Yosemite : Last days, last adventures !

When Loggan throws the rope for the rappel...

I have now less than a week left in Yosemite and I really want to try again The Rostrum and climb the West Face of El Capitan ! Loggan was working these last days but now, he is back to Yosemite for a week !!! Yaaah let's do this !!!

The Rostrum

On the second pitch, which is a finger crack, my foot slips at the start and I rip 3 of my fingers... Luckily, the party below us had tape so I could fix that and climb again !!

 

Me on the crux fingery pitch

A little cave before the last pitch

Yeaah, the tape staid !!

The West Face of El Capitan

For the West Face, we decided to hike up to the base in the evening and sleep there. We prepared a nice dinner to eat up there...! ;)

It's almost full moon at the base...

We fixed the 2 first pitches which are also 2 of the hardest. It was dark and quite hard but the moon was there to support us...! ;)

After this, we ate , enjoyed the moon, slept (and enjoyed a bit less the moonlight...) and started jugging the rope around 5AM the next day.

And finally, we got to the top ! The moon is almost full and we enjoy the beautiful view and the sunset...

Goodbye Yosemite !

It's time for me to go to San Francisco and get my flight back to Belgium... Loggan gives me a ride and together with Stephen who lives there, we'll have a great night in San Francisco ! Thanks a lot guys !!!

Nice old style gig in San Francisco !

Yosemite : Other stories !

With Jul', we tried to climb Royal Arches which is suppose to be a nice and easy climb. It was nice and easy indeed, until we got lost and ended up climbing an offwidth..... -_-' Ah well :}

After all these climbs,

the cams start to leave some marks...

Soon after this, my dear Jul' went back to Belgium and this is Colm and Stephen, two irish friends, who came to Yosemite. We'll do some cragging at Cookie Cliff together !

Stephen on Meat Grinder

Colm on Cookie Monster

Stephen on Cookie Monster

Me on Outer Limits

After this, we had a few rainy days in Yosemite. So, we went partying at Facelift ! ;)

Concert in the Valley for the Facelift event

And the day after the gig, we went for East Buttress of El Cap with Colm !

Colm, casual at the belay...

 

East Buttress went very well so we decided to do the Rostrum the day after ! ... But it didn't go so well... :/ We got stuck behind other parties, my #4 cam got stuck in the first pitch and we had no other big gear (which you apparently need for the top pitches)... So, we decided to bail after the 4th pitch...

After getting the #4 stuck !

Colm crushes the crux pitch !

On the way back, we enjoyed the view on the Valley...!

Look for the HEART on El Cap !

That's how you confort yourself when something goes wrong, right ? :}

Ben&Jerry ice cream !

Yosemite : Half Dome story

Half Dome

 

Back to Yosemite, I meet Loggan who I know from the trip ! He tells me he wants to climb Half Dome but has no partner ! I answer : "Me too !!! But I have no partner...!"

That's how our Half Dome adventure began ;)

Loggan in front of Half Dome

We'll climb the Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. 23 pitches. About 600m.

We freed up to 5.10c and aid climbed the rest to be fast.

Me racking up !

We hiked to the base in the evening and got there just before dark. We decided to fix the first pitch, this time in the dark, to gain some time the next day !

That being done, we ate what we

prepared in the afternoon and then slept !

The next day, we started climbing at 4AM and kept going until...

The first chimney pitch for Loggan

The window you go through in the chimney !

In the window ;)

Outside the window !!!

Second chimney pitch... for me !

...Until we arrived to Big Sandy Ledge, around 5PM ! There, we noticed our face and discussed if we should keep on going to the top or sleep here and keep climbing the next morning.

At Big Sandy ledge... Life is hard !

We decided to climb the 2 next pitches (we aid climbed them) and see. Loggan goes for it, links the 2 pitches and when I join him, it's getting dark already. The next pitches aren't too hard but we decided to sleep on Big Sandy anyway, so we can enjoy the view and have more adventure :)

Loggan aid climbing the fist pitch after Big Sandy

Good morning !

The night was quite cold as we had no sleeping gear with us... But this is part of the adventure !

 Warming up for the next pitch !

Our great bivy just besides these people and their portaledge... They must have been so jealous !!!! ;)

Let's start jugging !

Thank God Ledge !

Loggan on Thank God Ledge

Last pitch before the top !

Yes !! We made it !!!!! :D

The cables on the way down ! More dangerous than climbing...!

Our rewarding...!