Leaning Tower, West Face (Harding) Route

By: Ed Huckle | Climbers: Ed Huckle, Michael Habicht |Trip Dates: July 6-8, 2000

Photo: Gary Clark

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For a long time my wall climbing partner Michael and I had talked about climbing the Leaning Tower. While the route is technically not that difficult the Tower itself is incredibly steep, and very intimidating. As the name implies the entire wall leans ever so slightly (and usually more than slightly). It is said to average around 110 degrees. This has several disadvantages and a couple of advantages. An overhung wall means very strenuous climbing - both for the leader and cleaner/follower. A steep wall with many sling belays is very uncomfortable as well. Finally, very steep walls also imply lots of aid climbing, and indeed very little of the route goes free.

As far as advantages: you get incredible exposure (nearly for the entire climb there is nothing below you for 500 - 1500 feet), you are safer on an overhung wall from rockfall and other projectiles, and the hauling is very easy (no friction on the bag). In addition, because of the steepness you are definitely safer from weather. I have read accounts of rain soaking the Valley while the West Face of the Leaning Tower was perfectly dry.

We drove up on a Thursday morning hoping to get a mid-week, midday start to avoid weekend climbers or any party starting in the morning. Also, we have done several of those damned "drive up at night, sleep from 1:00 AM till 4:00 AM then start racing up to the base only to find some people already there" trips, and I wanted to be mellow this time. We checked the weather with the ranger at the Park entrance - "sunny and 70's for the next several days". So far so good!

We got to the Bridalveil Parking lot at about 12:00 and were hiking with our giant bags (at least 70 pounds each including 20 liters of water) by 12:30. After a couple of difficult hours we were at the base. We hung our food and took off for the start of the route. Our plan was to climb as much as possible that afternoon, leave fixed ropes in place overnight, then ascend the fixed ropes in the morning, camp on the Ahwahnee ledge that next night, and finish on the third day.

On some walls, like El Capitan, getting to the base of the climb is no problem - you just walk up to the wall and there it is. For the Leaning Tower this is not the case. There is a ledge you have to traverse out onto, and it is very exposed and scary. The climbing is no harder than 4th or very easy 5th class but the exposure is incredible and for part of it you are ropeless. For the most exposed and difficult part there were 2 fixed ropes you could clip into, but even with this the thought of falling was terrifying. We negotiated this and finally we were at the dead tree, where the pitch 1 bolt ladder starts.

By now it was 2:30 or 3:00 PM so we were hustling. I took off leading with the intent of running pitch 1 and 2 together with one 60 meter rope (which just barely reaches). I was cruising along well - it's just a bolt ladder - when I came up to an A2 section. This turned out to be easy (with one cheater stick move) for it was fixed, but was scary for I had to do 3 moves in a row on old fixed copperheads. But since the fall would have been so clean I wasn't worried. I made it past this section and continued through and got to the top of pitch 2 in no time. Michael jugged up and joined me there.

We still had lots of daylight left so we decided to go for another pitch. Michael started off and slowly but surely he got to the top of the short 3rd pitch. We decided to go for the Guano Ledge (atop Pitch 4). He reached it and I jugged up just as it was getting pretty dark. We left the two ropes fixed there overnight and headed back down. We were hungry and especially thirsty. The rappel down the bottom fixed rope was really scary because I was spinning around, it was now completely dark, and you are so far from the wall! Like 30 or 40 feet!

I reeled myself into the wall and with only one headlamp Michael and I slowly made our way back across that damned ledge! We ate cold Taco Bell, which was really good at the time. At this point we were discussing whether to stick to the original plan (2 more days with one night on the Ahwahnee ledge) or just go for it in one long day. We chose to go for it, but just to be safe we brought lots of clothes, bivy sacks, plenty of water (5 liters each!) and plenty of food. All of this we put into a backpack, which turned out to be not that light at all! Either way it was going to be faster moving than hauling a giant haul bag.

We got up at 4:30 and were ready to go at 5:30 or so. Michael was having a tough time ascending the ropes, finding that jugging completely free hanging ropes is much more strenuous than when there is a wall to push against. Since I am usually an excellent, very fast jugger, I figured I would cruise it. How wrong I was. First of all, in addition to my fat self I had a pretty heavy bag to jug with. Also, although I can jug fast using the standard method I was sure that the Texas method (frog method) was the way to go when you have a bag attached to you.

I just moved my upper aider onto the lower jumar so I had 2 aiders on the lower jumar and none on the upper. So far so good. I lowered myself and the bag out from the wall and still ran out of lower-out line which resulted in a scary but fun swing far out from the wall. When I started jugging with the Texas style everything was wrong. It was so difficult! I am pretty strong and I have worked very hard at some times in my life, but the next 2 hours to ascend 350 feet or so was one of the hardest times in my life. Finally, I got to the Guano Ledge! It was still 8am - no problem.

Michael led the next pitch, which looked awkward to lead, and I had to be very skillful cleaning. I constantly used the lower out line to lower off of fixed pieces, and never once had to leave a biner. We picked up about 10 biners along the way, though, as other parties before us must have had some troubles. We had originally planned on running the 5th and 6th pitches together, but rope drag made that impossible. So I led the 6th pitch. At the beginning of the pitch the topo says "A1+ hooks or 5.7." I decided to free it and was too stupid and lazy to change my shoes.

So I went for it in my boots. I did one aid move on a fixed copperhead a few feet above the belay then I went free. I did a few moves, no problem. There was no pro however, and with every move I did I got farther and farther from that copperhead, which would have never held a fall anyway!!! At one point I was 12 or maybe 15 feet above the copperhead and had to do a kind of ugly move, with my boots scraping for a foothold. Michael thought I was going for a giant fall for sure, but the handholds were good enough and I finally got to the bolt ladder, and happily clipped that first bolt! The rest of that pitch is a bolt ladder and I cruised it. The belay atop pitch 6 was a sling belay and I was very happy that we brought the seat with us.

Pitch 7 was a steep, straight up crack which the guide book says is 5.10 or A1. Although 5.10 is a little difficult for me to be freeing (especially old school 5.10) I had some illusions beforehand about freeing it. However, this idea quickly evaporated when I saw it. It was very steep and it would have been really hard 5.10. Sometimes the topos are really not thorough with their ratings, meaning that it didn't indicate that the whole pitch goes at 5.10 or just a small section of the pitch, with the rest being aid. Either way there was no way I was going to free that pitch so in the interest of time (Michael is slightly faster at aid climbing than I while I am better at free climbing) Michael led this A1 pitch. It turned out to be not so easy and took him quite a while. It being a straight up crack it was a cruise to clean, but, again, I was amazed at how often I was swinging out from the wall after cleaning a piece. This wall is VERY steep from start to finish.

We had planned all along to run pitches 8 and 9 together, because pitch 8 is very short and almost nonexistent. On the old topo it indicates something called the "evil tree", but this is gone now. Pitch 8 is pretty much just a slab. On the topo map pitch 9 looks like a straightforward pitch. There is a straight up crack, a little roof, and a little right facing corner. However, once again, the actual pitch turned out to be much steeper and bigger than the topo indicated. The "little" roof turned out to be a quite huge roof, almost as big as the Kor Roof, except that the route skirts to the side of it. Michael led this pitch as well and had a difficult, strenuous time. I did a masterful job cleaning, and it actually wasn't even very physically difficult.

We basically were racing the sun all day long and it was becoming very obvious that we might not be able to top out and rappel down before dark. With this in mind we started occasionally looking at the topo wondering exactly where on the wall we might be spending the night. On top of pitch 9 there is a ledge marked on the topo as "OK ledge". I figured that if we could at least get to there we would be OK. When I arrived there, though, I saw a badly sloping ledge that was OK to stand on, but impossible to sleep on (although I am sure someone has tried). This is just about the time I looked over my shoulder to see the sun setting. Oh shit!

I had claimed pitch 10 and the 4th class (pitch 11) as mine all along so it was my lead. I took off with a big rack (of which I used almost nothing), a cheater stick (which I used a lot), and a headlamp. Much of this pitch was fixed and at this point I was clipping and stick-clipping anything in sight. Actually, the Leaning Tower West Face route has an incredible amount of fixed gear - bolts, old pitons, stuck nuts, and old copperheads. I, however, never tested a single piece of fixed gear, and I don't think Michael did either. I tested a couple of my own cam placements and as for the rest I achieved new levels of trust I have never experienced before. Anyway, pitch 10 was no problem and I did the 2 or 3 traverse moves at the top (one of which was a "stuck" 0.75 Camalot which Michael easily cleaned and we took), pulled over the lip and was overjoyed to see a nice, big, flat ledge - our bivy spot for the night.

We experimented with different ways of coiling up a rope to make a ground insulation layer and after a beautiful dinner and plenty of water we were asleep. I woke up several times to add clothes and eventually had everything on using one boot for a pillow and the other on the foot touching the ground. I still woke up cold many times but it was far from epic.

In the morning I led the 4th class section (very short friction) and we stood on the top! For those of you who don't wall climb you really get a sense of achievement of having labored so hard and finally getting to the top. Michael and I have been haunted by topping out in the past. We did a few practice climbs where we did not top out: one time on La Escuela (A perfect practice aid climb on El Cap) we did 2 of the 3 pitches before darkness forced us off. On Rixon's pinnacle (DON'T EVER PRACTICE AID THERE) we found excessive moss that slowed us down so we couldn't top out. I strung two pitches together in which I had to garden for nearly every single placement (for 165 feet!) taking 6 or so hours! We attempted the South Face of Washington Column twice; the first time we were rained off; the second we got behind an incredibly slow party (who took 6-7 hours to lead pitch 5!) and we had to bail. Finally last year we climbed Spaceshot and topped out getting lucky with both crowds and people. All of these experiences (for I don't consider any of them at all failures) definitely enhanced our topping out on the Leaning Tower.

We hung out on the top for only a few minutes, though, enjoying the beautiful views of El Capitan. The descent was pretty much a cakewalk - 8 rappels with no stuck ropes. We augmented a few anchors and replaced an especially ugly one with a beautiful equalized, 3 piece cordalette with 3 rap rings. We collected our stuff, hiked down and got to the car. Not exactly a speed record at 50 hours car to car but we were more than satisfied. I was pretty incapacitated after all of the work and really needed some rejuvenation - which we found with a dip in the Merced and a big cold Coke!