Our guides here in the Sierra Nevada are always looking to increase experience and expertise. Thanks to Spanish Highs guide Jens Foell for this report about his recent fulfilling of a dream, that of climbing the incredible "Half Dome" in Yosemite National Park
‘A dramatic setting with clean and exposed climbing qualifies Snake Dike as one of the most glorious moderate climbs on the planet.’ (Supertopo: Yosemite Valley Free climbs)
Most people who are serious about rock climbing probably share the dream of going to Yosemite Valley. For me this dream became reality this spring. It almost happened by accident. I’d decided to book my return flight at the end of a surf trip in Central America out of San Francisco, with the vague idea of at least finally seeing Yosemite. I was travelling with a surfboard, so a proper climbing mission seemed out of the question as I was not carrying any gear. Halfway through my trip my Catalan friend and fellow climber Ari asked me where I would be in April. ‘Yosemite!’ I replied, and ‘do you want to come? And bring climbing gear??’ She did!
Fun trad climbing in the valley
So Ari booked her flights and the mission was on. We met up in San Francisco and hired a car to get to the valley. Not having been climbing all that much recently I went into the adventure with fairly low expectations; I basically wanted to at least climb in the shadow of the famous big walls, and to soak up the atmosphere of famous Camp Four.
As you would expect, the climbing in Yosemite is beautiful and rewarding, perfect granite in an amazing setting. But having done a lot of traditional granite climbing on Cornish sea cliffs and elsewhere in the past, I also found the style of climbing very familiar and got into it quite easily. Maybe we’d be able to do some more serious climbing after all...
The author on the first pitch of the Nose
We were very lucky with the weather. April can be wet or even snowy, but we had perfect sunshine pretty much every day. Yet, due to it being very early season, there were not many climbers around! So we had all the four and five star rated climbs mostly to ourselves, focusing on multi-pitch climbs in the HS-HVS range. This was great fun, perfect gear, amazing views, one setting more stunning then the next. If you want some pretend shots of climbing the Nose of El Capitan, there is some easy pitches down at the base.
The trip was already going well, but a closer study of the guide book revealed that there is an easy way up Half-Dome! Snake Dike climbs up the South Western face. It involves a long approach, 8 pitches of technical climbing, and finally an endless (and still exposed) walk up the slab to the summit. It’s a BIG day out. And even though the climbing is easy, most of the pitches have very little protection. There repeatedly are run-outs of 70ft and more!. Could that deter us from having a shot at climbing Half-Dome? Of course not, we just had to do it, and once the decision was made we focused all our energy onto this aim, planning rest days, preparatory climbs, and long walks accordingly.
The approach to Half-Dome takes you already 3000ft up, through spectacular countryside and past two huge waterfalls. We started in the dark, with the support of our friend Andreas, who helped to carry our gear. It took four hours and a bit of scrambling to get to the foot of the very impressive looking wall. Our route was easy to identify: it has a small roof in the first pitch, followed higher up by a long and obvious band of off-coloured rock. This latter feature could, with a bit of imagination, be described as dike-like, hence the name of the climb. So we got to work on a very enjoyable climb, all set against a panorama of snow covered peaks. Most of the moves are easy, yet the run-outs demand a strong head and concentration. The two cruxes of Snake Dike are found on the first and third pitch, both hold-less friction traverses with no protection nearby. A fall on either would send you tumbling down the slab for a long way. Once you completed the second traverse the route follows the 'dike’, which is covered in rounded-off holds. Here there’s no protection whatsoever, except for some old bolts spaced 75ft apart. So once you set off from your stance, there’s nothing to avoid a potential 150ft, factor two fall. Pitch five must be everyone’s favourite as you finally encounter some cracks and other features to get gear in as well as some more varied climbing. The last two pitches are very easy, and it’s left to you to decide at which point to stop using the rope properly. We were exhausted and getting to the summit from here, ascending the endless slab where the angle is friendly enough not to use your hands, seemed to take forever.
View north from the summit
Arriving up top was one of those experiences I will never forget. There was still snow on the summit and we had it totally to ourselves! We fell into each other’s arms, we did it, we climbed Half-Dome! All we had to do after celebrating our success was to figure out how to get down.
There is a cable ladder climbing up the back of Half-Dome during the tourist season, to enable people to get to the summit without gear or experience. This must still be a rather exciting ascent for the average person, and there has even been fatalities in the past, so now access is restricted to 300 people/day and permits have to be applied for a long time in advance. But when we were there the cables were still disabled. We had known that, but when we had asked the guys in the climbing shop down in the valley, they had told us that if we were capable of climbing Half-Dome we’d certainly be able to get down as well. So we had figured that there would be plenty of anchors to abseil from. And there would have been, if only we had brought two ropes. Abseiling on just one, I soon found myself looking for the next anchor in vain. So ten hours into our day, us knackered and most of the gear already stashed in the rucksack, we had to improvise and abseil of some gear I managed to put into a tiny crack. And there had been me thinking we’d finished with the exciting part of the day...
The 'easy' way down
Anyway, we did get down safely in the end, and as the sun was setting we walked back down towards the valley through woods of huge Secoyas. What a day it had been! I can only agree with the guidebook, Snake Dike certainly is one of the most enjoyable climbs I have ever done, and what a way to finish a great stay in Yosemite.