Well, after a few weeks of training for a big goal in Yosemite, I managed to seriously injure my back only a few days before I left. My physical therapist Amy and my massage therapist Kristin did a great job putting me back together again, but it was still touch and go when I started driving. The afternoon we arrived in the valley, Hunter and I headed up the first four pitches of the Nose to Sickle ledge, just to see what it was like. I jugged behind him to feel out the back and at this point it was doing pretty good. This is pretty much the last point in the trip when I was happy, but it was great to be back it the Valley again.
On our second day in the Valley, Hunter and I decided to go up the Freeblast following our friends David and Liam. At the top of the first pitch, the back problems really kicked in. A full-blast migraine and nausea, both apparently related to the back issue, came on and didn’t go away for the rest of the week. Not wanting to be a bad partner I lead my half of the remaining pitches and got the rope up, but it wasn’t pretty. I basically pulled on every piece of gear available. But hey, we were on El Cap, so it’s not cheating, it’s “speed climbing.” Despite the suck, I did get to go about 1,000 feet up El Cap to Mammoth Terraces and Heart Ledges, which are two of the most amazing hangs imaginable. I’m not happy that the day hurt so much, but I’m happy that I did it.
With my back now confirmed as fully jacked, I spent the next few days in the Valley hiking around and watching other people do rad stuff… I watched Ian send Midnight Lightning in six tries, including two falls from the lip. I hiked up the East Ledges to the top of El Cap (since one day I’ll surely be walking down that way in the dark). And I watched David and Hunter gear up to try the Nose in a day (including learning how to do lower-outs off the bolts in my van. It wasn’t the way I wanted to spend a week, but at least it was entertaining.
On one of our last days in the Valley, I drove Hunter and David to El Cap meadow at 5:00am, and they started up the Nose while I got a couple more hours of sleep. Then I spent the rest of the day in the meadow, stretching, answering stupid climber questions, and watching my friends on the wall. The next call I got from them was just after midnight. They had topped out at 18 hours and a few minutes. It was a great showing for two guys who learned to do lower outs in camp the afternoon before. I’m not going to lie. It was kind of depressing watching your two friends do the thing that you came to do, but I was super stoked that they sent with little issue passing other parties (just had to sneak around two guys at the King Swing) and pretty good weather.
