On the Waterfront, a photo trip report

As we all know, Erik Mckinley Erikkson is one cool dude. So, it was very cool to rope up with him two years ago (Oct 08) for a trip up the Octopussy. We had enough storm action to remind us of Erik’s last time up Octopussy with Tommy T, but luckily the weather cooperated better this go-around and we tagged the summit via a fun top out on Kohl’s “Hole World”.

Two photos from the '08 Octopussy


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Last year (Oct 09) Lorna and I spent over 36 hours only 2 pitches from the top, enjoying another big storm on Eagle’s Way. (Sorry, we never did a trip report for that one either!). During that climb, we climbed right next to Steve Gerberding, as he soloed On the Waterfront for its 3rd ascent (revised maybe 4 or 5 by Steve? Andrew McClean confirms an early ascent with Alex Lowe a long ways back now). Steve looked like he was having a pretty good time. During the storm I was reminded of hanging in the ledge with E the year before and gave him a call from the edge, already with an idea in mind that we should team up for OTW.

Steve Gerberding climbing OTW in Oct 09


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Fast forward to 2010: A spring jog through the Valley with a detour through the Caf and I found Erik hanging there with his gang. I mentioned OTW again and a plan was hatched. Later in the fall we set a date to get started and met at my house in Yosemite to rack and let the adventure began.

VIDEO LINK
http://s296.photobucket.com/user/ephollyb/media/On%20The%20Waterfront%202010/MVI_0317_zpsf8b46cd0.mp4.html

It really was a little hard to figure out where to start from the topo, but we eventually sniffed it out and got going, with a little hesitation. Being so far over there, its not like the routes that you walk past the start of over and over, dreaming of the day when you will do that route. Instead, it was my vague memory of Steve’s haulbag sitting on the ground, his fixed line up to the top of the Eagle Head Buttress and our vague topo.


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Erik reaching the nice sloping belay ledge. He freed almost this entire pitch, including a section that was about A2, before finally chomping into the A3 that leads to the ledge.

Day one we had gotten cooked by the heat and had spent most of the day racking, hiking and scoping, so we fixed just one pitch and came down. Day two, another day of hiking big loads, and then I fixed P2. This was one of the harder pitches I had ever led, more because of the uncertainty of where to go than the actual climbing. A little uncertainty, hooking up into unknown terrain, an unmarked pendulum and some A3 led me to the base of P3- complete with two bolts!


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Looking down to Erik from Belay at top of P2.

Belay 2 on OTW, in the black rock.


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We had gotten pretty cooked in the heat again, and felt really "slow go" and figured the next day would be more of the same, so we had a hauling “rest” day where we hiked one more 50 pound load each up to the base and hauled to the top of two. That was the day of a Nose rescue, so we watched the insertions and extractions. (see the helicopter at the height of Sickle ledge)


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Ready to Haul


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Fixed to P2, good view of the Eagle Head (Golden Rock on the left, beak points left)


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Blast off – we got an early start, jugged our lines, and Erik ate the P3 A3 for breakfast. It was a cool pitch. MANY BEAKS.


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Afterwards, I did a couple of pitches of lots of wandering freeclimbing up the blocky Eagle’s Way terrain. We again weren’t quite sure where we would access our route. This feature looked really cool – so I took us beneath it!


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In this position we were up and right from the Eagle’s Way ledge on P6 by about 15 feet (probably off route but at the High Plains Dripper belay and it was cool).

Erik following the final slab of free climbing (horrible hauling ensued).


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I tried to send Erik up and right, but he wisely knew that to do so would be to climb Technical Ecstasy on the High Plains Dripper (which looks super cool).


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Instead, we set up camp and Erik fixed part of the 7th pitch of OTW. A4 spicy.
Here’s some art at the belay


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And self portrait of the geeky girl with the visor


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Then the next morning, Erik jugged back up to finish the A4 on P7.


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Like a good monkey, it was my turn to go up on the next lead (also rated A4). Scary! But, my guess was that this pitch was mostly rated A4 for the rivet situation, not for the actual “difficulty”. This turned out to be pretty true. I had to do a few spicy hooks above rivets that only had #1 wire rivet hangers on them for pro, so if you blow it, you’ll probably blow it. And, there was one circlehead with a similar scenario. Luckily, the rivets were not reachy for even 5’2” me, so it wasn’t too bad.


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I reached the belay and looked above to the “A1” corner indicated on the topo for the next pitch. I was a bit confused again, seeing NO A1 IN SIGHT, but we were sure that I was on route and set up the anchor. Erik came up and agreed that we were looking at no A1! He went up, finishing our day with what we rated A3 (which we also had a laugh about with Skiy Detray – how’d you like the A1 wink wink)

Erik on the super thin “A1” crack


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To our great surprise, some people had started up Eagle’s Way! Here are the guys from Flag working their way up the blocky slabs. If I ever write our Eagle's Way trip report, I’ll include the beta on how we hauled straight to 6, avoiding hauling the wandering free climbing.


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The next morning we are on our third day on the wall, and we are already starting the day off with pitch 10 out of 14 pitches. So, already we see the end in sight, but we just try to savor each pitch. So far the climbing was pretty good and keeping us interested. P10 was my lead and started out with thin beaking in a corner up a ramp (rated A4, but I did get a cam in at 30 feet up, so?). Then more rivets forever and only a few would take any kind of keyhole hanger. So again, going a long ways up on wired rivet hangers. Here’s E on the pitch, cleaning the initial ramp. (Eagle’s Way guys visible below)


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P11 is rated as the crux pitch of the OTW part of the climb. I didn’t ask Erik if he agreed with that, but we did discuss that he did not rate it A4/A5. A simple A4 will do for now. It did have a really hard hook move that took the full wing span of the E man. In this photo, the red screamer is the last pro before the traverse right on hooks. That “pro” being the smallest possible micronut and two #1 head (one of which was out of the rock when I cleaned the pitch).


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Here’s another pic of the crux section – also the rock was very rotten at the crux. Scary for leading for sure.


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Also, by this point, the wind had become brutal. The haul bags were being lifted and thrown around and Erik’s aiders were flying everywhere. It was kind of unnerving to have to keep things together when you felt like you were going to be blown off the cliff. Usually, climbing El Cap is fun, but Erik spoke truly in the bivy that night when he said that the bottom line with the wind is that it was making it “not fun!”

Reaching the end of the Crux P11


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To join the Waterfall Route you get to do a cool bit of free climbing up perfectly incut edges. I donned my free climbing shoes for a mini pitch the next morning and took us up to the1x6 ledge where we wish we would have slept! Its a rare occasion for me to actually put my free climbing shoes on during a wall route, so that was fun.


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Feeling pretty good now, thinking we will probably top out tonight.


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Right around here, Erik starts itching like a maniac. His hands are swelling. Some kind of allergic reaction. We get out some Benedryl. His feet start itching too, but then the Benedryl starts working and he is ready for the true crux of the climb. As it turns out, the P12 Waterfall Route pitch is the true crux of our climb.


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And, finally all those huge cams I brought came into play! E used the old 3.5, the new 4 and the old purple BD 4. No Supertopo meant I was bringing big cams just in case, and they ended up being useful at the very end. In this picture, the final trickery is still to come.


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Now we were done with another huge crux and it was my turn to pony up on some A4 and get us out of here. Lorna and I had watched Steve climb this pitch last year and Lorna was hanging out at the belay and got to see most of it. She asked me later who got to lead the pitch as it was pretty memorable for both of us. Apparently Steve was just trucking along, talking to her, having a good time, “oh I am on a hook”, still trucking along, etc.

Here’s looking down on the pitch after I led it. Short me had to add a few copperheads to the pitch to make the moves.


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Video Link:
http://s296.photobucket.com/user/ephollyb/media/On%20The%20Waterfront%202010/MVI_0398_zpse965ffcf.mp4.html

So, we were one easy pitch from the top, and it wasn’t nighttime yet. But, it was a short route, we hadn’t had quite enough time on El Cap, and when you get to the top there are a lot of chores to do. So, we decided to go ahead and spend a 4th night in the ledge, one pitch from the top.


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Fun, easy climbing to the top, which Erik and I have both done before. E leading out.


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I guess we don’t even have a summit shot! Didn’t even think about it. Just wanted to get down to make it to the Facelift that night. This was my 32nd trip up El Cap (23rd route) and I it was Eric’s 52nd route (confirmed).
Cheers!