Every trip report I write on this site I seem to reread semi frequently. Especially when I am at work and in need of some stoke for the weekend or reminiscing on past experiences. Also if written soon enough after the trip, they capture fragments of the adventure that I often forget and can chuckle about later. Anywho… Here's another one. Like the rest of the TRs it's semi about the climb but hoping to capture a little spirit of the great times had. Plus this climb is a trade route, nothing niche, with tons of beta out there so that's not the point of this TR. It however was a long term goal achieved with an amazing friend resulting in great memories and adventure.
This weekend Cole and I climbed Lost Arrow Spire Direct.
It's been a long term goal of mine. When I first came to the valley as a climber I thought, sure El Cap is rad, but the two formations that captured my eye were LA Spire and Sentinel Rock. Throw in the cool history of the spire, the tyrolean traverse and you can pitch a tent on the plush bivy ledges, who wouldn't want to climb it? Cole and I have hoped to do it for several years and it all came together this year. We hoped to do it while the falls were raging so springtime was the obvious choice.
We decided to do one approach with all the gear to avoid staging stuff beforehand.
On Thursday we started the approach at 6:30 AM. We made it past the sketchy 3rd class slabs around 7:30. My biggest fear for this wall was those slabs. It put the fear of god into me last summer doing those on the approach to Misty Wall. Thankfully we took a different approach and all but a 10 foot wet section was ok. Once through that my anxiety was much lower.
Here's a few more pictures of us nearing the base.
At 8:30 we were at the base of the wall.
Cole went to Fern Ledge to look for 3 cams we dropped off Misty Wall the previous August but to no luck. From that ledge though you could really see the force of the falls.
After repacking bags, racking up, and snacking, Cole was leading P1 a little before 10 AM. The dude is a crusher and probably finished that pitch in 10 minutes.
I took a little while longer leading P2. It was my first time on rivet ladders. Additionally we only brought 4 rivet hangers (2 of each kind) so I was back-cleaning/ leapfrogging most of the way. I would definitely bring more next time, that way you could leave a draw on one before a hook move. Though all the hooking was bomber on the route. We then hauled the bags off the ground from there.
Around 11:30 Cole was linking P3&4 to get to the first bivy ledge of the route. Again my hats off to Cole. Even with a #6, if I had lead that pitch there would’ve been a solid brown streak going up the chimney from me pooping myself. Obviously Harding and other old oldschool climbers are also badasses in my book, not having remotely the same gear and the only #6 cam at the time was your body. But in fairness they had their massive balls to help wedge them in those chimneys.
We then snacked and hung out on the ledge for a bit. We decided that fixing to P6 was our goal for the day so we didn't need to rush.
Around 1:30 I was leading P5. This pitch calls for a pendulum around a corner. Once I got to the bolt with a rap ring on it, I noticed there were still a few rivets heading directly up to the crack I was ultimately going for. I decided to do the pendulum and swung around the corner. I then proceeded to poop my pants for a half hour as I creeped up until I was above the bolt. Looking back I would have just gone straight up the rivets even though they weren't on the original line. I guess I back cleaned more than necessary because Cole ultimately didn't have to lower out at all from the pendulum bolt.
Looking down mid P5
Cole approaching the anchors
Cole took the next pitch and said it was one of the best finger cracks he has climbed in the valley, he was rather stoked on it. After these two pitches were fixed we rapped back down to the P4 bivy ledge. It was around 4:30 at this point.
Looking up at the fixed pitches.
I took a nap…
At 6 I woke up in time to make dinner. This is only the 2nd wall Cole and I have brought a stove on and it felt like a luxury not to eat cold canned meals.
We then made one of my life goals of setting up a tent on a wall a reality.
While having a tent was awesome, the wind was not. Cole got the windy side of the tent and said it smothered him all night long. My face was cold but otherwise I was rather happy with the tent situation. I remember waking up groggy in the middle of the night thinking the AC unit was super loud then realizing it was the big ass waterfall next to us.
We woke up to a chilly morning, packed up all our stuff, ascended the fixed lines and hauled. Cole then lead the next two free pitches, him being the badass free climber of the group and me still being a baby not trying to reinjure my finger. He made quick work of these pitches. The only notable things I can contribute is, on P6 the right anchor bolt appeared to be a wedge bolt and spun freely in the hole and could be pulled out about half an inch with your fingers. Also babying the haul bags on P8 through the chimney also sucked. We were through P7 by around 9:30 and on the plush bivy ledge of P8 around 10:30.
I took P9 off the ledge, some more rivet ladders and a small offset cam placement but otherwise normal C1. Again I wish I brought more rivet hangers so any freak falls would’ve been smaller. Cole reached the anchor around 11:30.
Cole jugging.
Cole jugging closer:
Another pic from the anchor:
I took P10, this was fairly cruiser until reaching some fixed rurps/ tat. I should have trusted the single rurp but instead stayed on the lower equalized tat and couldn't reach a hook placement. Thus I leaned left and remained puckered as I stepped on a blind placement. Visually seeing it didn’t help my confidence though I managed to get past it and up the rest of the crack. This pitch had some OW I chose to aid, aiding in OWs suckkkk. I just need to get more confidence and comfort in the wide and it would save some time. I should mention again I’m a baby with this climbing stuff so hopefully when rereading this at a later date I’ll smack myself for choosing to aid a 5.9+ OW.
We then reached the fantastic P10 anchor. It was probably 1:30 by now.
Cole took P11 and cruised it in under an hour. Although this pitch involved a pendulum he (a kind hardman) made it so there was no need for lowering out and I could just do a light swing on follow.
Cole leading P11.
Around 3 Cole was leading P12 and sailed through it. He said offset cams and camhooks on this pitch were clutch.
The belay on this pitch had amazing exposure and was such a cool spot to be in.
We reached the P12 bivy ledge and got our affairs in order. I then lead the P13 chimney and fixed the ropes for the next day. It is important to note: due to limited time off from work we paid someone to fix a rope in the notch so that way we could do the tyrolean. The other options would be rapping the route or hiking up a prior date and fixing a rope on the rim. I also fixed the other end of the tyrolean rope to the P13 anchors.
Around 6:30 we were making dinner, hanging out on the ledge, and taking in the views. We retired to the sleeping bags at 7:30 just in time for the moon to come into view. What a glorious sunset/ moon rise it was.
The night was again windy as hell. This time no tent. Even with the sleeping bag and wool socks, my feet never warmed up. I remember at one point feeling the wind was pushing my feet off the edge, I didn't want to follow suit. Lucky in the moonlight I was able to reach a fixed line and girth hitch my daisy chain to it keeping me tighter against the wall.
After a mere 13 hours in the sleeping bags we packed up and ascended the fixed lines and were in the notch. It was probably around 10 AM at this point.
Looking down from P13 anchors.
We left the haul bags in the notch and started the final two pitches. The topo suggests that a single 70m fixed on the rim is enough to trail up while you lead the two spire pitches, maybe because it was stuck somewhere up higher, but we found this was not the case. Fortunately there was an old sun bleached 60m in the notch that we used to connect the ropes and use as a tagline.
Cole lead P14 and once again cruised it with haste because he's an animal.
I took P15… What a frickin amazing pitch. The exposure was awesome. I assumed because it was a popular outing it would be simple C1 plugging and bolt clipping but for me it required an offset cam, grappling hook, and some rivet hangers. It was the perfect way to end the climb.
Picture looking down, Cole on the ledge middle and left of the photo.
When I topped out some people on the observation deck let out some monkey calls and it was a sweet feeling. Cole followed in what felt like a matter of minutes, the dude is Usain Bolt on jugs.
We fixed the line from the rim to the tip and prepared for the first half of the tyrolean. The tyrolean was a huge reason why we were stoked on the climb in the first place and talked about it before and throughout the climb. Next thing I know Cole is butt ass naked and hopping on the fixed line!
To back up, right at the base of the climb we joked it would be funny to do it naked. The joke kinda spiraled on the way up the wall until we were pretty set on doing it naked. Before stripping Cole asked “are we really doing this?” but it was rhetorical.
More of Cole:
Anyways, once Cole was across we tied the ropes together and set up the tyrolean properly. Cole then watched me undress from afar
. The several day old underwear sweat stench mixed with the nice draft caught me off guard.
I then followed the tyrolean in suit (birthday suit). That was one of the coolest things I’ve been able to do. It was more labor than expected, jugging more horizontal than vertical. The exposure was amazing. The exposure to others was probably less so depending on their stance.
Reaching the rim.
Cole rapped back into the notch to tie the haul bags and jugged out while I changed and organized what gear we had. The final haul was grueling, a 70m dynamic rope haul that got caught a few times left room for desire. We started the climb with 6.5 gallons of water and ended up dumping 2. I suppose water on a wall is similar to a rain jacket on a hike, if you err on the side of caution you don't need it but if you don't come prepared you’ll be desperate for it.
We packed all our stuff up, returned the bleached rope back to the notch, and began our hike out at 3:30.
We somewhat booked it to the valley floor desperate for pizza and nice bathrooms. We passed many hikers on the way down to the valley floor, but we were passed by one guy though. It was Seb Berthe! The dude had just soloed Royal Arches and Crest Jewel and was taking the scenic route down, in full sprint nonetheless. Even after that he had full energy and stoke, what an icon! We were back in Camp 4 just about two hours after starting the descent though, so we were pretty proud of that time.
Pic of us on the descent
After recovering at the car for a bit we headed over to Pizza Deck. We had a celebratory modelo and spliff and like zombies devoured a large pizza. It wasn’t more than a minute after crawling into the sleeping bag in the car that I was PTFO. No wind made it a slumber fit for a king.
It was awesome to be able to climb such an aesthetic formation with the falls roaring at full force. By now there's enough photos of the falls ripping in this trip report. Here's a few extra pictures from Misty Wall that we did last August to show the difference in the power of the falls between seasons.
Overall it was another fantastic adventure in the books. I think this was the smoothest wall yet, with the best conditions, and least hiccups. As Cole said well “I think we are starting to get the hang of this walling stuff”. I truly have lots of love for Cole and the trips we do together. I always look back on them fondly and enjoy looking back on these reports to relive the stoke I felt during these adventures. If any of the 10 people on this site are reading this I hope it shared some stoke or maybe old adventure nostalgia.
