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Climbers: Edward Romero and Jan Studebaker
This climb capped off a splendid week in Yosemite National
Park. Blessed with continuous good weather, great climbing and entertaining
companions, my first trip to Yosemite was made even more magnificent by knocking
off one of the "Fifty classics". On this trip, we were honored to have with us a
pioneer of the sport, and co-author of "Fifty classic climbs in North America",
Allen Steck. I tried as often as I could to have meals with Mr. Steck and
somehow gain insight into how the sport of rock climbing had started. He had
many interesting stories about climbs and climbers that have come and gone over
the years. A truly remarkable man.
Jan, Cosima, & Ed the day before
our big climb.
Jan convinced me that if we were to be successful in
completing this climb, we would have to start early and climb fast. This was an
adventure climb after all, which meant that we just might make it back alive. To
start early, we would have to eschew showers and a hot breakfast. What's up with
that? With bagels and cheese with a fruit drink chaser, we head off to Awhanee
to park. Locating the base of the climb was no problem. Just look for the
heinous chimney to the right of Devil’s bathtub.
Part of the agreement Jan and I had when I finally convinced
him to do this climb with me was that I would lead the first pitch. After much
grunting, sweating, swearing and flailing, I hauled myself up to a welcome tree
and brought the pack up. Jan followed with much more grace than I had exhibited,
to my chagrin. From there, it was a matter of scrambling up some mixed 3rd,
4th, and 5th class up a ledge system to its end. At this
point, the real climb starts at a crack on face (5.7) well marked with piton
scars.
Considering that Royal Arches was first climbed in 1936, you
would expect numerous piton scars. Jan led this with no apparent difficulty and
belayed me up from near a large tree. I grabbed the gear and continued up a nice
jam crack (5.5) and belayed in the shade of some welcome shrubbery. By now, we
were getting nice views up and down the valley. This was real climbing! My next
lead took me to what would best be described as a "bear hug double crack". With
left and right appendages enjoying their own private crack, I was all grins when
I found a nice, wide ledge just below the famous tension traverse.
Someone had strung a length of rope with conveniently placed
loops that made the climber resemble Tarzan of the jungle, one hand on rope, the
other reaching for a ledge upon which to mantle up. After walking across a 4th
class ledge to a shady tree, we decided to luncheon, enjoying spectacular views
of Glacier point apron, the Cathedral rocks and up to Half Dome. It was at this
point we were overtaken by two teams of simul-climbers. The first, a team from
Madrid, Spain stopped to chat for a moment. With my broken Spanish, I found out
what Belay was in Spanish: reunion. With an "Ay voy por arriba (I'm going up
now)" they were off. The second team was in training to do Half Dome in one day.
Good luck boys!
After lunch, I continued up a fun layback flake (5.7) that
ended up in a tree with very interesting, gnarled wood. A fun pitch, one of the
best on this route. Jan realized with some horror, he would have to crawl around
an exposed corner to unknown territory. But with some contorted moves, he was on
the face on the other side. Communication was difficult at this point, because
sound doesn't travel very well around corners and through trees, so I would
recommend a short pitch to get around this corner for a safer belay up the face.
As I followed the hand/foot jam crack (5.6), I found that Jan had prudently
placed pro every ten feet at first, then towards the top, none at all. When I
got to the reunion (belay), I asked Jan about this and he confessed that his
feet were tired of being stood on while being jammed in a painful position, so
he decided to just get out of there. I agreed that this was the toughest pitch
of 5.6 I'd ever done!
Discontinuous cracks led us to the start of the dreaded 5.4
friction traverse. This pitch lies at the top of a blank sheet of granite
leading straight down the pool at the Awhanee. Very exposed, it certainly got
the heart racing. We located a pair of hangers that marked the start of the
rappel route and prepared to descend. There were hangers with slings and rappel
rings every half rope length or so. It would be possible to take only one rope
for this climb, but with two, we only had to do 10 rappels. Most had at least a
small ledge to stand on, but a few were just hanging rappels, simply clipped
into hangers on a blank wall extending up and down for thousands of feet. At one
rappel station, I noticed a fleet of very small spiders on the rock, bright red
in color, quite striking and beautiful.
Following the rappels down, we were pleased to be deposited
on the ground right next to the dreaded chimney that was the first pitch. After
congratulating ourselves on a fine day of climbing, we headed back to Curry
village for a hot shower and a cold beer. The next day was leaving day and as El
Capitan vanished from behind us, I reminisced on the wonderful week I'd had in
Yosemite valley and vowed to return.
The day after we got home, we were greeted by the disturbing
news of a rockslide that claimed a climber’s life only hours after we'd left.
This served as a reminder of the unpredictability of life. Of how fleeting our
tenure on this planet is. Climbing is a dangerous sport and part of the thrill
is realizing the possible, dire consequences. But as Orville Wright once said
"If you want to lead a safe life, you would do well to sit on a fence and watch
the birds soar above you".
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