FARD HUCKIN' CLIMB!
The Team:
Bruce
(a.k.a. Brutus, the Mighty Brutus, Brutus of Wide) Bindner - 20-some year veteran of the Valley cracks. Able to leap tall building in a single bound and all that stuff. Offwidth monster and generally great guy. Also a .44 Magnum rope gun! "Do you feel lucky...Punk?"
Inez
(a.k.a. Gnar-Gnar Girl, Baby Cakes) Drixelius - shy and retiring... no way, that's not her...she's bouncy and energetic. Gnarly offwidth queen and one of the best climbing partners you'll ever find. Where do you get your energy woman!?
and last (and definitely least)...
Greg
(a.k.a. Opie, Wide-body, Mr. 5.7+, "what am I doing up here?") Opland - pathetically weak in the mind and body, but the spirit was willing. Self- propelled haul bag.
Given that my two partners for the weekend had a nasty reputation for doing lots offwidths in the Valley, I should have grasped the simple idea that the route would have lots of wide cracks and chimneys. Duh!
PROLOG
The ad said:
Knowing that was me, I volunteered. The goal was to finish up the maintenance effort on the famed Steck-Salathe route on Sentinel Rock in Yosemite. Over the 45 years since the first ascent, the condition of the fixed pro had steadily deteriorated and it was in need of some upgrading. Last year, Brutus and Inez had climbed the route with none other than Allen Steck (44th Anniversary of the FA!). At that time, it was decided to get the route's fixed anchors back in good condition. Brutus took up the quest and immediately started planning for the project for the spring. This was where I came in...like I said, weak mind.
As the time for the project got closer, Brutus reported that he had already completed the replacement of the fixed anchors and that we would be pretty much free to climb and enjoy the route. He'd spent several of the previous weekends hanging from ropes on the route, hand-drilling 3/8" replacement anchors. Of course to do this, he had gone up and down the dreaded Sentinel death descent gully several times with heavy loads of ropes and gear. What a monster!
Thursday, June 8
A couple of phone calls and last-minute e-mail reminders, and I was getting on the plane Thursday afternoon. Sitting in the airport in Phoenix, I'd realized that I made the first bonehead move of the weekend and left my sleeping bag in my truck. With no time to retrieve it, I figured we'd come up with something. But I wasn't happy about it. I flew into Oakland and was met by Brutus at the gate. We retrieved the "bag from hell" (tm) from the carousel and headed for the parking lot. A quick stop by Bruce's place and we had an extra sleeping bag! That was close!
We pulled in and camped in Secret Spot II outside the park around 11p that night. Brutus shot out of the sack at 6:45 the next morning and set about having breakfast while I did my best to ignore him and go back to sleep. I'd already warned him about my slow rising habits, but we weren't in any particular hurry that day, so he let me take my time. I slipped out of the sack and put on some warm clothes. Brutus handed me a Mountain Dew for breakfast, just what the doctor ordered (this was only the first pleasant surprise in a long weekend of amazing organization on Bruce's part). We got things packed back up and headed into the Valley.
Friday, June 9
We parked the truck right next to the start of the 4-mile trail, where it would sit for the next three days. We figured if we came staggering back down the trail all dehydrated and trashed, we could just ram face-first into the side of the truck. No missing it that way. We got packed up and headed up the 4-Mile Trail about 9:30 or so. The plan was to spend most of Friday making a carry to the top of Sentinel Rock, a vertical distance of about 4000 ft. or so from where we started. We would take large packs to the summit to drop off bivy gear, warm clothes, food and water, while bringing ropes and other gear from the maintenance project back to the Valley floor. If this doesn't sound nutso already, you have to consider that the gully to the top of Sentinel is a total nightmare of steep, loose, and broken everything. Oh what fun.
We turned off the 4-Mile trail about a mile up, and headed up through the trees to the base of the Sentinel. A left turn took us up to the gully along the left side. It was here we ran across the first of the fun parts on the hike in. A three hundred foot snowfield spanning the gully. And us widdout no ice axes! No way around, so we had to go up. Luckily, Brutus had his large waffle-stomper style boots on, and was able to kick reasonable 2" wide steps in the snow as he went up. A stick provided our only means of self arrest, that is to say, no hope of stopping in case of a slide (unless you count stopping at the bottom).
We made it up the snowfield, stepping off and continuing up the gully. We reached the first of what Bruce called the Three Barriers. The First Barrier was a short chimney section. I went to the right and was exploring the way just next to it while Brutus told me not to bother. Being too stupid to listen, I started manteling at the top and then found my pack was pulling me off the mantle. I blew off the footholds and started sliding. Had my foot not jammed in the crack, I would have popped off backwards and spread pieces of my anatomy for the next thousand feet. Once I got my legs to stop shaking from the near-death experience, I contritely followed Bruce up the chimney to the left. I vowed to listen to his advice the next time!
The rest of the way to the top was uneventful. We passed the other two "Barriers" which were chimney sections as well, passing the packs up at the sections with slings. At the top, we stopped off below the Notch to stash some of the refigerator-type food in the snow. It was hollow underneath, so the food (in a bag) went in the hole under and Bruce kicked snow off the side to cover it. From there, it's 10 minutes to the summit. We pulled out the stash of gear that Bruce had left previously. I cranked up the stove to boil some untreated water and Bruce headed back to the Notch to collect more firewood for what we hoped would be the next night's successful bivy.
We relaxed a bit and finally headed down about 2:30p, arriving at the truck about 4:30 that afternoon. We took four ropes and a small backpack of other un-needed items down with us, leaving only the bivy stuff. A nice quick trip, belying the scary gully in between. The free-solo downclimb of the snowfield in my trashed-out running shoes was a total nightmare. I nearly lost my footing and went for the big ride twice. Hard to believe The things we get away with sometimes! We popped a couple of beers at the truck to celebrate. The fold-out table was set up, the stove was fired up and we had dinner right on the spot, next to the parking area. The tourists were very entertaining, including one bozo who was trying to tease a squirrel (probably one of the infamous "bubonic squirrels") into the front of his car while his wife giggled and took photos. It's amazing.
We still had some time to kill after dinner so we headed over to the Mountain Room Bar to socialize with about 8 million of our tourist friends from all over the planet. Around 8:30p we bailed back to the truck to do the final prep and hopefully to meet Gnar-Gnar when she drove in from the Bay Area. We'd been there about 20 minutes when she drove right up behind us and parked. She spilled out of the Inez-mobile and you could hear Elvis cranked on the stereo. Ready to rock and roll!
Inez grabbed some quick dinner and took off her anklet. Her painted toenails glistened in the moonlight. Those were the toes of an offwidth queen! She changed into hiking clothes and we shouldered the bivy packs for the hike up to the bivy spot below the wall. For the second time that day, Bruce and I headed up to the Sentinel. The hike wasn't too bad in the dark by headlamp. Up to the spot below the wall, it's fairly solid and easy to negotiate. Nothing like the gully above. We found the spot we'd picked out earlier in the day and got settled down for a short night's sleep.
