Big Wall Noob looking for rack help to climb South Face of Washington Col

Hi Friends!

My wife and I are heading to Yosemite for the first time in October and we're looking to climb the South Face route up the Washington Column. 

Gear beta I've found varies wildly with little explanation as to why choices were made. Does anyone have a good gear breakdown of what is necessary versus optional on the rack? Do I need offset nuts, if so what size? One set of offset cams and totems, or two dedicated offsets? 

Our rack so far:

• 1x Black Diamond 0.1
• 2x ea Black Diamond 0.2 - #3
• 1x BD #4
• 1x ea Metolius 00/0 offset, 0/1 offset
• 1x ea BD .1/.2 - .4/.5 offset X4 and Z4
• 1x ea Totems Black, Blue, Yellow
• BD stoppers 4-13
• 1 Narrow size camhook (The middle size that everyone said is the best)

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

your rack is fine. Obviously it's always nice in the valley if you have a full double rack of totems, but not necessary, you'll do just fine with what you have. Warning, overbeta/spray below, don't read if you don't want to.

Not sure where you can place a camhook on the route, but I suppose it's possible. There's only two tenuous placements on the whole route, IIRC - just before you can reach the face bolt, immediately below the roof, there's a tenuous purple totem placement, but I think your .4/.5 will allow you to make it through there (maybe the camhook, haha!). Then when you turn the corner on p6, transitioning from horizontal to vertical crack, you can either use a green C3 or two lobe a black totem, so you should be fine there as well. 

Make certain you lead the second to last pitch and take great hero shots of your wife as she turns the corner to come up to the belay (or vice versa), very memorable shot placement there. Have a great time, some of the best views in the Valley!

Kevin DeWeese wrote:

The  differences in rack suggestions for south face Washington Column depend upon how much of the route you're intending to free climb and how much you're intending to aid 

Hey Kevin! I plan to aid a lot and free climb 5.8 or easier. I'm mostly a scrub but I can free 5.9 sandstone and limestone out east where I live.

Christian Heschwrote:

your rack is fine. Obviously it's always nice in the valley if you have a full double rack of totems, but not necessary, you'll do just fine with what you have. Warning, overbeta/spray below, don't read if you don't want to.

Not sure where you can place a camhook on the route, but I suppose it's possible. There's only two tenuous placements on the whole route, IIRC - just before you can reach the face bolt, immediately below the roof, there's a tenuous purple totem placement, but I think your .4/.5 will allow you to make it through there (maybe the camhook, haha!). Then when you turn the corner on p6, transitioning from horizontal to vertical crack, you can either use a green C3 or two lobe a black totem, so you should be fine there as well. 

Make certain you lead the second to last pitch and take great hero shots of your wife as she turns the corner to come up to the belay (or vice versa), very memorable shot placement there. Have a great time, some of the best views in the Valley!

That's fantastic! A friendwill let me me borrow some 000 C3's, I believe they're the green ones. How is the climbing up to the Kor? I thought I'd read the start of the pitch climbs free at 5.8 before the bolts out the roof.

Patrick Becerrawrote:

How is the climbing up to the Kor? 

It’s super easy (free in approach shoes) with #3’s and maybe even a 4 (no mandatory but you won’t need it later) then a bolt and either a 5.8 move or a tricky’ish single aid placement in a weird square pod..  totem or offset and you’re cruiser 

Patrick Becerrawrote:

That's fantastic! A friendwill let me me borrow some 000 C3's, I believe they're the green ones. How is the climbing up to the Kor? I thought I'd read the start of the pitch climbs free at 5.8 before the bolts out the roof.

5.8 sounds about right for the moves to get to the bolts, but you should also be able to aid up to them if need be. If you haven’t done much overhanging aid before, I recommend practicing aiding (and cleaning) the Kor roof at the LeConte Boulder—I and many before me have taken eons get up and over the roof our first time, much more chill to learn how to do it near the ground without a bunch of people on dinner ledge waiting for you to finish

Quinn Hatfieldwrote:

It’s super easy (free in approach shoes) with #3’s and maybe even a 4 (no mandatory but you won’t need it later) then a bolt and either a 5.8 move or a tricky’ish single aid placement in a weird square pod..  totem or offset and you’re cruiser 

One of my partners is short (5'2"/5'3") and they say they had to do another tricky (more so than the first) move after the square pod. It was their first 'real' aid pitch, so I have no idea how tricky it was, they did climb a few C2+ pitches later in the trip.

I didn't clean it so don't know what they actually did, but I was on dinner ledge talking to them as they did it and it sounded like they did do another move after the square pod (at the time I was initially skeptical they couldn't reach from the pod as I remembered it and were actually a move lower than they claimed to be, but they changed my mind). Can't remember what gear the extra move was, so not sure what the point of this post is other than be aware it might be hard if you're really short?

Fwiw, when I did that pitch a I used a regular cam (didn't have offsets or totems) in the square pod and reached from there (5'9"/10"). In general for the route as a whole, your rack seems like more than we had and we aided a lot, so I think you'll be fine. I did use the camhook a few times, but can't remember where. I think there's a bulge somewhere (just after Southern Man junction?) where I placed a microwire, probably another way of doing it though.

Does anyone know how long of a second line we need to rap the route back to Dinner Ledge and then grab the bag and dip out? I have a 50m static line but I'm not sure if that's long enough to make the double rope raps back down.

I found offset brassies extremely useful on P6 which has sustained thin aid on small nuts. 

I would think a 50 would be fine but I would verify on the topo. 

Good luck!

60’s will take you from Dinner to top of P1 and from there all the way to flat ground at the bottom of the 4th class below the start of p1.. (2 raps total) 

knowing that- I’d assume it’s totally fine to use 50’s and do it in 3 raps.. 

Quinn Hatfieldwrote:

60’s will take you from Dinner to top of P1 and from there all the way to flat ground at the bottom of the 4th class below the start of p1.. (2 raps total) 

knowing that- I’d assume it’s totally fine to use 50’s and do it in 3 raps.. 

We double rope rapped from dinner to top of P1 then proceeded to get the ropes hopelessly stuck.  Not my fondest moment of the trip up SFWC.

Brian Whelanwrote:

We double rope rapped from dinner to top of P1 then proceeded to get the ropes hopelessly stuck.  Not my fondest moment of the trip up SFWC.

Did you use double fisherman's or the EDK to join ropes? Anythng you think you could have done differently to avoid this situation?

EDK.  In hindsight, those are the slabbiest raps you'll make and there are plenty of cracks for things to get stuck in.  Doing it again I would just single rope rap dinner to 2 and 2 to 1 etc. but YMMV

Brian Whelanwrote:

We double rope rapped from dinner to top of P1 then proceeded to get the ropes hopelessly stuck.  Not my fondest moment of the trip up SFWC.

I’ve rapped from Dinner to top of p1 at least twice with no issues.. the difference could be anything from operator error on your part, dumb luck on my part or just some Random planetary alignment situation 

the crack directly below the p2 anchors (that you climb on the original p2) is actually a consistent “rope eater” and there is enough history that avoiding that rap is probably good beta.. 

when I’ve rapped from dinner to p1 you don’t go over p2- you stay “Climbers Right” and drop in to a large dihedral and rap straight on to the old dead tree..  could be that angle of pull makes the difference?

Brian, your post is both clear and correct, there are plenty of cracks on upper section of P3 if you pull the rope out of the L side, and the gnarled dead tree if you pull out of the R side. P2 is indeed pretty clean but, as Quinn mentions, the aid dihedral pinches and can snag your rope if it's not pulled well from those chains. I've done it a couple times from dinner to the bottom of P2 and I wouldn't anymore, just too easy/quick to drop to top of P2, pull rope out L side, and use the live tree on L (low on P3) to keep your rope from hitting you in the head, then rap either straight to the start of P2 or, as quinn mentioned, hard R towards the dead tree (I don't b/c I don't like to untangle fro that tree, though it's not too difficult). 

Edit; to add to Ben's post below (fully agree, the op who suggested LeConte is giving good advice), I always suggest 2-3 pieces right after turning the roof, to make life easier on your follower. Unless they are 6-2 w/ a +3 ape, they will very much appreciate the opportunity to yard themselves into the last bolt (w/ adjustable daisy), unclip lower daisy, and then reclip that to the first piece over the roof. then yard into that piece, releasing the first bolt and clipping that daisy to 2nd piece, and repeat that process 1-2x until they're established over the edge of the roof. Trust me, they'll thank you! Those adjustable daisies (i love the evolv) are the shiznit, for sure, both for leader and follower.

also, unless you like your follower cursing you, after the roof, place a piece every 4-5ft until you're around 7:00-7:45, relative to the anchor (plumb/vertical would be 6:00). 

Big second recommendation to practice on the Leconte Boulder!

My usual recommendation for the Kor Roof is to back-clean the whole roof other than the last bolt (you can stay into two bolts at all times if you are worried), and then don't clean anything for the diagonaling crack right over the roof. That way the follower can easily ascend a free-hanging rope from the slab to the top of the roof, and then quickly re-aid to get through the diagonaling crack. I think this way is probably the fastest for those who don't have much aid climbing experience. I find the crack frequently trips people up since it is quite sideways and right over the roof, making dealing with the lip very annoying most other ways of cleaning it.