Night climbing is a lot safer then it may sound, so long as you are familiar with the route, know your approach and your decent and bring the right equipment (headlamps, warm layers...). Paul and I had all these things going for us when we were racking up at 8:30 last night in the Apron parking lot. Our objective was to link-up Bottomline (3 pitchs, 5.9 Slab) and Deidre (7 pitches, 5.8 slab and crack) and have a fun but easy night of climbing. I had climbed the Bottomline and the first few pitches of Deidre, and Paul had climbed all of Deidre before and we had both done the decent several times, so we both felt confident that we knew what we were getting ourselves into.
In the parking lot another team was also getting ready for a evening climb up Calculus Crack, they told us that they had troubles finding the first pitch earlier in the day and we assured them that it was a worthwhile climb. What we didn't remember to tell them was that the decent is pretty cruxy... lots of not obvious rambling upwards to eventually go down.
We started up the first pitch of the Bottomline with the sundown, but an hours worth of daylight left and moved along at a great pace (super fun climbing despite the slabbyness) and were in the perfect place on Deidre as it became headlamp-dark. Deidre was an incredibly fun route and we made easy work of it. We rocked the 10 pitches and decent to be back at the car by just after 1am. Not shabby at all!
However, the other party's car was still in the parking lot which struck as as odd since their climb is considerably shorter. There was also no visible signs of lights up on the rock face... also strange. So we decided to make some tea and hangout for a bit to see if they would appear down the decent trail.
3:30am and they most certainly should of made it down, or at the very least we should of seen signs of them on the cliff bands. We were feeling partially responsible for neglecting to inform them about the difficult decent, and concerned that they could possibly be in trouble. After much debating, signalling and staring at the rock face we finally decided that we should go up and see what was going on.
On went all the gear once again, some warm layers (though we would find out quickly that they were not needed at all up there... the rock holds so much heat!) and up the trail we plowed. I made a really poor choice in climbing shoes, deciding to wear a pair that was comfortable but , as I found out, don't preform well at all. Therefore, Paul was up for all the leads and I got to struggle and swear through stuck feet in the wee hours of the morning. At the top of Calculus Crack we found the climbers snuggled in comfortably in sleeping bags on a huge bivy ledge. They looked far too content to be rescued and in the daylight it would be easy enough for them to find their way, so we left them undisturbed and made the decent to make it back to the car for 7am.
15 pitches in total, the longest night (or day) of climbing that either of us have ever had before. Needless to say, we are going to take a few rest days; We are both beyond exhausted. Great adventure though!
In the parking lot another team was also getting ready for a evening climb up Calculus Crack, they told us that they had troubles finding the first pitch earlier in the day and we assured them that it was a worthwhile climb. What we didn't remember to tell them was that the decent is pretty cruxy... lots of not obvious rambling upwards to eventually go down.
We started up the first pitch of the Bottomline with the sundown, but an hours worth of daylight left and moved along at a great pace (super fun climbing despite the slabbyness) and were in the perfect place on Deidre as it became headlamp-dark. Deidre was an incredibly fun route and we made easy work of it. We rocked the 10 pitches and decent to be back at the car by just after 1am. Not shabby at all!
However, the other party's car was still in the parking lot which struck as as odd since their climb is considerably shorter. There was also no visible signs of lights up on the rock face... also strange. So we decided to make some tea and hangout for a bit to see if they would appear down the decent trail.
3:30am and they most certainly should of made it down, or at the very least we should of seen signs of them on the cliff bands. We were feeling partially responsible for neglecting to inform them about the difficult decent, and concerned that they could possibly be in trouble. After much debating, signalling and staring at the rock face we finally decided that we should go up and see what was going on.
On went all the gear once again, some warm layers (though we would find out quickly that they were not needed at all up there... the rock holds so much heat!) and up the trail we plowed. I made a really poor choice in climbing shoes, deciding to wear a pair that was comfortable but , as I found out, don't preform well at all. Therefore, Paul was up for all the leads and I got to struggle and swear through stuck feet in the wee hours of the morning. At the top of Calculus Crack we found the climbers snuggled in comfortably in sleeping bags on a huge bivy ledge. They looked far too content to be rescued and in the daylight it would be easy enough for them to find their way, so we left them undisturbed and made the decent to make it back to the car for 7am.
15 pitches in total, the longest night (or day) of climbing that either of us have ever had before. Needless to say, we are going to take a few rest days; We are both beyond exhausted. Great adventure though!
way to be hero's guys, very thoughtful to hang around and check to see if they were okay
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