Looking for advice on my Yosemite climbing journey

It's been a few more months and I wanted to provide an update.

In July I moved into my Prius since I was hiking the JMT (Yosemite Valley -> Mt. Whitney) and wouldn't need an apt for that month. Once I got back I continued to stay in my Prius, which has made getting out to the valley super easy since I don't have to pack gear ever. I made it out to the valley ~16 times this year, 10 times of which were in the last 4 months. I've got things more or less dialed for getting to valley and finding partners. I've also made some good friends along the way which I'm stoked about since making friends is hard.

What I'm currently struggling with/ not doing well:
- Getting Tyler Karow levels of mileage (roughly 2.5 pitches per day every day or 850 pitches a year) while still being employed (could be impossible?)
- Being consistent and disciplined with nutrition (bonking on 30+ pitch weekends because I'm not fueling enough while climbing)
- Being consistent with weight loss - I'm ~190lbs now and I've been enjoying not being at a calorie deficit and just climbing, however its obvious to me I could loose 5-10lbs without getting weaker
- I suck at slab and still haven't racked up enough mileage on it. This makes it hard to determine what kind of footholds are going to work and what aren't sometimes
- Living in a Prius in the winter sucks. I want to move into a van or an apartment, but I'm still weighing pros and cons. If anyone here has thoughts on this I'd be very interested in your wisdom
- Closing the gap between how I train (unstructured) and how the climbers I want to climb like train (either tons of unstructured mileage or targed training)

What I feel I'm doing well
- incrementally chipping away at phantom fears and pushing harder leads on gear: I'm consistently surprised by how much harder I can climb when I believe in myself and stay calm on run outs

- placing gear that will hold falls (had a cam pop on East buttress of El cap and realized I haven't been as thoughtful about my pro as I should be)

- climbing with lots of different people at different skill levels (much better than me and much newer than me) Bringing friends up their first multis is very cool
- learning offwidth! I no longer fear leading 5.8 - soft 5.9 OW. I like my #5 and #6.
- chimney's - turns out there is a reason the old school dudes like chimneys.
- getting into outdoor bouldering (I can finally do Joshua Tree V0 lmao)

My goals for 2025 (not sure how much of this I will actually achieve, I know it's ambitious/ overly ambitious):

Braille Book
NEB
Royal Arches -> South Face of North Dome (Lead all hard pitches)
East Buttress of El cap (Lead all hard pitches)
Steck Salathe
Royal Aches - Free
Royal Arches - > Crest Jewel Direct
South face of Washington Column
RNWF Half Dome
The Nose (in 4 or 5 days)

My questions for the Yosemite crushers on here:

Am I still on the glory path? What would you be doing differently if you were me?
Any goal climbs you think I should add to the list above?

"What would you be doing differently if you were me?"

I'd be trying to GTFO of the Bay Area.

How locked in to living in Redwood City are you? The Peninsula is a tough place to pursue your climbing dreams (especially while working full time). Yes, some people make it work, but it's a lot easier when you are less than 4 hours from the climbing you want to improve at. 

Thinking long term, moving closer to good climbing areas is a goal to consider, and could provide a quantum leap for your climbing. 

I’ll echo JMC and say yeah why are you living in your car in the bay? Drive the new age jalopy as close to these rocks and get after it! 

It's probably for work, as he says he's gainfully employed. Not much good paying work out near Yosemite. 

But yeah honestly after  moving out of the bay area I'm so much happier and it's so much nicer to go climbing as a day trip instead of driving 4 hours. 

Jabroni McChufferson wrote:

I’ll echo JMC and say yeah why are you living in your car in the bay? Drive the new age jalopy as close to these rocks and get after it! 

There was a time I was in Yosemite 4 days a week and the bay 3, so I was like “why am I paying rent to be homeless in Yosemite for more than half the month”  now it’s Joshua tree and RR, but I suspect January and Feb are going to be funky car living months

I also wanted to try living with less and that has been an interesting experience outside of climbing.

I have a full time well paying engineering job ( yes I’m a degenerate tech bro destroying culture in the Bay Area). 

Spend time at Emigrant Wall next year. It's slab school. 

Grayson G wrote:

My first multi was at Pinnacles, it was totally cool. I've climbed with a different partner each time I've been in the valley and I've learned from each one.

I've climbed at RR and JTree. I'll check out the others on your list, but is there anywhere else in North America (or outside of it) that you think would be worth the trek/money?

The Needles in the Southern Sierra are a must for any California crack climber. Better than Yosemite in some regards. 

Indian Creek for crack mileage. Need to work on 1 1/8"....it's your huckleberry.

You say you don't want to quit your job but fact of the matter, very, very few have weekend Warrior'd their way to success on Free Rider. They did it with month after month of consecutive weekend trips...and that is a lot of driving pain.

Eventually you are going to need months of experience in the Valley and that hasn't changed since dirtbags in the 60's figured that out as the best way to get good at Yosemite.

If you really want Free Rider you can find a way to make a long stay happen.

I will also say as someone who made it a goal to free El cap and eventually (imo rightfully) bailed on that goal, that there are many other rocks than El cap. Climbing as someone who wants to remain gainfully employed in the bay area kind of sucks, the driving slowly wears you down and just kills your stoke. I moved to somewhere close to rocks and my quality of life shot way up. 

I also feel like actually freeing El cap is likely way more fun as a 5.14 climber than it is as a 5.13 climber. It's just logistically such an annoying thing that I would prefer if it was not absolute limit for me.

That being said if you enjoy climbing in the valley, that's great, by the time I was done in CA I was not. Basically just saying that it's a fun goal but there's more to life out there. 

Connor Dobson wrote:

I will also say as someone who made it a goal to free El cap and eventually (imo rightfully) bailed on that goal, that there are many other rocks than El cap. Climbing as someone who wants to remain gainfully employed in the bay area kind of sucks, the driving slowly wears you down and just kills your stoke. I moved to somewhere close to rocks and my quality of life shot way up. 

I also feel like actually freeing El cap is likely way more fun as a 5.14 climber than it is as a 5.13 climber. It's just logistically such an annoying thing that I would prefer if it was not absolute limit for me.

That being said if you enjoy climbing in the valley, that's great, by the time I was done in CA I was not. Basically just saying that it's a fun goal but there's more to life out there. 

The driving is a mega grind. I frequently think about quitting my job to climb full time, but I'm not even sure at my current fitness level I can take advantage of the free time. Getting paid on rest days is nice. I talked with Tyler Karow on the phone a while back and he said climbing full time was worth all the other sacrifices that came with it. 

Do you live in Vegas? The access there is pretty sick

I'm having an absurd amount of fun working on more immediately possible climbing goals (crest jewel, Nose, NEB, steck salathe, etc), but I do realize that I need to figure out a way to spend more time in the valley if I want to get better as quickly as possible.

Freeing el cap is still my north star that helps me push just a bit harder, and now that I've been climbing for a while it is starting to sink in how much work and risk (climbing and finical) that is going to take. I'm still committed and psyched.

Thank you everyone so far for your guidance. Check back a few years, maybe I'll still be stoked and onsighting 5.11+ or something.

Grayson G wrote:

The driving is a mega grind. I frequently think about quitting my job to climb full time, but I'm not even sure at my current fitness level I can take advantage of the free time. Getting paid on rest days is nice. I talked with Tyler Karow on the phone a while back and he said climbing full time was worth all the other sacrifices that came with it. 

Do you live in Vegas? The access there is pretty sick

I'm having an absurd amount of fun working on more immediately possible climbing goals (crest jewel, Nose, NEB, steck salathe, etc), but I do realize that I need to figure out a way to spend more time in the valley if I want to get better as quickly as possible.

Freeing el cap is still my north star that helps me push just a bit harder, and now that I've been climbing for a while it is starting to sink in how much work and risk (climbing and finical) that is going to take. I'm still committed and psyched.

Thank you everyone so far for your guidance. Check back a few years, maybe I'll still be stoked and onsighting 5.11+ or something.

I live in the front range in CO now, having decent climbing as little as 10 mins from my house has been the best thing ever. I'm white collar employed and can still climb on weekdays (I go before or after work).

I lived in a van in the bay area for 2 ish years to climb more (lived in the bay for 7 years total) and honestly it is so nice to be able to have a stable place to live so close to rock that it is better to me than being a dirt bag. YMMV tho, sounds like you are having fun and getting after it and that's what it's all about. My comment was more that if you get burned out on the grind, it ain't just you and there's a bunch of rock out there.

I now actually understand when people kinda make fun of gumbies saying "I wanna do the freerider"

Climbing 5.13 on day 5 of big walling seems borderline impossible. I know it's possible, but after going up the Nose and barely being able to free 5.8 after a few days it puts things in context.

I'm focusing on smaller objectives these days like the Steck Salathe and hard single pitch. Also been working on a van so I don't have to live in a Prius when I'm in the valley. Stoke is still high, but working on the van kinda sucks sometimes.

seeing NIADers sending with a PDL and like 20 packets of gu and a liter of water is an event of all time. The monkeys are sending

Grayson G wrote:

I now actually understand when people kinda make fun of gumbies saying "I wanna do the freerider"

Climbing 5.13 on day 5 of big walling seems borderline impossible. I know it's possible, but after going up the Nose and barely being able to free 5.8 after a few days it puts things in context.

I'm focusing on smaller objectives these days like the Steck Salathe and hard single pitch. Also been working on a van so I don't have to live in a Prius when I'm in the valley. Stoke is still high, but working on the van kinda sucks sometimes.

seeing NIADers sending with a PDL and like 20 packets of gu and a liter of water is an event of all time. The monkeys are sending

Don't sell yourself short. When you said the Nose over 4-5 days (way too slow) I didn't chime in but really, one or two bivy's max is a reasonable first time up the route goal. This presumes you have done your mileage on other Yose Grade Vs.

But instead you were hauling a mega heavy bag packed for multi-days (probably) and that has taken the piss out of countless big wall newbies. I originally did RNWFHD in 3 days, then did it in 12 hours....and the 12 hours were easier by far. So try Dolt Tower runs and then rap to see where you are really at.

lesson: Go lighter rather than heavier and bail if you aren't making good time (set time point goals). At the least you are familiarizing yourself to the route and you'll be that much faster next time. Also, believe it or not, experience bailing from on high is useful to train your head to be comfy up there.

Getting mileage going lighter will make a HUGE difference in your free climbing ability on walls. However, expect free ratings on all walls to be sandbagged. The ratings get established by those who have the pitches wired, not by those trying to on-sight and certainly not by someone who's been hauling for 3 days. So don't get upset if you get bouted on some "5.10" pitch. Just yard on the gear and make good time until a pure free ascent is the real goal.

Grayson G wrote:

I now actually understand when people kinda make fun of gumbies saying "I wanna do the freerider"
Climbing 5.13 on day 5 of big walling seems borderline impossible. I know it's possible, but after going up the Nose and barely being able to free 5.8 after a few days it puts things in context.

I'm focusing on smaller objectives these days like the Steck Salathe and hard single pitch. Also been working on a van so I don't have to live in a Prius when I'm in the valley. Stoke is still high, but working on the van kinda sucks sometimes.

I'll agree with Hillbilly Hijinks on the "Don't sell yourself short." message, but to put that in a broader sense:

You (OP) have been climbing for less than two years. Of course El Cap free seems borderline impossible. For most people who free climb El Cap (aside from a rare handful of elite prodigies), it is the culmination of 10+ years of building the requisite ability level and experience. That's probably the timeline you're working with also. So, chill. You've got time to get there. Most climbers overestimate the progress they can make in 6 months, but wildly underestimate the progress they can make in 10 years.

So how to keep up that progress over the next 10 years?  Two bits of advice:

- Take it one step at a time. It is ok to have a big goal (El Cap Free) in the back of your mind, but keep it at the back of the mind. Focus mainly on the short to intermediate term attainable goals.  You said "I'm focusing on smaller objectives these days like the Steck Salathe and hard single pitch" - that is great. Aim for those goals, achieve them, set new harder goals, repeat. Keep that up for years and you'll progress far. Much better than getting overwhelmed by some big far-off goal.

- Find a way to make your climbing/lifestyle sustainable for the long-haul. Climbing improvement happens over the long-term, so you need to find a lifestyle that you can keep up for the required timeframe.  Living in your car and doing long-haul drives back and forth to the Bay may work in the short-term to allow you lots of Valley time. But is that a lifestyle you can keep up for years? Keep doing it for now if it is working for you, but also start planning for what your next step will be. Finding a job (and an apartment) in a location closer to climbing sure would help a lot. 

hillbilly hijinks wrote:

Don't sell yourself short. When you said the Nose over 4-5 days (way too slow) I didn't chime in but really, one or two bivy's max is a reasonable first time up the route goal. This presumes you have done your mileage on other Yose Grade Vs.

But instead you were hauling a mega heavy bag packed for multi-days (probably) and that has taken the piss out of countless big wall newbies. I originally did RNWFHD in 3 days, then did it in 12 hours....and the 12 hours were easier by far. So try Dolt Tower runs and then rap to see where you are really at.

lesson: Go lighter rather than heavier and bail if you aren't making good time (set time point goals). At the least you are familiarizing yourself to the route and you'll be that much faster next time. Also, believe it or not, experience bailing from on high is useful to train your head to be comfy up there.

Getting mileage going lighter will make a HUGE difference in your free climbing ability on walls. However, expect free ratings on all walls to be sandbagged. The ratings get established by those who have the pitches wired, not by those trying to on-sight and certainly not by someone who's been hauling for 3 days. So don't get upset if you get bouted on some "5.10" pitch. Just yard on the gear and make good time until a pure free ascent is the real goal.

Personally I find the advice to bail if you aren't making good time on a wall to be poor advice for wall newbies. I failed my first 7 walls and only started suceding once I had the skills and time to take it slow and make it to the top. Grayson and I could have climbed the nose in four days if we spent an additional day on the ground training our skills. But even with the skills dialed, on a four day budget, we would only be one or two hold ups away from being forced to bail. Compared to our recent ascent, we could have sat a full storm day out if needed and still make it. 

However, if Grayson was trying the nose with another climber without wall experience, the heavy approach would only work if you have all the gear time endurance and skills to grind the heavy bags to the top. They would be much better suited to grind a couple more grade Vs then be ready for the nose.

I guess my main takeaway is if the objective your team is attempting is a big reach, expect the guidebook recommendations for time to be a sandbag. Climbing and giving up after one or two days is an easy way to kill stoke for wall climbing and look like a fool. Instead if you can learn skills to go heavy, be comfortable, and take your time, you are far more likely to be successful and get to enjoy your time up there. Or if you're insistent on going light, always climb as long as you safely can before bailing, the further you're up the wall hauling gets easier and to will be more skilled to move faster. Sure a 12h ascent of rnwf sounds way easier than a 3 day, but bailing after hiking a load up the slabs sounds way worse.

To Bailey and Grayson,  yeah 7 days on the Nose is slow, but I gotta say my hat is off to you guys. The way you went about it sorta makes sense.......poor weather in the forecast, taking extra gear to mitigate (or even just survive) the weather,  then taking extra food and water because you knew you'd be weighed down. Then not just surviving,  but actually getting it done. I say all this when I have never considered going that way about it, always picking the opposite strategy. There is no one right way. So I think you did OK.

I hope you take this as intended: The second ascent took 7 days. That's where the names Camp 4, Camp 5, and Camp 6 for those spots on the Nose come from. The second ascent party was Royal Robbins,  Chuck Pratt, Yvon Chouinard, and Joe Fitschen.  Not bad company to be in.

They probably travelled quite a bit lighter too.