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malabarista
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 3, 2007 - 01:42am PT
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How long does this route take most parties when starting with Royal Arches including descent back to the valley? I've wanted to climb it for a long time and hoping to get on it next weekend and trying to decide whether to approach from above or try the linkup. I've never done the North Dome gully descent, always rapped the Arches when up there. Any beta\info\stories welcome.
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climbrunride
Trad climber
Durango, CO
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North Dome Gulley is really not too bad. As long as you stay realtively on route, you'll be drinking at the Indian Room in 1 1/2 hours.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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there is a lot of discussion of this around the STForum...
Approaching from the top (I've done it twice) from Porcupine Flat know that the Forest Service has misestimated the distance LONG, we got to North Dome much faster than the 4+ miles would have been. I think the time was between an hour and an hour and a half.
Once the trail starts to descend to North Dome and the notch you will come to the trail heading west to Yosemite Point. Head off in this direction along the southern cliff band looking for 3rd and 4th class scrambles down to the obvious slab just west of the descent gully. It is much better to walk down the slab to the altitude of the start of South Face and Crest Jewel then to walk in the brush choked gully. The altitude is roughly 6500', check a topo, and an altimeter is a great thing to have. Contour this altitude through the brush, not easy, but you'll see why it was better not to walk down this way in moments... to the start, which is positioned in a very dramatic place, a ledge that peters out at the start of Crest Jewel and is underneath the first 3 pitches in the promenent left facing corner start of South Face. Probably less than an hour to descend.
If I were going to go down from the top of North Dome, I'd do it in exactly the same way, though starting at the notch and working west to the slab. I wouldn't rap as that would take longer.
Note that the Snow Creek trail is to the east, also, and though I have not yet explored the approach to that trail from North Dome, I would suspect that it might be a closer way down then the Yosemite Falls trail. And if you have limited light, it might offer a better way to the Valley in the dark then NDG. But that is a conjecture for me at this point, having never done it. The problem is the bushwacking is brutal and the drop offs dramatic, so you don't want to f*#k up.
I'll see if I have a picture from underneath North Dome to share...
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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here's the picture:
Taken May 22, 2007.... you might see a climbing party on South Face.
The tree on the ledge is a good landmark... you can see the corner above (with another tree high up) which is the South Face route, above the tree-in-the-corner you cut across to the face and head for the right facing corners above. This are very slick... and I mean low coefficient of friction here.
You can see the faint trail of Crest Jewel following the dike up and right from the start, then heading up vertically to the top.
The picture was taken from the top of Washington Column. There is the direct start from this vicinity, but you may want to walk the wooded and brushy gully diagonalling up from the rim above Royal Arches. Not apparent in this image is the second ledge about 300' above the correct start ledge. You don't want to be on this ledge, as there is no easy way (except walking) to get to the start ledge.
Once you have it dialed it is not so much a problem to find, but the first time is the hardest...
...good luck!
Oh, and the walk out to Porcupine Flat is not so bad, in my opinion, so if you just want to do the North Dome climbs it is certainly possible to do it from the top... it does reduce the epic potential quite a bit as the N.Dome trail is well worn and very doable in the dark.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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When I did this w/ my bf several years ago we probably qualified as a fairly average party (me below, him above), and it was a really big, long day. (10a.m. - 2 a.m., IIRC) We pitchd out the whole Arches route in probably 3 hours. That time probably also included 5 hours of hiking for me, since I'm a really slow hiker and was recovering from my knee surgery then. Spending some time on the summit of the ND is worthwhile! We also ran into some fella's in trouble in the NDG in the middle of the night which took some time.
We've been back and did another route w/ a bivy on top of Royal Arches. The bivy was sweet and the adventure wasn't a bit more relaxed that way.
Both were good...just depends on what kind of day you want.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Just did the Royal Arches - North Dome linkup on Saturday with 4 friends doing the South Face and 2 other friends doing Crest Jewel. We stashed 2 cars at the Porcupine Creek trailhead on Tioga Road on Friday night, then drove 2 others to Valley floor at dawn (5:45am) to start. I think Royal Arches took us about 3 hours; we were lucky that it was uncrowded. I drank and refilled my water bottle from the stream to the west (I didn't bother with a filter this time). The hike up to the base of North Dome took an hour. When we arrived, one party was already up doing pitch 4 of the South Face (turns out it was Sir Brutus of Wyde and Nurse Ratchet; they had bivvied on the rim after doing Royal Arches on Friday). Two other parties arrived shortly after us to do Crest Jewel. I didn't keep track of exactly how long it took us to do the South Face, but we had a party of 3 and a party of 2, and one of my friends in the party of 3 struggled a bit following the chimneys. On top, my friends who had done Crest Jewel had a nice long rest waiting for the rest of us to arrive. The 4.2 mile walk to the Tioga Road was nice and snow free. I guess that took us 1-1.5 hours, and we arrived at the cars in the daylight. I was glad we had just that easy hike back to the cars, rather than bushwhacking and descending 3000' down via North Dome Gully. I have always hiked out to Tioga Road from the top of North Dome.
This photo is a scanned version of John Sheard's photo in Yosemite Climber.
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travelin_light
Trad climber
california
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Bring lots of water for the linkup. I can tell you that two liters is NOT enough for a warm summer day. Not even close. Seems obivious now, didn't at 5:00am. We did the NDG Descent.
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Brutus of Wyde
climber
Old Climbers' Home, Oakland CA
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Sorry I missed chatting with you Clint!!!
Yup, Nurse Ratchet and I started up Royal Arches on Friday around 1 pm, reached the rim at about 7:30 pm or so.
Saturday we did the South Face & were about half way up when we saw Clint's conga line racing up after us.
Topped out somewhere around 5 pm, descended back to the rim, then hiked over the the top of the Column, where we spent a second night out.
We are not fast climbers. We are not slow climbers. We are Half-Fast climbers.
Note: there is plentiful water at the spring at the rim of Royal Arches. There is also still a small stream running in the lower part of the gully descending from the top of North Dome (just before the slabs flatten out). Also: Check very carefully for ticks after climbing in this area. I am heading to the doctor this afternoon to get evaluated due to possible erythema migrans (an early Lyme disease symptom that sometimes appears after deer tick bites). Let's hope it's just a bruise and a twig puncture.
Cheers!
Brutus
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