North America Wall – A Trip Report

Why do we climb?
For the adventure, the pleasure, the experience, the challenge, the beauty, the wilderness, the friendship, the accomplishment, and of course because it is there.  We explored all of these reasons for climbing and then some during our trip up The North America Wall.  A beautiful journey in the heart of the Sierra Nevada.  When describing the valley, a place climbers commonly refer to as, “the center of the universe,” I believe Robbins said it best in his trip report of the F.A. of the North America Wall;

“Yosemite Valley, If ever there existed an Eden, surely it was here. It is called ‘the Incomparable Valley,’ for the grace of the waterfalls, each with a distinctive personality; the diversified rock forms; the grand forests; the verdant meadows; and the moody, meandering Merced River.” (Robbins AAJ 1965 p.331)

This sums up why I moved here, and why I keep coming back every season.  Climbing lets me connect with this place in a way that makes me feel like I am part of the landscape.  It helps me to develop a sense of place that instills stewardship, a responsibility to preserve this experience for generations to come.

The N.A. Wall takes a natural passage up the imposing south east face of El Captain.  As Yosemite National Park Climbing Rangers we occasionally conduct climbing patrols of El Cap.  We try to remove trash, meet climbers, and maintain knowledge of current conditions.  We also sharpen our perspective on what it means to climb in this storied and incredible place.  As a team we were drawn to the N.A. Wall for a variety of reasons.  The wall has an amazing history, it was once referred to as the most difficult climb in the world when it was first established in 1964.  When the wall was done it was put up in proud style; 38 holes were drilled, and no fixed lines were used on the first ascent.  This was ground breaking for the time, for when the Nose route was established in 1958 there were thousands of feet of fixed lines and many holes drilled.  This competitive improvement of style surely pushed climbing forward towards a culture of honor for the rock and respect for the challenge that continues to grow today.

The route takes a line up an intrusion of Diorite in the pristine El Cap Granite.  This rock has a different characteristic than what rock climbers may typically encounter in the valley.  This style of rock speaks true to the adventuresome nature of high sierra climbing.  With funky, discontinuous, loose, full of intriguing flora, calcite build up, and little fixed gear, the climbing on this route often reminded me of Temple Crag in the Palisades rather than the Salathe Wall.  It was a pleasure to climb a route on The Captain that had little tat, welded cams, or duct tape, and who’s ledges did not stink.  There is only one bolt ladder on the route and the traversing nature requires creative route finding skills to take the natural passage up this imposing wall.

On our way down the east ledges we picked up several water jugs that had all but one sip of water left.  This is a mindset that needs to change, if we leave nearly empty bottles of water on a climbing route-approach or descent- it is the same as dumping  trash out of a haul bag before rapping down.  Next time you go climbing, please drink the last sip of water, crush up that bottle and carry it down.

As we topped the route out the fifty percent chance of rain turned to a hundred.  Droplets of rain poured out of the sky and the valley was quickly engulfed in clouds. I thought of Royal, Yvon, Charles and Tom enduring a storm on the wall and the existential quest that is brought forth through an adventure in the mountains. As Robbins said of this similar experience,

“the rock itself was dwarfed by the majestic whirlpool of air moving out of the Pacific, and this same storm was just a small blotch on the earth’s surface. The earth in turn would be a mere dot on the sun, and there are suns many thousands of times larger than that fiery orb giving us life. Mankind is truly insignificant. Man’s fate, indeed, is to have to swallow these truths and still live on. If one could only find meaning to make these hard truths of insignificance and omnipresent death acceptable. Where to find this meaning? Again the search . . . and we climb on.” (Robbins AAJ 1965 p.331)

If using the the Sloan/Putnam Yosemite Big Walls Guide, we had a few notes concerning beta at the time of our ascent:

• If linking 12 and 13 make sure the follower has plenty of lower out line, otherwise risk huge swing potential. Pendulums can generate as much force as a downward fall and expose internal organs and the head to more risk of impact.
• There are many flakes for the bags to get hung up on for the pitch 18 lower out. Try to work the haul line as clear as possible when traversing right to the anchors.
• Pitch 19 is heads up off the belay, either bring your 5.7+ free climbing game or some runout factor 2 potential hooking.
• Heads up on the pitch 22 it is missing a bolt as per the topo, definitely a nasty fall onto a ledge if you blow it on that one…
• Also there is a weirdly placed bolt on pitch seven, you have to climb down to clip it, keeps the face climbing exciting!

Also I want to link the quote to the AAJ article which is linked here