South Face of Washington Column

This is tail of overconfidence and large ego resulting in failure. The original plan was to start the climb Saturday, and finish Sunday. I was feeling so confident that I suggested we just start Friday night and finish Saturday. I got the valley around 6pm met Mac at the Ahwanee and racked up. We knew we had to go fast to get to Big Sandy before dark, so we practically sprinted the approach. We rushed the first pitch which Mac Led and when I got up there, everything was a mess. This was our first big wall, and we had no idea what we were doing. The sun was about to go down and I turned on my headlamp as I was about to start the 5.10b free pitch left of the main route. After about 5 feet I started to French free and after 10 feet I asked for my aiders. This was about to be my first aid pitch ever and it was quite the introduction. It was difficult, strenuous, and done very inefficiently. It probably took close to an hour. Mac started up pitch 3 and it was quite clear he was not in his element. He took a rest on a cam on a 5.5 section and after a second attempt, he tried to rest again, and the piece popped. He came flying all the way down the belay and I caught him just in time before he hit a ledge. Upside-down with a headlamp still shining, his face must have ended up not more than 3 feet away from mine. What a site. The whole thing was honestly a very close call and somehow, he walked away without a scratch. He was clearly frazzled and rightly so. I told him it was better to go up than down since we were so close to Dinner Ledge, so I led the pitch and he jugged up behind. On Dinner Ledge, we cooked dank burritos and talked about the shit show that just took place. Waking up on dinner ledge was incredible. It was our first night on a wall and we knew it would not be our last. I started up the Kor roof in the shade and after another long lead, made it to the anchors. I was tired but still stoked. I fixed the line and waited for Mac to jug and clean the pitch. It took an hour or so and upon his arrival, the look in his face implied we would be descending. His first words were "I'm no longer having fun", and with that we went down. We were both humbled. On the hike down, we ran into our friends Max and Taylor who were trying the route for the second weekend in a row after Taylor took a 50 foot fall the weekend before on the Kor roof.