editor's note: This TR posted by the penguin (420x640 at 364 kb) The West Face of Leaning Tower Big walls. That seems to be the rage nowadays. Maybe they were pipe dreams of free climbers who wanted a little adventure while dragging up all their crap or maybe they were just thing to do because it was there. Well, for lynsey and I, it was neither. Both she and I had wanted to do a wall, but we just never got around to doing it. lynsey hadn't been up a wall in a few years and I am a total wall gumby who wanted to hang with the cool kids. So, over the course of last fall and winter and then summer (donÂ’t ask where spring went), our proposal committees met every once in awhile, usually it was just a passing comment in the gym. Finally a couple of weeks ago, lynsey (itching to get outside and climb) and I (just itching after bitten by all the mosquitoes in the valley) made concrete plans to head up the West Face of The Leaning Tower. The other option was the South Face of Washington Column, but lynsey had bad memories of the route, so we decided not to do that. Now we had to decide on a blast off date. I didn't want to be there during the long weekend and because of my crowdphobia, we decided to go to the valley after that weekend and blast off sometime during that week. We met up during the week and practiced hauling at cragmont rock. Then on Thursday night before she headed out to bishop for the long weekend of remembrance, .we did a final rack of all the gear we will need for the climb. We made sure we had all the hardware we needed on hand and a little bit of the food that we needed. With that out of the way, lynsey headed to bishop to do some relaxing bolt clipping/hiking/scary hard pine creek routes and I stayed at home and worked on gaining some hauling weight.

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Lynsey looking at the tiny topo

Fast forward to Tuesday (may 31st). As planned, I headed out to Oakdale to pick up lynsey as she and dan were headed in the opposite direction, coming home from the east side. The hand off went smoothly and then we were off to the valley after we did a little bit of shopping at Richland. We stopped in groveland for some iron door saloon burgers. It was a bit on the pricy side but the burgers were pretty tasty. Definitely a tourist trap. We arrived at harding flat a little bit after dusk and proceeded to prep little pooper bags for the for the main bag.

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viv getting out the kitty litter

We woke up super early Wednesday morning (like around 630ish) and headed to camp4 to see if we can get a site a camp4. We get there at 7am and found that we were the 15th persons in line. This was an hour and half before the ranger opened the kiosk. When she did finally show up, people were all excited. People crawled out of their sleeping bags and/ or stopped playing chess to form the line. Things were going well (slow, but well) until a group of 15 korean visitors signed up for sites. Of course all 15 of them were not in line. Someone handed their place marker a stack of passports. Of course this was cause for worry. The ranger did announce that there was only 35 spaces available in the campground when she opened.

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Anyway, we eventually got our site, pitched our tent, stored our food in the bear box, and drove our loads over to the bridal veil falls parking area. We hiked our first load up to the base of the climb. We took everything but our food and sleeping bags. The last bit of the approach was not a trivial thing. We had to cross an exposed ledge with fixed ropes going across it. we used my little rope bucket to shuttle things across the ledge system. After many trips back and forth, we finally managed to get everything we brought up into the haul bag that we fixed at the base of the first pitch. We then had a leisurely hike down the talus field and drive back to camp4. on the way down to the car, we ran into another party who planned to start the same time as us, who had two of their friends hiking up their stuff for them. we were a bit jealous of the sherpas that they had though. Then while we were chatting, two guys came rapping of the fixed ropes and down the trail. It was Todd skinner and his partner. They had freed Wet Demin Daydream not too long ago and had fixed roped from top to bottom so they can have a photo shoot the following day of them on the route. When we called home, lynsey found out that Jimmie Thornburg was the photographer. Nice coincidence. It was kinda neat to see someone else that we know there.

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Viv shuttling gear, and Bridal Veil Falls and El Cap

Back at camp4....Dinner and bed were in order. We had an early and big day ahead of us tomorrow. We butterflies in my stomach and a very full stomach for lynsey (the girl can eat!), we went to bed. We got up at 4:15am. Early. Made coffee, had a little breakfast, drove over to the bridal veil area, and started hiking. Not too long after we started we ran into the same party. They were motoring up the hill and got to the base before us. we made a decision to let them go first, since we still had to shuttle our stuff across. I think this was a typical guy-girl party in which the guy did lot more stuff to pick up the slack for the girl. We finished shuttling and waited to start. Side note..for me the whole route was a lesson in the virtue of patience.

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Finally it was time to start. I took the first two pitches, the bolt ladders. Not too long after i started up p1, the models and thier photographer showed up. Half way through the pitch, i hear Jim telling me to pretend to clip something. well there was no pretending. i was trying to clip a manky copperhead, all the while jim's camera clicked away. it was a bit of a surreal experience being photograph and not even trying to pose for it.

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I finally reach the top of p2 and set up the haul. hualing wasn't too bad. i was pretty lucky with an easy haul when the pig was at it's heaviest. it was really neat to wtch the bag swing out about 20-30 ft before i started o haul. Lynsey linked the next two that brought us up to the Ahwanee Ledge (great bivy for 4). We had the opportunity to sit on the ledge, have a great hot dinner (the jet boil is awesome!!!!), and watch the guys take huge fall after fall on the Wet Denim Daydream Roof. The sun went down and it was bed time. Now this is what I call vertical backpacking. :D

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The next morning, we woke up at first light and actually felt half human. We had our breakfast and coffee, did our unpleasant business and left the ledge. The other party had fixed their lined on top of p6 and was starting to jug up the rope. Lynsey then linked p5 and p6 and ended up on the same belay as the party ahead. Jody had barely reached the next belay (top of p7) when I joined the party at the belay station. Hmm - three people at a hanging belay - comfy.

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We waited a bit and then it was my turn. I start off the pitch in the shade and ende up in the blaxzing hot sun with no shade or breeze. The whole time I felt like a slug, slowly oozing myself up the rock. Hauling was brutal. I was parched and feeling a little ill. My camelback nozzle had broke the dy before nd I was with out water. To make matters worse, I had just ran out of gear. I couldn’t even link the next pitch, which was only 50 ft long.

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So close, yet so far away. This just seems to be the mantra for walls. So close, yet so far away. Lynsey joined me at the belay and saw that I had drank almost 2L of water quickly and that I was feeling a little wonky in the hot sun. she suggested that we just chill a little bit at the belay and just stop for a moment. That moment was all I needed to gather my sluggish brain. Lynsey took the next two pitches (p8/p9). Just as she reached the belay, the sun went down and the headlamps came out. I cleaned the pitch by headlamp. This was absolutely wild. It was one of the steepest pitches on the route. Every time I cleaned, I swung out into space with darkness below me. By golly, there was a lot of space below me.

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I finally joined lynsey on the "poor bivy for one" and quickly decided that we could deal with the "poor bivy for one" for the night and just sleep on this sloping ledge. Neither one of us was comfortable in climbing by headlamp. Well, we had our yummy hot dinner and figured out where we were sleeping. Lynsey took the narrow part of the ledge with a "butt dent" to sleep on. She used the "butt dent" to keep her from sliding down, as well as a yellow alien and a rivet hanger to keep herself in. I "stood" on the haul bag. The third day. one pitch left.. a descent to manage. one haul bag to deal with.

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Topped out midmorning. Grunted a lot trying to get the pig over the notch. At that point, I told lynsey I felt like I was having a girl moment. She was pulling as hard as she could and I was pushing as hard as I could, just to get the pig over the notch. If we had an audience below us on the ledge, I think they would have been laughing really hard. Once over the notch, we lowered the bag to a nice ledge and spent a couple of hours eating and drinking water/coffee.

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The descent was not bad at all. We took our time and got to the car around dusk. On the way back to camp4, we saw Rob’s car parked by the sentinel pull out. HmmmmI wonder what those boys are up to? Too tired to think about them. Tasty bites and couscous and bed. I couldn’t remember much after dinner. Must of passed out. The next morning was glorious! We were on terra firma. We had an awesome night of sleep. And we were free to relax. Around midmorning, dan, rob, jack, brian and jeremy showed up and hung out with us girls. Jack and brian went up the west face of el cap, while dan and rob did a climb called the sherbit. Yo. Since both lynsey and I were worked, I kinda wanted to just be a tourist. Jeremy borrowed a couple of bikes for us and we rode around the valley floor., being tourists. Rode out to mirror lake and did a Sunday stroll long the tenaya creek/river. Lynsey and I drove home that evening, psyched, happy, and exhausted (not to mention hungry). Don’t deny it! we are rock goddesses!!!! :D Side note: rumor has it that if lynsey and I went up el cap, we are going to get a full sherpa service on the descent. Hmmmm... when’s that next wall?