Lost Arrow Direct, by Lukas Chrostowski


(See below for a second account)
As a Yosemite day climber, I have many times arrived at night to see may climbers on long routes, with head lamps on. Up till now, I have been climbing on relatively short routes, from top roping at Val David near Montreal Canada or Squamish, to 15 pitch routes such as Royal Arches in Yosemite, that are done in one day. However, seeing these climbers do big wall climbs has given me much temptation to seek even greater adventure. Finally, the moment has come when the temptation is too great, and the opportunity is presented. Charlie Williams, a hard-core climber/adventure photographer invites me to do an air route "sometime this summer". I return from a trip to Canada to find his message saying he's started solo-aid climbing the Lost Arrow Direct route and that he wants me to join him for the weekend to finish the climb, since he didn't have enough time to do it alone. We meet to discuss our plans for tomorrow: I drive to Yosemite in the evening, hike up to the base of the climb, jumar up the first four pitches he set-up a few days prior, sleep a couple of hours, climb, sleep a little, climb, sleep a little more, hike down and go home. It all sounds like absolute torture, especially since he describes aid climbing as "crawling on hot ashphalt while someone beats you with rusty chains." I'm up for the challenge, as this will be the first time I sleep on a ledge of a rock face, wearing a harness. I will be next to beautiful Yosemite falls all day; I will see incredible sunrises and sunsets. What excitement! I am thrilled with anticipation!
I left the bay area in the middle of rush hour on Friday. I had been warned that the drive to Yosemite at such an hour could take up to 8 hours, and I was quite pleased to arrive at Camp 4 four hours later, right on time for my meeting with Charlie. I j oined him for the hike up to the top of Yosemite Falls to fix the ropes for our exit out of the notch, and we returned sometime around 1am. We packed and hiked up towards the base of the climb, then jumared up the first 4 pitches which he had fixed. By the time we were up at the ledge, dawn had approached! We slept for a few hours and begun our aid climbing adventure. The climbing wasn't very eventful: belaying for two hours at a time, being mezmorized by the Yosemite Falls, trying hard to stay awake.
The highlight of the day was when I led one of the day's four pitches, which took me close to three hours! Aid climbing is painfully slow and labourious: put a piece of gear in the crack, test it's holding strength, clip in a ladder, step on it, gentl y at first, put all your weight on it on one foot, unclip the second ladder from the piece below, clip it above you, climb up the two ladders as high as you can go, stretch out your arms and legs up up up, and put in another piece, test it, etc. etc. Wit h a piece every meter or so, a 40 meter long pitch takes forever... For my first time, I thought I didn't do too badly. The worst part of leading in wall climbs is that the leader must haul up the haul-bag; ours probably weighed more than I do! The res t of the day was one big blur - it was hot, I was thirsty, hungry and tired. Sleep came very easily that night after a few peanut butter sandwiches. The next day, more of the same, with me leading one more pitch of A1, which took more a little over 3 hours. geez. Again, everything is a blur. In those past two days, we had climbed up a total of no more than 300 meters! Fortunately, the scenery was breathtaking, but the experience was still mind-numbing. Our conversations were brief: we were constantly climbing, and when we were together on ledges for the night, we did not stay awake too long. On Sunday night, we finally finished the climb, reaching the notch of the Lost Arrow Spire. The ropes we had fixed above were supposed to be our exit, but were no-where in sight! After some searching (rapelling down the Lost Arrow Chimney), we found tha t they were horribly out of reach. This meant that the easiest way for us off this climb was by rapelling down all the way to the bottom! The next morning, we packed and begun our rapel down the rapel route on the right of the arrow. Charlie went first, and I went second with the bag tied to my harness. The rapelling was quite unpleasant with the bag constantly in the way. We finally reached the bottom, Charlie ran off for his meeting in San Francisco (which he didn't make on time), leaving everythin g at the base of the climb. We agreed that I would take out a partial load, and he would return sometime for the rest. I took out a backpack full, leaving behind a mostly full and still very heavy haul-bag. The hike down involved some route-finding, sc rambling, manzanita tree bush-walking, scree, slab traverses, and finally a little talice -- I was glad that I would not be going up and down this trail several times. Eventually reaching the bottom, and caught the shuttle to my car, and immediately wizz ed over to Currie village for some delicious Pizza I'd been dreaming about for the past few days. Re-energized and re-hydrated, I was ready for more torture: hiking up to the top of Yosemite Falls to pick up our ropes! It was quite a pleasant hike: many people on the trail (especially compared to our night hike on Friday). Finally, I drove back to Berkeley, exhausted, and slept. Poor Charlie had to return to Yosemite as soon as possible to pick up the haul bag, in which I had left our food remains. While doing this climb, I felt that aid climbing wasn't for me. Upon my return, I was glad to have made it, felt good about going through the challenge, and would consider it again -- especially now that I have some aid climbing gear, having found two ladders on the climb!

Lost Arrow Direct, by Charlie Wolf.


Lost Arrow Spire Direct Route (The Reid guidebook claims the rating is VI 5.11 A3, I'd say it's closer to V C2)
I climbed this route in June 1999, rope-soloing the first 4 pitches, then finishing the rest in a weekend with a Polish engineer named Lukas. If you sleep at the base, strong nightly winds rake the slopes starting about an a hour after sunset to just before sunrise and can make sleep unpleasant. It is also windy, but less so, on the ledges at night. There is a thin, slimy water seep a hundred yards or so up the slope (toward the Czech route) from the start of the climb. I don't know if lasts just seasonally or all summer and through the fall, but it was adequate to fill my water needs, although filling up five gallons took more than an hour. While there is plenty of potential for exciting free-climbing, we aided most of the climb and did it entirely clean. The rack consisted of 16 cams ranging from the small blue Alien to the big green Camalot, plus about 2 sets of nuts, including brass/copper nuts and few large hexes. Also necessary were a leeper cam hook, a bat hook, and a regular cliffhanger hook. You may want to bring doubles of the hooks as several sections have consecutive hook moves. Don't bring heads, they aren't necessary and you will only end up scaring the rock. There are about 5 fixed heads on the entire route and each one can be replaced by a nut if necessary.
There is a brief description of the route with a few photos in the 1968-69(?) American Alpine Journal written by Pat Callis who, with Warren Harding, was the first ascensionist.
If you are unfamiliar with the approach, don't do it at night. While it's mostly a straighforward scramble, a misstep at the wrong spot could prove fatal. I think it's better to break up your loads and do multiple carries than to huff it once with a monster load.
Special note: Despite it's relative "remoteness", the east base of the Yosemite Falls Wall still has an alarming eyesore of litter, mostly in the form of dropped cans, webbing, poo bags and water bottles. When humping loads in or rapping out, consider making a donation to your Karma Retirement Fund by collecting a little trash and taking it out with you.
Pitch 1 - Used a leeper cam hook for pro on the traverse.
Pitch 2 - A tatty bolt ladder missing many bolts, with some cam pro at the beginning and end. Some bolt holes have nail nubbins hammered in which can be looped with a small nut. I used a cheat stick twice, and a bat hook and cliffhanger a couple of times.
Pitch 3 - A single 50m rope will reach the ground from the beginning of this pitch (swing over toward climber's right and land on the big blocks at the base and you will just make it). Big #5 Camalot was useful here. The pitch ends with two anchors within 20 feet of each other. I'd recommend passing the first one and using the second one, the ledge is better. Haul bag got stuck twice here, had to rap both times to free it.
Pitch 4 - This pitch is short. Do not go up the easy cracks immediately at the left at the second anchor, rather stay in main chimney/dihedral for another 20 feet and then go left at an easy traversing crack which leads up to the ledge. Be aware of rotten granite, I took a daisy fall here when a cam pulled out. The short bolt ladder indicated on the topo does not exist; it's a three bolt anchor, which you may already be using as a belay. Large flat ledge with first class view of falls and valley. Plenty of room for gear and can sleep 3 people easily, many more if you cram. It's big enough to saunter around comfortably unroped. Careful hauling over the coarse granite. I ruined my haul line here trying to extend my pulley out over the edge- completely ripped the core off, leaving just the frayed inner strands. Haul bag got stuck twice here again, had to rap again and free it. Ledge is sandy.
Pitch 5 and 6- Back-cleaned the pendulums to make it easier for the second.
Pitch 7 - This would be an enjoyable free pitch if you can climb 5.11
Pitch 8 - Grunt offwidth and chimney pitch, ending in another expansive flat ledge large enough for your extended family. Mice live here too.
Pitch 9 - From below, this pitch appears to be an intimidating blank vertical face. I got a glimpse of it just before the sun set and spent an anxious night suffering from anticipatory "ground grip". I discovered in the morning that my fears were unfounded, as hangerless bolts and bat hook holes abounded. Have all of your hooks ready, you will use them. Ends in a comfortable, surprisingly hidden belay ledge.
Pitch 10 - Crux of the climb is 20 feet above belay, you may have to bat hook the brittle holes of a couple fixed, rusty RURPs. No big deal, pro below is good and a fixed piton up and to your left invites security. The pitch evolves into a punishing offwidth/grunt chimney. You will lose skin and grumble unpleasantries while finishing this one.
Pitch 11 - A splitter 1" crack launches vertically off the belay. The end of the pitch is overhung. The belayer here can squeeze back into the "shade cave" to avoid the sun.
Pitch 12 - Short pitch, some hooking, horn looping and nutting down low, and fixed micro-copper heads above. If the heads happen to blow, you can easily use RP's, tiny nuts, or cam hooks to continue. Ends in another comfy ledge. Cam hook useful to supplement the anchor. The first anchor of the Rohrer rappel route lies about 6 feet below this ledge.
Pitch 13 - Easy 5.6 scramble to the notch. Several options here on how to end the climb: climb the tip and/or climb fixed ropes out of the notch to the rim; aid/free climb your way to the rim; rappel the Rohrer rap route. We got to the notch and discovered that the ropes we had fixed from the rim two nights before were inaccessible, so we ended up rapping the Rohrer route. Tucker Tech professed that climbing the final 2 pitches to the rim were "not straight-forward" A3 and/or 5.10ow; adding that he ascended it pitonless after climbing the Lost Arrow Chimney and discovering, like us, that anticipated fixed ropes were not present. I was intimidated at the thought of rappeling down the unknown face as I am paranoid about stuck ropes. I anxiously envisioned us hanging from a rusty anchor midway down the wall, pathetically ensconced like giant slabs of beef jerky slowly desiccating in the 90+ degree heat as our futile cries for help were drowned by the roar of the falls. Fortunately, the Roherer rappel route prove to be a no-brainer, and we made it down without a hitch, leaving only a bolt hanger and a couple of pieces of sling behind to supplement the in situ fixed chain rap anchors. We employed double 50m ropes, but preferred to break up the rappels with intermediate anchors when we found them in order to preclude stuck ropes. Beware of the occasional lose block; there are some very big ones waiting to go which will happily take you along with them.