Stormy Epic on Zodiac, First Solo Wall

• I knew since my youth that adventure would be a priority in my life. When I turned 11 my father, brother and I took on hiking the 46 highest peaks in New York’s Adirondack mountains. Over the next 6 years we slowly completed them all over 26 day hikes and I became 46er #10388. While my family retired from climbing with this achievement, I wanted more. In 2017, I moved to Laramie Wyoming to attend the state university and began to rock climb at the gym’s rock wall. The outdoor program even had classes and trips planned where I learned the fundamentals of climbing my freshman year. After a year of learning and being guided, I bought a tiny trad rack and began spending every moment I had at Vedauwoo, the local climbing destination. 

One evening in Autumn 2018, my climbing partners and I went to the cinema to watch the new film, the Dawn Wall. While watching the film, the immense size of El Capitan captivated me. At some point the film explains what is aid climbing and something clicked. I never realized that El Capitan could be climbed without being an elite athlete. Going forward in climbing, all of my focus was on learning to multipitch and climb bigger rocks. I spent free time scouring the internet for big rocks near me and reading trip reports of those who climbed them.

Over the next two years I made my way to the biggest rocks and mountains in the state and climbed them, but by 2021 I felt ready for my first climbing trip to Yosemite. Although my first wall attempt ended in complete failure, it only made me want to climb big walls more. I had failed 5 more wall climbs over 2022 and 2023, before having a breakout season in Spring of 2024. This year I finally had read the books, bought a D4 portaledge and rack, and gotten lucky finding partners. My first success was with Tony aka BigwallTDawg on Skull Queen, it was awesome meeting someone whose trip reports I read and to learn from them.

On that trip I also ticked the Prow, Double Direct and capped it off with a proud 3 day ascent of Lurking Fear. I almost felt a bit empty, no longer having the goal of climbing El Capitan to orient me, but filled that void by transitioning to the next goal of a solo wall. I already had extensive TR Solo experience rapping into routes at Fremont Canyon and some lead rope solo experience aiding easy Vedauwoo cracks, but with some tips I learned in the valley I was ready to take it to the next level. I went to the Laramie range alone for a weekend and finally ticked off two moderate multis that have been on my todo list forever, this one would be my largest rope solo before El Cap ( mountainproject.com/route/1…). Next I moved to the deep south for my traveling job over the Summer and planned a trio climb up El Cap in September ( youtube.com/watch?v=_V_xmi3…). After returning from this climb I felt ready to use my next block of time off for my first solo big wall.

My journey began in Wynne Arkansas on November 6th 2024, I left my jobsite and headed west to local Jamestown Crag. That evening I had sent a top rope solo project, and I drove onward to the Ozarks. The next two days I drove to Kansas then to my storage in Laramie Wyoming, I needed to pick up some needed Winter gear. The first blizzard of the season socked in Laramie and made the drive slow and difficult. This would not be the first time some snow would slow me down. My next stop was IME mountaineering in SLC, their great selection of aid gear filled out the rest of the kit I needed. After that stop, just one more full day of driving until I made it to the base of El Capitan at sunset of November 10th.

Day 1 of the effort

After contemplating routes for my first solo, my two choices were the Prow or Zodiac. I chose Zodiac because I can never resist going to a crag and climbing the biggest thing I can. That evening I walked up the talus field with two brand new ropes and most of the rack. I saw a soloist camped on the p3 dead bird ledge and enjoyed being back in the valley before hiking back down.

Day 2 

Today I hiked the rest of my rack and 2 gallons of water at the base where I met Jake. He had just bailed from the top of p3 due to the incoming snow storm and left me 6 gallons of water, Thanks! As he hiked his final load down I rigged my ground anchor with the water as a ballast then started leading. Despite doing all of my lead rope solo so far with a grigri, I chose to try out a clove hitch on two opposing anti cross loading lockers for this lead as it was known to be tricky. I incorporated bolts 1&5 of the route into my anchor and was on my way up.

 Shortly after starting the snow began to fall, but I stayed dry under the roof and my layers. This lead took a couple hand placed beaks, many cams and seven cam hooks to reach the crux near the top. I placed an offset cam into an angle scar, despite passing hard bounce tests, when committing it popped out and I took a 12 foot fall. The clove hitch worked perfectly and loosened easily by prying the two lockers apart, after seeing this I would use a clove hitch for the rest of my climb. My anchor however was tied in such a way the knot on bolt 5 did not allow the bags to pickup, despite a soft catch, I made sure to incorporate the bags better in the future. I was very shaken after this and decided to pass that scar by nailing a beak and ended the pitch with a couple more cam hooks. The snow ended soon after and I fixed back to the ground. After a difficult day of snow and a fall to kill my confidence, I decided to try recruiting a partner with a note on the Camp IV board.

Day 3

It was a freezing morning and I slept in before enjoying a hot breakfast and tea. I met some dudes at camp, but none seemed to have the required stoke, time and gear to join me, so I went back up the hill alone to toil on my project. The next 3 pitches of the route I had already led on a failed attempt of the climb a year ago, and I felt the pressure was lower. After cleaning p1, I hauled up my rope bucket and worked out the best and smoothest way to rig an anchor and my ropes. Leading p2 was much easier than last year, but still slow. I used hooks along with a .5-3 to gain the ledge without any free moves this time. The expando flake was outwitted with cam hooks and giving a long lost arrow some light taps with a hammer. Night had fallen by the time I reached the anchor, by tying in the rope to the top immediately I was able to rappel past the knot joining my haul to the lead line and make it to the ground without cleaning. Each day I rapped back to earth it felt like a massive weight was taken off, morale was still a bit low and I hoped I could find a partner. I noticed today that my Alfifi was starting to slip despite having just replaced the webbing. I emailed Skot that night and ordered a new A4 along with a buckle to fix my current one, straight to the valley.

Day 4

I started up the talus commute earlier today to beat a chance storm in the forecast. Jugging to the p1 anchor was easy with an improvised frog lanyard I made from some extra cord. I had bought a 50’ 6mm lowerout cord and planned to use it for some of the p2 traverse, but it was too slippery to control and I used a standard way instead, in hindsight a monster munter was what I needed. Pitch 3 went smoothly and by the time I was back on earth I was starting to feel stoked on my solo again. However when checking my phone I got a text from Caleb, he saw my note on the board and was interested in joining. That night we met and made the plan to trial him on pitch 4 the next day.

Day 5

We met at the lot and were commuting up at 8am. I taught him how to frog jug and we both were at dead bird ledge at 10:40am. Caleb led this 5.6 C1 pitch with ease and we got along well. We tied the ropes together and did a giant 115m rapp back to earth. On the ground we made plans to start our climb after tomorrow’s snow so we tidied up the base, grabbed an abandoned water cache under Tangerine Trip and hiked back down. After shopping in Curry Village, Caleb and his friend Chris invite me to join them on a “fitness lap” of After 6 which I obviously agreed to. On the drive over, Caleb tells me about his climbing this season, mostly free soloing with some wall climbs too. At the base of the buttress the three of us split separate ways, Chris was skipping p1 by walking left, Caleb started up After 7, and I started up a 5.4 slab to the right that joined back up. After my first smears I had a terrible feeling in my gut before hearing Caleb scream. I immediately climbed down to find Caleb on his back on the ground screaming in agony. Although I am not precisely sure what happened, I believe he took a 50+ foot fall from the crux through tree branches onto the ground. I ran to my car to grab water, aspirin and a sleeping bag while Chris called for help. Within 30 minutes of the fall he was gone in an ambulance… I would later hear from him he damaged his lower spine and needed surgery, yikes!

Day 6

I did some packing, shopping and sorting, but not as much as I should have with last night on my mind.

Day 7

Blastoff

I waited till noon at the post office to receive my new Alfifi (Thanks Skot!!) before charging over to the captain. I spent more time than I should have today packing my pig, then hiking it up. It was sunset when I reached the base and completed my final commute up the talus. While layering up I realised I forgot both my Winter hat and bandana, but refused to go back down for them. Fortunately I had a massive hooded fleece to keep me warm enough that I would be able to deal with it. I jugged the first 30 ft with my food bucket in tow to keep it away from the ringtails, then attached it with a rope clamp. Jugging this massive rope was strenuous, but exciting to get up on the wall. Once I reached the bolts, hauling the pigs was not too bad with the 2:1 ratchet I rigged, the long z cord I brought made hauling past the knot simple. Felt at home laying on the ledge that night.

Day 8 

I shivered through most of my first night on the wall, on warmer climbs I would leave my pad as a liner to my haul bag. Fortunately lining the bag would be unnecessary as the hauling was super smooth and steep. I took some extra time this morning to get carabiners for all of my kit and fix the rope nightmare I made last night. It felt great to start leading above last year's high point, the first rivet was difficult to reach from a hand placed long lost arrow. I got it by weaving two stoppers together to make an extended rivet hanger. This lead was shaped as a giant Z with first a big traverse left, then right on some 5.6 free climbing, then left again. Although no part of this lead was too difficult, it was slow moving and required the last 10 ft to be led on the haul line. I finished leading, cleaning and hauling by sunset the and built camp beneath the black tower. I saw a 10% chance of rain in the forecast, but clear skies convinced me I would not need my rain fly.

Day 9

I awoke at 3 am in a sprinkle of rain, I begrudgingly got out of bed and wrestled my ledge into its rain fly. Once morning came I was within a light rain cloud and waited it out till it broke around noon. This small storm plus more in the forecast at the end of week convinced me I would probably bail, but saw no reason to give up today since I could still reasonably bail from here. I counted my hot dinners to see if i could spare one for breakfast, but only had 12. The black tower loomed ominously above my camp, despite trying hard each commute up the talus, I could never really see it until I was up there. After some initial easy climbing through very loose rock I nailed a sawed off angle into a podded scar, first time using that piece! This led me to the top of the tower where a beautiful thin crack veered right above. I nailed every piton I brought into this crack and had a blast on this pitch! At one point I needed a beak but was out, so pulled out a fixed one with one hammer hit and used it to bring me to the pearly gates ledge. The climbing on this pitch was a blast, but I felt bad nailing the thin beautiful crack. Having lost most of the day to the storm I rapped back down and camped beneath the tower. That night I enjoyed the only beer I brought up while chatting on the phone with a high school friend, this would be the last conversation I had with anyone for the next ten days.

Day 10

Today I had the greatest luck with booty I’ve ever had while climbing. In the loose crack leading up to the black tower I used my hammer to pry it open and pulled out two purple totems. One of which was nearly destroyed but may be fixed, the other went on to my rack for service immediately. I looked at the forecast again and thought why bail when I still have 10 days of rations, the storms cannot pin me up here for that long right? Additionally I had already battle tested my rain fly and figured I could wait any storm out under the giant roofs higher on the route, so I hauled to pearly gates and started up El Portal. This pitch had easy and loose traversing to a bolt where you would cross into the white circle. As soon as I entered the circle the difficulty and steepness stepped up big time, but nothing camhooks and beaks could not handle. After the lead I thought about hauling to make up the lost half day, but figured it would be foolish to skip sleeping on the pearly gates.

Day 11

Today I woke up stoked for the Flying Buttress! Although I never skipped tea and breakfast I was out of bed much earlier today. For the first haul of the route it was now steep enough 1:1 would be sufficient. The buttress from below did not look too difficult from below and I hoped I could claim my first C3 lead on this one. After the first fifty feet of climbing and many consecutive camhooks, I decided I could not go for that and reached for my big beak bag only to find it was still at the anchor below. I was twenty feet runout on camhooks, but did a few more to where I placed a big hook. I equalised this hook with 2 small beaks I pounded to go down and retrieve my big iron, I would not make that mistake happen again. The middle of the pitch was easy, but contained lots of loose rock. The finale of the lead culminated in bolts leading to a very thin crack filled with dead heads. I placed my final beak but still couldn’t reach the head at the end until I spotted the bat hook. After this lead I decided to catch up on lost time and haul again to bivy below the nipple pitch.

Day 12

I was relieved to see lots of fixed gear on today’s lead, it went pretty easy. I made great use of a couple wide cam hooks, but mostly used fixed gear and cams to make it across. When the crack got wide, I took out my #6 to make an easy and awkward step through. The upper crack had the hand placed arrow fixed for me and was easy after placing beaks. After those a #2 crack which housed many swifts was used to reach bolts that lead to the anchor. In two days a storm bringing 1-2 inch of rain was forecasted and I chose to weather it out here where the topo says “best bivy”. When cleaning the pitch I unfortunately dropped one of the standard camhooks I left on my aider, fortunately most of the routes camhooking was over at this point, I also accidentally fixed a beak in the upper section.

Day 13

There was a chance of afternoon rain today before the storm set in. I decided I could fix the Mark of Zorro today, but not camp atop as the topo said “poor storm bivy”. The cold winds and clouds made leaving bed difficult, but I knew I needed to keep moving. The weather showed storms tomorrow before a break on Sunday, but after Sunday a two day snow storm would pound me till Wednesday. The start of the lead was confusing, I accidentally went right to a free climbing anchor 20 ft up and had to do some loose hooking to get back on track. Pulling over the first roof proper of the pitch was difficult and after trying several micro cams I resorted to a #1 arrow, but when bounce testing it hit me in the head, ouch!  I eventually squeaked a step higher to reach a bomber totem, this made me feel foolish and desperate…

After the roofs the rock turned to be turbo fuckin loose, every feature felt unattached. Where the topo calls for A2 or C3 I nailed 4 beaks in a row just to get out of there. After that bolts lead to the anchor beneath the devil’s brow and I quickly rigged so I could race back to the comfort of my portaledge and hunker down for the storm. The rest of the night was cloudy and windy, I wish I had gotten up earlier and done two pitches today.

Day 14

    Today was the most intense storm day I have weathered on a wall. Fortunately the large roof above kept me and my bags safe from all but some sprays. My phone died after some final texts this morning, I could only hope the weather stayed as forecasted or improved. Although I brought a battery pack, my charging cable was damaged and any fix I could think of would not work. I counted my remaining food stores and felt a bit grim. Although no proper rationing was required yet or ever during the climb, I brought a 50 L bucket of food and I was hoping to be eating well the whole time.

The portaledge settled un-level so I rigged a 2:1 with a dyneema sling to pull down on the strap and fix it. At one point the winds got so strong my ledge was lifted up and I was horrified holding on to the sides of it. Although I felt very close to the top, morale was low and I was unsure if the climb was in the bag. I enjoyed applesauce and spaghetti os trying to eat my heaviest food for a big day tomorrow. Maybe I could knock out the last 4 leads and make it to the top before the next storm?

Day 15

    I awoke to glorious blue skies and got out of bed as fast as I could, I could not waste the day. The first lead up the devils brow had a tricky podded thin crack to start, I later realised that this pitch was on the cover of the guidebook. I got a bit lost getting to the bolt ladder, but got through it and the rest of the lead with little issue. I used a grappling hook and kong panic to skip Eric Sloan’s 5.3 step. I started the next lead as the sun was setting, at this point I was getting easily frustrated by common difficulties, everything took much more cursing than typical. Additionally a drip formed 6 ft from the anchor and would occasionally get me while leading, I had all my waterproof layers on in preparation. The opening rivet ladder featured a rattling rivet, chose to place a tiny beak rather than trust that. I used big hooks to skip free moves to access the bolt ladder, but realized at the top of it I would need to do 10 ft of C1 right through the drip. I got close to it and got all the gear I would need ready, gave myself plenty of slack, and went for it. While getting rained on everything I had tangled and the 10 ft were soaking agony, before I was finally through it. It was now dark and I was shivering up the final c1 crack to peanut ledge. From here big drips came out of the offwidth and I decided I would hope tomorrow's storm would give me a morning window to get this route done. I was too cold and hungry to climb a wet crack in the dark so I rapped into my camp and hunkered down for the next storm.

Day 16

    My strategy of hope totally failed, I awoke to a blizzard, the wind sent the drip right into my portaledge fly. After setting aside food for the day, I counted three remaining rations. On this climb I packed a ziploc full of butter, my dehydrated meals were way more filling.  Although I stayed dry, morale was low and I felt very bored.

My food bag when filled roughly contained. 

• 14 Dehydrated Meal bags including two desserts
• Butter Bag, 8 sticks
• 10 Lenny&Larry Cookies
• 10 Power Crunch bars
• 10 Cliff Bars
• 1lb Summer Sausage and Beef Jerkey
• 1 lb each Pistachios and Cashews
• 8oz each Sausage and Turkey Links
• 2lbs of Candies
• 20 oz of Applesauce
• One Beer, Ramen and Spaghetti Os
• 30 Bags of Tea, earl gray and sleepy time.

Day 17

    Another day, another storm. Today all I could think about was food and I convinced myself I could eat 2 hot meals. I tried writing some edgy poetry about living amongst the void, but decided to omit it. It was difficult not to let morale crumble looking at my tiny food bag so I passed the time singing every song I could recall. Where the drip kept pounding my rain fly a tiny bit of moisture penetrated and was a bit concerning, but not enough to equip my bivy sack. Spending a whole day under your portaledge fly reminded me of being stuck in bed due to injury, I felt trapped on the wall.

Day 18

    I woke up feeling incredibly stoked to see a blue sky, the feeling of warmth from sunlight was rejuvenating. My ledge’s rainfly was coated in a half inch of ice from the drip and massive icicles below, these fell off fast once in the sunlight. After three nights at dreaded drip camp I could finally move upward. Cleaning the first lead above drip camp was cold and tricky with drips pouring onto me, my waterproof gloves were essential. Once at peanut I regretted not just building my next storm camp here, the drips were nothing compared to below.

The next lead was the dreaded offwidth, and it was soaked. After a couple standard cams, I back cleaned and bumped my two #5s and 6 up the crack. If any of these slipped, I would take a monster whipper onto the ledge below. Fortunately with the best placements I could manage I made it to the two bolts halfway up, a bit of relief before the crack got wider. It would have been easy with two #6 cams, but I had to go onto a very tipped out 5 a couple times to get it done. From the top lowerout point ( a bomber red tricam) I used my grigri to rap down a bit then tension over to the crack where I could reach the anchor. I felt a massive relief only having one big lead remaining to the summit.

This next lead began at sunset, it started with easy travering on cams to a crack accessing the dreaded handrail. I was a bit concerned to see no lowerout point at the start of it, but big hooks made this part super easy. The crack above was frustrating, at one point I nailed 2 arrows just to get through it. After that, a 5.3 downward traverse brought me to the mid pitch anchor, I was really close to the top now. From this anchor, a drenched but easy free move daunted me for several minutes. Fortunately a bit of therapy cursing helped me find the holds and get me back to aid climbing. This pitch was weird and cryptic all the way to the end. I stared at the final 15 ft with my headlamp and could never see further than the next move I needed to make. From the hook below the lip, a final stressful blind placement got me to the bolts. I had made it to the summit!

There was no immediate celebration however once I had pulled myself over and started looking around, I saw what I was in for. The storms which pinned me for the prior two days left inches of snow and ice covering everything and water was flowing everywhere. I dreaded having to go back down over the lip into the void, but did as I must. Hauling was very difficult since I did not extend my hauler 1 foot over an edge, but I didn't care. Once the bags were up I took out everything I needed including the portaledge and gave each a good huck to get away from the lip. I set up my portaledge on a tree since everywhere else was icy and unlevel and celebrated with my final dehydrated meal and summer sausage before passing out.

Day 19     Thanksgiving day

The night was freezing and I elected to whip out my disposable bivy just because I was done being cold. I awoke to see a tiny waning crescent rise above the horizon. I slowly watched the sunrise from my sleeping bag and didn’t dare leave it till the sunlight hit me. It finally started sinking in that I had done it, somehow I soloed not just my first wall, but El Cap’s Zodiac! I savored all of my food I had remaining and as many cups of tea as I wanted. My final hot meal I had packed was a brick of ramen, delicious! Despite eating all but three cliff bars, I had dragged four extra gallons of water to the summit. I guess that was thanks to running out last time…

After I had packed up summit tree camp I gathered the motivation to go back across the icy stream to grab all my stuff. Once everything was packed and tidied up, I waited till 2pm to ensure the descent route got as much time to melt as possible. I considered the hike down as the icy east ledges were daunting, but there was even more ice above me leading to the summit of El Capitan. Route finding down was tricky, I took many variations to avoid icy slabs. On one slab just above the scrambling, I could not find a work around so I carved the ice off with my nut tool. The rest of the descent felt standard and before I knew it, I was in the El Capitan picnic area surrounded by people for the first time in two weeks.

I drove to the 1899 bar and enjoyed their thanksgiving special, it was glorious! However I felt like my appetite was endless, so I had the meal again, then 5 ice cream bars from the store before making my way to camp IV for the night.

Day 20

    Today did not start early. Before getting to work I ate two pounds of hamburgers in the picnic area parking lot. On my way into the valley I got a day’s wage worth of cash and decided it would be absolutely worth any help I could get with the two remaining loads, my body and knees were hurting! I enlisted Nathan, he aspired to climb El Cap one day anyway and was encouraged by his family to skip their plans and join me. When we reached the bottom of the fixed lines, his family took our packs and I was thrilled to be getting off this rock.

Conclusion

    I feel like I have to be the worst climber to ever solo El Capitan. My ascent included many mistakes, much suffering in the cold and storms, and toiling for way more days than this should have taken. I feel like I could have done it much faster if the days were longer and warmer. While the climbing was difficult, I felt that I was adequately prepared with my prerequisites of the Prow and Lurking Fear. The most difficult part of the climb I felt was managing morale, this made me curse and be much more frustrated at the process than typical on walls. Soloing also made it difficult to challenge myself to use the hammer less, I really wanted off that rock by the end of it, and after my first fall I knew my morale would crumble if I took another lob. Although I did not prefer soloing compared to a partnered ascent, I know this will not be my last! All in all I am still proud of my epic, this won’t be forgotten anytime soon and motivates me to climb more walls!

Read through the whole thing. Congrats and well done!

You’re fucking awesome Bailee 

Baileys don't bail! I admire your commitment. Your writing is entertaining too. Thanks.

Great story Bailey.  Thanks for sharing!

Super impressive, you definitely know how to suffer haha! Think I’m gonna start reading up on big wall climbing myself now

Good job sticking to it! 

Very impressive! Loved the read. Looking forward to more.

Just came across this, strong work and good writeup. I too am a currently west coast based climber from NY, fellow ADK 46er, learned to climb in the daks. I'm looking for wall partners this sping/early summer if you want to try suffering in the sun instead of the snow!