Yosemite 6/20/98  with Dennis Erik Strom

Dennis needed to quickly get into shape for the following week
in the Valley, so The Rostrum was suggested for a day trip.
Neither of us had done it; my reason had been that it has ow.
But Dennis isn't afraid of ow, so we got to experience its
great cracks!  We had a rather out of date topo, which lent
some adventure to the experience.

Stashed shoes, lunch and water at the midway escape point.
Found the raps and fortunately Dennis noted the abundant poison
oak at the base.  We were expecting shade all day, but it gets
morning sun this time of year, and we were overdressed.

  1. 5.9 fun lieback to brief chimney, a nice warmup (C led; Dennis
fended of the mosquitoes at the base)
  2. 5.10d flare with hand crack, to lieback flake (D led).
Trouble ensued when his bundled shirt and other gear clipped to
the back of his harness got stuck in the flare.  Then his tape
job got clipped into a biner, quite bizarre.  So he had to take
a brief hang to straighten things out.  He also polished off
the first half of the next pitch, a 5.10b thin crack (I liebacked
the arete), and a beautiful straight-in 5.9 hand crack.
  3. 5.10b small roof to hand crack in corner (D led).  On top were
3 tiered horizonal jugs -- the Gunks simulator!  Then a nice 5.10a thin
crack/lieback to finish off a classic pitch.
     We escaped right for lunch and much needed water.
  4. 5.11c gorgeous straight-in thin crack (D led).  Our old
topo was a bit misleading here, saying the crux was 1.25".
On lead, and being a bit short of proper cams, Dennis had many
hangs; I was pleased to be able to free it on toprope.  The second
half of the pitch is a 5.9 corner with many suspiciously loose flakes.
  5. fun 5.6 jugs for a ways, to another nice 5.10c hand crack in
a corner (C led).  I was tiring at the roof, so I aided it and the
final 5.10d+ thin lieback corner.  Dennis freed it on toprope with
a great effort.
  6. 5.10c surprisingly thin face, overhanging 5.10 corner/double crack,
to 5.10 offwidth (D led).  He aided the pendulum; I freed that on
toprope.  The offwidth overhangs, as I could easily see from the haul
line hanging out at an angle!  Dennis had the most trouble with the
upper part, which was less steep, but in a flare and rather smooth.
I liebacked the lower part of the ow, taking one fall.  Then I yarded
on the bolt and stood on the highest face hold.  I had Dennis lower
me a slack loop, which I batmanned while stemming the corner.
  7. 5.10c overhanging hands in a corner!  (C led) Way cool, but I was
a bit too tired to free it all (but Dennis got it).  (N.B. the 5.10c
hands section is not mentioned on the latest topo in Free Climbs).
Above are 3 choices:
  - 5.10d ow/flare (no way)
  - 5.11b thin hand (would be my choice if I was feeling stronger, or
    if I had more gear sizes to aid it)
  - A1 or 5.13c thin crack  (its 3 fixed pins drew me in)
I was a bit slow aiding up the A1, as it was mostly small wired stoppers
in decent but not bombproof placements.  I kept thinking about what
would happen if the placement blew, and I didn't feel like getting
very high on any wires and rotating them out.  After clipping the
left sling belay anchor, I managed a cool free move on a jug to
the spacious belay cave.
  8. 5.10a lieback and 5.9 ow/lieback  (D led).  Not 5.10c ow as our
topo indicated, fortunately, as it was nearly dark!  When I followed,
the tight rope pushed his big friends into the crack!  Just like what
happened to me on the pitch above The Ear on the Salathe' in 1985.
I watched the #5 Camalot, rotated to a thin profile, clatter down
inside the crack along the path of the rope.  I was able to reach
and extract the big Metolius QuadCam.  But the #5 Camalot was slightly
too deep for me to be able to manipulate well.  After various
frustrating efforts, it got stuck more solidly, and it was dark,
so I cleaned the biner, and we left it for a later extraction attempt.
I also noticed another cam, slings and biners quite a bit deeper
in the crack, so we weren't the first to have this problem.
(Dennis went back 2 days later during his week in the Valley, and
managed to recover his cam, and lead the 5.11b hand crack below!)
It was simple and fun to lieback almost the whole pitch on toprope.
   We topped out on a classic, fairly long, and mostly free climb!
Dennis generously volunteered to retrieve our remaining gear at the
lunch spot, and we got back home at 2am.