Sunnyside Bench
Climb Review
The rock in Yosemite is granite and what beautiful granite it is. It isn’t as sharp as the granite found at Alabama Hills or Joshua Tree, but it’s still sticky where smeared feet feel good. My favorite rock so far.
The hike to the start of Sunnyside Bench was like 30 minutes from the Yosemite Village parking lot.
The route was trash free and I ended up picking up a randomly left carabiner (in good condition).
Sunnyside Bench (5.6; Sunnyside Bench)—I trad-led this 3 pitch route by combining the first two pitches together and adding a pitch at the end to make sure everyone felt safe on the route. The third pitch was my favorite as the 5.6 crack and the traverse were really fun. Otherwise, the climbing was pretty easy (looking back at it anyways) with lots of granite ramps that felt bomber to hike up. The views were pretty jaw-dropping and I would not mind doing this route again in the future, if just to visit Middle Earth (the place between Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls).
What I Learned
I forgot to pack my climbing harness! I could not just give up on this route, so I ended up making an improvised harness. I found a video on youtube and it’s the same design as what is described as a “Diaper Sling” in the preeminent book, Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. It worked surprisingly well, but I hope to never need it again.
Because I was wearing an emergency harness without any gear loops, I was forced to carry all my gear on three separate slings around my shoulders. It wasn’t so bad except for that fact that in many parts of the climb, I could not see my feet.
On the last pitch, based on mountainproject.com beta, I opted to climb it wearing my approach shoes. I found myself on a 5.4 slab with not the best feet and the rope getting stuck on a crack down at the belay station, which means I had to hold the position for a while (it sure felt like 10 minutes, but I bet it was less than 5). Next time, I’m just going to wear my climbing shoes for all serious climbing, as I felt really stupid for switching out of my climbing shoes.
I think the scariest thing I did on this day was hiking the climbers trail back to the valley floor. There were multiple places where if one were to slip, they’d go right off the cliff.
Even though we started decently early, it’d been nicer to start even earlier as by pitch two, it got pretty hot climbing in the sun.
I thought this climb (with ascent and descent) would take 4 hrs total. It ended up taking 8. There were multiple things we could have done faster, but really, it should have been expected given that we were a party of 3 (double the climbing time) and that the descent took forever.
Louie and I did not pack enough water. We both carried one bottle of water each, which we both finished by the end of the climb. We could have also brought a water filter, which would have been perfect, since the low water level meant that we could refill at Middle Earth (area between Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls.
I ended up placing one pro on pitch 1 and 2 (we combined it), and a few on the other pitches. I probably should place a few more pro even if I feel safe, given that there’s always a possibility of slipping on accident and it makes it easier for the followers to know where to go.
We tested and climbed with our radios set to channel 17 and privacy code 17. Well, half way up, we heard others chatting away happily, so we switched our channel and privacy code when we were all gathered at the first belay station.
I climbed with almost new climbing shoes, as my old ones were in need of being resoled. Because they were new, they really dug into my heels, so I made sure to pop off my shoes at every belay station. I felt like a pro and my feet were happier.
I setup the 3rd anchor station almost at the trail as the others wanted to be roped up as we traversed 4th class terrain. But maybe I set it up a bit too far, as the anchor was about 2 feet too far for the 60m rope that Sarah and Louie were using. Because I had quadrupled the sling at the anchor, I simply reset the anchor to only double the rope and I quickly made the anchor work for the 60m rope. I felt very good about adjusting the anchor on the fly.
Speaking on anchors, all three that I had setup were just basket hitches around a tree that I tied off with an overhand to make it redundant. On two of the anchors I quadrupled since my cordalette is 30 ft and the tree wasn’t too girthy.
Except for a few places, I exclusively used alpine draws to decrease rope drag. I only have four alpine draws, so I may need to get more in the future.
I tried to place a bad nut (loose) on the 3rd pitch as an example that others could learn from. Unfortunately, the placement was so bad that Louie picked it up as it jostled loose. I’ll try again next time, as I think it’s great to see good and bad placement, especially on route. Of course, I can only do this on routes I feel bomber about.
Leading, belaying from top, and setting anchors all felt automatic and easy on this climb.
This was the first climb where I actually felt a dizzying sort of exposure, as there was a traverse section on pitch 3 where I could see the tree tops and a pretty big drop after a little bit of rock. I felt a bit off for a couple of seconds, but I was able to hold my shit together and continue. I think it was helped out by the fact that the traverse had crazy good hand holds and solid feet after the first move. Also that smearing on granite feels so darn good.
Fears Faced
Fear of Falling—Using an improvised harness, facing real exposure, and walking off on a sketchy trail all tested my fear of falling (to my death). But I over came them one by one and was able to stay calm. I was pretty proud of myself to keeping it together.
Friends
Louie and Sarah climbed with me, with me leading, Louie in the middle, and Sarah at the end. They were amazing climbing partners with just the right amount of encouragement, laughs, and stoke. I was very thankful to have their company during the climb, hanging out at the waterfall, on the down hike through some treacherous hiking, and at Degnan’s Deli, where we could recharge our tired (and dehydrated) bodies.
What Happened?
I had only learned about Sunnyside Bench a few months back, but it was something I wanted to do, as I had progressed faster than I thought I would in trad climbing multi-pitch routes. But I didn’t exactly plan out this trip into Yosemite with this climb as the priority item. I actually picked this date as it was the perfect time to raft down the Merced River given the river height. In searching for something to do earlier in the day, I naturally chose Sunnyside Bench as it’s apparently the best beginner multi-pitch route in the valley.
We woke up early on Saturday and drove into the valley with the hopes of being the first people at Sunnyside Bench. We understood that this route is one of the most popular ones and we didn’t want to get stuck behind a ton of other teams. We need not have worried as we saw no one in front of us when we got there—in fact, we saw no one else the entire time we were on the route or when we were walking down the climber’s trail!
When we found the start of the route and started putting on our gear, I realized to my dismay that I had forgotten the one thing you cannot forget, which is the climbing harness. We thought about driving out of the valley to buy a harness, but felt that would take too much time. We then thought about me not leading, but both Louie and Sarah were counting on me to lead as I had the most experience setting anchors (especially natural anchors).
I had remembered that in the Mountaineering book I read last year, there was something about an improvised harness with rope or a sling, so I search for that (thank goodness for stable internet!) while Sarah and Louie searched for other solutions. I found this link and immediately started to try to make an improvised sling with my 240cm sling. It kind of worked, but I had a large amount of sling left over, so I untied and tried to make one out of my 120cm sling. That one was too short, so I went back to the 240 and wrapped the extra around the confluence point. I felt nice and snug and I was really surprised that it stayed up. By this point, Sarah found a mountaineering store in Camp Curry, where we guessed that they would sell a harness, but I kept feeling better and better about the improvised harness, so after a bit of hemming and hawing, I decided to go for it.
We finished putting on our gear, roped up, and distributed all the gear we’d need. I handed Sarah the radio and the nut tool and went over how to use both tools. I handed Louie my PAS (I felt that with the sketchy sling, I wasn’t much improving my chances of less accidents by using the PAS on top of a clove hitch; rather, I felt it would be better used by Louie); I think this decision was a good one since thinking back, the PAS would have been additional weight on my improvised harness and could have made it more dangerous by pulling my improvised harness down. As for myself, I tied in to the climbing rope, put on three slings to carry everything I needed to, and started up the first pitch.
At first, I climbed a bit timidly, but soon lost myself in the climb and felt better and better going up that first pitch. By the end of that long pitch, I forgot all about my janky harness and felt lucky to be in Yosemite climbing the gorgeous rock. At the second belay, I setup a natural anchor with my cordalette and radioed to my friends below. Louie started up and I belayed them in a hanging belay and the harness wasn’t unusually uncomfortable. When they finished, they commented on the fact that I only placed one piece of protection, tied in, and started belaying as Sarah started her climb. I then took the opportunity to stack my rope, take some pictures, and get some time out of my climbing shoes. Once Sarah finished her climb, she handed me my sling that I had placed as protection and I started up the third pitch (I had combined first and second pitches in my first go).
I found this climbing to be much more difficult and that showed as I believe I placed 4 pieces of protection along the route. It wasn’t too bad though, as I had mostly comfortable stances while placing protection. On one of the places, I even found an old piton and wondered which Yosemite climbing pioneer placed it. As the 5.6 crack ended, I faced an exposed traverse. It looked scary at first, but the holds were bomber and I convinced myself that everything was going to be okay—and it really did all go okay. I then climbed up an easy 5.3 crack to a stout looking manzanita tree and setup the anchor there.
Louie climbing up the route but when I saw them crest the rock, I found them way more to the right than expected. Instead of following the easy 5.3 crack, they decided to spice up the climb and climbed an unknown difficulty finger crack to an open face. I think this is the same line that Jose and Karen climbed the week before us as he described a 5.9 or 5.10 finger crack. I hope to climb this path one day... but maybe a day when I don’t forget my fricken harness! Sarah then came up the 5.3 crack as expected and we had a quick discussion about what to do. Mountain project described the final pitch as a class 4 trail, and so I gave them an option to unrope and hike up, but did tell them that the guide book stated that there was a 5.4 climb ahead of us. We decided to play it safe and keep ourselves roped up. Because I had assumed that we would continue unroped, I had actually changed out of my climbing shoes and did not flake my rope.
Half way up the route, I found myself kicking myself for taking off my climbing shoe. That 5.4 looked easy enough, but the holds were not bomber and my approach shoes were not as sticky as I’d like. The foot kept slipping and I relied more on my hands than I had on the previous pitches. In the middle of the 5.4 slab, I found myself stuck. The rope would not pull and I knew that the rope was stuck at the belay station. The radio crackled and Sarah confirmed my guess. I stayed in an awkward position while being pelted by the sun for what felt like years. I started slipping a bit, so I down climbed a few feet to my right with some sketchy moves to gain a better feet for my right foot, which was holding 80% of my weight. After eternity, I was feeling worse and worse, so I asked via the radio to free me faster, at which point Sarah stated the obvious, which was that they were trying their best but the rope was well stuck. After another lifetime, Sarah let me know that the rope was finally free and I quickly got out of that awkward position. The rest was an easy fourth class hike, so I got to a thick tree and setup the last belay station. Everyone came up pretty quickly after that and we hiked to the falls.
When we got to the falls, we realized that it felt like we had Yosemite to ourselves, as we had not seen another soul since leaving the Yosemite Falls trail. We then got into our swimming clothes and hiked down some fourth class slabs to the water. At the water, I jumped into the ice cold water twice, and even slid down from one pool to another. Sarah enjoyed a small bag of peanut M&Ms that she shared with us and we enjoyed the water, relishing the cold water after a climb that made all of us sweat.
We headed back and found the trail to be much more treacherous than expected, with lots of opportunities to perish should we fall. What made it even more scary was that Sarah had packed adventure sandals that did not have as much grip as she’d liked. Still, we found ways to make it fun, with Louie and Sarah swinging on branches when the chance arose. Thankfully, we made it back to the valley floor in one piece and headed directly to Degnan’s Deli where we enjoyed yummy cold drinks, sandwiches, and soups. We didn’t rest for too long, as we had a float down the Merced to get to, but we did reflect on how well our day had gone so far.
This climb didn’t start off as the star of the day, but in my mind, it totally was. It was challenging, had drama, and had the power of friendship to power through all the difficulties that we found.