The Prow- Washington Column 5/31

After my quick and painful start to the Yosemite climbing season with a 25 foot fall on the nose, I spent a month half-ass rehabbing my injury. I’ve never been good with injuries due to my stubbornness. My ankle was about 75% when May 25th came around. Doug and I had a plan to do the nose in 3 days 4 nights and Memorial Day weekend was perfect. I knew my ankle couldn’t handle any free climbing but I was sure I could top step and jug at the very least. 

​I pick Doug up Thursday after work and we pack the car, print out the topos and head down to valley. Arriving in El Portal, it was dark, cold and beginning to rain. We were determined to climb regardless of the weather so we packed (or we so thought) rain gear. Unloading the car and setting up camp for the night in the back of my truck, Doug realized he forgot his clothes. Now you might not think that’s a big deal, but Doug was wearing basket ball shorts and a polo. If we were to get caught in a storm on El Cap, Doug would be screwed. We concluded we would need to go to the mountain shop in the valley and grab a jacket and pants if we were gonna climb a wall this weekend. After some contemplation about the logistics of time, we figured we should just do a shorter route due to the set back. We ended up climbing The Prow on Washington Column. ​

Due to the shortness of Washington Column, we decided to take our time. We woke up Friday and made a casual trek into the valley and the hit the shop. By noon we found ourselves at the base with another team. They’ve been camping at the base for a couple days waiting for the rain and weather to subside before they start. Doug & I moved past them and started up the 10a/C2 section. Doug took the first pitch with speed. He got up to the anchors quick and started hauling. My ankle seemed to be doing good as I jugged up behind the haul bag. I met up with Doug at the top of the pitch and soon after we swapped gear and I was on belay.

​This was the first time I really aid climbed after I feel on The Nose so I was a little bit hesitant to start up. I walked out the first 6 or 7 feet of the slab to the start of the dripping wet C2+ thin crack. The first piece I plugged in, I tugged on it a few times and it popped. I thought to my self fuck this. I hear Doug behind me telling me its all good and try to place it a little further right where its drier. After a few tugs I was climbing up the ladder. For the next 50-60 feet I aid up though small off set cams and micro brass nuts. With every top step, my ankle was throbbing more and more. Just trying to wiggle my ankle into my aider, torqued it in such ways where it was painful. After I lead the the C2+ thin section, I had to lower off. Doug finished the pitch for me. ​​

We cruise through the third pitch and set up on Anchorage Ledge. This was our first time using the portaledge outside of our kitchen and living room. We pull up and anchor the bags on top of the ledge and set the portaledge below. We messed up and set the portaledge on an uneven part of the wall. If we weight one side a little more the opposing side would shift tremendously. That night Doug and I slept very still. Which is a first because Doug literally can’t go a single night with out sitting up in and finding some reason to dig through a bag or take a piss. 

The next morning we decided to boil coffee on the ledge due to how janky of a job we did setting up the portaledge. With some peanut butter bagels, cliff bars and instant coffee, I started up the bolt ladder for pitch 4. The bolts were bolts and posed no challenge besides a sore ankle. I didn’t even have to get high up in the aiders. It was a great way to start the day. When I got to where the actual crack started, my ankle was feeling a but funky. After some more offsets, brass nuts and top stepping my ankle was burning. Trying to wiggle my ankle into the ladder made it burn more and more. I yelled down to Doug to take and lower me and I shamelessly gave Doug the lead. I felt discouraged due to bailing my from my leads twice but I couldn’t top step for the life of me. Doug finished pitch 4 & 5.

By the time we got to the top of pitch 6   both the weather and my ankle began to turn bad. Our plan was to knock out pitch 7 for the second day and set the portaledge up there on the sloping ledges. At the pitch 6 anchors it began raining so Doug sorted gear and I lowered down and set up the portaledge. This was by far the quickest we’ve set up the ledge and dropped the rainfly. I crawled inside and Doug passed me the cooking gear, sleeping bags and water. I got everything set up while he covered our gear and ropes with trash bags. Doug has had a weird obsession with being stuck in a portaledge during a storm. Well lucky for him he got just that (not a the epic storm he’s been wishing for but rain none the less) on his 24th birthday. We cooked our dinner on a hanging jet boil to the rain dancing against our rainfly. I peered over the edge to and saw the orange flow of their rainfly atop of pitch 3. ​

As the sun began to rise over Half Dome we pulled our rainfly up and began boiling coffee. We fueled up for the final push up The Prow with bagels. coffee and beef jerky. We quickly dismantled our bivy and my ankle had not gotten any better. Doug took the rest of the pitches for the climb...

The fun hadn’t ended though! We had full on fucked up the very last pitch. If you were to look at the topo, its about 15 feet of C1 climbing with a bolt in the middle and then an easy 60 feet of 4th class scrambling to the summit. It took Doug about an hour to set the belay up and start hauling. With a couple tugs on the haul bag the haul rope slid and somehow was caught in a crack. After make shifting a 2:1 to get the bag off the rope and onto the anchor, I jugged the lead line to the top to figure out what was the issue. When I came around to the summit. I was greeted by Doug running around to get the haul rope unstuck while my lead line was redirected 3 different ways over the coarse of 50 feet. 

It was a complete shit show. Once the haul line was situated, I lowered back down to re-release the bag. The bag finally starts covering some ground but gets hung up under a roof. I abseil another 30 feet to fix the bag and end up just following it, help lifting the bag over every corner. It was horrible. All said and done a 15’ C1 pitch paired with a 60’ 4th class scramble took us all of 3 hours. We topped out and threw down our sleeping bags, made some dinner and went to sleep

We ended up botching the North Dome Gully Descent with haul bags so that added to the experience as well. All said and done, without finishing my two leads, i had mixed feelings. We had finally accomplished a wall despite my lack of carrying my end of the rope. I am thankful for Dough to have lead and hauled all the pitches, but what are partners for am I right?