NEB of Higher Cathedral Rock/Higher Cathedral Spire (link up) + Arrowhead Spire/Arete

On Saturday (April 27^th) Bryan and I left the car early and prepared to get our butts kicked by NE Buttress of Higher Cathedral. I know multiple people who had to finish this route in the dark, and even spent the night on top. On the other hand, our experience was completely different. We thought this route was very enjoyable and liked it a lot more than East Buttress of Middle. In addition, we spent an hour checking out the views from the summit, and climbed Regular Route (direct variation) on Higher Cathedral Spire.

Lower and Higher Cathedral Spires

Sun is coming up. Book of Job goes up that obvious dihedral

Traversing pitch 5. Awesome face climbing.

To give ourselves first place in 'line' we left the car right before dawn. It was a good decision since another party arrived shortly after I started leading. With simul-climbing, I linked pitches one and two. Since I have not used 90% of our rack, I led 3^rd pitch (which was one of my favorites) as well. While Bryan linked 4 and 5 I chatted with one of the guys who were following us. He told me it was his second time on route, and first was a 21 hour epic, yikes.

Traversing pitch (5^th) had cool face climbing on beautiful orange granite. After that I led pitches 6 and 7, both of which were cool. 6^th featured some lie backs and a bulge. 7^th was supposedly crux pitch of this route which starts from a hand crack and some stemming, continues into a thinner hand crack, pulls a roof and continues into another tight squeeze chimeny. I did not find this pitch hard at all, a bit burly in the squeeze chimney which I could not fit through (if I ever want to do Steck Salathe I need to stop eating cookies?). So I transitioned out to face, passed it and built a belay station above a pretty comfortable stance.

I want to be on top of that!

Last pitch of NEB

Me on top of Higher Cathedral Rock!

Ribbon Falls

Ribbon Falls, El Cap and Three Brothers

As I remember, Bryan linked 8 and 9, I took 10^th, and Bryan led the last pitch. Pitches 8 and 11 were really good. We finished with original (5.9 mantle/hands/ow? to the left of a giant OW) variation which was recommended by some guys we saw on the approach. I was expecting an easy hand crack but found it to be a lot wider. It even required some technique. After topping out we spent a whole hour checking out the views, eating, drinking, and thinking about what we wanted to do next.

I was jealous of a climber who was climbing last pitch of the spire

Can almost see him now

There he is

Me climbing in the same spot as the guy in prior photos. Life is good!

Bryan on top of HCS

Me on top of HCS

And one more on top

Since summit of Higher Cathedral Spire looked like the coolest thing around we decided to go there and see if we could figure out a way to climb it without a topo. We were in luck since there were a few climbers getting down. They provided us with a topo and an advice to take direct variation. I was glad pitch 2 was Bryan's lead since there was a difficult roof on it. My favorite part of the climb came on pitches 4 and 5 when you get hit with the exposure, great climbing, and see alpine glow on El Cap. The summit was spectacular. It was worth missing pizza, though we did not miss showers ;) 

View down from the actual top of Arrowhead Spire

Arrowhead Arete from Arrowhead Spire

Free-hanging rappel from the top of the spire

Climbing cracks is addictive

Bryan on 3rd pitch, with Arrowhead Spire behind him

 We were a bit tired and wanted to do something chill on Sunday. So we picked Arrowhead Spire/Arete. Somehow we overlooked, or ignored that in the guide book it is described as a "huge day." Our day was not huge, but it was sure enjoyable (aside from bushwhacking). Summit of Arrowhead Spire was a fantastic spot. Climbing on Arrowhead Arete was as enjoyable as doing East Buttress of El Cap. Clean and varied from wide cracks, to fingers, hands, and face thrown in. In addition the knife-edge ridge on top of this formation was as cool as Matthes Crest. In addition, I thought the descent gully was original. It contains three rappels over drops that were created by HUGE boulders blocking  the top of a slot canyon. These boulders create a sub climate which allows a bunch of flowers and grass to grow right under them.

Me stemming out on another pitch of awesome climbing

Tell me this isn't as cool as Matthis!

Views are awesome- typical

Bryan on the exposed crest

The Watchtower - Moonage Daydream (Round 2) + Video

After climbing ‘Moonage Daydream’ for the first time, I was impressed with quality of climbing, length, scenery, and happy about absence of crowds in this region. The climb is located literary an hour out of the parking lot, but offers sense of a remote adventure. 

The Watchtower

Also, I became curious about history of it’s First Ascent and in the meantime was able to gather that it was done by John Paul Hudson (who worked in Sequoia as a park ranger). According to my source he did it sometime in February of 1984. Identity of his partner is still unknown to me at this time. Hopefully someone with more information could fill in the gaps.

Video Hamik put together from a bunch of our clips:

My new friend Adam (AKA Burchey) and Casey were planning another attempt at Moonage Daydream, about a month after we (Adam, Mike, and I) climbed it. Tired of lapping big walls of Yosemite (sarcasm), I called up my old climbing buddy, and he was in like a jelly bean. Since Hamik has not climbed this route prior, he was also awarded with the crux pitch (when first pitch is in thin/mixed conditions it feels M4-5ish, and is super fun). In the end, we had a different experience compared to our first trip, but again Moonage delivered loads of fun and excitement.

Approach is scenic

Summit covered in morning fog

With almost a foot of fresh snow that fell a day prior, the scenery in the canyon changed. Trees and granite domes had a fresh silver dusting – It felt like real winter again – such an anomaly this season! It wasn’t only scenery, the approach changed too. As soon as we hit the hills we were breaking trail through waist deep powder. “The hanger” we spotted on our prior climb was also gone.

Moonage Daydream

Spin-drifts were bombing us all day

Hamik on first pitch

Hamik soon racked up and was on his way up the business of the climb. He moved with caution over strange ice growths in the beginning and was rewarded with a bit better ice higher up. This time initial corner on the right had thick enough ice to take a screw. However, upper part of the pitch was still the crux with thin mixed climbing through ice, rock, dirt, and plants. Since I was ‘only following’ and wanted to prevent Adam and Casey from freezing (waiting for us to finish the pitch), I rushed up it without enough precaution.  I was sloppy, and got punished for it by my tool - it blasted me in the face. Like a real nurse I placed a chunk of ice on the wound to stop the bleeding and prevent swelling. It worked and I resumed climbing to the top.

Girls find scars attractive, right?

Back to awesome views...

Since I don’t usually let small f-ups prevent me from having fun on climbs, I took the next pitch and picked a steeper variation than what we took on our prior ascent. After stretching the rope for full 60M pitch I made it (barely) to a rock with a few placements to set up an anchor…a very alpine anchor. : )

Looks a bit different today..

2nd pitch

Alpine anchor...

Hamik on 3rd pitch

One of those things my mom would like

Hiking over to the top

My beautiful screws

From here Hamik and I climbed another two low angle ice pitches to the top. With simul soloing of snow slope between two major ice tiers, we did the whole climb in four 60M rope-stretching pitches. With new accumulation of snow getting to the summit was a real workout. Avalanche conditions didn’t look great either. Forecast showed clouds, but in reality mid-day sun was cooking loaded slopes as we made our progress up. We tried to keep our path away from open snow slopes, but had to cross some anyway. Our worries were confirmed later when Adam and Casey joined us on top. Turned out they got hit with a large slide. Fortunately they were not harmed – avalanche did not hit them head on. What was overall a great outing, also taught me a few important lessons. Hope these will make a difference on future climbs.

Me next to the summit

Watchtower's shadow

Plunging back down

Some good colors on the hike out