Taska, Travis, and Jim Climb Half Dome-July 2005

Regular Northwest face-5.9 A1-Grade VI-2000 feet

We attempted this route in Sept 2001, but retreated from pitch 6 on Sept 11, 2001 (only to find, on our hike down, that far worse things had happened that day).

Here is the Wikipedia page for Half Dome with a nice picture. Also of interest is this Supertopo picture of the route we took.

In July 2005 we came back to the route, much better prepared, all of us capable of leading 5.9 in Yosemite, all of us feeling confident about our jugging and hauling abilities. Perhaps more importantly, this time we brought tequila to help us sleep on the ledges that would be our beds for the 2 nights spent on the wall.

For those unfamiliar with this standard 2000 foot route (first climbed by Robbins, Gallwas, and Sherrick in 1957) it winds its way up standard Yosemite 5.8-5.9 cracks on the shoulder of Half Dome for 8 pitches, passing a sloping bivy ledge at the top of pitch 6. The 8th, 9th, and 10th pitches traverse onto the main face, which is about 85 degrees, with few ledges to break up the intimidating vertical face. The 10th pitch includes a pendulum swing where the leader must climb above the route, then lower down, then begin swinging back and forth until he or she can grab the holds that are far out to the right.

The route then enters a chimney system that lasts for several pitches. The chimney is between the main face and a large, (several hundred feet high) flake of rock that is a few feet apart from the main face. There is evidence that the flake is slowly moving away from the rock, making the chimney wider as time passes. The chimney system takes the route to Big Sandy Ledge, a nice flat bivy ledge (one 3 foot x 10 foot ledge, and another 5 x 5 area). Above big sandy there are 2-3 harder aid pitches known as the Zig-Zags that lead up near the Visor. The Visor is the imposing feature at the top of the dome, that looks as though it juts out from the main dome shape like a visor. Pitch 19 (using our numbering, others climb the route differently) is "Thank God Ledge" so named because the first ascent party found the ledge to be heavensent, as it enabled them to move left, and get our from under the Visor, and it allows the route to go around, rather than up, this overhanging headwall. Thank God ledge itself varies fro 12-18 inches across, and is therefre non-trivial to cross, being situated next to a vertical wall. After Thank God ledge, a few more pitches take one around the left side of the Visor and up to the summit.

Below you'll find pictures of most of these features and the three intrepid climbers. By far the best thing to do is click on the first picture, then just click "Next" on each one to move through the whole climb.

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Packing @ res 4	The Slabs Approach
At the base of the wall	2000 Feet of Wall
Travis-Pitch 3	Travis-Pitch 3 -Again
The Approach- from above	Jim-Pitch 4
Taska belays (Basket Dome behind)	Jim - Pitch 6
Rope Management	Sleeping above pitch 6
Packing up for 2nd day	How do you...?
Can you see our shadows?	Taska-feeling strong on pitch 9
Taska-too short to reach the friggin' bolts	Jim-Penduluming
Rope to Travis	Travis cleans Pitch 10