The season in Yosemite was clearly coming to an end (at least if you had the heat tolerance of a Brit, there still seemed to be plenty of nutty Yanks climbing in the sun). I therefore suggested we use the last vaguely cool day forecast to do 'South Face' of 'Washington Column'. Three amenable pitches to 'Dinner Ledge', which is as far as you have to haul, and then as many more pitches as you feel like, with an ab descent back down the route. Easy.
The walk in felt nice compared to the epic hike up the 'death slabs' to 'Half Dome'. At least for me. Paul was battling the pig again, but given he insists on carrying at least twice as much water as I tell him we need, I let him suffer (at least this time we had sleeping bags).
P1 was Paul's, and some strange combination between free and aid. I wanted P2, a 100ft C1 corner, to practice my aid skills in preparation for all the other routes Paul is scheming to drag me up. Given I haven't been doing trad for all that long (having spent a fair few years simply seconding Paul), my gear placement is not too bad (not mentioning the odd cam which Paul claims is too over cammed to remove). Having said that, an aid pitch where you have to get gear in every metre or so is a bit trickier, especially given the crack in question was pretty thin and fairly flared. It took our 3 offset nuts perfectly, at which point I started to struggle for gear. Best back-clean one of the offsets. Twice. Here I managed to get another wire in, albeit a pretty poor one (note to self: buy offset cams). For the next bit of gear all I could get in was my reclaimed offset, but that was fine, it was great. Reaching high to get the next piece in, I inadvertently loaded said offset in an outward direction and airtime ensued. The poor nut held, above my back-cleaned gear and the ledge. Strong Fail.
Super Topo defines C1 as:
"Easy aid: All placements are bomber. Little danger of falling except through pilot error".
Oops. Never mind, with a few tips from Paul to bounce test more vigorously (whilst looking AWAY from the piece) and stand up straight to reach higher rather than sticking my bum out (after the fall my gear placements every 2 ft meant I ran out of gear rather quickly) the belay was (eventually) reached.
The remainder of the climbing to 'Dinner Ledge' was uneventful and we decided to call it a night and enjoy our standard wall dinner of tinned cold ravioli. Mmm. My ability to sleep absolutely anywhere serves well on ledges, or it did until Paul shook me awake in the early hours, clearly distressed, mumbling "Coyote Coyote". I was not best pleased on waking up to find a raccoon (or as we're now told, a Ringtail Cat, equally un-coyote like) perched on our empty Modelo Especial cans.
More aid skills dialled. Canada now awaits (the porta-ledge is purchased and we'll return for something BIG later on). Watch this space.
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