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Logdog
Trad climber
Toyota, CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 21, 2007 - 04:27pm PT
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The weather report at the hwy. 120 entrance said mostly sunny for tomorrow as we cruised through late tuesday night. Having not checked the weather otherwise,(oops), we planned on a perfect, sunny day (yeah right). We slept through our alarm clock in the meadow, and woke up at 5:30. Not exactly an alpine start, but good enough for us.
Daylight hit us before we even started the death slab approach, easy route finding, we thought. 9 am saw us roping up under clear blue skies, a perfect morning and an empty route ahead of us. James took us to the Robbins traverse. Trying to move fast, James was linking p. 10 and 11, backcleaning all pieces when a cam that he was yarding on blew, sending him for a good ride, maybe 40+ ft. He ended up missing me at the belay by a few feet. Air Time! At that point, I took the lead up to big sandy, just in time for the Darkness to surround us. The happy little clouds had started to turn angry, and this is where we felt the first snowflakes. Time to climb faster, we thought. Having shaken off his fall, James lead the Zig Zags, and by the time I got to the belay @ pitch 20, the storm was really starting to show it's teeth. I grabbed the lead again. Thank God ledge was super fun, the squeeze after was not. Now the storm was in full force, snow and wind ripping across the face, and as we were planning on a one day accent, we had no bivy gear, and only a puffball apiece. (next time i'll bring a rain jacket). The face moves before the bolt ladder on p. 22 were totally soaked and starting to freeze, making the 8 feet of easy face climbing virtually impossible. A cheat-stick was fasioned using a quickdraw, ducktape and a stopper. Perfect! The next face section at the top of that bolt ladder was compleatly iced up, and the bolt far out of reach. Hmmmmm. James was now getting hypo, and the ropes were freezing up. The bolt was reached by busting out a hook move using my good old Leaper nut tool. Sweet! Verglass now coated the face, and my partner was falling into the jaws of hypothermia, although he was fairly amusing with his cold induced rants. The last pitch was fairly spicy, cleaning ice and snow out of the cracks for pro, and dealing with totally frozen ropes. 5.7 slabs are not easy with verglass! and it was COLD! Dawn was now apon us, and there was about a foot of fresh snow to clear for the last anchor. Elapsed time since the car, about 23hrs. Uncontrolable shivering and numb hands and feet were the theme as we decended. The cables were super slick, and there was a layer of ice under the snow, forcing us to rap off the posts. In the time it took to clip into the cable at the end of each rap, the rope would freeze solid in the device, neccesitating long cursing rants and wrestling the rope out of the reverso. After the long slog down the Muir trail, lunch at the caff never tasted so good. A full value day on Half Dome for sure!
-Logan aka "Chuck" Talbott
-James Adamson
http://www.adventurerefugee.com
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caughtinside
Social climber
Davis, CA
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Sep 21, 2007 - 04:37pm PT
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bad ass!!
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BluntMan
Social climber
92595, ca
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Sep 21, 2007 - 04:39pm PT
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Hey Badass,
You kick ass! Great read and a very understated TR that most would call an epic.
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pc
climber
East of Seattle
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Sep 21, 2007 - 04:43pm PT
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Ditto! Glad you guys made it okay and thanks for the TR.
pc
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davidji
Social climber
CA
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Sep 21, 2007 - 05:00pm PT
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Quite an adventure! Thanks for posting.
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slobmonster
Trad climber
berkeley, ca
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Sep 21, 2007 - 05:10pm PT
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Hey Logan -- haven't seen that smiling face since the spring! Give a call if in Berkeley.
your former workmate whose name begins with "S"
and whose dog really, really wants to eat cats
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Logdog
Trad climber
Toyota, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 21, 2007 - 05:22pm PT
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Hiya Seth,
good to hear from ya! I might be around Berkeley in a few months, i'll give you a call.
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spyork
Social climber
A prison of my own creation
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Sep 21, 2007 - 05:27pm PT
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Quite an adventure! Glad you guys made it back!
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Sep 21, 2007 - 05:33pm PT
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Not your run-of-the-mill Half Dome TR. And you got that photo. Good work!
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Matt
Trad climber
never ever pissing into the wind
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Sep 21, 2007 - 05:36pm PT
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holy sh#t chuck, i mean logan!
WTF?
you mean you actually went up HD w/out mixed gear?
everyone knows those slab moves at the top are money w/ crampons!
pretty good fortune not to be engaged in a self rescue attempt from the base in a heavy freezing rain after rapping half the route cause your partner decked onto a ledge after backcleaning everything- now THAT would have been an epic!!
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Logdog
Trad climber
Toyota, CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 21, 2007 - 05:41pm PT
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the Regular Northwest Face now goes at VI 5.9 C1 M4.
Next time i'll bring ice gear to take advantage of the great mixed ice pitches near the top!
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Duke-
Trad climber
SF, aka: Dirkastan
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Sep 21, 2007 - 06:40pm PT
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BURLY! MORE PICS!!!
-Dirka
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Erik Olson
climber
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Sep 21, 2007 - 06:57pm PT
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Hey Log Dog, Chuck? When you drag my ass up a route next summer I am looking for a sunny climb, OK? I enjoyed the post.
E
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Sep 21, 2007 - 07:52pm PT
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Nice job!
Yeah, anymore pics?
Zander
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nick d
Trad climber
nm
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Sep 21, 2007 - 08:12pm PT
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Super bad! I am impressed to say the least. You guys are hard men for sure! Thanks for the TR. By the way, it was 80 degrees here. Brrr...
Michael
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elcap-pics
climber
Crestline CA
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Sep 21, 2007 - 08:55pm PT
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Nice... love the suffering!! Good luck in the Himalayas!!!
See you again... Elcap-pics
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kevsteele
climber
Santa Barbara, CA
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Sep 21, 2007 - 09:28pm PT
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Right on James and Logan!
Great training for the Himal ;-)
And aren't you glad you brought the duct tape?
-kev
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Sep 21, 2007 - 10:06pm PT
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all this attention to HD... man it is building an irresistable force for me...
thanks for the TR and the motivation!
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Mother
Social climber
carmichael
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Sep 22, 2007 - 05:47pm PT
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If you aren't checking the weather, please keep checking that your insurance is up to date!
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J. Werlin
climber
Cedaredge
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Sep 23, 2007 - 01:04pm PT
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Nice redpoint.
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