Nose    5/4-7/91
Subject:      Nose-in-a-(few)-day(s)

John Imbrie and I climbed the Nose in 3.5 days over last weekend (slightly
faster pace, but the same bivvies I used 6 years ago).  Highlights:

Day 0.5:  Awoke before dawn, surprised to find nobody on the first 4.  Made
it to Sickle by 11 and hauled the bag direct before a short afternoon rain.

1.  I led to Dolt Hole (we used locking biners to switch over at belays).
John smacked the corner on the swing to the Stovelegs, but recovered and got
it.  The next pitch was tough in a strong wind.  I had sealed John's food
into our food bucket, so he was getting weak after 3 pitches, and I took
over to El Cap Tower (also fixed Texas Flake).  Big dinner on the 5-star
bivvy ledge (I went "canless" on salami/chocolate/pop tarts plan).

2. I led to Camp 4.  The fixed rope across the King Swing was not necessary,
since you can place a TCU as the intermediate anchor, so I detached it from
the far side (but it made following the pitch faster, as John rapped down it
past missing sheath sections).  We lost some time on the traverse to Camp 4
with the haul line hanging up on ledges, etc.  John led to Camp 5, freeing
Pancake Flake very nicely.  As darkness fell, I led the pitch to the
Glowering Spot (mostly by headlamp), taking a whipper at one point when my
Fifi hook detached as I was hauling up slack with both hands.  It rained
lightly off and on that night, so I hid my bag under my sleeping pad.

3. The morning cleared beautifully, and John led all but the last pitch, as
my thumb/nail was hurt a bit in my fall.  The combined pitches above Camp 6
were probably the crux, with no sun and a nasty drip.  We topped out at 7pm
and made it to the raps shortly after dark.  The raps were wet and
complicated somewhat by our 135' haul line, but we eventually collected our
fixed lines and started the epic drive back at 1am.

Leversee and company did a pretty good job replacing bolt ladders and some
belay bolts, but it was not as complete as I had imagined.  For example, the
bolt ladder to Boot Flake was not completely replaced, and the first belay
in the Stovelegs could use an upgraded bolt.  The final bolt ladder is nice,
though.

We used the "food bucket" to hold our used cans and turds, so this was an
especially clean ascent by my standards.  I kind of missed the fluttering
of the departing (or arriving) shit bags, though.

There was a party a day behind us which provided some amusement as the leader
forgot the haul line on the 4th (traversing) pitch.  The last we heard from
them were screams and curses trying to swing to the Stovelegs -- apparently
they never made it to Dolt.

Booty score:  2 Friends, 6 biners, 4 wires, chalk bag, etc. -- Nancy
worked this out to $1.20 per hour for the time we spent up there!