Heart Right Side

Or do I mean Heart Centre? Not sure. When looking at El Cap's Southwest Face one of its most prominent features is the leftfacing/leaning corner/groove system leading up from the right end of Heart Ledge to a point beneath the capping roofs. This provided a section of the original Heart Route, whereafter a long pendulum to the left (I think) linked with the current free route. 

What's the deal here? Is this section used on any other route - Gallego, perhaps? Has it been free climbed? (Mud permitting.)

Just wondering. 

Hah! I inadvertently managed to lock this thread without noticing. I think it's open again now. Thanks Peter! 

The right side of the Heart is on the Son of Heart route.

It is very dirty and has not been free climbed.

The Heart route goes up the left side. 

Mark Hudonwrote:

The right side of the Heart is on the Son of Heart route.

It is very dirty and has not been free climbed.

The Heart route goes up the left side. 

Oops! Good point, Mark. I should have checked an actual photo rather than relying upon fading memory. Could have sworn there was some other defining feature further left but, of course, there isn't. So yes: 'Heart Left Side'.

I certainly recall mention of climbers getting covered in earth on that section of the original route; possibly in an account of the second ascent. (Embick, perhaps?) Any idea whether it received many other repeats before the free version was established? I get the impression that it lapsed into a degree of obscurity - which seems unusual for an early and somewhat classic line.

Your query regarding the right side of the Heart formation is the route Son Of Heart.  As Mark noted it does not go all free but significant portions of do go free as part of Golden Gate.

I did S.O.H. about a dozen years ago and it was an excellent climb. Rick Sylvester commented that it was one of the natural lines up El Cap and by moonlight, it's corners and features are pretty obvious.  The Gallego brothers climbed the center of the "Heart" when they did one of their routes -Mediterano or ???.

Left side of the Heart is Pacemaker.  On the topo it looks rather nice, but in reality it is quite dirty and gross. 

The Heart Route proper goes right up the centre of the Heart through that gigantic jungle of vegetation.  It looks horrible! 

If there is anyone who would like to climb The Heart Route proper with me this spring, please let me know. My shtick is to climb as many different El Cap routes as possible, currently 66 different routes.  The remaining routes are all really hard or "involved" in some way, and the Heart Route would qualify as one of those. There would be two "crux" sections, though not necessarily for the climbing.  The first would be climbing the middle section from above The Slack [or whatever it starts on, I can't remember] up to Heart Ledge. It's likely these pitches haven't been climbed in decades, and all of the hardware would need replacing. We would probably fix this section while replacing the hardware. 

The second crux would be climbing those dirty vegetated jungle pitches straight up the middle of the Heart.  We would definitely want to bring a couple tree saws of different shapes, and tools for excavating dirt out of cracks.  When I climbed Pacemaker, I had blisters on my hand from cleaning dirt out of cracks with my nut tool. I think once you're at the top of the Heart it's all good, following mostly now-free pitches.  The Heart Route would succumb to winning by attrition, I would hope.

While I'm thinking about it, another route I haven't yet done is New Jersey Turnpike. What has stopped yours truly the aid climber is the hard/serious free climbing up two pitches through the diorite. If some real free climber wants to join me and lead those two pitches, you can leave the death block old A4 pitch to me. Dave Allfrey climbed the route in a day with Alex Honnold when they did their "seven El Cap routes in seven days" epic, and Dave tells me the block is ready to go. Most likely I would drill a few rivets around it to bypass it. This route could go quickly except for those three middle pitches.

Cheers, eh? And, like, Happy New Year, eh? 

Thanks very much, guys - and Happy New Year!

William: You've probably gathered that, along with prematurely locking the thread before it even got started, I completely messed up my question by relocating the line that I was asking about (the generously vegetated one to which Peter refers) to the wrong side of the Heart! But thanks for your comments on Son of Heart which I agree, although I've never been on it, looks an excellent natural line.

Just looked at the First Ascent list at the back of the 1993 Reid topo guidebook. By its position between Pacemaker and SoH I'm guessing that Verano Magico is the Gallego route thereabouts, although I've never seen a topo of its actual line.

Was going to continue with a tale of woe on SoH - somebody else's - but as I earlier managed to post this reply unfinished and am currently in 'edit' mode I'll stop here and return to it shortly. 

Ignatius Piwrote:

Thanks very much, guys - and Happy New Year!

William: You've probably gathered that, along with prematurely locking the thread before it even got started, I completely messed up my question by relocating the line that I was asking about (the generously vegetated one to which Peter refers) to the wrong side of the Heart! But thanks for your comments on Son of Heart which I agree, although I've never been on it, looks an excellent natural line.

Just looked at the First Ascent list at the back of the 1993 Reid topo guidebook. By its position between Pacemaker and SoH I'm guessing that Verano Magico is the Gallego route thereabouts, although I've never seen a topo of its actual line.

Was going to continue with a tale of woe on SoH - somebody else's - but as I earlier managed to post this reply unfinished and am currently in 'edit' mode I'll stop here and return to it shortly. 

Tucker Tech once loaned me a description of Verano Magico that the Gallegos had written.  I think it was in Spanish, so he couldn't get through it.  The route is not of huge interest, since they allegedly chopped all bolts and rivets as they went--can't imagine why.  I saw no signs of it when I finally got up SoH on my third attempt.  The dirt in the corners just past Heart Ledge was truly horrific, both when wet and dry.  Rapping the slab below the Heart roof on attempt #2, I scanned for signs of the Gallego's passing and saw none.

The Nietzche and Kierkegaard corners are truly fun to climb--not the best quality wide cracks, but unbeatable location.  I remember thinking someone would free the Tonsillectomy Traverse someday, and my hat's off to them.  I can't imagine a more exposed free lead, and the two following pitches would hardly be less scary.

The team that free climbed the Heart Route left their fixed ropes to the top of the Heart left side from the Heart Ledges. I fixed my ropes up to the Heart Ledges, connected my ropes to theirs, and using this setup traversed over to the top of the Slack.  What I found and replaced from there to the top of the fixed ropes matched the first ascent trip report exactly.  The topo in the guidebooks did not match what was found there at the top of the Slack.  Everything was replaced one for one with asca bolts and hangers.

Ben Zartmanwrote:

The Nietzche and Kierkegaard corners are truly fun to climb--

One man's "truly fun" are another man's nightmare. I really hated those pitches.  

Hey Huckleberry Ben, do you remember that time in the caf when I told you what your nickname Ben Wa means?  I will never forget the look of horror and embarrassment on your face!  Hope all is well, buddy.  

Roger Brownwrote:

The team that free climbed the Heart Route left their fixed ropes to the top of the Heart left side from the Heart Ledges. I fixed my ropes up to the Heart Ledges, connected my ropes to theirs, and using this setup traversed over to the top of the Slack.  What I found and replaced from there to the top of the fixed ropes matched the first ascent trip report exactly.  The topo in the guidebooks did not match what was found there at the top of the Slack.  Everything was replaced one for one with asca bolts and hangers.

Are you saying that you replaced bolts on p5-8 of the original Heart Route? Not the Free version, but the one that goes pendulum, hooks, pendulum, hooks across A4ish territory?

Roger Brown:

Or are you saying that the original Heart Route anchor bolts had already been replaced by the free team?  

I replaced the original first ascent bolts placed by Charles Kroger and Scott Davis from the top of The Slack to the small tree at the top of the left side of The Heart.  There were no previously replaced bolts found from the top of The Slack to Heart Ledges.  A member of the free team referred to this area as a sea of rust.  I am guessing that the free team did a variation in this area.  The first ascent team did not provide a topo, just a trip report that can be accessed at the AAC web page.  The trip report states that the route goes up and right from near the top of The Slack across a steep slab for 100 feet to a two-bolt anchor and that many bolts were placed on this pitch.  This is what I found and replaced.   When replacing bolts, I keep a logbook and the bolt/hangers that were replaced.  

Charles Winsteadwrote:

Are you saying that you replaced bolts on p5-8 of the original Heart Route? Not the Free version, but the one that goes pendulum, hooks, pendulum, hooks across A4ish territory?

Hi Charles. This sounds like a reference to pitches #5&6 in the topo published in the green (late-1970s) and yellow (1982) Meyers books and the 1993 Reid one. A similar version appeared in the 1974 Livesey/Nannery/Nicol topo book. I think they all derive from the topo published after the route's second ascent by Dunn, Embick and Kligfield. Does anything different appear in more recent guidebooks?

And is this actually the route taken on the first ascent? The FA account and the brief description in the green Roper guidebook suggest a rather more direct line than the somewhat traversing one indicated in the topos and in the second ascent photos of Jimmy Dunn leading a pitch thereabouts - presumably #6. Is it possible that they missed the point at which the original line exits from what is now Bermuda Dunes - perhaps due to the bolts being out of sight round a corner on the edge of the main slab - and took a higher, more traversing route which rejoined the original probably just before the first A3 crack? (I think the free version exited BD about a pitch higher, above its 5.11 chimney, and possibly rejoined the original route somewhere in the pitch which starts with the second A3 crack.) 

Peter: when you did Bermuda Dunes did you get a look at possible exit points? Although the Meyers/Reid topo doesn't show it, the Livesey/Nannery/Nicol one mentions an alcove at the second ascent exit point; there's a small one low down, likely not much higher than the top of The Slack, but I'm pretty sure that that one is a red herring that's located below the FA exit. And it sounds like, thanks to Roger's hard work, you might have less manual labour in prospect than you anticipated!

Peter Zabrokwrote:

One man's "truly fun" are another man's nightmare. I really hated those pitches.  

Hey Huckleberry Ben, do you remember that time in the caf when I told you what your nickname Ben Wa means?  I will never forget the look of horror and embarrassment on your face!  Hope all is well, buddy.  

Hi Pete!  I remember you did more than tell me: you emailed me a picture.  I'm just glad it wasn't an action shot.

Anyway, I hope that the nickname can abide in isolation from its seamier associations.  It's the best one I've ever had.

Love to catch up someday.

Ben Wah

Ben Zartmanwrote:

Hi Pete!  I remember you did more than tell me: you emailed me a picture.  I'm just glad it wasn't an action shot.

Anyway, I hope that the nickname can abide in isolation from its seamier associations.  It's the best one I've ever had.

Love to catch up someday.

Ben Wah

Ha!  That is exactly the sort of thing I would have done!  Great to hear from you buddy.  Come back to the Centre of the Universe this spring and we will catch up over some beers, eh?  And always remember:  Yosemite nicknames are bestowed, not chosen!

Peter Zabrokwrote:

Ha!  That is exactly the sort of thing I would have done!  Great to hear from you buddy.  Come back to the Centre of the Universe this spring and we will catch up over some beers, eh?  And always remember:  Yosemite nicknames are bestowed, not chosen!

An autumn visit is more likely this year, but I'll be glad to catch up whenever.  And yes, I got lucky that none of my nicknames were bestowed by Mr Way....could have been terrible.

Hahaha. Good ol Mr. Way. He became a lawyer, didn't he? He is an exemplar of contrarian. 

Peter Zabrokwrote:

Hahaha. Good ol Mr. Way. He became a lawyer, didn't he? He is an exemplar of contrarian. 

We lost touch, mostly, but I believe the lawyer thing never happened.