Snake Dike on Half Dome, my first climb in Yosemite
I just got fired from my first job out of college so what better way to celebrate than to climb Half Dome in the middle of the week. With two days of trad climbing under my belt, I felt confident enough to give Snake Dike a go with my friend Graham Green. Graham is a chef and therefore isn’t on the typical weekend warrior plan. It seems crazy to think that Half Dome is accessible for beginner climbers, but Snake Dike is an eight pitch 5.7 that provides gumbys with a way to show up on top of the crowded summit with a rope and cams and therefore appear as heroes to the gawking tourists. We drove into the valley late one night and slept in the line to get a spot at Camp 4. This was my first time ever being in Camp 4 and it felt quite cool being that I’ve become obsessed with the documentary Valley Uprising. The first day, we went out to Swan slab so I could teach Graham how to use trad gear, build anchors, and understand multi-pitch systems. By the end of the day, we decided I would lead every pitch. We planned out the day to a tee and woke up at 4:30 am in Camp 4. We drove some Hungarian climbers to the trail who we met the night before and we hiked the approach with them in the dark. The climbing was truly iconic with the first and last pitches feeling quite fun. Snake Dike was a good first introduction to friction slab... sketchy stuff. The runout portions turned out not to be an issue at all. I carried the pack on both the approach and descent and Graham carried it on the climb except for two pitches where I gave him a break. Carrying the pack sucked for the climb. I think Graham was feeling pretty beat. Overall, the day went exactly as planned and we drove back to SF that night so G could work the next day. I am still unemployed.
March 2024 Afterward:
I specifically recall placing multiple nuts on a pitch on Swan slab and all of them fell out before I arrived at the top of the route. Graham gave me a look of concern and asked if that was supposed to happen, and I gave some sort of excuse that it was okay. A week later, I went back to the valley for almost a full week and climbed with my friend Kurt plus some random people I met in camp 4.
