West Face, Leaning Tower- Our 2nd Bigwall

Doug packing the bags in the early morning.

Doug and I have wanted to try a big wall together for some time now. We both have very limited experience with aid climbing so we thought why not try West Face, Leaning Tower 5.7 C2. We decided upon this route just due to Leaning Tower being a mostly over hung wall and a few pitches are straight bolt ladders, we thought it would be a good beginner wall. ​

We woke up in our usual bivy spot in El Portal and cruised into the valley right around 5:30am. I entered the Valley Loop eventually turning off to Wawona Road and another quick turn into Bridalveil Fall parking area. I dropped Doug off along with all of our gear at the bathrooms and crossed the road to park my truck on the side of it. So far we were pretty on track to start the approach by 6am, get to Ahwahnee ledge, drop the bag and fix the next couple of pitches for the following day.  Our plan soon went to shit.

This is the first time doing the approach so but we had a little map and our head lamps so it wasn’t too bad There are two ways of doing the approach, the first way is once your past the house size boulder, turn off into the dirt trail marked by carens and it will eventually lead you into the boulder field (recommended). The second option is once your past the house size boulder, go directly into the boulder field and scramble your way up through it and up some loose dirt path (not on the map) until your at the base of the wall (not recommended). Doug and I chose the later. The approach took us two hours not including the cat walk traverse. 

Doug took the haul bag for the end of the approach and I went ahead with the little bag filled with all our gear and scouted the cat walk. Thankfully there were already fixed lines and the first part of the cat walk wasn’t so bad. Towards the end of it, thats where it gets pretty gnarly if your carrying the haul bag. The last 75 feet or so are climbing up and down a little ledge about 3 1/2 feet wide and about 200-300 feet high. I would not recommended doing this part of the approach with a haul bag WITHOUT fixing the lines first, its exposed.

Doug making the exposed catwalk traverse.

Anchors at the start of pitch 1.

Washed out view of the valley.

Once to the anchors at the beginning of the climb, I dropped the gear and shuttled across the cat walk to drop off the second bag at the base and return to assist Doug whose carrying the pig. Once were all situated, I roped up with 14 quick draws, 2 beaks, 1 cam hook & zero cams. I was banking off there being a plethora of fixed gears as described in each and every topo. 

I cruised through the bolts and get to the roof on the first pitch. Clipped the fixed head at the corner of the roof and quickly realized I am in need of a cam. The next section consist of a perfect offset crack, a blown out head and 10 feet to the next clip able head. With the gear on me, I threw a cam hook in the only spot I figured it would work. I weight the cam hook and step on to it on the roof. I go to top step and the hook adjust and pops. I blow the fixed head and fall to the next bolt about 12 feet below. I yell down to Doug to tie the offset cams to the haul line and he does. I pull the cams up and get situated at the bolt directly below the roof. I had just blown the first fixed head making the distance to the next one about 15 feet. I use the beaks and get up onto the head wall of the roof. Throw the offset cam in where I had previously placed a shitty cam hook and made another beak move up into the next fixed head. ​

​I ease through the rest of the bolts right into the second set of anchors. I tie off the rope and set up our 2:1 hauling system. We packed pretty comfortably with water and food so the bag was a bit heavy. The hauling system made it a breeze to bring it up. Doug took the next two pitches to Ahwahnee. ​

Pitches 3 and 4 took Doug a little less than three hours to complete.  It was his first real time aiding. (Neither him and I frankly had the necessary experience needed to accomplish this route but we thought we would try any way) Doug went pretty slow the first thirty minutes of the pitch. Only going about ten feet, I knew it was gonna be a rough next few hours hanging around at these anchors. 

The group ahead of us on Pitch 5, The Ramp.

Fortunately I had the haul bag containing the water and snacks. As the sun grew lower, the wall finally got sunshine making it more shitty hanging out at this belay. Again, I had the water and snacks so I couldn’t complain. Finally Doug made it to the anchors and hauled up from Ahwahnee. I jugged up and met up with him at the ledge. ​
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The soloist topping out on pitch 4.

There was a group ahead of us that set up a portaledge at the anchors of pitch two and by the time we got to Ahwahnee, they had started up pitch 5, The Ramp. The group was going to fix pitch 5 and 6 and jug up the next day. On the other side of the ledge Doug was having a real bad time. He ended up throwing up a bunch and looked real shitty. (He ended up feeling better) By the time the leader had lowered off the sun was already setting. It had taken them about 5 hours for pitch 5 and 6. His partner jugged up in the moonlight and by the time he rapped down we were all in our sleeping bags. ​

While all of this was going on, a crazy foreign Husband/Wife duo was crushing their way up to Ahwahnee. 

While all of this was going on, a crazy foreign Husband/Wife duo was crushing their way up to Ahwahnee. The husband had previously solo’d this route in a day and was looking to top out of Wet Denim Daydream 5.7 C3. (Check out his video of soloing a few walls in Yosemite https://vimeo.com/78812123) The get to Ahwahnee and quickly realized the ledge is full of noobs and they decide to set up their portaledge a little bit under Ahwahnee. ​
Before we went to sleep, Doug and I decided that we were too slow and after everything said and done, get back to the Bay Area at like 12-1am Monday. That wouldn’t be an issue but Doug had to be in San Francisco at 6am. We decided to play it safe and called it. We would bail in the morning.

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Gradually we all fell asleep and the sun rose again illuminating this super cramped ledge full of climbers. Doug and I got our stuff situated and were planning the raps down when we head some hard core yelling below us. Eventually a different breed of climber emerged. A free climber. He was killing his way up to Ahwanne with no aid gear, just a few quick draws and a chalk bag. 

Portaledge and the cramped Ahwanne ledge.

He got to the (free-climbing) crux of the fourth pitch, a gnarly lock off on a shitty (aka non-existent) “sloper” to a “bomber" side pull. To sum it up, it was a fucked up move. His first attempt on it ended with him falling and sliding down the slab. He pulled back up to it, clipped the bolt directly under it and brushed the hell out of this “sloper”. He soon the easily passed this crux and clipped the anchors. ​

Doug began the rappel to the second anchors. Even with the wall overhung, the raps weren’t nearly as bad as anticipated. I eventually met up with him at the anchors and we pulled the rope through and Doug began the last rappel to the base. There was a pre-fixed line from the second anchors to the base in which we attached ourselves to to help orient out selves to the base instead of going off into space. if you were to rap directly down without the line, you would fid your self about twenty feet away from the wall with a hell of a hard time getting back. I raped with the haul bag and it was not an issue at all. This wall, I decided to switch things up with the hauling system, for one I did a 2:1 pulley system. With the haul bag, I did a Black Diamond Swivel with a micro-traxion that set up worked really well. The swivel was great for rapping with due to the bag getting twisted, the swivel made this a non issue.

I eventually got down as well and Doug shuttled across the cat walk to drop the gear at the stash bag. He came back and helped with the ropes and help direct me across the cat walk. We traversed our way back on the cat walk and made it to the stash bag. We divided up gear and made the hike back to the car, this time only taking 30 minutes. 

Even though we bailed off the wall and our climb was unsuccessful, we still had a fun time. Were gonna dedicate the off season of Yosemite climbing to get better at trad/aid and be fully prepared for the next go. West Face is a pretty do able route for a beginner climber who has their aiding system down and wants to try a big wall. For us, Doug didn’t have it down and we were just taking way too long. I highly recommended giving this route a go and fixing the  line on the catwalk is a must. It offers great views and some interesting aid moves. ​