Yosemite: The Classics.

The Valley

It has been boiling for the majority of my Yosemite trip with temperatures around 90 degrees Fahrenheit. To combat this elevation was key with Tuolomne Meadows, residing high above Yosemite Valley, being the perfect locale for my transition to North American granite. I met up with Matt Pickles and spent the first week climbing classic knobby faces on the granite domes with the highlights being an ascent of the old school classic seam Electric Africa (5.12c) and a run up the regular route (5.9) of Fairview Dome.

Emer on a 9 day break from work in the north of Western Australia made a whirlwind trip half way around the world to see Yosemite and squeeze in some climbing. I bailed on Matt for a while and focused on some high longer adventures with Emer. We climbed Cathedral Peak (5.7) in Tuolomne, which tops out at 3,326m, followed by Snake Dyke (5.7) on Half Dome. I had a great time doing these longer easier classics, which made a good break from destroying myself on the brutal hard routes I was trying in Europe. We also had a day at Cookie cliff where I climbed the classic Cookie Monster (5.12a), which I had always wanted to do. Emers time passed quickly and before I knew it she was gone and Lawrence had arrived on a two-week break also from work back in WA. 

Emer following Snake Dyke (5.7), Half Dome.

Emer poses in front of Cathedral Peak, Tuolomne.

Emer on the Half Dome summit.

Lawrence brought with him an intensity to climb something big and difficult which ended up with us joining Matt to try and climb Freerider (5.12d, 1km, 30ish pitches) up El Capitan. We wanted to go ground up, all free in about 3-4 days while hauling a large bag full of water and other supplies. It was a bit ambitious and by pitch 14ish we realized we were going too slow. It was like a furnace in the direct sun on the wall and we were unable to climb in the afternoon. Instead we sat on a ledge, using my tent fly for shade and tried not to drink all our water.  Matt and Lawrence had both fallen and had lost the drive to free the route that shot. The realization we would run out of water before getting to the top meant we had to change strategy if we were to make it. Not to mention all the harder pitches were yet to come. We started jumaring the pitches behind the leader who was mixing free climbing with clean aiding. Things moved a lot faster doing this and by the evening of day 3 we reached the top of the wall. I consider this as a bit of reconnaissance for a later free ascent, which will have to wait until another season.

Matt hanging out during a haul.

Me getting all artistic.

Sheltering from the direct sun.

Bivvy ledge one.

Lawrence leading the Hollow Flake with me on belay.

El Cap Tower. Penthouse suite bivvy.

Matt jumaring up high.

Lawrence checks out the topo.

Made it! Summit Bivvy.

After Freerider I was keen to visit a famous roof crack called Seperate Reality (5.11d). I love roof climbs and this had been on my list for a long time. It turned out to be reasonably easy and super fun. Solid hand jams to a little boulder problem to gain the lip. We tried to get some good photos although the depth of field and light made it hard with our cheap cameras.

On belay. Seperate Reality.

Yep its a roof crack.

A fairly long roof crack.

Love the jug at the end!

Lawrence had teamed up with Tony Arbones, whom I had developed some routes with in China and also knew from the Siurana campground in Spain, to try the upper pitches of Freerider again. This gave Matt and I time to go climb Astroman (5.11c), another valley test piece. It is around 11 pitches and very sustained. I really wanted the onsight of the route although I was mentally off my game during the day. I cruised the route except for the infamous Harding Slot, which consisted of climbing an off size crack into a flaring overhanging squeeze chimney. This pitch was far from fun and I fell out of the insecure crack while trying to get into the chimney. Matt and I topped out with about half an hour of light left but made the mistake of following a well-trodden path into the middle of nowhere. We couldn’t find a descent back to the valley floor and had to back track in the dark to the top of the route. The descent was meant to be 1-2 hours but too treacherous to attempt for the first time in the dark as it traversed slippery granite slabs with death fall potential. We ended up huddling for 8 hours under pine needles shivering and waiting for the sun to come up. The next morning the descent was spicy but ok in the light.

Overall it was a great trip with good friends, classic climbs, and some good laughs. This was my third trip to Yosemite and I still haven’t seen a bear there. There are however plenty of deer and I witnessed a coyote eating a chipmunk. I also grabbed a frog in a crack three pitches up El cap. I loved my new trad gear from Kailas which was super light, easy to place, and really colourful which made it easier to organise and use. Can’t wait to come back!

Paradise Found!

The weather in the Dolomites was far from perfect. We bailed to the Zillertal after Bellavista and continued to chase dry rock, often unsuccessfully. Robbie managed some good quick sends and I struggled with the vertical reachy nature of a lot of the routes. I was keen to move on to our next objective, which was a multi-pitch on the north face of the Eiger, although all the reports I had heard indicated a pile of snow on the summit and water running down the faces. Conditions were not good and didn’t look like improving during our time in Europe. A decision needed to be made about where to climb for our remaining time.

Instead of chasing good weather to climb a hard multi-pitch we headed to Frankenjura where it is possible to climb on the short overhung pocketed routes even in the rain.  It was a great decision. The Frankenjura is a place I had always wanted to visit. It is a historic location with classic lines developed by the old masters of the sport. (Kurt Albert, Wolfgang Gullich, Jerry Moffat, John Bachar, Kim Carrigan etc.).

The short, often less than 15m, powerful, pocketed, steep walls reminded me of years spent on the Rockface 45 degree wall in Perth as well as projecting routes like Spatula Man, my first 26 at Bobs hollow. I loved the style and it immediately showed with quick ascents of 10- (8a+) and 10 (8b) grade routes.  I felt a bit bad for Robbie, as he was the opposite of me. We had left Zillertal where I struggled to climb 8a but he had quick ascents of routes up to 8b+. In the Frankenjura he suddenly had to work a lot harder. He still managed a few 8a+ routes but you could tell the style was something he was not used to.  It is amazing how much your climbing style can affect how effective you are in different climbing areas.

Lots of randomly shaped boulders pop out of the forest! Me on an 8a at Endorama.

Brian and Gesa dropped by for a visit. I led them on a mission to a less visited dank crag in the forest. Sorry! 

Gesa making the most out of our poor crag choice.

Max from the UK warming up on a route near Sautanz, the first 7b+ which we later did. 

On one of Pauls visits he did this first climb of the first day. A nightmare on Nightmare (8b).

Robbie eventually headed back to reality in Scotland and I stayed on meeting new friends to climb with as well as climbing with Paul Steinig who I had met previously in Zillertal.  It had been raining most days but hadn’t affected us under overhangs in the forest. In the last week the weather finally cleared up and the sun came out which was a disaster. All the moisture trapped in the forest started to evaporate causing a massive rise in humidity. The cold rock and warm humid air meant that condensation covered many of the crags. The unlucky run of weather had caught up with me, and two hard projects I was excruciatingly close to will have to wait for my return.

From right, Sam (USA), Paul (Chile), Andrew (AUS) and myself enjoying Marthas cake.

Now I will head to Yosemite for another completely different style of climbing. Hopefully a change of continent will provide better weather!

Europe Part 2: Another night on a wall.

Robbie sent Bellavista!

After a few wet days in the Zillertal where I didn’t get up much and Robbie managed to claw his way up Total Brutal we returned to the Tre Cime for Bellavista. The weather continued to be unstable but we kept working at it anyway. Conditions stayed bad with the rock feeling like soap covered marble.  I managed to unlock all of the moves of the crux pitch but didn’t put much effort into the epic linkage required. Robbie improved on days 3 and 4 although still struggled with committing to the sequences due to the nature of the rock, protection and exposure. We rested on Sunday the 3^rd and spent time considering our options. Almost two weeks had past and I wondered how much more time this route would take. We decided that despite Robbie not having climbed through the crux of the pitch we would go ground up on the Monday and if shut down at the crux we would leave to chase another objective for a while. This was exactly the pressure needed for Robbie to go ‘amuerte’ on the crux.

Rest day dinner in the Dolomites.

Day 5:

We awoke at 5am and made our way to the base of the Cima Ouest. Luckily for me Robbie had decided he needed to lead the scariest of the pitches as well as the hardest to be happy with his ascent. This meant the initial 7b was all his and I had the luxury of a top rope. He climbed excruciatingly slowly and precisely as one slip would mean possible injury and he would have to repeat the pitch. He linked the pitch into the following 6c and I continued the linkage trend by climbing one super pitch consisting of the 6a, 7a, and 7a+ all feeling as though they had a good coating of butter. We were then at the roof and the start of the crux.

Robbie aided out the traverse powdering the slippery holds with chalk before returning to the belay. A small rest with some chocolate and fluids and he was off. He powered through the start of the crux where he had been consistently falling generally due to lack of commitment rather than fatigue. Suddenly he was at a jug rest having done the hardest slippery section of the route. Only a sequency endurance ~8a left to add on. 20m of power screams truncated by silence as he found rests continued to the end of the route.  As he reached the anchor for once all the hoots and hollering came from us rather than the tourists watching down below. He had even switched off from the fear of the position to skip several pitons which made following with some obligatory climbing very interesting.

I dropped our fixed rope from the belay so we could take it with us which meant we were now committed. No matter what we were gunning for the summit. We had played on the following 8a our previous day on the route and to our surprise found it to be closer to 7b+. Robbie wanted to lead this too for the true lead ascent and I was happy to be taken along for the ride. It went first attempt and we were through the roof and into unrehearsed ground. I thought we were making ok time and it would be just a matter of cruising to the top. Things never seem to work out that way though and we wasted an hour or more climbing some crazy run outs past a bolt and into choss on the 7a before we realised we were going totally off route. Once back on track we climbed three pitches, which were not straight forward, and occasionally scarily run out to ledge half way up the Cime. All the unique climbing of Bellavista was done and only the long easy slabs of the classic Cassin route originally done 80 years ago remained.

Unfortunately it was 6:30pm and with only an hour and a half of light left we had a couple of options to consider. It had been a dry day and the upper slabs although still wet looked passable. We could go for the top probably doing a large portion in the dark by head torch before a forced bivvy on the summit or we could have a forced bivvy on the ledge we were on which had a small roof and finish off the climb in the morning.  Some clouds had been building up but we hadn’t yet had the rain and minor thunderstorm we had had most other days. The weather had mentioned there was the possibility of no afternoon thunderstorm but with the clouds that had built up I wondered if it was just going to be delayed till later in the evening.  We were tired and took the less epic option of staying on the ledge with the small roof. It got dark by around 8 and the sky opened. Pouring rain, thunder and lightning for the entire night. Our decision not to blast on for the summit was a lifesaver. We huddled freezing in our down jackets and got little to no sleep.

Our sheltered ledge for the night half way up Cima Ouest.

 Day 6:

The upper slabs became a waterfall and everything was soaked. I traversed an easy pitch to the start of the upper route and belayed Robbie over whilst standing in a waterfall. I was now freezing and soaked. We made the decision to bail but didn’t know how as rappelling over the roof below would be impossible. I had a vague idea that there was a way to traverse all the way right, along the weakness the ledge we had bivvied on was associated with, which would lead to an exit from the face. I am not sure where I got it from but it wasn’t true. We monkeyed along a rail for two pitches past rusty fixed protection where the Cassin route traversed in. Eventually the Cassin route continued down and right on rusty pins in a way we couldn’t follow. Instead I climbed another 10m without gear and found a shiny new bolted anchor hidden around a corner. We knew a couple of German climbers who had climbed a new bolted 7c somewhere on this section of the face and figured that this must be it. There was even chalk on the holds. We couldn’t traverse any more right so we started rappelling. I had to back clip some bolts and swing around to reach the lower anchors but they kept on appearing and after an hour or so we were back on solid ground.

It was awesome to be part of Robbies achievement in freeing all the Bellavista pitches and a fun couple of days out getting stuck on a ledge yet again. Now we can do some sport climbing before focusing on another big objective. We are constantly talking about The Eiger although with the wettest summer in 30 years (apparently) it won’t be in good condition. We shall see what the weather does over the next couple of weeks anyway and maybe go play on it.

Made a timelapse of the sunset and managed to get this shot with some lightning in it.

Europe Part 1: Bellavista

After 30 hours of travel from the Blue Mountains I arrived in Munich, met an overly psyched Robbie Phillips, and picked up a hire car. We drove directly to our main goal of the trip, Bellavista 8b+/c, on the Tre Cima de Laverado in the Italian Dolomites. We should have checked the weather first as it was raining with no break forecast for the following week.

After driving back along the way we came we arrived at a climbing area called The Zillertal, which has areas climbable in the rain. The granite crags of The Zillertal are a major sport climbing and bouldering destination as well as an amazing place to hang out.

While waiting for the weather to clear we visited the steep crag of Bachexe where we threw ourselves at an amazing 8a called Electric Avenue.  Robbie managed the send after a few shots and I came close falling off the end of the crux sequence. We also met a strong German crusher, named Paul Steinig, who was on a climbing trip with his mother. He is one of the young guns you occasionally meet while travelling and wonder how far they will push the sport in the future.

Electric Avenue 8a. Bachexe, Zillertal.

The day after Bachexe we visited a route that Robbie had been frothing about since the trip was planned. ‘Total Brutal’ 8b+ is a chipped and glued test piece that gets its classic status due to its position over a road. Paul and his mum turned up and we all threw ourselves at the route although it is hard with big moves and small crimps. Only Robbie showed signs of possibly doing the route. Afterwards Paul suggested we go and try the first 8A boulder problem in The Zillertal. It is a long traverse and didn’t feel as hard as a true 8A boulder. Paul and I fell off the end several times and Robbie sent. We all had completely different ways of doing the problem.

Robbie flexing for the camera on Total Brutal 8b+.

Paul Steinig on Total Brutal 8b+.

Me working hard on the 8A traverse.

A rest day, a visit back to Total Brutal for Robbie, and an easy afternoon on an enjoyable 7c+ and the weather started to look unsettled rather than just really bad in the Dolomites.  Paul and his mother took us out to a nice dinner fuelling us up for the days ahead. We loaded up with supplies and headed to Bellavista.

Day 1:

Our plan was to try the first 5 pitches up to the roof where the crux pitch of the route is located. The first pitches are only up to 7b climbing although they are incredibly run out on loose and slippery rock, as well as rusty pins. The initial rusty pin on the first 7b pitch was almost 10m off the deck! I led the first pitch while thinking of how even Robbie had slipped off a 6a+ the day before.  The following pitches went well with Robbie navigating through a 7a and 7a+ combined pitch on super wet and slippery rock. It was like the face was coated in olive oil.

Once under the roof we had extra time so we pulled along a fixed static line feeling the holds on the initial section of the crux 8b+/c pitch. They were soaking wet, super slippery but surprisingly large.  I was dismayed at the distance between two of the jugs, which Robbie could span easily. There was a small crimp in between but it was difficult to hold. After a short play each we headed down static ropes that were fixed to the deck allowing for a quick escape. Although it had been raining most of the day we had stayed dry due to the steepness of the route.

Cima Ouest. Bellavista heads up to the roof and breaks out left.

To say I was excited is an understatement!

Robbie following the first pitch.

Robbie following the 3rd pitch.

Me on the start of the crux pitch.

Day 2:

On the second day we focused on the crux pitch. I jumared up the initial five pitches and settled in at the crux belay. A fair while later Robbie joined me after struggling with his jumaring setup. Robbie climbs incredibly hard but is new to being on a large route. I couldn’t imagine having my first big route experience on something like Bellavista.  It reminds me of being thrown in the deep end in the Bugaboos a long time ago with Lawrence although we were only climbing up to 5.12-.

The crux pitch of Bellavista is a large traverse and has a mid point anchor. We both worked the first half with the large span in the roof still giving me trouble. The second half of the route we worked separately and was consistently technical and sustained although not as boulder as the first. Everything went smoothly except for one incident when Robbie fell only a draw out from the anchor, and being a lot heavier than me, launched me into the roof above the anchor I was sitting on.  Luckily I was wearing my helmet, which sustained a small dent.

I had the realization that despite the pitch only feeling about 8b and very projectable for me I was not going to be able to do it quickly or on demand for when we go ground up on the entire route. Robbie is a fair bit stronger so with my experience on the wall and his ability to crush it would be possible for him to climb it. So the focus is now for Robbie to get his sequence memorized and to block out in his mind the position on the wall the pitch is. When we go ground up he will lead the crux pitch and then we will epic through the easier terrain to the top hopefully not getting benighted although it seems highly likely.

At the belay for the crux pitch.

Robbie trying the second half of the crux pitch.

Second half of the crux pitch.

After climbing the crux pitch we abseiled down a large
loop we fixed and jumared back up to the anchor. Exposure!

Robbie's feet with a small amount of space beneath them.

It is raining with thunderstorms again and we need rest. We are back in The Zillertal for a few days before returning to Bellavista. We left our draws and a fixed rope on the crux pitch so we have to go back up!