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Andrew and I had been trying to get on the Prow for several weeks, but had been foiled by inclement weather. So when a window opened up, we dropped everything and made a dash for the Valley. We did a quick rack on Wednesday night, and sterilised some water bottles, then snatched a few hours sleep before leaving early on Thursday morning. Ok, so 7AM isn't that early... We parked at the Ahwanee, and hiked all the climbing gear to the base in order to fix a few pitches. We didn't get too lost on the approach, as it's easy to spot the climb itself. I took the first pitch as the first half consists of a beautiful 10b hand crack that I wanted to free. That went fine, but the second half of the pitch turns into a really thin finger tip crack that was more than I wanted to commit to, so I called down for some cam hooks and aiders and finished it on gear. Andrew took the second pitch, a dihedral stuffed with small nuts and manky heads, ending under a small roof. By then it was past 4, and we debated fixing to P3 before deciding that it was more important to shuttle another load to the base before it got dark. So we left fixed lines to P2, where Andrew scored a booty #1 Camalot, and hiked back with a huge load of water and sundry items before hitting the pizza deck at Curry. Usually I can only manage about half a medium pizza, but we had not problem putting away a large between the two of us. We did a drive by of the North Pines, and found a free site. Note to self, next time you poach a site, don't get one by the recycling bins - I was kept awake until very late in the night by morons who felt obliged to shatter their empties. We got up at 5:30 the next morning, hid the food, loaded up the haul bags with the remaining detritus, and hiked up. There was another party already there, about to start up the first pitch - though the wankers were going to AID up that beautiful hand crack. We repacked the haul bags - holy crap we've got a lot of water and gear, enough for 2 large bags, a portaledge, food bucket and "the tube" - then jugged up to P1 and hauled. With both of us on the line, it moved fairly fast. About half way up, something suddenly fell off the bags and fluttered down. My heart stopped for a second, thinking that one of the bags had opened, but it turned out the be the aiders that the party after us had accidentally left sitting on our bags. Whew! After securing the piggies, Andrew belayed me from the ledge as I jugged up P2, then continued aiding up P3, another fun crack with some C2F at the top just below Anchorage Ledge. As I started, I discovered that the fifi hook which had been on my harness the previous day was suddenly missing. WTF? I had to use a taped open biner instead, which doesn't work nearly as well. We linked P2 and P3 for the haul, but the only way I could get it moving on my own was to rig a 3-1 hauling ratchet. Slow progress. It moved much faster once Andrew joined me and added his 200 lbs to my 150. Andrew took P4 and had to navigate some dicey heads and a couple of hook placements, but made it without issue. I on the other hand, had some issues following. My jugging skills were in very poor shape, and I started to cramp up by using my arms way too much. It didn't help that I had to jug each pitch twice - once to clean, and once as a counterweight for the haul. Andrew gave me some pointers, and little by little I dialed in the technique, but by then I was in poor shape. As were my boots - the soles had come unglued at the toe and the rubber was flapping free. Andrew took P5 as well - more manky heads and a bolt ladder. When we finished hauling to P5, we decided to call it a day and broke out the ledge. I can't say I'm too impressed with the design of the Metolius double ledge - we had it set up, and had just weighted it when the spreader bar pooped out and almost gave us a heart attack. Having to fiddle with a ledge on a hanging belay as it's starting to get dark is not fun! Eventually, with much cursing of Metolius engineers, we got it all set up properly and finally had some food. It's amazing how not hungry you get after a 10,000 calorie day on a wall. It was a real chore forcing down the food. As we were having dinner, we saw a headlamp on Half Dome - pretty bold to be up there this time of year! Falling asleep was not a problem that night!

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Lookup up and down from the P5 belay

Repacking the ledge and haulbags the next morning off of the hanging belay was a bit of a chore, but we managed without dropping anything. Andrew dealt with P6 without much trouble, though there was one "watch me here" moment as he made a hook move. I then took P7 and P8, linking the two. There was a fun bit at the start of P8 which involved a bit of a sideways traverse off a small ledge before coming to a fixed pin. There was some webbing on the pin, which I clipped at arms' length, and only noticed when I got closer and started to weight it that I had only managed to clip one side of the loop. Ooops. With that hastily rectified, I continued on, furiously back cleaning to avoid rope drag. Tapir Terrace, at the top of P8, would have made for an awesome bivy, as had been our intention the first day, but there's no way we could have made it at the pace we were pulling. Andrew took P9 then I got P10, with the initial intention of freeing it. However, the 5.10+ section at the bottom was really wet, so I had to aid it, but did put on my climbing shoes for the 5.0 gully of the second half. When we hauled, the bag got stuck in the appropriately marked "haulbag eating flake", so I had to rap down to free it. We set up the portaledge on a large, sloping ledge, and had a great dinner. Awesome view, and space to spread out all our gear.

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Andrew starts up P9, while Charles takes pictures of himself

The next morning, after a great breakfast of chocolate, and tinned peaches, I set off on P11, again with the intention of freeing it. However, it starts off fairly wide, and I really wasn't in the mood for getting into an offwidth through a roof. So I aided that section - good thing we brought the #4.5! - then freed the rest of the pitch when it got a bit smaller. For the first time the bags were light enough that I was actually able to do the haul unassisted from the top of that pitch - we had left a bunch of water (6 litres!) for the party following us, as they had mentioned that they wanted to do Crest Jewel, but didn't have enough water with them. That gives you some idea of how much extra water we had brought.... The last pitch was pretty short and trivial - to climb that is. We had to break up the haul into 2 sections to get it through the terraces. Woo hoo! Summit at last! Though of course, we were only half way to completion....

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Good Morning!

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Summit shot, and the beginning of the descent into hell

We spent about an hour at the summit, eating, resting, repacking the pigs. Cursing when all the stuff wouldn't fit inside, and we had to repack mine with the ledge duct taped to the outside. When we finally had it all assembled, the pigs weighed a ton, and mine was incredibly tall and unstable. My whole torso was in use to try to stabilise the load with every step. Also, the harness/suspension system of the Metolius haul bag sucks donkey ass, to put it mildly. Then the real horror show began - the dreaded North Dome Gully.... Under normal circumstances, it's not too bad - normal circumstances being a) proper footwear, b) modest load. Neither a) nor b) applied. The sole of my left boot had completely separated, and was now being held on front and back with duct tape. Duct tape is rather slippery. Slippery feet, unstable loads that tower far above your head, and slab with 1000 ft drop offs do not mix well. Needless to say, the descent was a nightmare. I don't know how I would have managed it without the trekking poles that I had had the unusual foresight to bring. By the time we got down, I was so beyond dead that they would have been afraid to cast me as a zombie on Night of the Living Dead for fear of increasing the rating due to excessive scariness. We got some amazing outraged looks from the folks in the parking lot of the Ahwanee as we staggered to the car, let go of the pigs, and collapsed. Or was it collapsed, then let go of the pigs? We were definitely scaring the little children - Andrew ripped open a tin of tuna and gulped down the contents with his fingers, while I tore into a bag of cookies and devoured them two at a time and poured water all over my chest while attempting to drink.

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I don't feel so good

We stopped off at the North Pines campground to sort our gear and pick up the food we had stashed there, and found that half of it was already cordoned off - all the beautiful warm weather for the past few days had caused a ton of snow melt, and the rivers were already 3 feet higher than when we first arrived. The campgrounds were in danger of flooding. The falls were bigger than I've ever seen them before, and the river was a raging torrent. Gorgeous! I have to say, not too bad for my first wall. Next time I'll do a few things differently - better shoes, extra fifi hook, less water, and a less hideous descent! Some movies of the wall: Andrew on P6 Charles on the Strange Dihedral Half Dome and the Prow

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