"Leaning Tower "
God am I tired.
And sore.
And dirty.
I have aluminum dust and dirt under my nails and in the cracked skin of my fingers that wouldn\'t come out with a scrub brush and Ajax.
I\'m finding scabs I didn\'t know I had. How did I get that cut on my forehead?
For those of you who ever considered big wall climbing as a hobby, you may want to rethink your plans unless you have some severe masochistic streak. For any of your curious about the experience, I\'ll recap....
I woke up at 3:30 AM on Saturday to meet my friend Pavel at 4 and drove the 5.5 hours to Yosemite Valley. Me made good time, and as the base of the climb is close to Bridalveil Falls, the first parking lot in the valley, we soon found ourselves packing the gear into two haul bags (affectionately referred to as \"pigs\" by the climbing community at large).
If you plan to do a multi-day aid climb, plan on hauling about 30-60 pounds of gear per person.
We hiked the relatively short trail up the steep talus to the base of the Leaning Tower, swatting away the Deet resistant mosquitos away the whole time. Within 90 minutes or so, we reached the base of the wall and the ledge that ran from the hillside across the face of the tower. After roping up for the short traverse along this ledge, we were roughly 200 feet above the ground and ready to begin the climb.
When aid climbing, you cannot free climb up the rock because hand and foot holds don\'t exist. You are either clipping into bolts/rivets placed in the rock or putting gear in tiny seams and cracks, attaching nylon etries (like a step ladder made of seat belt webbing), and moving up the ladder to your next placement. And Repeat. Again and again and again.
The second in the party, belays the first, locking off the rope in the case of a fall. When the first gets to the end of the rope or a set of bolts, he sets an anchor, attaches brings up the haul bag, and the second ascends the rope cleaning all the gear. Bet on 1-3 hours per pitch.
We started climbing at about 1:00 in the afternoon and made the fourth pitch at about 8:30 PM. We camped on that ledge for the night. Had a good dinner of baby carrots, P&J sandwiches, a banana and an apple. About this time we noticed we were running short on water and had to conserve. We had two bottles left for the next day.
The next day: 6 more pitches. Two bottles of water. The climbing was more challenging here, with traversing and overhanging sections that were difficult to follow and clean. Slower ascents meant more time in uncomfortable hanging belays.
I took a short 15 foot fall at the start of the eighth pitch, about 1000 feet off the deck. A small camming device I was standing on blew while I was reaching up to make my next placement and sent me with a sudden \"oh shit\" into the void. The fall was short, sudden and safe, but it took off a few chunks of skin from my right hand on the way down.
Despite how it sounds, unexpected falls are not scary. One second everything is good, next minute, WOOSH. Thinking you are going to fall - that\'s scary. But the fall itself is too sudden to generate a fear response.
We finally hit the top of the Leaning Tower at 8:30 again, after roughly 14 hours of hard climbing. And we had to decide do we make the decent tired, dehydrated, and in the dark, or spend another night, sans food and water, on the rock.
I\'d rather be uncomfortable than dead. We spent the night at the top. Enjoyed a few baby carrots scraped from the bottom of the haul bag, a handful of banana licked from my bloody, aluminum coated fingers, and several pieces of vitamin C gum to keep my mouth moist.
Sunday morning at 4:45, Pavel and I and got up, drank the last 10 ounces of water, packed the gear, and began our 7 rappel decent off the back side of the rock.
By the way, rappeling with an ungainly 40 lb pig on your back is NO fun at all.
By 8:30 or so we were at the base of the wall, feeding the mosquitos, and looking up as a new party of climbers was making their way up the first pitch.
By 9:30 we were in the car en route to the grocery store. I walked in, grabbed a big bottle of OJ and a liter of water, and had finished the OJ before I left the store.
