Park
Trad climber
Reno
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It's important to get an early alpine start on Royal Arches. The start of the chimney on Pitch 1 is super polished and slick but look for the good left handjam that makes getting to the chockstone much easier. I felt that Pitches 6 & 8 consisted of the most fun and enjoyable climbing, just be cautious when climbing past the hollow block flake on Pitch 8. The fixed pendulum on Pitch 9 was really fun and overall just a cool position to enjoy the views. I lead all 15 pitches and thought that Pitch 11 was by far the crux of the route as the lieback flake felt strenuous and sustained. Definitely bring a 70m rope if you plan on rappelling Royal Arches with 1 rope. Also, bring way more water than you think you'll need to prevent dehydration as it can be an extremely long day in direct sun.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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I found a couple of large flakes that seem ready to go.
First was on P8 from ST Free Climbs. The 5.4 Flakes area. Flake feels like it will go if it is liebacked on, however I did stand on it and was fine. This one may hang in there for another decade, or it might go at night on its own. Mostly just scary because it sounds hollow and is detached on all sides.
For what little this may be worth, that flake sounded hollow in 1969, too, and every year since that I've done the route. I should add that back then, we were placing pins (well, at least one pin -- there was a fixed Cassin soft iron pin at its base) in the thing, so it seemed even more likely to pry off.
John
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Did this climb yesterday, started at 9am and were back at the car by 3pm. Simul-climbed the route with approach shoes and felt it was pretty casual. This was our first time on the route and had a blast. The large loose flake that CMac talks about down thread was past on the left on the face using a thin seem and crack and felt about 5.8ish. I am sure it would have been fine climbing the flake but the face out left looked interesting. All in all a fun day.
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jvSF
Trad climber
San Francisco
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Rap station 10.5 discussed below by Clint Cummins has been modified. This is the station listed at 85' above the 5.5 polished gulley. The hanger and rings on one of the bolts are missing. The other bolt and rings are intact and useable. We lowered one climber from rap station 10 the full length down to the big ledge. The second climber lowered down to the partial station at 10.5 and rapped/downclimbed off the single bolt down to the big ledge.
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steele
Trad climber
CA
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Fastest to simul-climb-do the .10a pendulum pitch free, pro is good-nd gully keeps you from rapping into a traffic jam. Any good long variations anybody can recommend or maybe the old hanging boulders route beta?
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elvisleg
Trad climber
bay area
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This climb took us about 8 hours to climb the first time since we were so new to climbing (my first lead ever). Nowadays we just simul it and get it done in about an hour and a half.
This climb is just too good not to do at least once a season. The rock quality is excellent and the climbing is not strenuous at all due to the many rests and ledges everywhere. Great for fledgling leaders.
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tooth
Trad climber
B.C.
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Yeah, perfect conditions and only two great guys who let us pass... Thanks guys! We hiked down the gully, a first for me and not my favorite way down!
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looks easy from here
climber
Santa Cruzish
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Climbed yesterday, Saturday 7/27/13. Route was completely dry. There was a little water on the upper face to the west of the rap line, but none anywhere that a rope would land.
We must've gotten lucky: we saw evidence of a team ahead of us (approach bag at the base of the route) and we hung out for a bit (pun intended) above pitch 5 to let a team of simul-climbers pass us, but otherwise we had it all to ourselves.
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DesertRatExpeditions
Trad climber
Flagstaff, Arizona
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Climbed the Arches last Wed. Been a few years since I was last on it, but I found a couple of large flakes that seem ready to go.
First was on P8 from ST Free Climbs. The 5.4 Flakes area. Flake feels like it will go if it is liebacked on, however I did stand on it and was fine. This one may hang in there for another decade, or it might go at night on its own. Mostly just scary because it sounds hollow and is detached on all sides.
The other, scarier flake was on P12. Just above the lieback, above the midpoint tree, it is the obvious placement for a .5 Camalot. The flake looks like it is part of a larger, more solid rock. I placed a cam and pull tested it. The cam popped out and the flake visibly moved. Upon closer inspection, this flake has a hairline fracture about two feet right of the crack. This flake would definitely go, probably without too much urging.
Of course there are always loose sounding rocks on the Arches, but these two were especially scary.
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cody padrnos
Trad climber
corona ca
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Climb this on May 29th, 2013
Good climb, straight forward, read topo and you'll be fine. I did bring a BD size 3 cam as not prescribed in the topo review. I used it many times, but I also did not have half size cams. I didn't use my nuts one time, maybe just me though.
Water was fine and avoidable. experienced most of it on pitch 3
Pitch 12 was the only real exposed pitch, but fun!
Start early because we got held up behind people for days.
2 60 meter ropes were good for us on rappel.
The repel was obvious on pitch 15. There are 3 bolts, but only 2 worth rapping off on! A 70 meter rope would help if you wanted to combine pitches, kind of wish I had a 70 for this climb. it was still great though.
Rock and roll and go climb it.
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brooks8970
Trad climber
DF Mexico
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Climbed on April 14th. Lots of water, but easy to avoid. We skipped the last pitch and rapped off 15, but it looked to be in reasonable shape.
Linking beta with dual 70m lines, YMMV:
Up:
A 70m will allow you to link pitches 2, 3 & 4 in two pitches using the intermediate belay; pitches 7 & 8; and pitches 11 & 12. Alternatively, you could link 5-7 in two pitches, using the intermediate belay; and 7 and 8, but we didn't. We were careful & scant with pro, so rope drag was not an issue. If linking, be careful where you run your rope around the 11th belay tree. i.e. go left.
Down:
Double 70m on the rappel route, we were able to link 1 & 2. The topo says 245 ft, but it went ok with rope stretch. We also linked 3 & 4, and 5 & 6 with room to spare; and 7 & 8 with 4th/3rd classing with a safety net of ledges to the 9th rappel station. The 3rd class from 9 to 10 is more like 4th class. It was covered in pine needles when we were there and a misstep in the wrong spot would be fatal. It's late in the day; I would take the time to set up an extra rap. We couldn't find 11 in the dark, so we rapped off the first belay tree using a single 70m line. We were lucky not to get ropes stuck there. I'd look for the alternative next time.
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Gozzo
Social climber
Merced
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Climb the route on Monday 9/10/2012.
The route is totally awesome. No running water and just one party in front of us.
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Scraptee
Trad climber
Tacoma
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As of 9/4 spring is flowing at ~ .5L/min. Nice surprise.
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steele
Trad climber
CA
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In this area July 8th, barely any spring water, start 5am and drink as much as you can before climbing then bring minimum a quart or two to the top. Descent options 1: North Dome gully, two steep mi., one hour. 2: Rappel route cluttered, one hour. 3: Yosemite Falls, seven mi. to valley, three hours. My favorite: do the .9/.10 free, friction/short, then do North Dome .7/.8 sustained liebacks. Full rack, safely simul-climb(except pendulum pitch and the greasy one after it). Don't simul-climb ND unless you're a solid .10+ leader--sustained. Hike down ND gully. Average climbers like me will take ~12 hours for 24 pitches and a few hiking miles. Sidenote: looks like Mist Trail will be the next one to get regulated by NPS...
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Lennox
climber
in the land of the blind
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The spring is running well as of 6/26.
If you look at the picture of the route to the right and see where the top of the route goes through the little forest--you'll notice a wet streak below that forest. The spring saturates much of the ground there and then some of the water from the spring seeps out below the forest.
If there is even a tiny wet streak below the forest there will definitely be a good flow to the spring, and even if you can't see any wet streak, that spring is likely still running; it's pretty reliable.
My best time was 1:24 ctc in 2004. I usually do it in about 2:30 for fun. I've never done the raps, and don't plan to; I like the hike down.
(edit)
And about Crest Jewel, Vince Depasque and I simuled RA then did the 10 pitches of Crest Jewel in 2 simul pitches in ~1993. We took around 25 runners to make draws with, and only had to skip a couple bolts. I don't know our ctc time or the other parts except for Crest Jewel taking 1:01, and even though we thought we wouldn't do better than about 1:30, Vince got pissed because we'd gotten so close to breaking an hour and hadn't.
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ZachW
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Anyone know if the spring at the top is running? We're doing the linkup with Crest Jewel and would rather not carry the full day's worth of water all the way up RA.
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Rattlesnake Arch
Social climber
Home is where we park it
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Royal Arches Route (solo, car-to-car)
1. 0:52:26 -- Cedar Wright May 2000
2. 0:57 -- Dean Potter. Fall 1998
3. 0:57:04 -- Kevin Thaw. 1999
http://www.speedclimb.com/
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jfailing
Trad climber
PDX
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mucci - 50 minutes is crazy dude... like, car 2 car?
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mucci
Trad climber
The pitch of Bagalaar above you
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LOL!
50 something min, up and down
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jfailing
Trad climber
PDX
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Climbed this route over the weekend - it was completely dry, no wet spots whatsoever, thought we stopped at the rap station at the top of 15 (could be wet past that?).
Saw nobody on the route except for a party of two near the very top. We simuled most of it and pitched out a handful of sections.
Rapped with a 70m rope - lots of raps... Total took about 4 hours car to car.
What's the speed record on this climb?
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Liam
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Awsome Climb ! Had to ditch a stuck a rope on the rap route last sunday. It's a Blue 8.2 (Half of a set of twin ropes) I have a REWARD (+ good climbing karma) if it comes back
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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I see several comments about the wet traverse pitch.
We did it on May 1, 2011, about as wet as it gets without actually raining. After the P1 chimney we simul-climbed in blocks of 3 - 4 pitches except for the traverse and the steep corner after it.
The traverse not really a problem when wet. We did the tension traverse to the ledge system and set a belay immediately as this was James' first tension traverse. Three cams in two cracks. The traverse was running fast with water across most of it. The traverse "edge" has plenty of good edges to grip your shoes. Good finger holds where needed. 3 solid cams can be placed. We stayed about the same level until over the pinnacle in mid picture. When the traverse starts trending down the far side of the pinnacle, just stay on the rib to keep your feet out of the watercourse. Not really a big deal. Belayed at the usual spot at the end.
On the next pitch, getting up the wet, mossy "5.7" corner with water streaming down the face was strenuous and hard to protect. This bit IS scary when wet, even getting through the tree.
The 1st pic shows the edges for your feet and two of our three cams on the traverse. The 2nd pic shows how wet the wall was.
We were running out of daylight so went down the standard rapp route. SuperTopo sketch and directions are excellent. Tricky but better than North Dome Gully in the dark.
The last pic from the bottom of the third rapp shows how much water was running.
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schaffner
Trad climber
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Climbed this on Saturday again. Weather was perfect and aside from two soloists, we didn't see anybody on the route.
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briham89
Big Wall climber
santa cruz, ca
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holy crowded batman!!! Started the route yesterday at 6 am and we were the first ones up the chimney, but once up, there were two other parties that had taken alternate starts. While waiting to start pitch 4...the pile up started. There were about 4 parties, and one party trying to link up crest jewel that "nicely asked" to pass. By the few pitches before the top it was very crowded. I wish I had my camera to snap a picture of 5 ropes going up pitch 12 (following included ducking under and over rope and gear, kind of a pain.) But with all that said, the climbing was awesome! Almost everyone we talked to was really cool and helpful. Everyone stayed really civil for how crowded it was. The super topo doesn't say to bring any 3" pieces but i found i placed my #3 c4 a few times. All and all a great day and I can't wait to go climb it again.
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Roald85
Trad climber
Los Gatos,CA
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Awesome day of climbing on Labor Day weekend. There were 3 of us so we had 2 60m ropes. We started around 7 a.m. Only ended up using one rope on the way up, middle climber used a butterfly knot to tie in. We started by trying the bolted climb just to the left of the chimney, it had to be at least a 5.10+, I didnt try it but both climbing partners had trouble and they are solid 5.11 gym climbers. We led the first pitch with little gear, a couple pieces, and then scrambled/soloed to the 5th pitch, there were only a few spots that were kinda sketchy. This saved a lot of time, only reason we didnt solo higher was because we were carrying packs and with the second rope tied to our pack kinda threw our balance off. The leader of the next few pitches, up to the pendulum, used minimal gear, if any. I think the most gear we used on any one pitch was maybe 4 pieces, didnt use any nuts or cams 3.5 and above. Its simple climbing and bringing a ton of gear only added weight. Luckily we didnt run into any water. We decided to rappel down using the 2 60m ropes. The first rappel put us about 15 feet above a tree rappel station, so we unclipped and scrambled down to the tree, very sketchy. Didnt realize it until the second guy came down that we had skipped 2 stations and they were all to the rapellers left on the face. There are plenty of bolts on the rappel route and the only time we had trouble finding the stations was on the first 180ft. We went from station 1 to the trees to the right of station 3, then to the bolts between 4 and 5, then to station 6, then to station 8, then to station 10 and then to the top of the first pitch to the bottom. On your way down if you're feeling unsafe you missed a station. If there was some simple scrambling, we did it and it usually led us to a belay station. We ended up getting down to the base of the climb around 4 p.m. We had one soloist pass us and then the next couple we saw were just starting the climb when we got to the base. This was an awesome, simple, multi pitch climb.
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jvSF
Trad climber
San Francisco
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We topped out the route on July 9. We started at 5:30am and there were already four parties on the route! The last 10 ft of the last pitch slab traverse was wet (at 830 am). My partner led and lowered down into the pine needles and then climbed back up to the trail. I traversed across in between wet streaks which was pretty terrifying since my shoes were already wet from the wet munge at the beginning of the pitch. We continued up to the South Face on North Dome for a full day. We descended via the north dome gully and made it back to the Ahwahnee around 9pm.
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AGSmith
Mountain climber
Austin
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JVSF, some buddies and I topped this out back in June. There was much likely more water back then, so the last pitch was a bit dicey. IF it is dry, the traverse should be rather straight forward. The fixed line past the end of the pitch looked in good condition, however I'd double check the knots before starting out. Also, its a 5+ hour bushwack / walk off to upper yosemite falls.
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rizzuh
Mountain climber
San Francisco, CA
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Was up there 4th of July Weekend. Some water on the penji traverse and last pitch but nothing too bad (ropes stayed dry for the most part). Hiked up to Porcupine Creek... still a bunch of snow up there so I'd imagine moderate water will probably be there til late July.
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Brent Mattix
Trad climber
Roseville, CA
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Went up yesterday. All clear. A little water in places, but nothing to fret. Only saw one other party all day.
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jvSF
Trad climber
San Francisco
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anybody topped out the route recently?
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Attila
Trad climber
Debrecen, Hungary
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We climbed the route on June 3rd, my birthday. :-) Starting as late as 11 am, we haven't seen a single soul the entire day. The "polished gully" on the second, third, and fourth pitches was practically a waterfall, climbing around it on the alternative routes wasn't too bad except for the time loss. The 5.10b friction traverse on the ninth pitch was a lot of fun with the bomber pro of clipping the fixed rope. The rest of the traverse was also super wet (picth 10), but climbing a bit down from the anchor solved the problem easily. For me, the most annoying place was the dripping wet 5.7 "awkward stem" on the top of pitch 11, which I climbed around from the left on the short 5.9 variant. Having already placed our bigger cams, I resorted to girth hitching a flimsy tree branch there (it did hold the second climber later :-)). We rapped after pitch 15, but the topout pitch did look a bit scary with all the water. Not wanting to rap into the aforementioned "polished gully", we had to do a bit of climbing around to get down towards the bottom of the wall, but nothing scary. Fun route, best birthday cruise ever. :-)
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Climber Joe
Trad climber
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Did this on 5/24. Only 2 other parties all day. Wetness an issue on 10th and 11th pitches. I just don't know how people can go left, through moss-ridden slippery blankness, just after the penji. We took a cue from another party who went lower, using the underclings under the post-penji ledge.
We started as two teams of two, quickly turned into a party of four, and a very long 20 hr. expedition with a game of hunting for rappel bolts in the dark.
If anyone finds the blue rope on the first rappel rope on May 25, please contact me at jsp1001 at gmail. (you can tell what kind of night it was).
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j-tree
Big Wall climber
Typewriters and Ledges
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Biggest wetness issue is on the first pitch, traversing pitch and topping out pitch (if not rapping)
Using the yosemite webcam from the meadow will allow you to get a good feel for the wetness of the route.
http://www.yosemiteconservancystore.com/DSN/wwwyosemiteassociationorg/Content/Webcam/Original/Large/ahwahnee_large.jpg
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johnny2plat
Trad climber
San Luis Obispo, CA
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Anyone climbed this in the last couple days? Can anyone comment on the "wetness factor" on the RA route? I am planning on bringing up a RA N00b in a week or so but don't want to waste a bunch of time looking at wet rock. Thanks, John
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kev
climber
A pile of dirt.
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The old fixed cord (if it's still there) marks the start of the gully and it's 2nd class scree there - the cord is old but you don't need it - it just makes it easier.
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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fixed cord on NDG? Sketchy.
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nutjob
Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
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OK, HighTraverse and Zander changed my mind. It really does give the full experience to finish with North Dome Gully. The final slab exit and rim top-out on Royal Arches is a key part of that route experience.
I was biased against it for your proposed first time visit because of my first (and only) experience with North Dome Gulley:
1) I had never seen any map or read the beta for the descent. The only thing I knew was "don't drop down too early or you'll hit the death slabs." I wasn't even sure which gully was "North Dome Gully" when looking at it from the ground (e.g. near Glacier Apron)
2) We were done with RA and Crest Jewel and back down on top of Washington Column with 1-2 hours of daylight left. Should have been easy.
3) I saw a huge white cairn atop a ridge east of Washington Column, and assumed if I got there I would find another cairn to guide the way.
4) After traversing high and getting to that cairn, we followed trails and ended up on hands and knees in manzanita tunnels next to cliff drop-offs by headlamp. We bivy'd in July sharing one emergency blanket with chattering teeth and body convulsions all night.
5) Next morning, we backtracked to the cairn, and saw a fixed rope down lower in the sandy gully immediately west of that ridge. We followed that and it was pretty easy route finding from that point on ("go down") but it still took a while. We probably missed an easier trail cutoff just to the east of the actual path of water's least resistance.
So bottom line: read the descent beta, and daylight helps to find the right entrance into the proper descent for North Dome Gully, and don't get suckered too far if that white cairn is still there atop the ridge. Once you're descending in the correct gully, no big deal.
If you do decide to rap, still do the slabs over to the forest, stock up on water, and come back to the rap stations.
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Zander
climber
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Hey Oliver Millington,
If you are coming over from England to the valley for the first time you want to have the full experience. . . . The Royal Arches route ends at the rim. If you rap the route you won't actually finish it!! Don't rap the route on your first time. Do the North Dome Gully. OK, if you are really slow and you get to the rap station and you are freaking out about the NDG descent and the sun is setting- then do the raps. But know you didn't do the route. The North Dome Gully is not that bad. Pay attention! Read the Supertopo beta. It will be fine.
The last roped up pitch of the climb is really cool. There are no holds- it is just friction, 5.4, not hard, just fun. Then there is a really cool spring tucked in the trees. A magical spot. Then you scramble to the rim. It is good stuff. Start the route early and do it.
My 2 cents,
Zander
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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I give it 5 stars because it really is a classic.
North Dome Gulley only recommended if you came up short on the adventure quotient and need to spice it up for your first visit. nutjob gave you good advice but my preference is to take the North Dome Gully descent in good weather and daylight. You get to do the long, scary slab traverse last pitch and then struggle to find the right way down the gully. A fitting end to a fine climb.
I got good advice long ago: don't try North Dome Gully your first time if it's getting dark. Be prepared to bivvy at the top of Washington Column if you're not going to get to the bottom by dark.
Top of the climb is about 1700 meters elevation, nearly 6000 feet. Could be sub freezing up there at night in April. The route will likely be very wet in places. Look down near the start of these posts for trip reports in April and May. Each year's weather is different.
Read all the posts on this thread.
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nutjob
Sport climber
Almost to Hollywood, Baby!
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Oliver, it's always doable. Just sometimes there's more adventure than others! In the worst case, you'll go home with a great story :)
If you've done multipitch in other places (so you basically know how to build anchors and swing leads), you're good to go. Bring a headlamp. And pay attention to the beta about the 2nd or 3rd rap to avoid getting ropes caught. North Dome Gulley only recommended if you came up short on the adventure quotient and need to spice it up for your first visit.
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Oliver Millington
Trad climber
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Hey,
I'm coming over from England in a months time, does anyone know whether RA will be doable in early April? Also is it acceptable as a first multipitch in the valley, given a couple of days on shorter stuff to get used to the rock?
Cheers!
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schaffner
Trad climber
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Just checked the route out this weekend. Looked pretty wet, water was running down the chimney start and there was definitely a small waterfall running over the pendulum pitch. So we backed off and didn't even start.
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schaffner
Trad climber
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We did this climb the last weekend. We are usually pretty slow, so we started 5:15 with headlamps in the chimney. Finished climbing (we didn't do the 16th pitch) by 10:30 but had to wait for a guide explaining rappelling to his clients. Even with a 60m rope we were able to save 2 or 3 pitches by using intermediate belays. I'm sure you can use a lot of nuts on this climb, but we wanted to be fast and relied on cams. Next time, we probably wouldn't bring any nuts or only half a set. Also we didn't feel the need of having so many doubles for cams, we probably only needed doubles for the .5 and .75 C4.
We attempted RA a couple of weeks ago and got off route after the 5.5 polished gully. We ended up in a chimney followed by the choice of an offwidth crack or a dicey dihedral (see red line on picture), we were expecting 4th class. As we realized later, our route actually brought us to belay 7, but at that point we had climbed only 4 pitches and thought we would be completely off route and retreated. This time we think we took the correct alternative (magenta line).
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cliffhanger
Trad climber
California
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Most people are off route on the last pitch traversing into the forest. They take what only seems to be obvious; the very low route with poor protection and a gnarly 5.8 traverse across water polished, often wet rock. The real route keeps very high thru well protected class 3 features with a final well protected 5.6 30' traverse across the slick water course to the forest. I took the low spicy route many times until my free solo when I thought there must be an easier way.
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Zac R
Trad climber
San Jose, CA
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Climbed it yesterday, first time up. The waterfall wasn't bad - I was pretty much able to step around the wet areas in my shoes. Absolutely loved the whole route.
As for a minimal rack... I'd suggest cams from 1/2" up to a #2 C4 (two #2's is even better for the sustained hands). I actually didn't place a single passive piece on the route, even though I usually place plenty of nuts/tricams.
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Professor
Social climber
Krakow, Poland
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The traverse after the pendulum is still a wet and wild experience as of 5/19/2010. Everything else is basically dry depending on the tides (No I'm serious, mornings in the valley see more runoff from the high country then afternoons).
A minimal rack is a very subjective question. I know many who would say shoes and chalk are all you need. Personally I like a set of nuts and about 6 cams from fingers to fists. Climbers new to the valley or trad may well want more than that.
Cheers,
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Tye
Trad climber
Massachusetts
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Does anyone know the minimum rack I could bring on this route and be fine with? Would I be fine with a set of nuts doubles mid-range, and a green and red camalot, slings, draws etc. What would people recommend?
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