Royal Arches

June 7, 2019

Royal Arches

Yosemite National Park

Laura and I have wanted to climb in Yosemite for a while and since we have a few days in California, she chose a 50 classics route in the valley. Royal Arches was first climbed in 1931 and is 18 pitches of wandering climbing. The route can be free climbed at 5.10 or there is a fixed rope to use as aid if you need it to get across the short difficulty.

The approach is short, just a 10 minute walk from the parking area at the Awahanee. When we arrived at the base of the climb, there were 2 groups in front of us. One group was on the first pitch and 4 ladies were in line. We discussed the route and the ladies decided that due to wet conditions that it would be better for them to try something different today.

So on route we go. The first pitch is a very slick 5.7 chimney that has almost zero grip. It felt more like climbing ice than rock, but I quickly made it through and  set up a belay at a tree. Laura followed and we were on our way! We climbed through the second section of the route and found ourselves wandering along a path and scrambling around looking for the correct line to follow. I found what I thought was the correct way but there was a waterfall running down the path we would need to climb to progress on the route. I chose to climb an angling crack and roof system above that was about 5.9 or a bit harder. When I reached the top of the roof, I looked across and could see clearly that we were supposed to climb the waterfall pitch, so we rappelled across the falls and got back on route.

 For the next few hours, we climbed alongside a few other groups and pitch by pitch we neared the crux of the route. We were first to reach the tough part, so Laura led up to the pendulum and fixed rope. I wanted to try to free climb the route and it seemed that I was the only one who would attempt it. As Laura belayed, I clipped into the fixed rope and began searching for the correct line across the thin and slabby traverse. I started out too low, but eventually moved higher and found some small edges to step across on that eventually provided me access to a good ledge system to grab onto. I was happy to have climbed through without using the fixed rope! Laura followed and we were once again moving up toward the top of the climb. I lead a few more pitches and Laura took the final two that got us to the top of the climb! We knew we had 10 rappels to get down and that it would take us atleast a few hours so we didn’t waste any time getting going. We set a system that I would set up the rappel and she would look at the descent topo map so we knew where to go. Simu-rappelling and working perfectly together, we moved quickly down the 2,000’ descent. Within a few hours we were off the route and headed to dinner.

We had a great time on this Yosemite climb and are happy to check off another 50 classic! Can’t wait to go back!