North America Wall revisited – The Rucksack Club’s first virtual slideshow
In these difficult times it’s really important to stay connected even if we can’t meet physically, so it was a great privilege to team up with Bill to deliver The […]
Category Archives: California
North America Wall – Trip Report
This could be subtitled ‘Episode Ten in Bill and Dom’s Excellent Adventures’ after five previous trips to Yosemite, and further adventures in The Alps, Dolomites, Taghia (Morocco) and Riglos (Spain). […]
Dike Wall, Mammoth Lakes
After an exhausting day of being tourists it seemed much easier to just go climbing again for our last day – but nothing too stressy! The criteria were: not far […]
… And Relax
The beers, shower and pizza (plus a dose of ice cream) were every bit as wonderful as anticipated – and the luxury of a humble apple served as a reminder […]
Topping out on NA Wall
After an only moderately comfortable, but historically resonant (Robbins, Frost, Choinard and Pratt slept here – it’s like a climbing hall of fame!) night in The Igloo … it was […]
A night in The Igloo
The Cyclops Eye is big – REALLY BIG! Must be over 200ft in diameter and we spent much of the day circumnavigating it. Pitch 20 is a soaring traverse up […]
A night in The Cyclops Eye!
We had a comfortable night on the ledge in The Black Dihedral, though the slight phosphorescence in the quartz intrusions conjured all sorts of interesting faces and features in the […]
Back on track and a bivvy in The Black Dihedral!
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 […]
Trundling gently up the West Coast
What a great place to wake up… Earlish get away and the climbing is quite involved from the off. Pitch 6 has you speeding up a bolt ladder – easy […]
… And they’re off!
A leisurely start followed by an afternoon of toil. A major packathon had neatly sorted food, water and beer for 4 nights (after a quick excursion to the store to […]
Gone fixin’
After yesterday’s snafu, we at least knew where the actual start of NAW was (the other “unmistakable” triple cracks with a roof, about 50m right of SOD). We’d also blown […]
A bit of a SOD
The smoke is clearing in The Valley and folks are arriving. We were up early with the intention of “fixing” – doing the first 4 pitches of North America Wall […]
Another episode in Bill and Dom’s Excellent Adventures
Bill and I had booked flights to SFO a few weeks in advance, for a planned trip to Yosemite to climb North America Wall on El Cap. Subsequently, the “Ferguson […]
Snake Dike
A fitting end to the trip. We made the 4 hour walk to the base of the route and enoyed a spectacular bivvy with awesome stars. A little chilly at […]
Super speedy on “Super Slide”
More showers yesterday, but Tash and I managed to grab a dryish interlude for a fast ascent of Super Slide, a 5 pitch 5.9 on Royal Arches. Up and down […]
Chance of showers
Turned a bit changeable here so we’ve been cragging. Moody sunlight over East Buttress of Middle Cathedral, partly caused by the smoke from the wildfire …and a couple of pitches […]
Yosemite Birthday
We celebrated Tashy’s 22nd Birthday with a variety of fine Yosemite eating experiences. First up a short stack of blueberry pancakes in the Lodge Then a couple of routes followed […]
Tashy’s first BigWall
Topped out in fine style yesterday and were back in Camp 4 for 6 pm and in the shower soon after. Monster pizza and even bigger Margarita followed before a […]
Camp 4
We managed to move onto Camp 4 a day early and all got on the same site. Miracle! That means we’re not going to have to move again until we […]
Camp 4
We managed to move onto Camp 4 a day early and all got on the same site. Miracle! That means we’re not going to have to move again until we […]
