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Salathé Jamming - Penny F
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Salathé Jamming the culmination of a year's worth of planning and six years worth of day dreaming. Climbing an El Cap big wall route was going to be the pinnacle of my climbing career and a dream realised. The training days at the local single pitch crags around the home of Yosemite climbing at Camp 4 just would not go fast enough. I watched the lights blinking on the walls of El Cap at night and so desperately wanted to be amongst them. The monster granite walls stood so majestically over the valley, just begging to be climbed. Eventually our test wall route day arrived and like over-excited teenagers on a first date we packed our wall bags and yomped into the base of "Atlantic Ocean Wall" on the South East Face of El Cap.
However, when a guy we had never met fell from the end of his rope 400ft above on 'Tangerine Trip' and landed in a tree 15ft behind us, my whole outlook on climbing changed in a split second. Training kicks in and we tried to deal with the situation as best as possible - not that there was a lot we could do. Alcohol was an attempt to divert our thoughts and the temptation to get climbing again as soon as possible was decided as a solution to sort our heads. It was not to be; even after attending a presentation with the God of Yosemite climbing - Mr Ron Kauk-
the passion and enthusiasm still lay at the bottom of El Cap.
I still feel Yosemite is a fantastic palace of rock, whether it is free climbing, aid routes, bouldering, it's all there, but for me it will have to wait until next time - let the day dreaming commence once more. |
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Salathé Jamming - "Mally" Malpass |
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Not exactly a big wall but a long day, or two normal days! Lost Arrow Spire is one of the most  photographed and exposed climbs within the Valley. A spire about 2,000ft up but only two pitches long sounds easy but you have to get to it first. A 4 hour walk in, then some complicated ropework to get on and off, (Penny: "yeah we will do it in a day"). Remember the start of Cliffhanger: exactly! That's how you get off it. A long abseil in; we used a 200ft rope which is then attached to the second to drag up the climb whilst still attached to the "mainland". The start of the first pitch and a step out into the abyss looking down into Yosemite Valley and onto Salathé ledge. Then, the second pitch of exposed C2 climbing. Now on top of the Spire, amazing but it's starting to get dark. A nightmare to get off: belay across the void and jumar out the other side; still I did it in the light whereas Penny had to come across in the dark. |
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Salathé Jamming - Dusty Miller |
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I have just experienced the pinnacle of my climbing adventures! The big walls of Yosemite were a complete unknown to me and to have taken part in a well organized exped has spurred me on to plan something similar. Although the exped goals were not achieved, the aims of AT certainly were, and the learning curve was phenomenal. Our ultimate dissatisfaction was partly due to lack of time in the Valley to prep for these monstrous walls, and largely due to the smashed psyche of many of the team. Having witnessed a horrific fall from above them, then first on the scene to give first aid, Penny, Mally and Jan Boy were never going to get over what they saw whilst still in Yosemite.
The team tried hard to come to terms with the bad ju ju, but it was not happening. Si and I were also thwarted at our attempt on the NW Face of Half Dome when Si got the shits on the first few pitches.
I would strongly recommend at least 3-4 weeks in the Valley for any future exped: Yosemite first timers should not underestimate the enormity of these walls. It is a busy place and your ability and judgement may not be called into question. But you can never second guess who's doing what above you!!
Thanks to Penny and Mally for all the hard work you both put in to get the exped of the ground and for inviting me along; thanks to Jan Boy for keeping morale up; thanks to Si for being stupid enough to climb with me (better luck next time); thanks to Martin for taking up the late challenge of Washington column and thanks to Tim for being the calming influence when needed. |
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Salathé Jamming - Si Conroy |
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Ex Salathé Jamming was to be the culmative two weeks of hard climbing for all those involved, with varying ideas and aims ranging from long free routes to big walls, with the overall aim of a team attempting the Salathé Wall on El Cap.
 In retrospect I believe the aim to have been too ambitious considering the limited time spent in preparation in the UK, the lack of time in Yosemite - only 12 days - and our general lack of big wall experience. I believe Dusty and I achieved our aims in a short time in gelling our climbing partnership with progressive climbing objectives incorporating long free routes of an easy grade and then moving onto harder and more testing aid routes without at any time jeopardising our ultimate but achievable goal of the NW Regular Route on Half Dome. Unfortunately the demise of my digestive system put an end to that goal but I am sure that without this our confidence would have seen us through the route and added some success to the expedition.
Overall I have learnt a lot more about aid climbing and the perils of big walls, and enjoyed the company of many old and new friends. I would like to continue with those aims and possibly return to the Valley and reacquaint myself with the granite gods. |
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Salathé Jamming - Tim Reynolds |
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Climbing in Yosemite Valley is in all respects big. The crags are big, the pitches are big, the lead racks are big, the cracks are big and so are the cams that get swallowed up by them. Some of the cracks, the infamous evil off-widths, are so big that sometimes I even thought Martin was going to be  swallowed by them. Of course it is easy when seconding to bridge-out with impunity - far more scary when leading, the comforting embrace of those rock walls is sometimes irresistible. Cracks are the defining characteristic of climbing in Yosemite - this is no place for the face-loving, anorexic, limestone weirdo. And the most important piece of kit for crack climbing is a stiff pair of board-lasted shoes; so leave your Anasazi's at home.
 Apart from the bigness of it all, the Valley was also hot, we didn't know until we got there that the real climbing season starts in early October when it starts to cool down. So we sweltered our way up routes for the first few days until the promise of cooler temperatures tempted Martin and I up to Tuolomne Meadows. Only fifteen miles from the Valley but a completely different climbing experience. Expansive views, virtually no tourists, stunningly blue skies and amazing (albeit run-out) routes. The pinnacle of our endeavours was reaching the summit of Cathedral Peak (11,000') and taking in the vista of Sierra Nevada peaks, lakes, trees and rock. We finished the day with a dip in Tenaya Lake and a relax on the beach - at 8,500'! |
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Salathé Jamming - Martin Hoather |
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If you want to experience the best Trad climbing in the world, don't go to Yosemite; save yourself the  flight and head up the M4 instead to Pembroke. If you want try long, steep exposed free climbs with heaps of exposure don't go to Yosemite; save yourself the 4 hour stopover at Pittsburgh Airport and head instead down the Autoroute to the Verdon Gorge. If you want long days climbing big mountain rock routes don't go to Yosemite; save yourself from the dusty, sap covered smeg of Camp 4 and head to the Alps. If, however, you want to try big walling then Yosemite is definitely the place to go.
My first few days in Yosemite drifted by in day after day of fierce but fundamentally unsatisfying climbing up uninspiring, holdless, frictionless cracks. Yes, it's climbing, but is it fun? To me Yosemite free climbing occupies an awkward middle ground. The routes are too long and strenuous to be particularly technical, but too short to give the satisfaction of a big mountain day. Finishing a 600' HVS in the UK would see you at the top of a mountain - in Yosemite Valley you have merely reached the peak of a molehill, dwarfed by the big walls around you.
 And it was the big walls that saved Salathe Jamming for me; or to be precise one big wall: Washington Column. It may be the shortest and easiest and we may not have reached the top, but the day and a half Dusty and I spent on the South Face opened my eyes to another world of climbing; a whole new sport in fact. There is so much new to learn and experience in big walling: the skills, the systems, the gear; I have now taken a first tentative step down that path and I am itching to try more.
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| I will go back. I'll brave the mammoth flight with a bankrupt airline whose pilots are on strike, the 4 hour stopover at Pittsburgh Airport, the dusty, sap covered smeg of Camp 4, and worst of all Penny's insistence that"empty" on a fuel gauge actually means "you can go another 50 miles and it will really wind Martin up." Because sleeping on a ledge 500' up, with the lights blinking in the Valley below, is actually pretty damn cool. |
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multi-day rock climbing in the Yosemite National Park in California, and climb perhaps the ultimate rock climb in the world - The Salathé Wall. However three days into the trip, 3 members of the expedition found themselves clearing up after a fatal accident on El Cap and the big wall climbing aim was soon given a back seat. Here are a few of the team members' thoughts on the trip:
