Half Dome, Day 2

Chapter 4 - The Middle Bits

Creak. Groan. Sputter. Morning again? Well, it ain't raining. For that I am thankful. But, sleeping on a sloping rock ledge with a rope wrapped around your middle was not my idea of the penthouse suite. I was cold and stiff, loath to get up and at 'em. Breakfast was a Clif Bar,half a raisin bagel, and cold water.

Finally, we are up and about. I pack the haul bag while Andrew takes a crap (photo). The wisdom of fixing a pitch the evening before is revealed as I jumar up the rope. I would have hated to apply the concentration necessary to actually climb so early in the morning.

OK, here is where we screw up. Andrew gets lost up in the gully separating the shoulder from the main wall. I don't do much better on my traversing pitch to the Robbins Traverse bolt ladder (photo). I was warned that this was possible and more than one person has admitted to me that they went astray in this part of the climb. Then I take too long making the 5.8 face moves on pitch 11. Sooooo, by the time we make it to the ledge at the top of 11, we have eaten up a good portion of the day. Given that we have 6 more pitches to Big Sandy, we decide to kick back and bivi here, even though we still have a couple of hours of daylight left (photo). This has the added advantage of letting a fast party behind us pass. (They make it to Big Sandy, but spend a chilly might, sans sleeping bags.) It's Andrew's turn to fix the next day's pitch, which he does handily.

Another day, another can of Dinty Moore for dinner. Ah, but tonite it's canned pears for dessert. Yummy!

In all fairness, I have to say here that I scored big on choice of sleeping rocks on this ledge. The ledge is really just a big flake with rocks piled on top. Since, Andrew got the choice of sleeping spots on pitch six, it's my choice here. Heh, heh, heh! The number 2 spot is much worse, in my opinion, than the number 2 spot the previous night. However, one of the things you can take away from this climb is that if you are tired enough, you can sleep anywhere. Not well, maybe; but you can get a few hours of sleep if you can get horizontal.

Half Dome, Day 2