5. Yosemite Valley 10/95, with Lin Murphy.  We did Leaning Tower (West 
Face) 5.8 A3.
  Day 1.  Got up early, but from the parking lot we could see a party on 
the first pitch.  Adjourned to El Cap Meadow to consider our options.  
There we realized we didn't have the rack for other alternative 2-3 day 
walls.  We went back, packed the haul bag, and headed up the trail, 
hoping to fix a few pitches on it.  Once near the base, we could see 2 
parties on the route.  We fixed the traverse pitch, and helped one of 
the parties retreat.
  One of them, Brad Young, had spent 4 hours at the belay atop the first 
pitch waiting for the party ahead to advance (a hammock helped somewhat, 
but it was no fun).  He gave us some food and water for helping him 
retreat, and told us a story about an accident he had on Wet Denim 
Daydream a few years ago.  He was leading a pitch high on the route when 
a flake broke off and hit his partner in the helmet, slicing through it 
and exposing his brain (yikes)!  Amazingly, the guy survived.  One 
tricky part was calling for help -- he got very hoarse but managed to 
yell to somebody in the parking lot.  Then came the helicopter, etc.
  Lin and I bivvied up there, and had many close encounters with the 
resident ringtailed cat.
  Day 2.  We charged up the route, with Lin taking odd pitches and me 
even.  The belay bolts, and most bolts on the first pitch have been 
replaced, but there are several ancient ones (or pieces of them) still 
remaining.  Our impromptu cheat stick (a flimsy branch) broke on the 
first pitch; we also had no hammer, pins, or bolt kit, so it was either 
do it clean/cheatless for us, or attempt to retreat!  I combined pitches 
2+3, as advised by Brad, which reached a nice ledge.  There was one hard 
move -- a very long stretch from a hook to reach a bolt, bypassing a 
broken bolt and cableless copperhead.  At one point, a leader on Wet 
Denim Daydream broke off a flake and fell 30'; the flake whizzed out in 
space past us.  Lin did some dicey wired moves and freed some hard moves 
on p4 in her Five-Tennies.  By now the sun was on us, and we were level 
with Ahwahnee Ledge; we took the bag across the fixed line to it, and 
had some water.  The long traverse on p5 was quite technical, with many 
TCUs stuffed tightly in the slightly flaring diagonal crack.  There were 
also ledges below me that I was worried about hitting if a piece blew, 
but I made it.  I knew many TCUs would be hard to clean, but fortunately 
they were easily cleaned on rappel back to the bivvy ledge (although it 
was nearly dark by that time).  Lin led p6, which started with a long 
unprotected free section, but fortunately she brought her good shoes.  
She was nearly stymied by a long reach on the diagonal bolt ladder, but 
found a way to top step it.  We rapped back to Ahwahnee, and spent a 
good night on its level quarters.  Actually the guys on Wet Denim 
Daydream retreated and shared the ledge with us.  They were nearly out 
of water.  The only minus was the smell -- I guess there are drawbacks 
to a very overhanging formation, since rain does not rinse off the 
"guano".  The people ahead of us on the West Face were on p8 when it got 
dark; they climbed by headlamp for many hours.
  Day 3.  After watching the W.D.D. lads pitch their haul bag, and 
jugging the fixed line, I led the long crack pitch (7).  Lin combined p8 
and p9 (the big roof); this eliminated a nasty sling belay on a slab.  
We scored lots of booty on this pitch, left behind in the dark by the 
other folks.  I led the last aid pitch, which featured a traverse at the 
top and a thin final move.  Lin led the final 4th class pitch, and then 
we did some rappels and scrambling down the chimney/gulley.  One of our 
rappels hung up in a crack in the middle of a chimney, but I managed to 
solo up and just reach the stuck part.  We were trying to keep up the 
pace, so we could hike down before it got dark, but eventually we had to 
don headlamps in the talus.  After reaching the car at 8pm, we still had 
to endure the roadblock (the rangers were searching trunks, etc. to find 
a person who had assaulted a ranger earlier that day).  The wait was 
only 15 minutes, though, compared with 2+ hours most of that day!