THE BIG WALL PORN POST!

Magic Mushroom is a seldom-climbed route that goes up the Shield headwall. It's an obvious natural line on the Captain that you can see by moonlight, yet why don't more people climb it? Click the images for full resolution view. 

Above: climbers on the Shield headwall - the Mushroom goes up on their left.  Alex Barlow and Kurt Arend are going to be up there on the Shield in early May!

It gets steep up there!  Here are a couple photos to give you the idea.

Check out "Valley Giants" Tom jugging in space, and the flagged ledge to skier's right. 

Here's why it doesn't get climbed all that often:

The corners are incredibly awkward.  If you are familiar with the rating "C2+ awk" then you will know what I mean. I don't have pictures of the worst bits, but basically you have these flared corners at a tight acute angle with a little crack running up the inside. You are standing in your aiders, placing little nuts at arm's length, and they are so far into the corner that when you stand up on your aid ladder, you can only gain about a foot with each placement. And of course, the nuts tend to rotate out.  It's just not pleasant, and there are more pitches like this than you want.  

It does finish up with a cool and airy rightward traverse up to Chickenhead Ledge.

Chickenhead Ledge is a great bivy high right at the top of the headwall!

And the summit is always so worth it! 

We saved the final bottle of wine for the summit campfire.  

A beggars' banquet!  

Cheers, eh? 

Here are some pics from our second ascent of Richard Jensen's Winds of Change, the much-easier sister route of Wings of Steel on the left side of the Great Slab on the SW Face of El Cap.  With Miss Neil Chelton and Erik Ericksson.  

As always, click each photo for a full resolution view. Cheers, eh?

After some free climbing up some little pinnacle [Tinkerbell?] which I think I flailed partway up until I called for the aiders, you get into the meat of the route. Here below you see Neil Chelton leading the first pitch. Note the duct-taped Talon hook bottom right for "pro".

Below you see Erik Ericksson leading the second pitch, which is pretty spicy too.  More of a wide angle look at the Great Slab.

Below: Those of you who already own HOOKING UP - The Ultimate Big Wall and Aid Climbing Manual by myself and Fabio Elli, will be familiar with the Remote Simul-Space Haul, which you see below. It's a great technique for 3 people to haul super heavy loads up the first few pitches when blasting off on a big wall camping trip.

For one beer, what error did I make in the book regarding the RSSH? And for a second beer, directly above my Crab-O-Ledge in the photo below, you see two twin gold streaks. What feature is this?

Jacob Raab joined us with his flugelhorn for a few nights on the wall, and I brought up my piano.  Lots of folks later told us they heard us jamming John Coltrane and Thelonius Monk down in El Cap Meadow.

It took me a while to figure out the Better Way to play a piano on a portaledge.  You have to have your harness on, and clip your adjustable daisies in up high.  Then you position the piano to the correct height so that when you adjust your daisies, your feet are on the bed of the ledge, and your body height is such that your knees are bent as though you are sitting. I could never play piano standing up like some of those guys you see on TV, and forget the dancing around stuff too.  I might "sit" straight, but I definitely swing.  ;)

If you have a bit of spare time this May and June, and want to hang out while we are fixing and hauling walls, message me. It's a great way to learn stuff, and we can always use some help.  

This is us below the Pinnacle of Hammerdom giving the "El Cap Salute" as invented by Tom Evans. This is an incredibly spooky place!  The night before, sand came down from the two-inch-wide crack into which I had inserted our cams straight up. Falling sand is an indication of imminent rockfall, and what happened a year early in 2017 on Waterfall Route, just before 30,000 cubic metres of granite came tumbling off the wall, missing me and Ryan Sheridan and Paddy McRedmond by less than 24 hours.  So I was pretty damn spooked.  And even more so the next day....

When I had put the gear into the crack the day before, I did so in the afternoon sun when the crack had expanded. After Erik led the pitch above up the left side of the pinnacle as you see below, I was left to clean the anchor. By then it was early evening, and the sun was setting, and the pinnacle was no longer in the sunshine. So the bloody crack contracted, and it was impossible to remove a couple two-inch cams once the anchor was unweighted by lifting the pigs! The next day we discussed rapping down in the afternoon in the hopes of removing the cams when the pinnacle was warmed back up, but we were all too scared to go back down there! Anyway, the Pinnacle of Hammerdom hasn't fallen off ...

... at least not yet.

I led the final pitch onto Thanksgiving Ledge, then left the pigs for Neil and Erik to haul.  At least I look after my haul monkeys ... note Erik's big wall margarita, of course with salted rim.  ;)  I mean, it's not a margarita without a salted rim. Sheesh.

Anyway, we got down in time for the Facelift festivities, below being the start of our Meatfest jam session in Yellow Pines campground. 

From left to right:  Andy Timid Toprope, PtPP, [I forget her name, she's good!] Rick Cashner and Dave Yerian.  

Get pumped, get psyched, the spring season is just around the corner, eh? 

Good stuff Pete, getting me psyched! I’d love to meet ya down there this season

Hey Andrew, message me.  Come hang out, learn stuff. Beers will likely be involved.  ;)  

Pete, your latest Band Camp photos could not have come at a better time!  I showed your Piano Rig to a visiting ( and complaint filled) piano player currently in residence at my theater. He was having "problems" with his keyboard stand… not so much anymore. Let me know if you need a professional stagehand to roadie for you on a vertical tour of the West Face.

Peter Zabrokwrote:

Hey Andrew, message me.  Come hang out, learn stuff. Beers will likely be involved.  ;)  

Don’t have to tell me twice 

Mydanswrote:

This is me starting up the triple cracks on the shield when we climbed it in '16.  I had dreamed about doing the shield ever since I read about the route as a teenager and always fantasized about what it would feel like to be up there.  We had done the groove the night before and bivied at the anchor before the triple cracks. It ws one of the hardest pitches I had ever lead on the captain and lying there in my portal edge that night staring up at the next mornings lead was intimidating.  It took a minute to figure out the first move and then I was on my way.  The beaks and offset cams felt solid and it was one of my favorite aid leads on the route.  I know I'm kind of light duty but this route felt like a true adventure for me and I'll always remember that route as one of my finest outings with a harness on.  

Would it be acceptable to climb this with ice tools and mono points? Would Mark Hudon be mad at me?

I’d be impressed more than anything. If anything I’d think that'd be less destructive than nailing. Please do and post pics here!

Andrew Schaferwrote:

I’d be impressed more than anything. If anything I’d think that he less destructive than nailing. Please do and post pics here!

I'll get around to it.

Below is a real El Cap obscurity...
Be sure to click on the photo to see it in better resolution. 

You can see it from El Cap Meadow, but it's a route that is rarely climbed.  Which is too bad, because it's one of the best on the Captain.  We gave the bivy a name because it seemed so remote and "out there", and the name is now annotated on Erik Sloan's topos.  Anyone know what route it's on, what it's called, and where it is?  

This route is outstanding, not super hard, and really deserves to get climbed a lot more than it does!  

Mark Westfallwrote:

Would it be acceptable to climb this with ice tools and mono points? Would Mark Hudon be mad at me?

I wouldn’t be mad but you’d probably get hung by the “locals”. I’d laugh my ass off! 

Tanner Jameswrote:

Got some of the coolest shots I’ve ever seen on my first trip up the nose a few months ago

October 20 2021 approximately 12 hours before the week snow storm shut the valley down 

Is there a route that goes up the left line to the left side of the great roof? 

Ben Hostewrote:

Is there a route that goes up the left line to the left side of the great roof? 

Yes, Mediterraneo by the Gallego Brothers of Spain up to the King Kong chimney. 

Only one repeat by Ken Bokeland and Kevin Andrews. 

Isaiah aka Zay Foulks wrote:

I'm sure this ledge needs no introduction.

Taken during our ascent of Triple Direct, my first bigwall (after running four laps up the swan slab aid route).

Ended up having to call YOSAR for advice about another party who kept asking us to fix pitches for them, and whose language barrier resulted in a late night shit show at the Glowering Spot.

Brad Gobright rapped in on us to work the Changing Corners pitch. Super cool guy.

John Long actually commented on my trip report: "Fantastic piece. A real narrative!"

If anyone is bored:

  supertopo.com/tr/Rescues-an…

Nice TR!

Too lazy to set up the ledge, so we slept on peanut ledge with my head between my partners legs. Rolled off of it in the night and my tether caught me and i jerked awake. Woke up exhausted, to then have to jug the scariest free hanging line of my life.

Peter Zabrokwrote:

Yes, Mediterraneo by the Gallego Brothers of Spain up to the King Kong chimney. 

Only one repeat by Ken Bokeland and Kevin Andrews. 

Wow, this sounds like an amazing story...could only find a small blurb from the AAC online and a rough topo in Spanish on Supertopo.

http://www.supertopo.com/topos/yosemite/el-capitan-mediterraneo.pdf

http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12198417102/North-America-United-States-CaliforniaYosemite-Valley-Kolana-Dome-West-Face-El-Capitan-Mediterraneo-Route 

Curious if you or others have more to share about this route and it's history, which sounds really interesting. Was I the first route on El Cap done entirely by non-Americans?

Bermuda Dunes?

Rob Dillonwrote:

Bermuda Dunes?

Ay, lad.  What's the name of the bivy?  

Pete, Is that "Pine Island"?

Ka-CHING! The [first] beer is on me!

Yes, we named it thusly because it is such a remote location - seemingly an island in the middle of nowhere - and of course for the single pine tree seen in the photo above.