I’ve been thinking about this Yosemite trip for the whole year, and I can finally say I’m on my way to the centre of the universe. Stay tuned for updates.
A gallon a day each for water plus breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, respectively. Sleeping bags, sleeping pads,, and the big cams for the wide cracks. A lighter, a knife, kitchen supplies, and so much more. The plan is to be up on the wall for 6 days. Obviously trying the Freerider. With the bags packed on Monday, this morning started at 4am hiking to the base of El Capitan, with bags so heavy my legs wobbled beneath them. I had the 70L haul bag on my back, and then the poop tube across the top, with the 40L haul bag hooked to that. The approach is only 30-40mins luckily, so we made it in good time without exhausting ourselves completely. The rest of the morning was spent hauling the bags up the fixed ropes to heart ledges, about a third of the way up the route. The plan for Thursday is to climb the freeblast slabs up to the bags, as well as “the move” pitch and the hollow flake. This would be a huge first day but give us lots of breathing room for the rest of the route. We were ...
Posting this because I said I would keep updates on here. Had a good time climbing the freeblast. Unfortunately didn’t manage to onsight it, slipping once on the 11c slab and once on the slab above. Pretty happy with onsighting the rest of the route though. I particularly enjoyed the half-dollar, which has a weird flare which eventually becomes a chimney. At Heart ledge Tristan and I had a chat and decided to head down the following morning. I wanted to keep heading up the route but it was not possible given the circumstance. I’ve been thinking about climbing the Freerider all year, so it’s hard to be writing this as we drive home. I’m thinking about what a long winter it will be and how long I’ll need to wait until I can go back to Yosemite. I’m not accustomed to having to give up on things. Giving up on this one has left me with a strange feeling. I like to be able to say I tried my best and gave it my all, which usually leaves me with a sense of satisfaction. Now I just feel a ...
Looking forward to the updates
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