Yosemite - Muir Wall 10/9-14/98 with Paul Friberg

10/9 Friday
Arose fairly early from our bivvy spot and found my station
wagon and 4 other cars at El Cap Meadow had been broken into
by a bear.  I was a fool to leave my bagels in the car; they
could be easily smelled in their nonsealed bags.  I was thinking
only of my cookies, which were sealed and may have been OK by
themselves.  We cleaned up the glass and moved stuff we didn't
need on the wall into Paul's car.  I retrieved one food bag of
cans from the bushes, where the bear had crudely extracted the
cookies.  In the process of straightening out the right rear
car door, I managed to get a long bloody scrape on my wrist, so
I had to tap into the gauze supply in Paul's first aid kit!

Our original plan was to do Tangerine Trip, but we could see
parties bivvied at the ends of pitches 2 and 3.  So we switched
to "Plan B" - the upper Muir Wall.  Paul had done the first 11
pitches to Mammoth Ledge in the spring with Evan, but they had
felt slow and the weather was crummy.  Evan returned later in
the summer to bag the remaining pitches with a different partner.
Besides Evan, I knew Brad Young had done the Muir, and I had seen
two trip reports on the web, so the adventure factor was not
ultra high (especially since Dave Hill had ripped off the big
loose flake that Brad had warned me about).  Plus, we alread had
a fairly big adventure last time on Horse Chute, so we were ready
for a more fun wall.  It also was uncrowded and I know the rock quality
in that area of El Cap is generally superb (contrast with
calcification on Horse Chute and the first 4 pitches of Tangerine
Trip, and various known loose sections higher on the Trip).

We got a mid-morning start on the haul up the fixed lines to
Heart Ledge.  A Swiss pair started just before us, after Paul lent
them one of our 3 pulleys (they had left theirs on Heart).  Paul
led off the hauling while I was the human counterweight.  Everything
was in Paul's new large haulbag, plus the racks were clipped to
the bottom of the bag.  After the usual effort, we arrived at Heart
and saw a team retreating from the Hollow Flake pitch.
Paul led the free pitch to Mammoth, using the right hand finish
which was somewhat dirty but easier than the direct line.  Paul led
the pitch above Mammoth which he enjoyed, and we fixed to the
anchors below the next day's lead.  At the same time we could
see the Swiss leader slowing succeeding on Hollow Flake, with his
arsenal of #5 Camelot and Big Bros.  He had been very pleased when
I told him on Heart that he had just the right gear for it; it
probably also helped that he had done the Eiger, so the essential
confidence factor was also there.  We settled in to a nice bivvy
on Mammoth.

Day 2.  Paul hauled up the fixed line, and I got the first lead
- with its typically superb rock, and a few non-A1 gear placements
in pin scars.  I had to use a Z-pulley system to move the bag, and
I hadn't made much progress until Paul arrived and we counterweighted
it.  Paul linked the next 2 pitches to Gray Ledges, avoiding the
hanging belay.  Paul brought a nice new 60m x 10.5mm orange bicolor
lead line.  I supplied a "Clint bicolor" haul line -- old 50m x 9mm
purple rope with one duct-taped sheath cut, tied to a 10m x 9mm
new-looking black booty rope!  Fortunately, all of the hauls were
under 50m, so we never had to pass the knot when hauling, and the
duct-taped spot was also near the knot and was rarely under load.
The extra length was handy at times for hauling up more gear at
mid-pitch, and the knot ends were duct-taped and never got hung up.
I took the next lead, where the initial free climbing was 5.3
(not 5.9), and the aid was easy except for a brief reach past a
loose flake at the top.  More counterweight help from Paul on the
haul, as was my usual pattern.  Paul took our first steep lead,
moving efficiently with occasional cam hook usage.  It was not that
late yet, so I set off on the bolt traverse, with many original
Star Dryvin bolts and homemade aluminum hangers!  After the pendulum,
there was one tough reach move past a roof to a hooking flake, where
I wished I had my Fish hook instead of the Chouinard, but I held
the hook in place with my hand over the top of it....  The "booty
light" was on, as I could see several nice booty biners on the
pendulums of the next pitch.  It was getting late, but Paul fired
the pitch quite quickly, finding the final corner more like 5.4 than
5.10 or A2, and I followed essentially in the dark.  Paul had reached
a great little ledge, where we had dinner immediately and I was
pleased at bagging 6 pitches instead of the usual 4 per day.
I rappelled down 20' to a long, mostly sloping ledge.  I slept there
with my hammock to keep me from rolling off, while Paul pitched his
portaledge above at the belay.

Day 3.  We had already realized that we had strayed slightly off the
Muir and onto the Triple Direct, and scouted out various options.
One was a scary-looking fixed head and shallow pin scars above the
ledge to a possible hook move -- too dicey.  I tensioned left to
check out a flake, but its upper crack was vegetated and flared.
That left the only alternative - a bush-filled but continuous crack
in the middle.  Being a compulsive crack gardener, it was no problem
for me to plow upwards, and the gear placements were great (once
excavated).  Above, an easy free traverse left rejoined the Muir,
but I skipped past 2 bolt belays and back cleaned to the anchors
atop p20.  Paul then led the first hard pitch -- the "5.10d flare",
which featured the first use of our old "Secret Weapon" cam ("#7.5
Friend") to gain entrance to the flare.  Paul battled to aid up
the flare, backcleaning #1.5 Friends, and eventually it "eased"
to a vertical corner, where a loose flake unexpectedly ripped off.
I noted that the fall line for Muir debris crosses Grape Race and
crosses the Nose roughly at the Dolt Hole, so the danger to climbers
below was relatively small.  Every day we saw many parties on the
first 4 pitches of the Nose, and one day I saw a party fail to
complete the pendulum into the Dolt Hole corner, so they retreated
from that point.  p22 was more uniform beautiful vertical corner,
with extensive backcleaning of #1.5 Friends.  Midway on the pitch,
the free variation (The Shaft) exits right, so we were off the
Bosch belay anchor plan for awhile.  I set up a belay 150' up,
20' below the pendulum point, at a fixed pin, fixed nut,
and #2.5 Friend.  Paul led up to the pendulum point on spooky rock,
where the surface of the left wall of the corner was actually a
very thin flake, so everything sounded hollow.  I squirmed at the
belay, so I wouldn't be in Paul's flight path if a piece blew.
Paul clipped the fixed pins and made the interesting swing out
left, where he managed to get established with a couple of Aliens.
The web topo indicated pins here and Paul concurred, since the
alternative was a very runout series of cam hooks with dangerous
fall potential.  Even with the pins it was tough and was in
retrospect the crux pitch, with quite a headwall aspect to it.
It ended at a slab with a small stance and decent bolts for a
hanging bivvy.  While cleaning, I scored a fixed baby angle without
much difficulty.

Day 4. In the morning, Paul probably got fairly tired of the small
belay stance on the slab, as I took 3.5 hours to lead the next pitch,
plus I had managed to soil the slab slightly when using a too-small
bag for my morning business.  The pitch itself was nice, sans any
big pin scars like on more popular routes, and went clean mostly on
solid #1 Rocks.  The main problem was that we only had 3 of these,
and one was in the belay anchor; having 5 or 6 would have helped.
So I had to constantly move back down to backclean my 3rd-highest
nut (with 2 highest nuts in place).  And I couldn't always make
the highest possible placement because I had to try to use my
other sizes whenever possible.  Finally I thought I was out of
the woods after a roof traverse on small TCUs.  But the short section
above required more #1 Rocks, so I had to lower down and backclean
all the way back to the belay at that point!  Maybe if I had been
willing to use cam hooks, it would not have been so slow, but I
steadfastly refused to even try them.  Finally I arrived at
the gray alcove with its small stance, after puzzling at a small
unnecessary rivet/head below the alcove.  I set up a solid belay
anchor using a #2.5, #3 and #3.5 Friend, all in the same deep
section of the crack.  For the first time, I could finally move
the bag by myself without the Z-pulley, and it got to the belay
just ahead of Paul.  Actually I cheated slightly, as I asked him
to hold up so I could get a photo of this momentous achievement!
Paul had another hard lead above, listed as A3 on the topo,
and early on I could hear a couple of big loose flakes grinding.
He managed it clean with some cam hook action.  The next pitch
was a brief overhanging corner past an unnecessary machine bolt
rivet, to a big sloping ledge, where I pulled up some big cams
and pins.  After a few big cam moves, I nailed past the loose rock
(former location of the big flake ripped off by Dave Hill); I used
a loose horn briefly for aid, but cleaned the sling since it might
rip out the horn when Paul followed.  At the top pin, I reached
far left to a bolt and made a few more moves left to the nice
bivvy ledge.  Paul left the top pin in while cleaning, as I noted
I would clean it as part of the next pitch.  He also supervised
hauling past a deep flake that fortunately didn't hang up the bag.
I settled into the ledge as he led, fixed, and cleaned the next
pitch, up the big final corner system (the secret weapon was
again handy for a brief 5-6" section).  That night I slept on the
ledge while Paul pitched his portaledge.  I noted that bringing
the hammock was not only light, but it seemed to present its
owner with first rights to sleep on small ledges, when the other
guy has a portaledge ("old Valley trick")!  It's a classic bivvy
spot, near the top of the wall on a great ledge.

Day 5. Paul zoomed up the fixed lines and hauled, while I cleaned
the pin and a few odd pieces.  My lead was 150' up the nice
corner, on varied gear sizes (TCUs + medium wires) for once (enough
of that slow and scary major backcleaning!).  A Secret Weapon move
midway on the pitch, and finally a nice clean belay anchor with a
#1.5 Friend and #8 Rock.  Paul linked the next 2 hard pitches,
rated A3 with some nailing, to an anchor with fixed pin and #2.5
Friend.  The largest pin we used was on this pitch, a sawed off
3/4" angle.  The next lead started with a long lower-off, then
some easy 5.6 liebacking on a sharp flake, and a couple of aid
moves to a second and much more difficult tension traverse.
I never used my free shoes on this wall, but this tension traverse
was near the limit of what I could do in my old patched Nike boots.
I set an belay anchor for this horizontal pitch, and explained to
Paul to leave the bag at the belay; I would rap down to it from
the rim so we could haul it direct.  I think it was at this
belay that one of our full water bottles plunged off, as its
clove hitch tieoff had apparently become too loose.  Hazardous
below, and we speculated on whether the lid might break before
it reached the ground.  Fortunately no rescue helicopters or
bodies appeared in the fall line.  Paul started to follow with
the usual 3x rope method, but did not have enough free rope to
do the initial rappel!  He asked if there was a way to do it
without untying and I told him no, would have to set up a (2x)
rappel.  I freed up a bit more rope on the lead line by using
the haul line to extend the anchors back right.  Fortunately, Paul
kept thinking and realized he could stay tied in until it came time
to pull the rappel, and before untying he could still clip into
the rope on the far side of the rappel.  So the 3000' of air below
did not become a major fright with fully untying!  I took the
last pitch, to balance out the 2 Paul had linked, and because it
started with a 5.8 chimney, according to the web topo.  It turned
out to be only a few 5.6 kneepad chimney moves, then mostly easy
aid with a few fixed pins and a machine head rivet.  I wasted much
time on this lead, with Paul starting to get chilled in the breeze
below, as I tried to clean a fixed yellow Alien.  I got 3 cams
retracted, but just could not get the 4th.  Topped out a couple
of moves higher and wandered out left and back right to extend
the pitch to good anchors directly above, and next to the pine
tree for hauling.  Paul topped out and I rapped down the lead line,
past a big roof and directly to the bag.  Paul hauled as I jumarred
back up through space, and helped him haul it up the final slab.
We selected a nice sandy bivvy area and got stuffed on our slight
surplus of food.  It was quite chilly and there were some good
shooting stars (some with trails and others without).

In the morning, I took most of the racks and ropes, plus the bucket,
while Paul had the huge haul bag.  Down the usual East Ledges
trail and raps.  I had my stiff hiking boots and new ankle brace,
so at least my ankle was not hurting like it had when descending
from Horse Chute.  I was pretty tired below the raps, so Paul
went ahead as I trudged slowly down.  At times I had the bucket
clipped to a rack, and found it made a handy chair.  Close to the
Valley floor, Paul returned to greet me with some Fern Spring water
and grabbed some of the load.  He had already done the loop in his
car to the Manure Pile parking lot, which is about a par pace for
me these days on the descent!  He generously did the base hike /
cleanup, finding only a few bottles, while I did the gear sort
and eventually the booty split.

It was a pretty straightforward wall, with several comfy ledges,
which was just what we were looking for.  We speculated on why
it had not been popular until recently.  It was pretty clear that
it was the improved belay anchors by Smith and Cosgrove that
helped a lot.  Also, for many years, the topo of the lower pitches
to Heart was quite vague.  Finally, it does not have the spectacular
pitches that the nearby Shield and Nose have.  It was nice to be
on an older route that for once did not have deep pin scars.
Plus we did not have to wade through the crowds like on Tangerine
Trip, so lack of popularity has some definite advantages.

Personally, I felt fairly competent on the wall, which was my
basic goal.  Somehow, Paul got all the hard pitches, but I figured
that was fine, as perhaps he could "use the experience".  I wasn't
as fast as I have been on routes in the past, but I expected that,
with my more cautious attitude after getting injured in falls on
Horse Chute (broken finger) and the 2nd pitch of the Nose (hurt back).
A question for the future is whether I want to try some walls with
substantially harder pitches, like Magic Mushroom, Tribal Rite, or
Pacific Ocean Wall, which have in theory been "on my list" for years.
Or will I just continue to be pretty passive about walls like I've
been for years, never initiating a wall climb, but being willing to
go when my partners feel like scheduling one.  I don't know the
answer yet, but with a fun wall like this in my recent past, a
harder wall does not seem as scary as it may have once appeared.

Clint