How cool is this?! Two Wisconsin climbers fly into Yosemite and pluck a ffa on halfdome!! I'd love to hear more about it! (trip report) David Nimmer and tom m ? Congrats!

Details?

Dave and Tom are strong energetic young lads and talented climbers. This is great news. I think they have been up there before and climbed other lines as well in the past.

I talked to David a few days ago about it. They free'd "Two Hoofers" on the Southwest (correct?) face of Half Dome. It was a line put up by Doug Hemken and Andy Davis a while back. It took them 2 days to free the entire thing. They spent the first day going through the moves on the harder pitches and then came back on the 2nd day to free it. The hard pitch was 5.12 friction climbing so apparently it was pretty scary but it was alongside a bolt ladder so there was ample protection. I'm surprised nobody had free'd this thing before them but definitely congrats to Tom and David.

David Nimmer and I did manage to free climb a route called Two Hoofers (in honor of our Hoofer Mountaineering Club at the University of Wisconsin) last week. I'm sure it remained unrepeated until this point because of the sheer volume of other climbs on Half Dome and in the Valley, but I think it does deserve the 3 stars that Doug and Andy (the first ascentionists) and I gave it.

Doug and Andy did the route in August 2008, and, being part of the club, I'd known about it first-hand from Doug. David and I wanted to climb the Northwest Face of Half Dome, but we ran out of time (spent a long time over 2 days lost in the woods...) and decided to focus on repeating Two Hoofers and Blondike. However, on our first day of climbing Two Hoofers, though we were able to figure out the sequence of the crux pitch, we were unable to free the pitch with the heat of the sun making everything slimy. We returned the next day and freed the whole route.

The memorable crux pitch was originally put up as a bolt ladder, but the FAists suggested it may go at 5.12. The sequence we found stays within an arm's length of the bolt line and involves credit card crimps and friction nubs for feet. There were about 10 moves in a row which had no room for error and a very specific sequence, then a few more moves of 5.10 face up to a ledge. We're calling the crux 5.12a; we agree that at Devils Lake it would be 5.12b/c, so we're calling it Yosemite 5.12a. However, neither of us has much experience with 5.12 friction climbing in Yosemite, so the grade could be debatable.

Two Hoofers is a very fun climb, and I hope it gets done more in the future. Pitch one is 5.7 friction climbing in a corner with some awkward gear. Pitch two involves some 5.10 face climbing (if you are tall enough for the "Hemken Reach," as I'm calling it). Pitch three is the crux 5.12 friction, followed by 40 feet of pods (more hard-to-place gear) in a groove. Pitch four is the "Hoofer Groove:" 185 feet of awkward chicken-winging, stemming, heel-toe-ing, jamming, and abraded skin. Pitch five is 230 feet (almost ran out of rope with a 70m) of 5.6 friction climbing protected by 2 bolts. After this, you can simul-climb for a couple rope lengths, then walk the 3rd class to the top.

Thanks to my partner, David, for driving out to Yosemite with me. Thanks especially to the first ascentionists, who really made this possible. It takes a lot of vision and skill to put up a first ascent.

Sweet. Nice job Tom and Dave. Sounds like you had alot of fun and it's always nice to improve apon things while your having fun too. I was mistaken in my earlier comment... I thought maybe you guys were involved in the earlier efforts up there on SW? face of HD. Ha! I have been lost in the woods in Yosemite too at one time and at the same time out of water....

can we see your muscles?





proud work.

tom, did you guys end up doing blondike? i put that up with andy and doug a few years ago; interested to hear what yall thought.

Sick work guys. Good to see that Devils Lake is a good training ground even for the big leagues like Yosemite.

Also, concerning the grade, and if we're comparing to DL grades, you guys would say the moves felt similarly hard to Caesarian West Face but not quite so hard as Bagatelle?

Way cooler news than Ondra onsighting some "14c"

Proud work guys!
Cheers

Great job guys! Can't wait to see the pictures!