Snake Dike 5.7 R

This trip report holds special meaning for me because Snake Dike is what motivated me to start climbing. I started climbing indoors around the middle of March mostly as a reaction to my inability to get Half Dome hiking permits. I thought to myself, if I get good enough maybe I can find someone to drag me up Snake Dike. Much thank to the NPS for coercing me into a hobby that I may not have picked up otherwise. My first climb outside was at Lover’s Leap (Corrugation Corner) on Memorial Day weekend, it was a cold introduction to climbing but I loved every bit of it.
I had caught the bug and, later in June, Clint graciously offered to take me climbing in the Valley.
The first few jams on Chouinard Crack and the Harry Daley route felt insecure and crack climbing felt like my first day in French class but climbing with the majestic Royal Arches in the background was a treat I knew that few other people in world could enjoy and soon enough I was starting to enjoy the pain.
These outings proved to be crucial in giving me the confidence to talk to other climbers and offer my services as, Anil would later dub me, an MC (master cleaner).

As the months went by I seconded on a fair number of multipitch climbs and finally even lead my first pitches of climbing on the Royal Arches route. By the time the summer had set in Anil and I had become regular climbing partners having tackled Traveler’s Buttress, The Line, Regular Route on Fairview, On The Lamb and some single pitch sport and trad at the Grotto. This long winding story has finally gotten to the point - Snake Dike. Anil had been up Snake Dike before but had not led the crux pitches, and he was as psyched as me to get on this climb. We drove down to the Valley and got some sleep along the side of Aspen Valley road. Three o’clock and my alarm goes off, we were up and ready to drive to the Happy Isles trailhead. On the trail by 4:45am, we zoomed by some early bird Half Dome hikers. Once we got to the restrooms near Nevada Falls we stashed some water for our return trip and to make our onward hike a little easier (thanks a lot for this beta Shino). As much as I cussed on the way up about carrying all the extra water, I was grateful to have it on my way down.
We didn’t have trouble getting to the base of the south face of Half Dome but once we were on the scramble we got up too high and while traversing west around the south face we met Doug and Neil (climbers who were just done working at a summer climbing camp located around Tahoe) who were also there to climb Snake Dike. They were pretty sure that the start of the route was to the right of where we were (i.e. on the south face). Since they were at the base of “Snake Dike” a.k.a. Southern Belle/Growing Up/South Face first (I can‘t quite tell which climb it was from the pictures I’ve looked at online but for added drama and effect let’s assume it was Southern Belle) we sat back and watched Doug try to fire away the first pitch. While D&N were working on P1 I was flaking the rope and getting things in order to jump on the climb after them and I hear D shout, “ROCK, ROCK, ROCK!!!” Before I know it a football sized rock is flying straight at me. I got out of the way mostly unscathed but cat like maneuvers were necessary. Reminder to self: Wear a helmet when parties are climbing above you. The Snake Dike crowd soon started arriving below us. As they traversed across the slabs at a point lower than we were at one of them asked Doug and Neil which climb they were on.
Passerby Climber: Which climb are you on?
Doug: SNAKE DIKE
Passerby Climber: That is NOT Snake Dike!
Oops...that wasn’t the best start but I seem to have the luck of the Irish, anytime I’m in position to epic there’s some sort of intervention. No wonder we were the first ones on “Snake Dike” on a Saturday morning...fat chance! Now, glad that we weren’t the first to the base of that climb we scurried away and found the correct start to the climb...two fifths of Snake Hike was done.

By this time there were already two groups of climbers waiting and one group on the climb. We got in line and waited for what felt like a short time. But maybe that was a result of good company and being around climbers who were generally just happy to be there. The first three slab pitches were fun slabs but quick. The rest of the climb was easy but the runouts were definitely thought provoking and inside my mind it went something like this:
Pessimist in me: If you fall you will learn what it feels like to be a block of Parmesan.
Optimist in me: If you make it to the top, babes in bikinis!
The climbing was thrilling, we made it to the exfoliated slabs around 3:15pm and began our trek across the desert of slabs to the top. False summit after false summit and finally we were atop Half Dome. A sip of water, lunch and some photos later we were ready to head down. At the bottom of the cables a lady offered to take a picture of the two of us (without us asking) and refused to take the picture without us giving her the thumbs up. Like a troll under a bridge she exacted her toll from us in the form of the following photograph. We jogged/fast walked the rest of the way down, happy that we had stashed water by Nevada Falls. We were at the car by 6:45pm and decided that we were both too tired to get on Central Pillar the next day. So we were back in SF by 12:30am on Sunday w/ a short break for dinner and gear sort. Many thanks to Anil without whose unbridled optimism this climb would have remained a pipe dream.