Ascending the Northwest Face of Half Dome

Half Dome as seen from Glacier Point

You should know:

1. This was a fairly safe activity.
2. Looking back, this appears to be pretty ridiculous.
3. The indisputable trip leader of our voyage was my dear friend Mr. Dima. He's the man. Whatever emotions this post evokes within you, please credit 65% of them to Dima and 35% to myself. This includes (but is in no way limited to) emotions such as joy, anxiety, concern, gassiness, fatigue, etc.
4. Shoutout to ma family on this one.
5. I don't know why I did this. But I'm happy I did. For those of you who said I shouldn't do it, know that I considered and respect your opinions.

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3:45 am - I am politely awoken by a rumbling cell phone.  I'm naked beneath a down sleeping bag. No tent tonight, we camp under the stars. Only half the sky has stars tonight. Snooze.

3:55 am - I am arrogantly awoken by a beeping watch. No more snoozing. "Want some protein bar?" I ask. "No thanks," I hear.
"Want some goo?" I hear.
"No thanks."

Dima on approach. Our climb progresses up the left
of the wall in the background.

We are sleeping 20 meters from the base of the of Yosemite Valley's infamous Half Dome. The 2000' vertical northwest face towered over us, occluding the sky. Dima thinks that we can complete this 2300' climb in a single day. I am dubious. But who was I to tell him we can't?

We arrived here twelve hours earlier in the full heat of the California sun traveling first by plane, then car, then bus, and finally foot. We had approached via some scrambling/hiking on a pleasant walk up The Death Slabs. As I suspected, the hiking was non fatal. But the adventure already had me tired and scared.

We had climbed the first 400' of the face after the hike and watched the sun setting from a small ledge. Turkey sandwiches go well with sunsets. I was tired and had struggled immensely through the climbing - fatigue, dehydration, and hunger was affecting me only a few hours after leaving camp. I suppose my vigorous regiment of keyboarding, 3am bed times, and a strict diet of PBnJ has its toll.

Dima 60m out on pitch 9.
The climb continues up the prominent
chimney flake.

We left our two ropes fixed to the wall and stashed the gear on the ledge. We slept at the base and soon woke. I left my headlamp in the bag stashed up high, so I had to ascend our ropes in darkness. Ascending is easy if you do it right. I learned to do it right after about 1800', so my start was slow and tiring.  When we reached the ledge and the bag, the sky glowed from a sunrise hidden by the wall's shadow.  

The next section of climbing progresses up a long thin crack which arches to the right. This section is too hard for me to climb without help. Dima may be able to climb it, but we are emphasizing speed and safety today - so he places gear into the crack and uses it to aid his ascent. The next bit of climbing is a few grades easier, so Dima climbs it using gear only for protection.  Dima is now has 200' of rope between him and where we started. He reaches a predetermined place to stop and fixes himself to the rock using gear. He signals to me that he is secure and I ascend the rope or climb the rock until I reach him. Repeat this process 23 times, and you've climbed Half Dome.

So that's what we did.  And it was beautiful and consistently intense. There are lots of great people who thoroughly detail what the climbing is like [1] [2] [3] [4]. There is an approximate map below. I'll detail a few highlights.


The Robbin's Traverse  - You are climbing. Your goal is to go up. You reach an impassable section of wall. If only you were 15' to the side ... then you could climb the easy looking rock over that'a'way. You need to set up a pendulum! Fix the rope to a point on the wall, then sit back on the rope and lower yourself downward. Now you can swing freely on the rope. Run right, run left, run right to start swinging. As you swing, let out more rope to increase the size of the swing.  Eventually you'll reach the easier climbing and you are now free to continue upward.

The Robbin's Traverse is a section of unclimbable rock with 9 bolts in it which form a sort of ladder (called a bolt ladder). When you get to the top, you set up a pendulum to traverse right. It's an awesome playful feeling. My first pendulum. Good times.

Dima ready to start the pendulum.

The Chimneys  - Granite walls always have huge flakes of rock which hang awkwardly off the wall. Likely my favorite formations on granite are these detached flakes - like Boomstick flake in Squamish, where a flake of rock floats 1'' off a parallel face coming to a knife's edge which you walk. Sometimes these flakes get so big that you can get your whole body inside them and you can walk up the inside like you're in a chimney. Half Dome has two chimney pitches inside some big big flakes (depicted in the background above).  Dima reminds me regularly "I hate chimneys." So, I was leading the chimneys today - but I got scared and didn't do it. When Dima got up high into the squeeze section of the second narrow chimney, he called down "I don't think I can do it." Never have I heard such words from Dima's mouth. Needless to say, he did it.

Five o'clock comes too soon - With 550' left to climb we prepared to overnight on Big Sandy Ledge. It was neither big, nor sandy. We had a pad and a bivy sack for the two of us to share. I dozed on a 3' ledge using a raincoat around my legs. At 8500' elevation, I found the wind too cold for my liking. I was very happy when Dima said, "Want a jacket? I'm not using it" and gave me his coat. He was using it.

We had a good conversation and slept poorly. I dreamt.

Dima soaking in the sunset rays after a day in the shade
and before a cold night. Sponsored by Black Diamond.

Thank God Ledge - The whole route goes straight up underneath a massive overhanging rock called The Visor. The first party to climb Half Dome named the ledge "Thank God Ledge" because it allowed them to move left and out from under The Visor, passing around it instead of over it. It narrows to less than 1' with no hands. Dima walked it. My backpack kept my center of gravity behind me; so I crawled and hung off the side traversing by hand when it got too narrow. Crazy exposure.

Dima waves to the gods.

Topping Out  - The pace on the second day was more relaxed, but an encroaching storm has us both briefly scared. After thirty six hours on the rock, we were greeted by hiking tourists at the top. Most arrive after a few hours of hiking. They were happy to share some much-appreciated water. 

It felt great to be off the wall. I was ready to be done. Now it is just a matter of a long descent back to camp via chains, hiking, and then a bus. It took us a while, but the valley's scenery and waterfalls were engaging and spectacular. Time passed quickly as we dreamed of cold beer and All-Star Sausage Pizza.

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Yellow - Approach (3 hours)

Red - Climb (36 hours)

Not Shown - Descent (5 hours)