I've been meaning to post this for a while. I home sick now so what the hell.
At the end of July Mason and I took a trip to the Balls in Southern Yosemite. We drove Beasore Road from Bass Lake to the Willow Campground. I have to say Beasore road was not too bad and Willow camp was really nice for free camping. Basically, it was a fully developed camp ground with very few people, picnic tables, and a clean bathroom. Oh yeah and no bears! Camping in the Valley can suck it!
Mason and I only had some print outs of the Spencer guide. We had originally planned to the climb the Big Sleep's "Afternoon Nap" put up a couple weeks earlier by Slater.
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=779298&msg=1213227#msg1213227
But, it was really hot and we were a good drive away from the area. We where meeting Kev and Bluering in the morning to figure out what to climb and soon got derailed onto a climb Kev had put up two weeks earlier.
So, after much pointing up at Nightw#tch Dome, a hand sketched topo, and reluctance, Mason and I decided to give it a go.
The route is 4 pitches, each a full 60 meters. I think it's rated 5.8 or 5.9 due to one or two juicy boulder moves.
I lead P1. The pitch is 5.5 to 5.4 with one bolt about 30 m off the belay. The route heads up to a big roof/wall.
Mason took P2. The first move is 5.8 maybe 5.9 and then 5.6 to 5.7 with one knob to sling. Ends at a nice two bolt anchor.
I took P3. This was probably the best pitch. It heads up a steep head wall of SoYo style 5.6 knobs.
When Mason arrived at the P3 belay, I was like just keep climbing don't even look at it.
Mason took P4. This was more of the same 5.6 knobs which rolled off to the top of the dome. His anchor was definite revenge for my previous anchor.
The climb was fun and long for two unexperienced leaders. It was smoking hot out but the breeze felt good a couple hundred feet up. Kev later said, it could be a good climb to take your girlfriend on or climb with a nasty hangover, which is in the style that the climb was put up.