Hey all. I was recommended to write a trip report and I figured it would be fun to give it a try as I never have before. It is likely to be rambly so I apologize in advance.
This is about me completing my first bigwall with my friend Cole this past weekend, the West Face (WF) of Leaning Tower (LT) in Yosemite.
To start I should say I am stoked after having many failed attempts on big walls.
-First over a year ago I had no idea what I was doing and didn't know how to pad the haul bag or how to pack one for that matter. A water bottle broke and a ton of our stuff was soaked.
-Second on May 13, 2022 I fell on a traverse following Cole and sprained my ankle.
-Then in November 2022 Cole and I were going for WF in a day and made it to Ahwahnee ledge at 12 but bailed on fixed lines with the thought of doing the snowy descent gully in the dark.
For this trip we planned to leave the East Bay at 2:30 AM on May 12, this would put us hiking in at sunrise. The plan was for me to be at Cole's at 2:20. I left Santa Cruz the night before when I got off work and didn't make it to the East Bay til 8 PM. Then packing gear with Cole, headed to my Mom's house, and passed out.
I woke up at 2:50 to Cole ringing my doorbell and my Mom in the hallway going to answer it. What a bad son and unreliable partner thing to do!
Anyways we made it to the parking at 6:30 which was lucky we made it to the park before it opened because in the blur I forgot my national parks pass!
This put us at the wall around 8 after splitting the gear into two haulbags and hiking up some soaked boulder fields. Bridalveil Falls was roaring right next to the LT.
We did the fixed lines traverse with the haul bags on. I dumped my bag at the base and went back to the start of the traverse to stash it. This left Cole to put all our possessions into one haul bag.
Me stoked to clip my first bolt and begin the first pitch after doing the traverse 3 times.
I took the first two pitches and Cole took 3 and 4. This was opposite to the November attempt where roles were reversed. We made it to Ahwahnee ledge around 1 and Cole set off on lead to link 5 and 6. At this point the sun came around the wall and I was getting blasted on belay. Cole made it through the traverse after about an hour. It was difficult to watch him as that was the direction of the sun. The next thing I know I hear Cole yell and look up to see him 15 feet below his last piece of gear. He had hand placed a beak which popped when he fully weighted it. He got back on and linked the pitches clean. But oh man I can only imagine that fall with so much exposure. I'm sure most people on this site that are reading this far in have seen a lot worse.
Great picture by Cole when leading 5.
I chose to follow the pitch on just jumars and boy was that a mistake. I probably should've partially aided though most of P5. It took almost 4 hours to climb and clean those pitches. We sure are no speed wallers.
When I got to the ledge I naturally started chatting it up with the two other people on the ledge.
After hearing that the girl on the ledge graduated from Colorado Springs I had a connection with that being the school my sister goes to. I asked if she had climbed Golden Gate because I recognized her from this Tyler Karow video I've seen.
https://youtu.be/g5vGAzcDkOQIt turns out the people on the ledge were the Warmes, they had just climbed the Westie Face and were working on another hard free route on LT. What crushers!
They were extremely nice down to earth people with a couple gumbies like us.
Cole and I got roasted by the sun for about 3 more hours and enjoyed joking around over cold cans of stew and raviolis.
The view from my bed:
We woke up at sunrise and took off up the fixed lines. It took me 2 hours to lead P7 and part of 8. It was fun leading that but I realized the importance of high stepping and speed. But it makes me feel better when I don't have to high step and we were not in a huge rush
. I did feel bad with how long cole was at the hanging belay. Cole then lead the last two Pitches though the roof and to Dano Ledge. Following the roof section I had a tough time removing Cole's fixed 00 cam, I left a leaver biner to setup a lower out when getting the cam. The rest of the climb went smoothly and we topped out around 1:30.
Cole on the glory summit.
Rapping the slab with the pig was somewhat frustrating but man was the descent in the chimney gorgeous.
I would love to know what the formation in the back is. It reminds me a lot of the Matterhorn.
We got down to the ground by 5 and back to the car at 6:30.
We then went to the pizza place in Curry Village and met up with Mikayla who had just onsighted Lunatic Fringe and battled with Stone Groove.
In the process Mikayla got over 40 mosquito bites!
Overall I found it to be a great experience and very much "type 2 fun". I was glad to have gotten used to the exposure on the first attempt at LT in November. Also having Cole as a partner was amazing as he is a lot more experienced and bolder than I, but also extremely supportive. I look forward to more big wall adventures in the future, Cole and I already have years worth of trips planned now we need to find the time put them to action.
Extra: After pizza Cole left the valley as he had Mothers Day commitments and I stayed with Mikayla whose partner for Sunday had bailed. On Sunday I gave her a belay on Five and Dime and I got wrecked following it. Many hangs were had that route.
Mikayla leading Five and Dime:
We enjoyed some mild hiking to several waterfalls afterwards and stayed until about 2 PM before heading back to the East Bay to get my car and then headed back to Santa Cruz.
If you made it this far thank you for reading. I am sure I am omitting things and ranting more than I need on other areas. Any suggestions or comments on climbing or how to write a better trip report are appreciated.
