Straight out of bed and into a 5.8 squeeze chimney – great way to start the day. Happily, pitch 11 of NAW is nothing like the horror show of The Hollow Flake on Salathe – fairly secure back and footing once you actually wrestle your way into the chimney (hint – take minimal gear) and even some holds! This brings us to Big Sur – the major interchange on this side of the big stone (we could have done another couple of pitches on SOD to arrive at the same spot if we’d thought about it…. But that would have included the infamous “Hook or Book” – lucky escape!)

Next is The Borderline Traverse – a long traverse to a lower off and penjie – here’s Bill winding up for the swing

… and sticking it

Another pendulum and a lot of back-cleaning allows the next couple of pitches to be linked in a huge 200 ft runout, the topo says C2 but there’s barely a placement I wouldn’t abb off – finally feel we’re back in the groove, or rather The Black Dihedral; the most obvious feature in the North America feature.

Bivvy at the end of pitch 15 – very atmospheric and appropriately we’re feasting on Black Bean soup in the Black Dihedral

Tonight’s soundtrack features Black Eyed Peas and The Black Keys 🙂