Lemmy Winks: A Close Call on the Big Wall
Doug McKee
I would like to start off by saying this is my very first trip report. I don’t consider myself much of a writer and I typically write nothing down about my climbing or post on the interweb. Right now it seems very important to do so, a bit for my own release and just to remind people that it is very serious up there. Your actions can very directly affect other people up there, and that El Cap deserves a ton of respect! It is far from a crag, loose rock is EVERYWHERE!
My climbing partner Scott and I decided to repeat a trip from a few years back. I would fly one way to Vegas where he would pick me up and climb some routes there and then head off to Yosemite for a route up The Captain; and other valley classics. After our last trip of going up the Aquarian wall (his frist trip to the valley, first time wall climbing and his first captain route), he suggested the Salathe Wall. I really couldn’t argue too much, I had been half way up that route before on my first wall experience (over a decade ago); but I was a little concerned about the amount of people up there. “ Hell yeah, let’s do it! It will be awesome!”
We started on the Freeblast early on Wednesday. When we arrived at the base there was a party of three very solid Spanish climbers ahead of us. They were really fun to share the first part of our route with. The climbing on our pitches was really awesome. The route went by fairly smooth with the exception of a lil cobra choking on some of those thin slab moves. We rode down the fixed lines to have beers and dinner. After a good night’s rest, and a bunch of coffee, we started to get all of our kit together to blast off the following morning.
Starting off Friday was fairly uneventful. We were the first to the base of the Heart lines. I started up first and hauled. Scott then went up the second line and hauled. As I was leaving to start the third line an un called rope landed next to me. It was from some big shot lawyer guy (I guess he can bend the rules, hahaha). “What the hell man”?!? We continued up higher and hauled until we had our kit up the Heart Slabs. While having some water and lunch on the ledge a very quick party was coming down the lines from Mammoth Terraces. They had their bags on the Heart ledge already. They passed thru with no problems. They too were very nice to meet and hang out with up there. As Scott was getting ready to lead we saw a guy climbing down from Mammoth not rapping. “Bad Ass”, I thought. Michael got to the belay first and introduced himself. He said they were going to try to free Golden Gate. “holy smokes, wow that is awesome” I replied. I told him of our plan of going to bivy on top of the Hollow Flake pitch. His partner Alan was now starting to climb down not too far behind. I was off to jug and clean Scott’s pitch while he hauled the kit. I went up the next pitch of easy 4th class and hauled with no major deals. A few empty water bottles fluttered by reminding us there were still some people somewhere up there. Alan arrived at the belay while Scott was starting off the Hollow Flake. His enthusiasm was second to none! He too was very strong and way fun to share the belay with. I asked him what he wanted to listen to. “David Bowie” was his response. “Hell yeah” for sure, if it is on Scotts ipod. I put that on. Scott arrived at the top of the hollow flake, “Lead line fixed!” Scott hollered when we heard “rock” from another party above. Scott saw a valley giant cam go flying by. Michael, Alan and I could not see anything from where we were. We just waited. I lowered out the haul bags and cleaned the start of that pitch, there was no gear left behind in the wide part of the pitch. I arrived at the ledge and congratulated Scott on a great lead. Just then a fairly large clump of dirt and grass exploded off my forearm. I told Scott that I just got hit. Wow, that is a lot of sh#t falling down today. Glad it was just a clump of dry dirt.
Our day was going great so far. We were now up way off the valley floor. It was only a little after four in the afternoon. We were stoked on a great bivy spot. We had set up a great place to call “home” for the evening. Alan showed up and was just so pumped on the climbing over, down then up the Hollow Flake. Scott and I were stoked for him. We were all hanging out and playing tunes. The big wall life was awesome! It was now past five and Michael had arrived. They had been discussing their plans of what to do. They had rapped in and prestashed their haul bags in the alcove. They were now weighing going up to their kit, shiver bivy with no kit, or head all the way down. They were psyched on going up, and we were pumped for them. We blared some Motorhead for Michael while he was leading the next chimney pitch. We all heard a clang, now a fifi hook was falling. Alan was really loving the tunes, just rockin! He told us he had seen Motorhead, Hawkwind, The Who and Zappa. Oh man they were awesome he said. It was now Alan’s time to motor up behind Michael. He told us how much fun all this had been and really enjoyed the times up there. We totally agreed and told those guys to have fun. We had eaten dinner and were chatting about how fun the climbing had been. All the people up there were great company. Everybody was having a ton of fun. I also had realized we were on the top of Pitch 13, on Friday the 13th. So far seven things have fallen down today, a lucky number. Whoa, that is wild, not really being too superstitious about it all.
It was now starting to get dark. The portaledge was set up. It was after 9 and we were starting to wind down for the evening. It was tough to totally relax laying on the ledge in the dark with headlamps on above. We were discussing all sorts of things while just hangin around. Including was this sketchy to be here under those guys. Should be fine was what we both had thought. Then we heard “RRRRROOOOOOOCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!”
We bolted upright and held our heads and necks. A few seconds passed then a whoosh of the wind and instant explosion. A direct hit to the bar of our portaledge!!?! WHAT THE F*#K!!!!, WHAT THE F*#K IS GOING ON UP THERE?!?? Is all I could get out. “YOU JUST DESTROYED OUR LEDGE”. Alan shouted back are you guys ok? Shaking very badly we said we were. As we were diving into the very small cave on the side of the rock ledge. He shouted he had pulled off that rock(which was about the size of a soccer ball and close to 30 lbs), core shot his rope in the process, and a huge block was still hanging up there somewhere near a fixed pin. We just stayed crammed in that small rock overhang barely big enough to cover our legs while curled. But that is what we had for the moment. We tried to stay positive about it all and talked over our options. This is now the eighth thing of the day, this is starting to look a little less lucky except we were not hit.



This urine scented cave now our place called “Home”. We decided that continuing on behind this many people was insane. However going down would require a small amount of shenanigans to get back to the heart lines. Reversing those pitches with pigs seemed a much better option than staying in the firing zone!
We stayed curled in that damn nasty cave hole until the headlamps were turned off above, a bit after midnight. That’s when we could stretch out our legs and try to get a few hours of sleep. I awoke at the very first light, I was shivering…Scott was snoring! First thing is first…COFFEE. It was still pretty much dark. We got our water bottles dumped, ate food and packed up all our stuff and some old trash water bottles left behind (empties not stashed). Then we heard it again. “Rock”, it was not nearly as serious as the call the evening before. It was also not nearly as close or big. But this sure did reinforce we were making the right call to go down.


So glad to be alive and getting the hell down!
I started to rappel first on a fixed line. Scott lowered the bags. I could then either rehaul them back up for pitches like the Hollow Flake and the .11c pitch off the Heart ledge. Or very carefully move them down thru the fourth class terrain without knocking off anything in the process. He would then rappel down to me. Pull ropes and repeat. The first 3.5 rappels took a while, maybe close to 4 hours. Zipping down the heart lines was a breeze. That part took around an hour I would guess.
We were down by about noon. We were so happy to be doing the ”Walk of Life” back to the car for a big beer. Driving thru the valley traffic was like a big city zoo. It was great to be headed back to our camp at the ranch to unpack all of our crap and eat food. It was really awesome to be able to take a shower. We went cragging for a couple days after to decompress from all the adventure up there. After a bit of sun at the cookie we climbed in the van to head home. Scott was going to drop me off in Steamboat before heading back to the Teton Valley. We both had our usual lives to continue back to. The guiding life for him; and back to the family life for me. Hanging and sharing mini adventures with my 16 month old son and wife. I am so very grateful for all of the amazing times, travels, friends and loved ones life has to offer. Have fun out there!
All in all it was one hell of a wild time. I am so happy to have met all those dudes up there and shared great times. More psyched that Alan yelled like a maniac up there to give us good warning of what was coming down and to hopefully allow us to all meet up again in this small climbing world. Having an awesome climbing partner like Scott to share in the sh#t of it when it gets BAD! Very mostly I am so psyched to be alive and back with my family! Thanks for reading.
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