South Seas Solo

At the end of September through to the start of October I spent 10 days soloing South Seas on El Cap. I know trip reports can be a tidal wave of spray, but I really enjoy reading them, so I thought I'd upload this. It's a very shortened version of the report I had to write to justify my university paying me to go to Yosemite. I can also do TRs for a solo of Aurora and one day solos of WFLT and Lurking Fear if anyone's interested? Either way, here it is:

Day 1

Spent the morning pre-spraying in the meadow, then carried the ropes and rack up and fixed one pitch. I'd heard someone fell and stripped a whole rivet ladder on pitch 2 but it turned out to be a single missing rivet, which a guy ahead of me had just replaced before bailing. 

Day 2

More morning pre-spray and carrying the ledge up to the base. Fixed pitches two and three. Had a fall on pitch 2 when the wire on a copperhead snapped, the grigri worked though. Pitch 3 was mostly pretty straightforward. I abseiled from there to set up the Alcove Swing and spent the evening messing about on that. These first three pitches could be a good in-a-day mission for anyone getting into moderate aid (with the added benefit of having the swing at the end), though getting the ropes down afterwards might be quite involved.

Day 3

I bribed my friends with the Alcove Swing to carry all my water up, though they said that this invalidated the solo. Spent the morning on the swing, then did two pitches in the afternoon. I can't remember much about P4, but P5 was really nice.

Day 4

Pitch 6 was also very good. Then I managed to botch my way through the 4" C1 section on The Great White Shark with just a single #2 and #3 (I left the bigger cams back at the belay). It was still early so I fixed to the pendulum point of the Rubber Band Man

Day 5

I left most of the rack at the belay for the pendulum. I stuck it after a few goes, then carried on up until I was about level with the pendulum point. I went back to the belay to get the rest of the rack before (thinking the wall was steep enough for it to be fine) jumping off the ledge instead of lowering out. The swing wasn't as clean as I'd hoped... Pitch 9 was crap, with a fair bit of dodgy rock. At one point a cam broke off a laptop sized flake and I took a daisy fall onto my previous piece. The flake thankfully hit me on the shoulder rather than my face or the rope. I felt fairly battered after that though, so finished early and set up my fly for the rain forecast overnight. My fly (which was second hand 10 years ago) only leaked a bit. 

Day 6

With afternoon rain forecast, I linked pitches 10 and 11 and fixed back to my ledge. I had a brief conversation for the first time in days, shouting over to Mark and Skot on Sea of Dreams. I had my dinner for lunch, had a midday beer, used the rest of my mobile data (no more forecasts or messaging people), and went to sleep at 3pm. 

These three photos were all taken at pretty much the same time. Thanks to Mark and Skot for the second one.

Day 7

More afternoon rain in my out of date forecast so I moved my camp up to the top of my ropes, then fixed the "crux A3+" P12, which was in reality a clip up. With no book to read or any phone data, I again went to bed in the early afternoon.

Day 8

The forecast finally cleared, so I pushed up to the Island in the Sky. P13 was really cool (it's the one on the front cover of the complete guide), then P14 was a bit grassy and P15 was awkward and a bit dirty. The Island in the Sky was mega though. It was weird to be able to walk around for the first time in a week. It felt good to be moving again after climbing just 3 pitches in the previous two days.

Day 9

Another 3 pitch day! The 5.8R section was probably neither 5.8 nor R in my opinion which was a nice surprise, though I am from the UK and wouldn't have been let home had I found it scary. I only realised that the Aleutian Chain was expanding when I needed to weight one cam to get another out. I was papped after this, so didn't make it to the Highbrow Bivi.

Day 10

I decided to try to push for the top, which started badly when I failed to get my ledge apart. P19 was also fairly slow so I was a little worried I'd have to make one more bivi, but P20 was really quick so made up for it. I fell off on P21, which worried me since falling on C1 means you're shit. Thankfully the rock had exploded, so I was only a bit shit. P22 was really awkward and a sting in the tail at the end of a long day, as was the horrible summit haul. Although I was knackered at the end, this last 4 pitch day made me realise that I can solo pretty quickly if I just accept that I'll feel horrible for the next day or two.

All in all it was an incredible route and an incredible experience. I found it much more chill than Zodiac last year, but that was probably due to having more experience and it not being my first El Cap solo. It was all pretty much type 1 fun this time, so it really energised me to solo El Cap again (in a day just over a week later it turned out). Many thanks to Tom Evans for all the photos!

Thank you!

Great TR. Keep them coming.

Awesome work. Would love to read more of your Yosemite TRs 

It was fun to watch you! 

Great trip report, but I'm more interested in how you got your university to pay you to go climbing. Details would be appreciated!

My Uni in the UK have an “expedition fund”, which students can apply to if they’re planning something vaguely adventurous. They gave me just over £1,000 for the trip and I borrowed all the wall gear from my uni climbing club, so it ended it being affordable for me! Not sure there’s anything similar in the states due to liability and all that?

Man that is awesome. My university climbing club has like 2 ropes and 6 draws to go around. 

It was surprisingly easy to convince people who know nothing about climbing that two G7 pods were essential for teaching trad…

^ proof that some are afflicted with genius.
well played, sir, well played. 

Congratulations getting up the route. Lydia and I made the first punter ascent of the PO in 1982 so it has a place in my heart even if others are objectively better (Lydia moved beyond punterdom very quickly). Also congratulations for successfully navigating your generous University funding system! 

I'd be interested to read your Aurora experiences.