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grayhghost
Jun 28, 2006, 5:32 PM
Post #1 of 18
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Registered: May 21, 2002
Posts: 444
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Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome
June 24, 2006
Friday found the two most promising students of The Handsome Boy Modeling School driving west in search of large granite monoliths.
By complete coincidence, two other students, Kolin and Brad were slated to climb the route on Friday and leave a stash of gear and ropes at the base.
As we rolled into the valley, Brendan's phone lit up with a message from Brad: "We have bailed due to heat stroke"
Sh*t.
As we talked with Kolin and Brad over sandwiches they recounted with abject horror the Death Slabs Approach, the mosquitoes and the heat.
Now it was our turn.
We find a nice park ranger and ask if we need a wilderness permit to camp at Half Dome for friday and saturday night.
Ranger:Yes, you can get a permit and stay in the campground about half way up the muir trail.
Brendan:No, we need to sleep at the base of Half Dome, we plan on climbing it.
Ranger:Well, I guess you can do that, but a pair of strong boys like you could do Half Dome in about nine hours round trip. You should just do the whole thing in a day.
Brendan:Wow, that is really nice of you to say. Wait a minute. We don't want to do the Cables, we want to do the Northwest Face.
Ranger:The what?
Brendan:The steep way.
Ranger:Oh.
6pm Friday: we start the approach by running up to Mirror Lake only to find that we are on the wrong side of it.
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...2e9bc8292169e15-.jpg
Brendan fords Mirror Lake
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...9c98005607d8cfa-.jpg
Approaching the wall, with the route highlighted in pink
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...73bae769de7b347-.jpg
Dusk overtakes the Captain
4:30am Saturday: the alarm goes off and we are climbing by 5:45am.
The first 14 pitches go smoothly with only one near fatal mistake.
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...951f5e9b2f8c8f5-.jpg
Two ropes disappear into a chimney, apparently attached to something.
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...f1bb5e135773441-.jpg
A profound amount of suffering was in our future, but luckily it missed us
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...e983419d48f0dab-.jpg
18 pitches up, exposure set on high
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...3154e3bf75829d7-.jpg
Brendan leads the Double Cracks, one of the best pitches, anywhere.
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...51e07d868f1eaa0-.jpg
I inform Brendan that I forgot the lunch, he does not smile for the rest of the trip
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...a491ffa4c74ad62-.jpg
Okay, well, he smiles when he gets to lead Thank God Ledge
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...ead89b3c641e2e7-.jpg
10pm finds us searching for the cables
http://grayhghost.zoto.com/...1c3c803117bb691-.jpg
After climbing a vacant route we are astounded to find 3 parties cued up for the route on Sunday (the sabbath)
Sunday finds us hiking down the Death Slabs,
then visiting the Pizza Deck, then the Beer Garden,
then the Taco Stand, then the Beer Garden again,
then the ice-cream parlor, then the Beer Garden
one more time before driving home.
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chanceboarder
Jun 28, 2006, 6:17 PM
Post #3 of 18
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Registered: Oct 6, 2003
Posts: 1348
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Nice little TR, thanks for sharing. Thought the conversation with the ranger was funny and I have to agree with Keinangst, that's a pretty awesome photo.
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svilnit
Jun 28, 2006, 6:24 PM
Post #4 of 18
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Registered: Jun 19, 2002
Posts: 582
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Great Story! Loved the pictures!
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cragmasterp
Jun 28, 2006, 8:39 PM
Post #5 of 18
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Registered: Feb 2, 2003
Posts: 278
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congrats fellas, that is a pretty fast time up a large piece of stone, and even without lunch. :shock: you must have made good time up the zig-zags.
Thanks for the photos, brought back good memories of my mini-epic on the same route ('99). we headed up with just a small backpack w/ food and water, hoping to complete the route in a day. we hit the big sandy ledge at 5 pm, thinking we had it in the bag. Then we became fatigued on the zig-zags, and by 8pm (dusk) we rapped back to big sandy to sit out the night. finished the route up in the morning, and had all day to meander our way back down. What a great experience, we also had the route to ourselves that day, only to find 2 parties on the lower pitches when we returned to the base to get our gear.
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macherry
Jun 28, 2006, 8:43 PM
Post #6 of 18
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Registered: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 15848
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macherry moved this thread from General to Trip Reports.
nice TR guys!!!
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sspssp
Jun 28, 2006, 9:32 PM
Post #7 of 18
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Registered: Jan 2, 2003
Posts: 1731
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I inform Brendan that I forgot the lunch, he does not smile for the rest of the trip
Instead of arguing over what to carry, you just tell him after the fact.
Props for shaving weight.
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shanz
Jun 28, 2006, 9:51 PM
Post #8 of 18
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Registered: May 18, 2004
Posts: 702
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KICK ASS -- I am so ready to be there great story great pics
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stzzo
Sep 2, 2006, 9:38 PM
Post #9 of 18
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Registered: Feb 4, 2005
Posts: 143
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Have you heard that you missed a very large rockfall by just a few days?
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=230443
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brent_e
Sep 21, 2006, 4:06 AM
Post #10 of 18
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Registered: Dec 15, 2004
Posts: 5111
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good TR!!!
and the aforementioned amazing picture is incredible in my opinion, too!
Thank you!
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Kironkid
Jan 21, 2009, 10:44 PM
Post #11 of 18
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Registered: Oct 17, 2008
Posts: 12
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Brings back memories. That was my first wall.
Kiron Kid
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Adk
Jan 23, 2009, 1:47 PM
Post #12 of 18
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Registered: Dec 2, 2006
Posts: 1085
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nice TR and photos to boot!
Thanks for sharing
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johnwesely
Jan 23, 2009, 2:02 PM
Post #13 of 18
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Registered: Jun 13, 2006
Posts: 5360
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inspiring.
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reg
Jan 23, 2009, 3:43 PM
Post #14 of 18
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Registered: Nov 10, 2004
Posts: 1560
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most excellent - thanks!
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Dirka
Feb 8, 2009, 9:14 PM
Post #15 of 18
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Registered: Apr 22, 2007
Posts: 17
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Thanks for the post. Strong work.
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Durin
Feb 9, 2009, 7:28 AM
Post #16 of 18
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Registered: Nov 18, 2007
Posts: 113
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I've lived in California for 20 years, have been ogling half dome since I was ~6 years old, and only recently discovered a love for climbing....
I plan to do it this summer, I'm so goddamn excited and it's still february...
I'm envious of you, but thanks for the report :)
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kushtre
Mar 1, 2009, 9:42 PM
Post #17 of 18
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Registered: Feb 8, 2009
Posts: 10
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Damn right, makes my hands sweat just looking at those pictures.
had me laughing at some of the stuff you said, dont forget lunch next time 
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jmarzi09
Mar 2, 2009, 3:25 PM
Post #18 of 18
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Registered: Nov 1, 2008
Posts: 5
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I really havn't found out how to just reply to foums without replying to responses...ah well
nice trip report, i like the pictures.
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