The South Face of the Column is the first wall experience for a lot of aspiring big wall climbers in the Valley. A few pitches of free climbing and easy aid make it a straight-forward, two-day climb for most teams. Bear in mind that this also makes this route the BUSIEST wall route in the entire Valley.
The general approach is to climb to Dinner Ledge the first day, fix a couple of pitches from there, then head for the top on day two.
P1) Climb up 5.8 corner, traverse out across the slab left of the corner and belay on a ledge at the top.
P2) Go left across to the first nice corner and aid that to the anchor. There is a free-climbable (10b) corner left of that, but don't go too far or the climbing will get way hard and you'll have to penji back right to the anchors at the top.
P3) Free climb up cracks and corners to the right end of Dinner Ledge. The good bivy spots are all out to the left below the Kor Roof.
P4) Kor Roof pitch. Easy free climbing up a ramp takes you to bolts. Aid bolt-to-bolt up the roof to a crack that leads up and right. Aid this crack to belay anchors. MAKE SURE NOT TO BACK CLEAN TOO MUCH IN THIS CRACK OR YOUR SECOND WILL KILL YOU UPON ARRIVAL AT THE BELAY!
P5) Crux pitch. Head up and over the small roof above the belay. A tricky move into the crack above, then continue aiding up the left along the arch. A short penji will get you to the anchor.
P6) Continue aiding up and left, then up crack to anchor.
P7) All time stopper pitch! Nuts are bomber here. Go straight up cracks to the anchor.
P8) This pitch is free-climbable at 5.9. Climb up and cut right to chimney. Continue up to a belay in the chimney above.
P9) Tricky pitch of mixed free climbing and aid goes out right and up from the chimney, then up some more to belay in a big tree. Nice!
P10) Hardest free climbing pitch here, or aidable up and over roof back left to belay.
P11) Go up loose gully taking care not to dump tons of death on the parties below. Belay off tree above. Carry the haul bag!!!
Yer done! Scramble to the top of the Column from there, pack up and descend the North Dome Gully. Do a little research on this to suss the line of the descent.
Location
The Column us located east and a bit north of the Ahwahnee Hotel. Take a dirt road east for about half a mile, then join the bike path for about a half mile. Keep your eyes open for a trail off the left side of the path that takes you to the Column.
Stunningly beautiful and a perfect first wall. Goes faster than West Face of Leaning Tower due to the large amount of free climbing on the SF. If you have ever climbed a wall before and free up to low 5.10, this goes easily in a day, and you won't have to deal with a bag.
Take lots of small/medium stoppers for the nut pitch, or cam hooks would really speed things up.
Don't back-clean the crack above the Kor roof, but do back-clean the bolts going out the roof. If you just leave the last bolt clipped on the roof your second can just jug straight up to the lip. There will usually be a fixed climber under the roof.
Super fun route. Not much to add except that you can pass slow parties that are stuck on the roof. If you traverse left at Dinner Ledge and get onto Southern Man, then you can be to the top of P5/6 (hard to remember) directly above you real quick. The first pitch is a quick bolt ladder and the second one follows an ever narrowing seem with some grass toward the top (cam hooks are nice) and ends up linking with S. Face near the top of P5/6. I remember some creative climbing at one point, but nothing too difficult.
Lastly, if you are dehydrated and find a huge bottle of Red Gatorade hidden between some boulders at the top of the Prow, don't drink it. The next morning in the cafeteria sucks if you do.
To make it faster and more enjoyable, leave your haulbag on dinner ledge. Climb to the top, then rap back down to dinner. Saves you the work of hauling and the walk off, and you won't be threatening parties below you with loose stuff in the funnel at the top as you haul.
There is a lot of loose stuff up there, the guys above us who rapped down sent lots of little rocks at us. Lots.
Also, you get the bonus of a 2nd night on dinner ledge, which is a bitchin' spot!
By Jordan Ramey From: South Pasadena, CA Mar 27, 2008
Beware of the "biting" ants around the tree atop the pitch 1 ledge. There is a very stinky smell right before the biting starts. Oh, and they REALLY come out at night. Just don't rustle the tree and you'll be fine though.
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