South Face 5.7

 
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North Dome


Yosemite Valley, California USA


Trip Report
Royal Arches to South Face to Tuolumne
Tuesday September 6, 2011 3:05pm
Recently climbed South Face via Royal Arches and then hiked off the backside to highway 120.

For all of you who love statistics, I won’t make you wait for them:

• 4000′ of elevation gain
• 26 pitches climbed
• 16 miles of hitchhiking
• 13 hours of almost non-stop work
• 8 literes of water per person
• 6.3 miles of hiking
• 2 routes completed
• 1 more of the 50 classics ticked

Shared the full story of how we put it together on my blog:

Royal Arches to North Dome to Tuolumne

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Credit: surfnclimb
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  Trip Report Views: 4,109
surfnclimb
About the Author
surfnclimb is a trad climber from San Mateo.

Comments
Seamstress

Trad climber
Yacolt, WA
  Sep 6, 2011 - 03:23pm PT
Like the way you think!
BrianH

Trad climber
santa fe
  Sep 6, 2011 - 05:15pm PT
Awesome!
Nohea

Trad climber
Living Outside the Statist Quo
  Sep 6, 2011 - 06:30pm PT
Thats an enjoyable read, sounded like a fun day out.

And Big Ups for sharing.

Aloha,
will
Chateau Rico

Sport climber
Davis, CA
  Sep 6, 2011 - 07:05pm PT
That was a GREAT trip report!! And great job on the link-up!
cms

climber
  Sep 6, 2011 - 09:13pm PT
Nice work boys!
Creative and fun as hell. Jealous I couldn't be on it with ya but ill take the team send for PGB :)
j-tree

Big Wall climber
Typewriters and Ledges
  Sep 6, 2011 - 09:46pm PT
Ha! We were the party of three on the 5.7 pitch of Royal Arches. Now I know why we heard you guys yelling up on the traversing ledge.

My favorite quote I overheard as you guys were passing us, "I hope you're good because I don't have you on anything that even resembles a belay"
neverwas

Mountain climber
ak
  Sep 7, 2011 - 12:48am PT
Great story. I and a partner bailed from North Dome 35 or so years ago after climbing out of the left-facing dihedral and getting lost on the slabs beyond. My partner couldn't reach a stance and wanted me to leave the belay and climb after him... I guess that's what simul-climbing is, but I wasn't up for it and made him downclimb to me. He was a tad emotional, yelling 'you killing me!', but I was not getting us both out on that slab with maybe 1 piece in... Then he insisted we rap off some mank, so I let him go first then left a fresh sling.

Finally reached the top of North Dome just a couple days before your trip but using your 'descent' trail both ways. Great views and a nice way to at least see the valley far from the madding crowds. Still have the South Face route on my todo list, and the combo with Royal Arches is the way to do it. I'll miss the rotten (and terrifying) log, though.
surfnclimb

Trad climber
San Mateo
Author's Reply  Sep 7, 2011 - 01:39am PT
@j-tree That's too funny! We really enjoyed the variation that we found to the left of the fingers. A touch spicy off the ledge due to no pro, but all in all pretty mellow. Just cracks me up that you overheard our simul-climbing communication and managed to find the trip report as well.

I truly was excited to free the traverse section of the route so it's not surprising that you guys heard me. Hopefully the sounds of joy were conveyed over the distance and not interpreted as sounds of an epic being born.

Too funny to run into each other on here. Hope you three enjoyed the route, seemed like you were making pretty good time.
10b4me

Social climber
Lida Junction
  Sep 7, 2011 - 02:11am PT
good job
j-tree

Big Wall climber
Typewriters and Ledges
  Sep 7, 2011 - 06:45pm PT
We had a great time with one of us coming over from England with the intent to climb the route and the other on her first trip to Yosemite.

A bit hot that day though, your water intake statistic does not surprise me in the least. We changed almost every belay we could to stay in the shade.
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North Dome - South Face 5.7 - Yosemite Valley, California USA. Click to Enlarge
The South Face stays in the corner
Photo: Chris McNamara
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North Dome - Crest Jewel 5.10a - Yosemite Valley, California USA. Click for details.
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Crest Jewel follows a series of unique but hard to see features.
North Dome - Crest Jewel Direct 5.10d - Yosemite Valley, California USA. Click for details.
Crest Jewel Direct, 5.10d
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