{"id":674,"date":"2009-09-24T10:04:09","date_gmt":"2009-09-24T18:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/?p=674"},"modified":"2009-09-24T10:04:09","modified_gmt":"2009-09-24T18:04:09","slug":"guest-post-first-big-wall-the-regular-route-on-half-domes-northwest-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/2009\/09\/guest-post-first-big-wall-the-regular-route-on-half-domes-northwest-face\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Post: First Big Wall – The Regular Route on Half Dome’s Northwest Face"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note from Rockgrrl<\/strong><\/em>: This post is a guest post by Katie London, an awesome local rockgrrl who I met, along with her partner, Ben while climbing around my hometown. They did a write up of their Half Dome, Regular Route experience as a PDF and I asked if they’d mind sharing. They didn’t mind so here it is for your benefit! Be sure to read the PDF as well as the following notes!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"katieandbenpitch4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Great trip with a happy ending : ) Aug 4-6, 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read our\u00c2\u00a0story<\/a> and see our pictures<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some editorial comments: We missed the climber’s trail\u00c2\u00a0on the\u00c2\u00a0death slabs approach\u00c2\u00a0from\u00c2\u00a0“Mirror Lake\/Mirror dirt patch” (apparently there’s no lake this time of year), so we traversed the Ahwiyah Point rock fall a couple times (not fun), then\u00c2\u00a0bush-wacked and meandered our way up a good portion of the approach.\u00c2\u00a0 Did some spicy mossy slabby moves unprotected with our packs\/gear on.\u00c2\u00a0 Using the fixed ropes on the approach with a heavy pack is a\u00c2\u00a0bit awkward,\u00c2\u00a0and a mid-day approach is hot\u00c2\u00a0with little shade.\u00c2\u00a0 I was conserving water as I was not sure if the spring at the base of the climb would still be running, which made the approach even tougher.\u00c2\u00a0 The spring had not dried up as of\u00c2\u00a0Aug. 4th; the water is cold and wonderful and I drank about 3 liters without treating\/filtering and did not get sick.<\/p>\n

I was pretty new to jumarring – it was something I came to love and hate.\u00c2\u00a0 Cleaning pieces and having to swing behind flakes to start a pitch was frustrating.\u00c2\u00a0 But the jumarring did allow my climbing partner to short fix some pitches, and therefore keep climbing while I was ascending, which sped things up a bit.<\/p>\n

I got to do a lot of climbing on this route, lots of great pitches.\u00c2\u00a0 However, trailing a rope (our haul line\/backup rappelling rope) and carrying a bag full of water and provisions for the overnight can make easy pitches seem really hard.<\/p>\n

It’s amazing how fast time goes on the wall.\u00c2\u00a0 We started from the base of the climb around 5:30am and before I knew it the sun was setting before our last pitch of the day.<\/p>\n

Sleeping on ‘big sandy ledge’ and at the base of the climb, without sleeping pads, is really uncomfortable, and requires you to toss and turn fairly regularly during the night as invariably, some rock will start digging into your side and you’ll have to roll over to get more comfortable for a few moments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note from Rockgrrl: This post is a guest post by Katie London, an awesome local rockgrrl who I met, along with her partner, Ben while climbing around my hometown. They did a write up of their Half Dome, Regular Route experience as a PDF and I asked if they’d mind sharing. They didn’t mind so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1,89,23,88],"tags":[92,90,93,91,374],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa1ZbT-aS","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":975,"url":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/yosemite-half-dome-hikers-need-a-permit\/","url_meta":{"origin":674,"position":0},"title":"Yosemite Half Dome Hikers Need a Permit","author":"Eileen Ringwald","date":"January 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yosemite National Park has moved to a permit system for hikers going up Half Dome on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and holidays while the cables are up. Rockclimbers going up a technical route and not entering the subdome area will not need permits to descend. Backpackers will receive a permit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/topics\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cables on a Saturday - in 2006","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/20c5scd.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1651,"url":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/2011\/04\/yostweetup-april-2011-yosemite-climbing-trip-in-pictures-and-video\/","url_meta":{"origin":674,"position":1},"title":"#YosTweetup April 2011 – Yosemite Climbing Trip In Pictures and Video","author":"Eileen Ringwald","date":"April 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My mind has been in the visual space lately, how could it not be, five days spent in breathtaking Yosemite will do that to you. Suffice it to say that I had a great time at the YosTweetup, Luke and Lizzy were fantastic organizers, even in the face of unusual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climbing Trips"","block_context":{"text":"Climbing Trips","link":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/topics\/climbingtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1507,"url":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/half-dome-hiking-permits-required-everyday-cables-are-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":674,"position":2},"title":"Half Dome Hiking Permits Required Everyday Cables Are Up","author":"Eileen Ringwald","date":"December 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yosemite has decided to make the hiking permit system apply everyday the cables are up starting in Spring of 2011. Previously they were only required for weekend hiking. In 2011, free permits are available up to about four months in advance only through the National Recreation Reservation Service (NRRS). As\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/topics\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/rgadmin\/rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/yosemitehalfdomecalendar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1906,"url":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/2012\/07\/yosemite-valley-trip-7-days-of-awesome-part-iii-rest-days-and-half-dome\/","url_meta":{"origin":674,"position":3},"title":"Yosemite Valley Trip: 7 Days of Awesome – Part III – Rest Days and Half Dome","author":"Eileen Ringwald","date":"July 31, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Part III - Rest Days and Half Dome [See Part I here] Yosemite National Park. Day 4. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rest\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Day The concept of a rest day during a climbing trip is that you rest your body so that you can continue to climb and so that you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t injure yourself. Michael,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climbing Trips"","block_context":{"text":"Climbing Trips","link":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/topics\/climbingtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/rgadmin\/rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/img_0360-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1102,"url":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/2010\/04\/joshua-tree-weekends\/","url_meta":{"origin":674,"position":4},"title":"Joshua Tree Weekends","author":"Eileen Ringwald","date":"April 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This spring I've been heading out to Joshua Tree for more weekend only trips than ever before. So far it's turned out great and we've been able to climb with different groups of friends (and crash their campsites). I'm not caught up in terms of posting pics but here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climbing Trips"","block_context":{"text":"Climbing Trips","link":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/topics\/climbingtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1337,"url":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/rock-climbing-tuolumne-trip-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":674,"position":5},"title":"Unusual Circumstances – Tuolumne Trip 2010 Part 2","author":"Eileen Ringwald","date":"September 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Whenever someone says it's always sunny in California, I realize that they've never been to its mountains (or lived here). I'll admit though that it's not a bad generality to make, I can usually count on climbing outdoors on any given weekend. This Tuolumne climbing trip was one of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climbing Trips"","block_context":{"text":"Climbing Trips","link":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/topics\/climbingtrip\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/img_5335-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":680,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674\/revisions\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rockgrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}