The Slab Chip Experience
Following a good lie in to recover from the events of the previous day (see part 1), we slowly stumble around to get our coffee and oats on the go. After a major faff with gear, we eventually start the walk straight up from our campsite to do battle with the South West Wall. Armed to the teeth with a 40-liter haul bag filled with 8 liters of water, two 60 meter sport ropes, slings, 18 quickdraws, a mountain of hardware and a fully stocked trad rack complete with massive cams. After more faffing about, we begin our Slab Chip Experience. The first pitch starts up an old school bolted climb called INXS (pronounced ‘in excess’). It was bolted on lead, and the old 8mm bolts with big run outs in between are testament to a fearless generation of climbers. Luckily Brian is one of those climbers, and he leads it without too much fuss.
Unfortunately, there’s a bit of loose rock on this pitch as well, but it’s all worth it for the following pitch -a classic traverse undercut crack graded 22, protected by bomber red and green Camalot’s with a bolt here and there. It’s my lead and I set off happily plugging cams and clipping bolts. Despite getting a little pumped, I manage to get through and clip the stance, bringing Brian up to continue onto the next pitch.
We haul up our water and gear for the next day which will be the main push day, and then abseil off, leaving our two 60-meter ropes tied together as a single fixed line to the ground. The next morning, we wake up at 4am and jug up our fixed ropes in the dark. Jumars, excess gear, and shoes are thrown down our trailing rope, bumping down the rough slabs to the ground in a Petzl Bug bag (the bag took this 90 meter drop like a champ, barely showing any damage afterwards). Our timing is perfect, with the sun rising just as I set off on the 4th pitch. Some of the best climbing of the trip follows, with a stunning clean layback crack into a massive undercling traverse. At the start of the traverse, I plug in the big purple #5 Camalot and run it out to the bolts, getting just pumped enough to make it exciting. Next up is a short section of delicate slab, to a stance at a large hueco.
I then lead the next 2 pitches of thin, just off vertical slab climbing, graded 22 and 25. The granite is what I imagine the Freeblast slabs on Yosemite to be like, smooth, polished and a little slippery if you get your rubber angles wrong. I come unstuck on the 25 pitch, lower back down, pull the rope and free the pitch second go. Brian then boosts the next tricky traverse pitch to follow. Spirits are high, but the sun is on us now and we feel the need to make haste as it is starting to get late in the day.
Neither of us feel like slithering up slabs in the dark.
I grab the rack from Brian and link the next 3 pitches, only barely making it to the chains with the full 60 meters of rope out. The climbing transitions from a hard slab boulder problem straight off the stance, graded 23, into a stunning system of flakes. Although a little vegetated, the climbing is excellent, with a strange step across move onto an adjoining flake system with large cams in place for pro.
Brian takes the lead on the next pitch, another giant flake pitch complete with birdshit and slightly chossy rock. The flake system culminates in a wide horizontal crack with a flat sandy bottom, big enough for a person to lie down in. This is known as ‘The River Bivy’ as it becomes a raging torrent at the first hint of rain. Here we bathe in the sun and eat our PB and J’s, checking the topo for what is to come.
A beautiful symphony of slab climbing follows, with an airy step across from the end of the flake onto the clean slab, protected by a green #0.75 Camalot. Above, sustained toe-tiring moves on tiny rugosities and dishes come to a feature that looks like a belly button. An outie bellybutton. You mantle onto the outie and traverse left to the stance, where you shove your foot hurriedly into a hueco and clip the stance.
For Pro: Refers to ‘for protection’. Meaning that gear is placed to protect a possible fall and make the climb safer.
Topo: Referring to a picture that provides information on route direction, rock features, and pitches (length and anchors).
Rugosities: Refers to small ridges or wrinkles on the surface of the rock. These are usually rough in texture.
As the sun begins to set, I start to hurriedly climb the 3rd last pitch, which climbs through a crux of amazing 2 finger quartz pockets, one of them absorbing a bomber gold #2 Camalot. Disappointingly, I dork it just below the pockets, my shoe skidding off the polished granite. Worried we are running short on daylight, I pull back on immediately and climb to the stance, not bothering to go back down and free the pitch. We waste no time climbing the next easy pitch. But then we are faced with a boulder problem pitch graded 25, as the final obstacle between us and the top. I give it one good go but end up sitting on the rope once again. I pull back on and climb the rest to the final stance, enjoying the last few whispers of light dancing around me.
At the top we sort our gear and start down the South West Wall scramble, which turns out to be quite difficult to navigate in the darkness. Massive chasms and gargantuan boulders surround us, but thankfully, I’m armed with my trusty Black Diamond headlamp complete with a Dual-Fuel battery. It casts a brilliant strong beam that allows me to pick out crucial cairns along the way. I was quite impressed by the endurance of this little headlamp, I still jumared with it in the morning on maximum setting and then completed a 3 hour long walk off still on maximum brightness. Despite this, we still get lost and must retrace our steps a few times to find the path. My eyes are becoming heavy as I walk, despite the hard vinyl of the haul bag cutting into my back.
When we finally make it off the mountain, the time is 10pm. A family of Germans camping next door to us in a massive overlander truck greets us with a round of applause and ice-cold beer. Almost more excited than we are, they explain that they had been watching us the whole day on our vertical journey up the South West Wall. After some show and tell and lots of ooh-ing and ahh-ing over how our camming devices work, we say goodnight to the Germans and collapse into bed, to sleep the sleep of the dead.
