Royal Arches

Royal Arches
Sierra Nevada– Rock Climbing
Total Time: 10:00
Distance: 2.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 1600′
Crux: 5.7
Pitches: 15
Protection: Double rack of cams #0.5-2 plus #3-4, set of nuts
Companions: Holly
Trailhead: Church Bowl Picnic Area, full services

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At the eastern end of Yosemite Valley is a cliff of massive exfoliating slabs forming a series of arches above the Ahwahnee. The face was first climbed in 1936 and was the first major cliff to be climbed in Yosemite, the pioneers having focused on summits and spires to that point. Some have called in one of the greatest rock climbs in the world and is featured on the coveted 50 Classic Climbs of North America. And at 5.7 A0, it is one of the most accessible, with 16 pitches of moderate to easy climbing, with the single crux pitch bypassed by a short rope swing. It had been on my to do list longer than nearly any other climb in the Valley, and with a mild spring and snow still blanketing the high country, we found a day in late June to make it happen. The longest climb Holly and I have ever done together was 1000′ of climbing (Afternoon Nap) and 7 pitches (Courthouse Rock), so we knew we were in for a long day. And being a popular route, we did not want to get stuck behind a slower party, opting for an early start and leaving home a bit after 5 AM. Apparently the Ahwahnee is now valet only parking, so we backtracked and parked at Church Bowl, walking the flat Valley Loop trail to the base of the route, an awkward and polished 5.6 chimney.

I had a small pack with snacks and 2 liters of water for the day, and I could hear my food getting crushed behind me as I flailed up the first 15′, reaching a bit more secure rock above a small chockstone. I passed a tree near the top of the chimney and worked out left around another large chockstone to finish the first pitch, what would ultimately be our least favorite of the climb. The second pitch was about 300′ further up the gully, so I walked as for up as I could before slinging a manzanita for an anchor and bringing Holly up.

We moved the belay the remaining distance to the base of the second pitch with the standard climbing option a full-on waterfall with all the snowmelt above. Luckily, there were a number of variations to take when the route is wet, and I climbed unprotected but easy slabs to the right to gain an excellent 5.6 finger crack on the arete up to another series of ledges, again stretching the rope as far as I could to reach a small pine a bit before the base of the third pitch.

Similar to the last pitch, the easiest lines up the third and fourth pitches (easily linked together) were running with water requiring a harder variation on drier rock to the right. I started up a broken slot a bit off the belay leading a section of fun, wide stemming. From there, I was able to briefly follow a leftward trending crack before awkwardly cutting right around a 5.7 bulge and up to a sandy manzanita ledge.

We needed to move the belay again, following a use trail through the manzanita along the wall nearly to the end to find the start of the fifth pitch, a pin scarred finger crack. I found the first few moves to be a bit tricky, in part because my cam was using the best pocket and I was doing my best to avoid stepping on it as I pulled up into the better finger pods above a horizontal seam. After the first few 5.7 moves, the difficulty eased considerably, and I climbed up through a 5.6 bulge to a sunny ledge where I built a gear anchor on the left side of the ledge to bring up Holly. My plan was to link pitches 6 and 7 together and I climbed up a short step above the belay to gain a series of parallel lie back cracks. I bounced easily between the crack systems, passing an ancient malleable fixed nut before entering a fantastic duel crack system, the left providing perfect hand jams and the right with great side pulls. My topo had this sections labeled as “Glory Hands,” and I had Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days playing in my head as I reached the top of the crack system, scrambling up some fourth class rocks to a tree belay.

“So Good!” I radioed down to Holly as she started up, although her flow was broken up by a walked and stuck cam, as well as a pair of simulclimbers that worked past her when she hit the ledge below the belay. They quickly moved into the 5.7 handcrack variation for the 8th pitch, leaving us with the standard 5.5 off width up and right of the belay. Although I didn’t have wide enough gear to really protect it, the off width section was short, leading to a series of fun 5.6 flakes, the largest of which seemed to be held on to the wall by magic.

We were now at Sandy Beach, the half way point of the climb and start of the crux pitch and infamous pendulum. There had apparently been some significant rock fall over the winter changing the pitch, with the ledge at the end of the pendulum now a narrow, foot-width walkway. We had the benefit of watching the pair ahead of us swing over, and I contemplated trying the pitch free when it was my turn.

But as I started up the 5.7 corner to reach the fixed rope, I missed a hold and popped a foot, shaking my confidence enough to not bother trying it clean. It took me a few tries swinging back and forth to reach the small ledge (I think I clipped in too high) and walked about 10′ before being able to place my first piece of pro. I climbed over some loose blocks up to what would typically be the next belay, but found it completely underwater, basically a small pool. I clipped a piton above the pool in an attempt to keep my rope dry and continued on a section of the next traversing pitch, finally making an anchor about halfway across in a deep slot. I was able to straddle a rock fin and peer over the edge to watch Holly at the traverse, having less trouble swinging across than I did but feeling uneasy by the recent rockfall over the winter. Since we were already halfway across the 10th pitch, it made sense to link it with the 11th, basically walking to a dirty corner and up to a tree where I clipped a long sling, moving back right to the start of the 11th pitch, a series of stacked flakes known as the spear.

The climbing was easier than it looked from the ground with good rests during the lieback and and opportunity to move into a crack system splitting the flakes partway up. At the top of the face, I was able to move back into the corner with some delicate face moves, unfortunately wet with just enough water to make things feel harder than the 5.7 rating. I pulled up and around the “canoe tree,” a hollowed out branch hanging over the pitch and set up the belay.

The 12th pitch started around the corner and I started off a block onto the arete, realizing the steep lieback crack ahead was the 5.8 variation. I started to downclimb, then decided this line would give me better rope drag if I were to link the next two pitches and started up the harder variation. I only needed to lieback the first few feet before switching to straight in hand jams, and had few feet out wide to the right to offer stances for placing protection. After a short 5.6 crack above this the terrain became dramatically more lower angled, a series of low fifth class steps leading up to a deep 5.5 groove and massive pine tree belay.

The wind was now whipping as we neared the rim, Holly completely out of sight below with the 12th and 13th pitches linked around a blind corner. Of course, this was the perfect time for her Walkie-Talkie to die, although she was able to piece together that she was on belay since we had one last radio contact about the amount of rope fed out just before building the anchor. Luckily, the rest of the route was in low angled enough terrain to be able to see and hear one another. Leaving the belay, I started across polished slabs to the left with a thin crack at my feet for protection.

This led to a manzanita ledge and easy fifth class to the broken headwall just below the rim where I built an anchor, keeping Holly in view. Although there were technically two pitches left in the climb, we actually only had one to go with the rappel route starting from the end of the 15th pitch, and those rappeling the route usually skipping the final 5.4 traverse pitch. The other option was the walk off via North Dome Gully. I had actually been up and down that route about 8 years ago, but knew route finding was notoriously difficult with a number of sketchy sections that would be sure to get Holly mad at me. So the rappel descent it was. Our final pitch trended up dirty slabs a bit higher until I was able to find the two bolt anchor and rappel station bringing Holly up and finishing the route in about 6.5 hours.

I was happy with our time considering it was our first time on the route and we pitched out everything. Nothing left but 16 rappels…. The rappel route was designed to be done with a single 60 meter rope, meaning each was relatively short, and the majority could be easily spotted from above. We quickly found a rhythm, the first 9 rappels were down fairly vertical slab, most with small stances although a handful completely free hanging.

This eventually dropped us into a broken ramp system to the climbers left of the bulk of the route and down a number of lower angled rappels. Our 13th rappel (sometime optional) was off a tree down 3rd class rock running with water, although the tree we chose did not reach the anchor hidden from above in a notch below, the only tricky one to spot from above. Two more raps got us to the base of the second pitch of the climb and directly into a pool of water, the waterfalls above having increased throughout the day from the increasing snowmelt and my rope now completely saturated. We scrambled back to the top of the first pitch and rapped off a tree to the base, the 16 rappels taking ~2:20 minutes. I still think that was faster than four of us rappelling in the dark off Courthouse Rock… We quickly walked back to Churchbowl and drove out of the now packed Valley, grabbing dinner in Oakhurst and just missing Avery being put to bed by Grandma as we got home.