Trip Report: Never Never Land

“Is there ANY time that we should just plan on bivying on Thanksgiving ledge? Or are we going to the top no matter what?” I ask Dave as our partner Paul starts off on the final lead block of the day. “You know, I don’t think so, by the time we’re there, we’re essentially off anyways!” [Smash cut to pulling onto Thanksgiving ledge around 12:30 a.m.] “…sooo, bivy on Thanksgiving ledge and off in the morning?” Dave says. “Yeah, I think so!”

17 hrs or so earlier, our party took off from Timbuktu tower on a mission to climb the fantastic, yet seldom done El Capitan route Never Never Land. The route was put up in 1978 by Bruce Hawkins and Mark Chapman, and follows the Aquarian wall until Timbuktu tower. The team then veered left up a series of fairly continuous crack systems to Thanksgiving ledge.

…the next 6 hrs or so of our life revolved around building completely ineffectual shade structures with ropes, sleeping bags, water bottles and anything else we could come up with. The heat was punishing.

Typically a 3-5 day wall, our plan was to climb the first seven pitches to Timbuktu, fix 2 ropes above us, and push straight to the top on day two. Our use of a three man team and utilizing the technique of short fixing allowed us to constantly be moving up the wall without any down time for hauling, cleaning and belay turn overs, and I find is crucial in being able to climb walls like this at a fast pace. However, team of three or not, climbing this route in 2 days makes for a very long second day.

While on paper, the first day should have knocked almost half of the climbing out of the way, the nature off the first 9 pitches is very fast and easy compared to the rest of the route. Worried about time on our first day, we began climbing very early in the morning and arrived on Timbuktu tower by 12 in the afternoon. “Its in the bag” we thought. “We’ll be at the Pizza deck by tomorrow evening.”

“Look at this place! Its killer!” we said upon arriving at the spacious, flat, and generally amazing bivy ledge. “You could LIVE up here!” Which might be true in the spring and the fall, but in a 100 degree June in Yosemite Valley, Timbuktu seemed to lack one major architectural feature: shade. Besides fixing two easy pitches off the ledge, the next 6 hrs or so of our life revolved around building completely ineffectual shade structures with ropes, sleeping bags, water bottles and anything else we could come up with. The heat was punishing. Due to the location of the wall (west side of El cap, to the left of the Dihedral Wall), the usual afternoon thermal winds seemed to not reach us as they would on more exposed areas of the cliff. Hot or not, it’s hard not stay psyched on a ledge a cool as Timbuktu!

The next day is where the real climbing lies, and where Never Never land breaks away from the Aquarian Wall. By and large, the route climbs long natural corner systems and involves lots of thin (but not too serious) aid. This is split up by a few long pitches of C1 cam leaping in amazing corners which helps to speed up the process. While I would not refer to the climb as a nail up, I would assume most parties would need to place a handful of pins on the upper pitches. While a heavy rack of iron is not necessary, a decent number of Beaks is crucial, and some token lost arrows can be helpful. Beaks can quite often be hand placed or given just a few “love taps” to avoid damaging the rock. Hand placed sawed angles and cam hooks also work extremely well for making upward progress without needing to swing the hammer. All in all, I would say this is a good climb for someone looking to step up their aid game from routes such as Zodiac or Mescalito, or to simply climb a great moderate route without the crowds of the more popular climbs.

Near the 11th pitch, a party from years before had left a full 60 meter rope abandoned and blowing in the wind, attached between two anchors. We cleaned up the rope and shoved it in the bottom of our haul bag to take it down the next morning. I will say that in the previous two walls I have climbed, my parties have ended up taking down full abandoned ropes left by others. While every situation is different, and I’m sure there was decent reasons behind both decisions to leave ropes, every attempt should be made to avoid things like this and keep El Capitan as clean as possible. Beyond the ropes, we hauled a ton of water jugs off of Thanksgiving ledge. There are no janitors on the mountain, and it takes away from other people’s ascents to see too much evidence of the people that came before them. While most of us all climb routes that have been established for quite some time, we should all strive to make El Capitan a wilderness experience for ourselves and those that come after us.

By the time we reached Thanksgiving ledge, all three of us were ready to crash out for a few hrs. After dragging our bags a couple hundred feet to the Lurking Fear cave, we all laid down for a much deserved 4 hrs of sleep at 1 a.m.

So, some key take away points..

• Always pack your trash and human waste out, be courteous to the environment and the climbers who will come after you.
  Make attempts to minimize nailing as much as possible.
• There are a lot of fantastic and underutilized routes in Yosemite, seek them out and minimize the impact on some of the more popular trade routes.
• Don’t underestimate the effect of heat while on route and the amount of water you will need. On this trip, 1.5 to 2 gallons per person a day might seem excessive, but on sheltered routes during the hotter months, would not go unused.
• If you have your systems dialed, a team of three can greatly increase your efficiency on the mountain. There are a number of ways to utilize this, research these beforehand and pick a method that you feel comfortable with.
• Aid ratings and topos can be very subjective. Time frames may differ greatly between trade routes and lesser travelled routes. Be prepared for this.
• Never Never Land is a great route which deserves to see more ascents! Beyond Timbuktu tower, there are no good bivy ledges until thanksgiving ledge. I would recommend most parties bring a porta ledge, and plan on staying one or two nights on the wall past Timbuktu.
• All current fixed gear seems to be well placed and as stated. Some slight adjustments are being made to the Sloan/Putnam Yosemite Big Walls topo. They will be in the next edition when it comes out.