The Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome
We did it! After belaying Mac on his first trad climb 3 months ago, we successfully summited Half Dome via the Regular Northwest Face in under 32 hours. I had to work in the Central Valley on Thursday which was perfect since that put me almost halfway to the Valley. I met up with Mac that night and he had already arranged to have a bed for me in HUF, the Aramark employee housing community with summer camp vibes for young adults. We hung out with his new friends, learned some new knots, and woke up the next morning to get food and rack up. We knew that the spring was running which was clutch since that made the approach much more enjoyable. We climbed the Death Slabs right before they went into the sun... perfect timing. When we got to the base, we both felt incredibly tired and couldn't figure out why. I think I might have been a bit sick. Mac was nervous, and I was trying to get his head game back to normal. Around 4 pm, two of Mac’s friends came walking back to the base having just climbed the route. They gave us a ton of good beta and lent us a grappling hook and emergency bivy sacks to use instead of sleeping bags.
At around 5 pm we racked up and I led and freed the first 3 pitches. At the top of pitch 3, I decided to quickly lead the aid section so we could get going faster the next morning. We lowered back down and ate huge burritos that I picked up from the Mexican joint in Groveland. The next morning, we woke up and jugged our lines. My form sucked and as a result the endeavor felt particularly strenuous. Once we started free climbing, the vibe just got better and better. The climbing was really fun, and our psych was increasing. I ended up leading every pitch with the exception of the Robbin's Traverse on the first day. Once we got onto the main face, the exposure was incredible... so were the views. Honestly, I think I prefer climbing with exposure. I took the 5.10a lead after the Robbin's Traverse along with the new bolt ladder to rope toss pitch. Both were burly. The free pitches up to Big Sandy were probably the best climbing on the whole route. We hauled the bag on the chimney pitches and the 5.9 fist (cupped hands) pitch... good call. by the time we got to the top of pitch 15, we had been in the shade all day. The sun was quite enjoyable and made me feel even more alive as we arrived on big sandy ledge before 7 pm.
I was feeling good so I opted to fix the start of the Zig Zags. I led the first pitch in the sun covered by the smokey valley. It was a perfect temperature, and I was in my element. I really began to enjoy aid climbing on this pitch. I passed the anchors and began the second pitch as the sun was setting. I continued into the dark to the top of the second pitch. I built and anchor and repelled back to the ledge as Mac was making dinner for both of us. I took the outside spot as we cozied up to sleep and I was quite glad I had a sleeping pad. I woke up pretty frequently and the night went pretty slow, but I did get some decent sleep. In the morning, I jugged up using the steep jugging technique with only one aider... I got it down and it made jugging way easier. Mac led the last Zig Zag pitch which got us to the legendary thank God ledge. I took this lead and it was friggin awesome... the unprotected 5.8 squeeze was not.
We finally made it to the last aid pitch which I led in approach shoes. We had heard there was a strange hook move required but I didn't know where. The pendulum after the first bolt ladder required a finicky small cam placement but it wasn't too bad. Once I got to the top of the second bolt ladder, I was confused and didn't know where to go. I did some huge pendulums but that got me nowhere. Eventually I got back to the top bolt and realized the hook move is above! I top stepped on my aiders and reached for a diagonal hook placement. When I clipped it and added some weight, 1 of the 3 points of the hook came off the wall but I knew that if I held it down with my hand, it wouldn't pop. The next placement was my smallest nut and after a couple more, I was back to freeclimbing and close to the anchors. The next pitch is an intimidating looking 5.8 slab. It was awesome! Mac and I both freed it easy. I got to the summit with heavy rope drag excited to see flocks of tourists.
They had been looking at us with their cameras out for the last two pitches. I got up and was approached by a random kid. When I looked at his face, I saw it was an old friend named Joby from high school in New York, funny to run into him up here. I asked him to help haul up my tag line and I was grateful he did. I was pretty fed up with the tag line by the end of the trip. It was quite heavy. We spent about 45 minutes on top and began to descend the cables. We got back to the base of the route and our bivy was still in the shade. The death slabs approach down took forever but the pizza at the pizza deck made it worth it. Of course, Mac managed to get an additional pizza for free. I drank two beers and I felt drunk. I had work the next day at our factory in the central Valley again. Not having to drive all the way back to San Francisco was ideal and I just slept in my car on the side of the road close to Oakdale.
