Alex and I decided to go climbing in Yosemite on Saturday. It was going to be my first "real" valley climbing experience, so we went for a great classic: Royal Arches. 15-pitches and 1400ft of air sounds impressive in a book, and it turns out had quite an effect on my impressionable self. The topo presents the route as a long but moderate effort, adding that "the crux of the climb can easily be bypassed by a pendulum technique". What they really meant to say is that on the 9th pitch, you have the option of holding on to a fixed rope anchored 30 ft up the wall and make a spiderman run accross a blank (and pretty darn steep) slab of rock overlooking beautiful Yosemite Valley (1000ft below), trying to go far enough so you can reach a small ledge with your left hand (if you visualize this correctly at this precise moment you are hanging 1000ft off the ground, holding on to the pendulum rope that is pulling you back to the right with your right hand and fighting the pull of the pendulum with your left hand that is gripping a small rocky ledge to your left... comfy). You then have to let go of the pendulum and somehow hoist yourself onto the ledge you were holding, at which point you can stop hyperventilating. Needless to day I was scared out of my brains and I still wonder how I got myself to do this, I probably should blame heat exhaustion. Anyway, somehow I managed to get over there on my second run. 6 pitches later (all 15 pitches were led by SuperAlex, por supuesto) we were at the top. Of course we had run out of water a long time ago so we were quite relieved when - 11 rappels later - we set foot onto the valley ground. After 9h30 of climbing, it felt really good to inhale some powerade and sit down at the curry village deck. Two pitchers of water, a cold beer and a gigantic pizza later we collapsed onto our sleeping pads. I think I will stay away from rocks for a little bit. Alex's pictures can be found here.
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