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 !