The Prow on
Jordan and I had made a half-ass attempt on
this route earlier this year in February. The weather forecast was calling for
9 days of storms so we didn’t really think we would be doing much of this route
- so much so that we packed our skis for a possible detour to Tahoe for the
weekend. As we predicted, we bailed after pitch 1 with snow/sleet coming down
and that second pitch full of slime. The skiing was good and the Koreans got
rescued off of Half Dome.
After regrouping, we laid plans to return and this time had Mike to come along
as well. Mike has been up Southern Man and Ten Days After and was also looking
to add The Prow to his collection. We figured he would be a good complement to
the rest of us even though we had never climbed with him. Interestingly enough,
I met Mike after buying a set of hybrid Aliens from him on eBay.
Mike is currently enjoying the lay-offs and severance pays so has plenty of
free time that he can devote to climbing, surfing, and playing with his kids.
Because of this, Mike decided to take off to The Valley on Thursday with plans
to pack in the gear to the base and fix a pitch or two before we arrived on
Friday. Being that Jordan and I work full-time, we weren’t able to leave until
Friday afternoon from LA. Traffic in LA is bad enough but combine that with a
long weekend and we finally pulled into the Ahwahnee
Hotel parking lot at 2300. Half of the place is roped off due to the recent rockfall.
During our drive in, we received a phone call from Mike making sure I brought
my rack as well. He had forgetten some key pieces
that he needed on the first pitch and so hadn’t been able to climb it.
Nonetheless, he did haul in most of the rack, water, a ledge, etc. We combined
the gear from my rack that we needed and headed off to the base of the route
after a pre-wall beer.
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We made quick progress to the base and debated what to do. After a few minutes,
we racked up and headed up the first pitch at 0330 on Saturday morning.
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Surprisingly, there was not a single person on the
entire Column when we left ground. Throughout the day, though, there were
multiple parties heading up South Face and one soloist following us up.
Pitch 1 took a little bit of time to finish it in the dark but once we had
everything hauled up it started looking a little better. It had been months
since any of us had aided anything so we began a little rusty.
The second pitch corner had its usual seep and slime at the beginning which is
a little unnerving considering the nice ledge you hit if you blow your pieces.
That fixed pin was just a little out of
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Pitch 3 was mine and again went without much difficulty.
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Anchorage Ledge was a nice surprise given the description as a poor bivy site.
I was plenty comfortable laying down on this ledge
along with the haul bags. I even got a nap while waiting for the pitch to go.
With the sun out in full force, we set up the ledge for both comfort but also
for shade. It was quite a relief for me since I can barely tolerate
temperatures above the 40’s. This led to the running joke of the trip since we
brought over 30 liters of water for the 3 of us and I drank about 20 of them in
2 ½ days. After a good lunch of Ramen and salmon, we were set for some more
climbing.
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Mike was up for pitch 4 and had some difficulty near the top where multiple
dead heads required hook moves to pass. Once past the difficulties, the rest of
the pitch went well. For Mike, this was the crux pitch of the route.
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Meanwhile, I was watching Ted Baker, a geohydrologist
that works for the Park Service, solo up the wall below us. He was making good
time and eventually stayed at Anchorage Ledge while we continued onwards.
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At the top of pitch 5, we set up the ledges and
debated on fixing the next pitch. We had all been going for over 36 hours
without any real sleep at this point and decided to wait until the morning. We
were pretty much fried and could have all slept on the one ledge. Eventually we
motivated ourselves enough to set up the second ledge and get some sleep.
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With the sun coming up, we crawled out of our bags at
0700. I was pretty excited to get going on the next pitch which I had heard was
possibly the crux of the route. For me, pitch 6 was the best pitch on the
climb. I took off and was enjoying every move. I cam hooked up the first seam
and ended up welding a #4 HB in a pod after I bounced it and it shifted into
place. This was the only piece of gear we left on the route and climbed
everything else clean. The upper section of the pitch had all fixed heads and
bolts and did not require the hook move as in the topo.
I went ahead and used a Clifhanger, bypassed a very
good head, and clipped the last bolt before the belay. There is a small ledge
at the top of 6 that was comfortable for standing but there is a slab below
that so I’m glad we set up our ledges on 5 instead. The angle started to kick
back here now with the headwall behind us.
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Pitches 7 and 8 are both short at 70’ and 80’ respectively. Mike climbed
through the “Strange Dihedral” without any difficulties and with fixed pins and
heads in place. He decided to link the pitches above at this point without
really knowing what he was getting into. Despite trying to leave long slings to
counter the rope drag that is known on these pitches, he got to the free
section and couldn’t even pull in a foot of slack. Pitch 8 makes almost a
reverse “c” shape which, combined with the angles on Pitch 7, makes for a hell
of a time on the sharp end of the rope. He had to fix the line for
This brought us up to Tapir Terrace. The ledges at this site are poor and would
have made for a rough night without a ledge. I felt sorry for Ted who ended up
staying there. The haul to there is really easy as the bags swing out over the
headwall with 700’ of air below them. The jug is fun as well as not only is it
free-hanging but it also allows one to examine Ten Days After.
Being that we were on a ledge again, we decided to break for dinner. This
included a pre-made Indian dish in a foil packet from Trader Joe’s. If any of
you know what I’m talking about then you’ll know how good these things are
especially after 12 hours of climbing. It went incredibly well on the dinner
rolls that we brought up.
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I’m not sure if we were doing something wrong or reading the topo incorrectly but
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Night had fallen and the headlamps came out again. We were determined to get
through the remaining pitches and sleep on the summit. Mike had promised us an
excellent bivy site on top. Pitch 10 goes free at 5.10 and I was debating
putting on the climbing shoes. If I did the pitch again I would do it free or
at least the French way. It ate up 0.5 and 0.75 Camalots
as well as #3’s. I intermixed free climbing in my boots with some aid moves.
After about 80’ I reached a small alcove where I could have easily set up an
anchor with gear. From this spot, we could have hauled from Tapir if we had
planned it that way. The route continued up a 5.0 gully. Near the end of the
gully there is a big ledge to the left with bolt anchors. If I wasn’t carrying
a ledge, this is where I would sleep rather than Tapir. It was flat and plenty
comfortable.
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The hauling on this pitch was horrendous as there were
plenty of haul-bag eating flakes, slabby terrain, and
the gully to negotiate. Again, thankfully we had a third to get the bags
unstuck. Once all 3 of us were on the ledge, I broke out the stove again and we
had more soup, beer, and other snacks.
With only 2 pitches left, Jordan and I decided to split them up among ourselves
so that we all got 4 pitches each.
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While cleaning, I had to spend an inordinate amount of
time cleaning a 0.75 Camalot that walked into the
back of a crack and had completely opened up. With careful and surgical
precision, I got the cam into a more flared section and retrieved my gear. It
was a new C4 and I wasn’t about to leave it. The remainder of
the cams under the overhang were also walked in the crack but I was able
to get all of them out without too much difficulty. Unfortunately, while I was
doing this, my partners were helpless to get the bags up as they were jammed
into overhanging cracks and corners. With just a slight budge they came up and
we were back in business.
One pitch to go and boy were we feeling it. I grabbed a handful of pieces and
headed out for Pitch 12. I free climbed past a bolt on a slab and around a
corner to the right. Two moves of aid and I was free climbing again to a large
sandy, rotten shelf with a couple of trees. I figured I was home free on the
4th class ground but was confused trying to figure out the hauling. I fixed the
ropes to a tree and called for my partners to come over and check it out with
me. Once they arrived, Mike was able to point out the large tree 50’ above me.
Being that it was still dark, I had no clue exactly where to go at this point. In
the daylight it would have been very obvious.
We scrambled up about 20’ and noticed a very large crack to the left, almost
directly above our belay. We made a directional anchor with our #4 and #4.5 Camalots and hauled the bags to this point from the large
tree with half a dozen slings around it, 20’ below the summit. Once the bags
were on the slabs even with the tree, we fixed one of the lines and hauled the
bags individually to the tree. From the tree we ferried the loads the remaining
20’ to the summit.
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The summit has a large flat area that would have made
for an incredible bivy. Being that the sun was already up we were thinking
descent now despite our 24 continuous hours of climbing. We ate more food on
the summit than the rest of the climb. Beers and rum went around to celebrate a great climb. A few hours of
rest, relaxation, and repacking before we were off down North Dome Gully.
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The descent took about 3 hours to get back to the car. More beer followed and
then Curry Village Pizza along with King Cobras.
All in all it was a great climb. The first 6 pitches are incredible coming up a
nearly vertical wall. Although we didn’t need to hammer any gear, I would
highly recommend to bring a few of the larger heads in
case too many are dead. Double Aliens through red and double hybrids along with
HB offsets are key to this climb. A Leeper Cam Hook also comes in very handy in many of the
pitches. A Clifhanger, Talon, and Pecker should be
thrown in for good measure in case some of the fixed pro is missing or
unusable.
The End
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