130 feet long and rated 5.10b. I found this pitch to be very continuous and quite burly. It starts in a difficult V-slot and then works up to a corner that is rated 5.9 fist. This section was very difficult as you had to do fist/offwidth moves with your right side while you tried to get very thin hand jams in an adjacent crack. This latter crack provided a nice place for protection, but wasn't wide enough to help substantially with my climbing.

Above this wide section I moved up into an alcove and had to circumvent the roof capping the alcove. I knew from the topo that the crux was above this roof. I was able to stand on the arete just below the lip of the roof and place a piece around the roof. From here the climbing involved shallow, thin hand jams up a dihedral with nothing on the face to help you out until you reach a prominent knob about 15 feet up. I launched into the climbing and immediately knew I wouldn't be able to stop to place protection. I struggled up the crack and with each move my forearms moved closer to the flame out point and grew harder and harder as blood surged into my arms in a desperate attempt to cramp them into useless appendages. I knew the blood would succeed in its goal giving enough time. I had to last until the knob and I did...barely. When I reached the knob I grabbed it with my right hand and found it to be substantial, but there would be no rest until I got my foot on it. The problem was I had to let go of the knob and continue jamming the crack to get high enough to get my foot on it. By now I was way above my pro and simply couldn't fall. I was pushed over my limit by simple fear. I maintained my form and drained myself completely as I put my right foot on the knob! I was so close to puking and thought I might, but slowly regained a normal respiration.

The climbing above isn't any easier than what I had just done, but it didn't appear to last that long. Maybe ten more difficult feet. I rested quite awhile, placed pro as high as I could and started up. I was misled by an enticing hold on the left and ended up blowing the flash attempt with a short fall. Eventually I fired the crack straight up on absolutely desperate jams. By the time I reached the tree belay I was completely spent. What a struggle!

Lou confirmed the difficulty of the climbing by having even more trouble on it than I did. He took his first fall in the wide section down low and things quickly deteriorated for him. He started unabashedly pulling on all the gear and even placing his own gear to pull up on whenever I left a gap too wide. His confidence was destroyed by the time he reached the belay and I had to lead the next pitch which starts out with steep jams. By judiciously stemming off the tree, I was able to move by this 5.9 section easily and into the wide 5.8 section above. This pitch was short and soon the Loobster had joined me on the belay ledge.

The third pitch is the real jewel of the route. It starts with an easy, but exposed hand traverse straight right onto a vertical headwall split by a beautiful, relentless hand crack. Here perfect jams leads straight up to the end of the climb. Near the top of the crack is becomes quite wide, but the two #3 Camalots I am carrying sew up that section. On the final Camalot placement I was burning out once again and grabbed the Camalot in order to clip in the rope. What a wimp! The Loobster did much better on this final pitch, quickly flashing it.

We did the exposed 4th class traverse off to the left and back to the base. Originally I had visions of also doing Midterm, but the mosquitos were so thick and we were both pretty tired that we decided to just relax and get organized for tomorrow.

After getting things organized we drove down to El Portal for some dinner at the grocery store before continuing on to our secret bivy spot (right next to 140.) We met some kayakers walking up the road back to their car as they had just run the Class 4 Merced River. I gave one of them a ride back up to his vehicle and we talked with them quite awhile. We got to bed by 10 p.m.

The alarm went off at 3:45 a.m., but I couldn't drag myself out of the bag until almost 4 a.m. I felt well rested and was glad we had gotten to bed early. We hammered on into the parking lot at the Ahwahnee Hotel and ate a breakfast of yogurt and Power Tarts. We carried four quarts of water, jackets, some food, a large gear rack (this gives weaker climbers more confidence and our rack was huge) and were hiking by 5:15 a.m.

There were two reasons for the earlier start. First, this was a grade V route with substantial amounts of aid and we knew it would take us around 12 hours to do the climb (this turned out to be exactly right.) The second reason was that the South Face of Washington Column is the most popular grade V in the Valley (probably because it is the easiest.) We knew there were be other parties on the route, but we hoped to have no one in front of us. One concern was that a slow party had started the day before and bivied on Dinner Ledge, but we couldn't do anything about that and if we got bogged down we would just rap off and do something else.

We immediately got lost in the gloom just off the parking lot before bushwhacking up to the paved trail. What a start! We then had little trouble in finding the base of the climb doing about two thirds of the 45 minute approach by headlamp. After suiting up and taking care of the bodily functions I was off leading the first 5.8 pitch around 6:15. We had decided yesterday that the Loobster would lead all the aid climbing and I would lead all the free climbing. The Loobster wanted it this way for two reasons. He had lost confidence in his free climbing after Gripper and he wanted more aid experience. This gave the Loobster the real heart of the route and the crux pitches. I was just along for the ride.

At the base of the route we noticed a Fish haulbag. Strange that someone would cache their haulbag here and not be here themselves. Anyway, the only people in sight were three pitches up the Prow in a portaledge.

The first pitch is a difficult lieback/jam crack for 30 feet before heading up a 5.6 slab. The Loobster followed this pitch wearing the pack and mentioned that he had no desire to follow anything harder while wearing the pack. This wouldn't prove to be a problem as we carried a wall hauler with us for hauling the pack. The second pitch is normally done as an A1 corner (free at 11b), but there is a variation just left of this corner that is rated 5.10a. The start is hard to see from the belay ledge, but I moved up and left and found a thin crack slanting up and back right. The initial moves are strenuous hand traversing and then it turns into a hand crack. Further up this variation joins the aid corner and difficult 5.10 laybacking lead up to the belay. I french freed this last section and the Loobster jugged as I hauled the pack.

The third pitch is 5.8 and I did a slight variation here in going directly up to Dinner Ledge instead of out right to the tree and then back left. I did this so it would be easier for the Loobster to jug the pitch. We were on Dinner Ledge by 8 a.m. and happy to find no climbers there. The route was ours! The sun was just rising over the shoulder of Half Dome and it was going to be a perfect day.

Now it was the Loobster's turn. After some reorganization he was off up the 5.6 section towards the Kor roof. The first lead of the day is typically a tough one, especially when it is aid and the Loobster had considerable difficult getting his system down. He took 45 minutes to turn the Kor Roof and I was getting seriously worried about our speed, but then he finished the pitch (up to the alcove) in about an hour and ten minutes which isn't all that bad.

While the Loobster was leading this pitch we were joined by another party. They said that there were two more parties behind them! This route isn't said to be the most popular for nothing. I was so glad we got the early start. The party right behind us was Kevin and Pat. Great guys. It turns out that Kevin was Valley local Kevin Fosberg and he was leading his friend Pat up the entire climb. Pat is a good free climber, but had never jugged before and was doing this route to learn. Kevin is an incredible climber!

Kevin Fosberg profile: 5 year Valley local, second ascent of Bridwell's The Big Chill and first ascent of The Promised Land over 13 continuous days (both on Half Dome). Did Half Dome in a winter day in a snowstorm. A party was bailing off (from the 11th pitch) at the same time they started. Has done the Column in 3 1/2 hours with Dave Shultz. On site soloed the Northeast Buttress of Higher Cathedral Rock (right after getting off the PO wall.) He now is concentrating more on sport climbs and had recently freed a new 5.13 crack/face climb at Elephant Rock. To top it off, these two guys were really nice and never pressured us into going faster. They realized the popularity of the route and knew other parties could very well be part of the experience.

Eventually Lou finishes the pitch and I jug up and over the Kor Roof, and over the roof, and over the roof, and over the roof! The damn Loobster had backcleaned so much on the slanting crack above the roof that each time I cleaned a piece I dropped beneath the roof again and had to turn it four times! This was a royal pain in the ass! I can't believe he did this to me. He just wasn't thinking. I was sweating profusely by the time I reached the belay. Lou didn't have things too organized here and it took quite awhile to straighten things out.

The next aid pitch is also very long (in fact, all the aid pitches Lou did, four of them, were a FULL rope length.) It starts by turning a small roof and then has a big blank gap. This section can be climbed without a cheater stick, but it requires you to rock onto your top aider step (difficult) and then get a piece in shallow, flaring groove. Fortunately we knew about this section and brought a couple of plastic tent poles with us. We now taped them together, taped an open carabiner to the end, and clipped in an aider. The Loobster just reached up and clipped the sling at the top of the blank section and that was it. Piece of cake. Unfortunately, the rest of the pitch is not so easy. It ascends a continuously slanting crack up and left and requires one short pendulum. At the top you aid straight up a vertical headwall with a thin crack and then have to free climb 15 feet right and up to the belay. The Loobster took about an hour and half on this pitch and I took about an hour to clean it as I had to lower out twice and had trouble cleaning some of the pro because of the large gaps and slanting nature of the climbing.

The third aid pitch (and sixth of the climb) was next and it is called the Stopper Pitch because it involves 160 feet of A1 aiding up a thin crack that slants slightly. This is the poor man's Shield Headwall. For some reason the Loobster was really freaked on this pitch and didn't like the pro (although it is quite good.) It took him two hours to lead this pitch! By the time he was done Kevin and Pat had both joined me at the belay. We never saw any sign of the other parties from then on. They might not have been able to get by the section we used a cheater stick on. I even clipped Kevin's aider into the sling above the blank section for him.

Finally the Loobster was off belay and I cleaned the pitch in about ten minutes as it is very straight forward. The Loobster was as glad to give up the leading as I was to take it. The next pitch started with a vicious 5.9 thin hand section before opening up to provide nice jams. The upper section gets quite wide and I was thankful for my #3 Camalots once again. This pitch ends on a nice ledge in a chimney.

The next pitch is considered the crux by some. It heads up a 5.7 chimney for forty feet or so, then clips a bolt and heads right on very dicey, unprotected 5.7/8 friction with serious fall potential back into the chimney. The Loobster negotiated this section nicely, but the tricky aid above slowed him to a crawl. The pitch ends with a wide 5.7 crack where you have to make the awkward transition from aid climbing to free climbing. I once again jugged the pitch without any trouble.

The next pitch goes free at 10a, but it gave me some trouble as it is very strenuous in one lieback section. A couple of judicious pulls on the pro got me by the difficulties and onto the slab above. From here you have to traverse left and over a steep wall to a large ledge and easier ground. The next pitch is 5.8 and has a few awkward, balancy sections, but then enters an easy, albeit loose gully. I climbed up right of this gully to avoid any chance of knocking rocks down on Kevin and Pat. The Loobster simulclimbed with me for about 40 feet and we were at the top around 6:15 p.m.

We tore off the shoes, coiled the ropes, packed the gear and ate our sandwiches. We didn't have a lot of daylight left and dreaded the North Dome gully descent. A month earlier I had taken 5 hours to do the descent by headlamp. Fortunately this descent is much easier in the daylight when you can see the trail and we were down in an hour and a half, thankful that we didn't need our headlamps. Kevin and Pat caught us on the descent and taught us a very valuable trick about this descent that I would like to pass on. Most people who do this descent encounter the somewhat discouraging "giant boulder" section in the woods below the slabs. It is non-trivial to pick you way amongst these gigantic erratics. The key here is that as soon as you get off the slabs don't head down into the woods, but UP towards the side of Washington Column. You don't have to climb much and as soon as you hit the base of the cliff you can follow a trail all along the side until it intersects with the trail you approached on.

It was a 15 hour day, but a much easier 15 hours than we spent on the YPB. Aid climbing isn't nearly as strenuous as chimney climbing. We cruised home by 12:30 a.m. and I was able to lie on the couch and watch basketball the next day without feeling guilty.