Thanks all for checking out my first trip report!
This past weekend Marco and I went to Yosemite to climb the South Face of Washington Column. I had never done a big wall before and had only aid climbed a handful of times in Pinnacles prior to this trip (mostly on Machete Ridge) so I was slightly nervous but very excited to experience a night on the wall. In May 2022 Marco, Cole, and I attempted this route. We made it up the fourth class and as I was waiting for Marco to jug the first pitch I heard him yell. He had taken a swing following an off-track traverse and broken his ankle. We had to bail and Marco somehow limped his way down the trail and back to the car bummed we didn't make it up to dinner ledge.
Day 0
We headed out to the Valley Thursday night on August 31 and began the hike to the base of Washington Column to stash water around 9:30PM. We saw a scorpion on our way down and noted to ourselves to check our stashed stuff the next morning. We didn't get to bed until after midnight, but we weren't planning on that early of a start since we were hoping to get permits for Mt. Whitney in the morning at 7 for a future trip before beginning our approach.
Day 1
Unfortunately, our alarms didn't go off and we woke up at 7:03 AM and there were no permits left.
We packed up our haul bag and started on the hike at 8:45 AM on Friday, Sept 1st. and got to the base around 9:20 AM. We then repacked our haul bag with the water that we stashed near the base. As I was getting started up the fourth class, Jacob worked his way up to the base also eager to get on the South Face. Marco and the haul bag joined me at the start of p1 and I got geared up to lead the first pitch. Lead climbing with all the extra gear was quite an experience, after getting past the 5.8 moves I was cautious to set up the traverse well for Marco as I was worried about what happened. Everything turned out all good as Marco made it to the anchor. The haul bag didn't make it as quick, it was my first time hauling and it of course got caught on a few ledges. Marco quickly aided up p2 and I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to jug the pitch without any issues (It had been 5 months since my last jugging experience which was Son of Dawn Wall in Pinnacles on April 1st). I set off to lead climb p3 and when I got to the anchors I was unsure if we were at dinner ledge. I had heard many stories about how large it was and I had expected it to be a bit bigger. Marco made it up and we were set on the dinner ledge at 3:20 PM.
We planned to fix pitches 4 and 5 that night. After a short break, Marco began leading the Kor roof, by now the wind had started really picking up and his aid ladders and the tag rope were flying around.
I saw some dark clouds coming in on the horizon and started to worry. Jacob mentioned he saw rain on the forecast for the night! When we had checked a few days prior it had shown mid/high 70s with no rain so we were more worried about the heat and had no rain gear. By the time Marco finished p4 the sky was filled with dark clouds and he was so cold he had to come down to warm up. I jugged up the Kor roof and was grateful for the practice I've had jugging roofs on Machete Ridge. Unfortunately, right above the roof, there was a piece I couldn't get out, after trying for a half hour I moved on hoping we could get it when rappelling the route the next day. Due to the weather, we had decided that I would clean the pitch and our fixed rope to have all of our gear in case we needed to make a quick escape that night.
Day 2
We woke up to the best view of Half Dome and were feeling lucky that it didn't rain that night. We decided to team up with Jacob for the rest of the route and we all three jugged up the fourth and part of the fifth pitch of Southerman which Jacob had fixed the night before. It rained a bit as we were taking off which soaked our day pack.
By the time I made it to the anchor, Marco had already belayed Jacob up the rest of the fifth pitch. I finished jugging the fifth pitch and it began to rain again just as Jacob was free-climbing the sixth pitch. We all free-climbed the sixth pitch which had some sweet 5.9 hands into an awkward 5.6 chimney. Marco linked pitches seven and eight and Jacob finished off the climb getting us up to the rapel tree.
We rapped the route and unfortunately, our cam had already been bootied from the Kor roof. We made it to the base and had a celebratory freeze-dried meal and sour patch kids. We finished the hike down around 8:00 PM.
Day 3
It rained all throughout the night. We sure were glad we weren't on the ledge that night in the rain. We hiked to Mirror Lake since it was too wet to climb. We only had one poncho in the car and the Village store was out of ponchos so we used a trash bag as a makeshift poncho.
Here is a great view of Washington Column we saw on our hike.
Day 4
We went to the alcove swing.
We went up Sunny Side Bench. Simuling the climb. A group behind us simuling with haul bags were prepping for a lost arrow attempt this week. We wished them good luck and headed down.
Here I am coming up p2.
After quickly getting down to the car we jumped in the river and headed out of the valley at 4:30 PM.
We had a great trip and were extremely lucky with how the weather turned out. I’m grateful to Marco for teaching me so much and excited for future adventures!
