Yosemite Valley, 10/2/99
Gavin G.

It is several days later but I am still jazzed about the route. The Moratorium had been on my mind for over 10 years, since the one time I did it with Clint in the late 80's. I had been redpointing 5.11's all winter in the Pinnacles but had to sit on a friend on the "10a" liebacking on the first pitch. This fact still irritates me. Gavin and I were supposed to be up there this spring. I had been blabbing, listing routes we could do, and Gavin, who usually can't remember any route names, hit upon this one. He even bought extra units so we would have a full rack of them. Weather and scheduling delayed us, but I knew that it was just a matter of time.

We reached the Valley floor 3 hours after leaving Orinda. The hike was short and it was 11:15 at the base of the route. Outwardly, I am all bravado but inside I am less sure. This is not some well-rehearsed route redux or a sport route studded with bolts. I am reminded of a quote I gleaned while watching pro bull-riding late at night: "too much bull and not enough cowboy." I have done only a handful of gear routes this year. None at the 5.11 grade. Just how much cowboy do we have here?

I had remembered the first pitch as fully sustained, testing me with a titanic pump. This time, though, I moved with surprising ease, plugging pro at first, but then stretching it out to a no-hands rest where I got composed enough to haul up a 3.5 friend that somehow got left off Clint's suggested rack for the route. I did remember right that the sustained 10a liebacking on this pitch is harder than the short 10d fingertip section at the end (Gavin agreed). So far, so good. The 10d on the next pitch is fully real. It is stemming, similar to what I remembered. There is a loose hold that one could probably pull out with ease but that provides a key foothold. It was probably a bad idea to cut my feet loose when I latched a sloping hold just short of the belay ledge. Sport climbing strength saw me through, though. Gavin, as expected, styled the stemming.

On the next, crux, pitch, it is funky 5.10 right off the belay. But by now I am used to it and it passes without trouble. Now I did know in principle the key to the 11b section - "tubing" - but it was another thing to pull it off. For the first few feet I milked the tips locks while scraping my left hip against the wall. When the crack gave out I got in the full "tube" position and squirmed upwards. Totally wild but somehow secure. It began to feel easy, and I started thinking it was all in the bag, but as I stretched high off the jug to pull out of the corner I found that the key holds were all covered in sand! The pro was well below my feet at this point. I slumped back onto the jug, where I discovered that I could get a quasi-handjam. Surprisingly, I was able to use it to recover my strength, and I managed to slot a high nut, arresting mental disintegration. Composed finally, I pulled the moves and stood on the ledge. It was clear, though, that I was not all there because I missed the belay anchor and wound up climbing the corner until the rope ran out, doing the 5.9 loose ow crux of the next pitch. Gavin got the tips locks section but the tube ejected him each time. I kept yelling incoherent beta -- "full banzai pipeline position dude!" -- that only dispersed uselessly in the wind. At one point Gavin got into a rad full chimney position with both feet on one wall and his hand on the other. Wild.

On the way down, I managed to do some penance for questionable ethical acts done elsewhere in the Valley. Gavin and I pulled 5 crummy 1/4" bolts total at the belays atop p1 and p2 and placed 2 good 3/8 Rawl bolts with lap links. Now both belays have 2 good 3/8" bolts. The "tuning fork" Chris Mac gave me works great. It was dark when we reached the base and with only one headlamp we stumbled to the car. One spooky note. In the Valley proper we did not see a living soul all day. It was truly our day for The Moratorium.