| Lucifer's Ledge to Oasis Solo I had been rope-soloing a number of the classic Grade IV's in Yosemite during the Spring of 1996. I wanted to do something a little different. I thought Lucifer's Ledge to the Oasis on the Glacier Point Apron would be a change of pace relatively low in stress. The route would be over 1000 feet in length, but not very steep. It is a slab. The challege would be more mental than physical, moving up in poised balance on sequences of moves on small holds and smears. I would rope-solo all the harder pitches. Slab climbing can be scary since the falls tend to be long. You can't avoid falling by brute strength on the tiny holds, but you fall slower than 32 feet per second squared, and that counts for something. Cluelessly, I started early in the afternoon. The route has to be a solid grade IV but I thought soloing would make it go fast. Everything was quick and blissful in the beginning; free soloing Harry Daley on Monday Morning Slab, and then traversing over to the beginning of Point Beyond. There was a rope hanging there with a note from some other guy intending on soloing Lucifer's to the Oasis! I looked up at a guy on the second pitch of Point Beyond and he was soloing as well! I thought soloing slab climbing was a freak idea, but here, everyone was doing it. I was free soloing Point Beyond as well (although I clipped the bolt with a screamer/daisy combination for a 5.8 friction move or two.) (update: someone has added a number of bolts to this pitch) I quickly caught up with Solo guy #2; he was stopping at Point Beyond so the route was clear. The next couple of pitches (Angels Approach) were solid 5.9, so I geared up in official rope solo mode. The pitches went fast and I third-classed the last 5.7 pitch to Lucifer's Ledge. I was doing OK on time and Life was pretty good. I had done Lucifer's to Oasis many years earlier, and had a nagging memory of vowing I would never return. In denial, I dismissed that memory as some got-off-route, wrong-route-for-my-girlfriend kind of anomaly. The climb from Lucifer's to the Oasis turned out to be frightful and diabolical. The Xeroxed topo I had didn't include the potentially fatal X rating next to the route name. Bogus anchors, zero protection, contorted and convoluted routefinding, questionable and lichenous rock; I was gripped. From the beginning of one 5.9 pitch, all the topo map showed was to generally bear left. I could not see any worn lichen, any bolts, any anchors, few signs of least resistance. Any fall would be 50-100 feet or longer, on 1/4 inch anchors, 1000 feet above the deck. I spent forever inching around, testing the waters, working up confidence on a sequence. When I finished the pitch, it was laughable when I reclimbed the pitch after rapping back to the anchors. With all uncertainty removed, and the top-rope, it was like the difference between playing Russian Roulette with a loaded, then unloaded, gun. The final 5.8 pitch was up a corner, so I thought route-finding and protection wouldn't be an issue, but the corner was choked with moss and the surrounding rock was covered with sinister levels of lichen. No Way! I fretted for a while and then traversed down and around the corner to join up with the Coonyard to Oasis finish. Hassle, Hassle, Time, Time; by the time I got to the top, I knew that rush mode was in order to get through the intricate descent down Glacier Point Terrace. (Much traversing and scrambling followed by around a dozen 75 foot rappels down a steep, blank wall) I got on the wrong track at some point and found myself in no man's land with light fading fast. There was maybe 15 minutes of light left, no headlamp, when I finally accepted that my sorry ass was spending the night right there. I was on a loose ledge covered with loose crap, and I would have to tie in because the void was present. Some of that crap was wood, and I rushed around collecting wood while I could still see, and scraped out a ring of stones amid the loose rocks. It was now about 9 O'clock and I had no food since breakfast or water since 3 PM. I was already thirsty, and wearing only shorts and tank top. When the last trace of light was gone, I felt like a POW wondering how the moonless night enemy would treat me. I curled up and waited to get cold before I burned any wood. I always carry a small emergency sack with lighter, chap stick, sun screen, medicine, Iodine water pills, Swiss army knife, bug repellent and ....Doooh! ....I removed the mini-mag light to take to a party! I got chilly after a while and lit a tiny fire. I thought if it wasn't for nagging thirst and boredom, life would be bearable. I was determined to make the best of things. I thought the long night would be a good time to take stock of my life. I sent out my gratitude to my parents, and all those who had given me love. I sent out my love and best wishes to my ex-girlfriend who was going her own way to find a guy who wanted kids and the American dream. I hoped she would find happiness, and committed to being her friend unconditionally. I hate confessing this to a universe of fellow dirt-bag, cyber-climbers, but I went on one emotional trip after another until the tears of release and compassion flowed freely. Not only was I not bored, but all that mucus loosening up had quenched my nagging thirst. The sun finally rose, and when I reached the Valley Floor, I was in such a cool, vision-quest, altered state of consciousness that I waited a while to eat so I wouldn't spoil it. If you have read this far, Thanks! and remember, if you find yourself tormented and parched some dark night, think about everything that ever made you feel sappy, cry like a loon, and drink the snot running down the back of your throat. Peace and Love........Karl Baba Postscript! I had posted this trip report on the Rec.climbing newsgroup and I received the following reply from the solo climber that I met on the stone that day! re: Lucifer's Ledge to Oasis Mini-Epic After I descended that day, I watched you with 10X binoculars and marvelled that you were still going up so late in the day and still a long way from the Oasis. As I ate a large pepperoni pizza by myself in the evening below the Point, I thought about you and again later that night wondering if you made it down. Thinking about the fact that you had only shorts & tank top and no water. It was a very cool night at Camp 4, I recalled. Coincidentally, I had been planning (for many days) on checking out the sunrise from Glacier Point that morning and drove up there with no thought that the Point was immediately above the previous day's climb. I watched and filmed the sunrise for awhile and than began glassing the valley with the binocs after the sun got higher. I was swinging the glasses down across the rock below beginning to realize that I had been climbing there the day before, then I remembered you... when incredibly... there you appeared among all that rock in my binocs. It was like discovering Waldo. I was stunned. I watched you for, at least, a half hour walk and rap. I took the glasses off you for a few minutes. I swung them back to where I had watched you trying to decipher the rock above and below you, but you had disappeared! I scanned for another 45+ minutes, but you were gone! Visions of you peeling off in your hypothermic, dehydrated state danced in my head! I scanned repeatedly the rock below, trying to peer into the shadows where a body may have come to rest. While engaged in this body search, I heard some crashing and swung the binocs over in time to see some very large boulders literally crater into the scree below! I figured that if you hadn't peeled before that, then for sure you were gone now, but alas, no body. (On your descent, did you trundle these rocks? I'm very curious. If not, perhaps it was a prelude to THE rockfall a couple weeks later!?!?! Not.) I left the Point a bit disconcerted, but figured that I would find out what happened eventually. A couple days later I stopped at the Yosemite Rock Shop to check out some equipment and had a spur of the moment idea to ask someone there if a soloist had been reported missing recently on any climbs (particularly on the GPA) and the salesguy said not that he knew of. I then proceeded to tell him about meeting you a few days before and that I saw you the next day below the Point, etc. He then said that you stopped in that day and talked about your epic and that he knew you from being around. He said that you thought that there may have been some rock fall(s) which may have changed the route(s) and this is why you got hung up. It was finally a relief to know what happened to you . I really appreciated the net story (TR) of your experience that night too. I enjoyed it very much. Well written. (I've enjoyed your other posts. I saved one on the -soloing experience-. I had a suspicion that you were the one I met that afternoon because of the name:Karl & you wrote about soloing in Yosemite.) Would you respond to let me know if you got this e-mail (and did you send those rocks down)? Thanx. Tom M. |