Hard night in Vegas, onto a 10pm and then a 6am session at Red Rocks, onto a 8 hour drive to Yosemite. I park up at Bridalveil car park and within 20 minutes of arriving, I’ve cooked some noodles, thrown my kit in a haul bag, and we are off on the hour hike up the boulder field to the start. Sean (the nicest guy in big walling,) had spent the last 2 hours checking and re-checking his rack. Our plan is to climb the West Face of the Leaning Tower in a day.
By the time we get to the foot of the climb it’s dark already, taking the exposure out of the 300ft drop now under us. We edge our way to the foot of the climb traversing on fixed ropes, getting darker and darker as the drop below us gets larger and larger. The climb starts on overhanging rock, I’m aiming to lead the first two pitches, fix them for us to ascend in the morning, then send the route in 8 hours.
Then I spit out half my tooth.
Clipping the bolt ladder in the dark, I build up momentum, listening to Sean’s speaker blasting down below. This is the kinda climbing I’m not used to but could quickly become accustomed. Tunes blaring, belayer with beer in hand and conversation flowing. My first obstacle is a talon placement in a bat hole, a drilled bolt hole no deeper then the tip of your small finger. Sean assured me the smallest placement on the talon is a perfect fit. I place it in, it’s my first body weight placement and I gingerly take a step up on my aiders. Before I know it I’m back face to face with my last placement and my trust in body weight placements blown, literally. The bat hole is shot, the rim chipped and now the biggest placement on the talon is the best. Keeping my heels below my center of gravity I weight the piece and step up again, higher then before, I can see the crack for the next placement but its 2 feet away, there must be another body weight placement in between, after searching and searching but not knowing exactly what for, I ab down, at least we’ve made it 30m or so for tomorrow morning.
Back at the bivi, we keep on meaning to get sleep but the conversation keeps on going. We both agree it’s hard to find the perfect partner, someone as capable as each other but also someone you get on with so well, it’s normally one or the other.
Sean jumars up the rope and smashes through the two talon moves, fixes the ropes and short ropes/ solos to the next anchor. Ascending above my highest point, I look down and clearly see the crimp with a notch at the back, perfect for a skyhook. I want this now, I’ve made a mistake, I know what to expect, I step into my aiders and jumar with speed up to Sean. Stand, slide jumar, sit slide jumar repeat, only maybe not as aggressive as I had been doing it, my back against the wall, face pressed against the rope I slide the jumar up smashing it into my front teeth. Fuck. Spitting out what feels like sand, I shout out that I’ve chipped my tooth, then I spit out half my tooth, it’s more then a chip. The fresh morning air rushes in my mouth, tooth is now painfully sensitive. I reach the anchors, Sean expecting a small chip not half my tooth missing. The decision was made to go down, going to slow and need an ibuprofen or two, or a handful. We rappel down, annoyed but in the short time I’ve been on the wall with Sean I’ve learnt a lot, its only made me want a Yosemite big wall more.
Huge thanks to HoldBreaker for the gear.