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Climber writes:
Looking for some advice for the South Face of Washington Column:

1. Where should we park? I’ve heard valet at the Ahwahnee, but is that still an option?
2. Rap or hike for the descent?
3. Like most people climbing it, this will be our first big wall so I’m sure we’ll be the annoying slow guys. Does it matter which day of the week we start (End of Sept or sometime in October)? I’m curious if there’s a big difference in traffic on the route starting on a weekend vs midweek.

Thanks in advance for the help 🙂

1. Park at the Ahwahnee (Grand Majestic) Hotel parking lot. No need to valet. Get there early and you can snag a space over by the valet parking area which is closer to the trail, otherwise you park about 100 yards further away, whatever. Don’t need parking permits, I’ve left my car there for over a week before. Obviously need to bear box and bear proof your car, 2 bear boxes are located over by the boulders at the start of the trail. You’ll need to get there prior to 9am or after 5pm generally to get parking. If there’s no parking when you get there, you might be able to drop your gear and park at Bishops Terrace which adds about 10 minutes to your hike but I can’t remember if all day parking is allowed there. Used to be able to park at the Yosemite Village store but that lot is only short term parking now. I’ve been parking at Ahwahnee every weekend for the last few months while I work on a project and have never had an issue finding parking. On the off chance that all of these are a no go, then you drop your gear at the backpacking camp drop point in Lower Pines and park at the Glacier Point Parking lot and hike over to your gear (bike helps for this portion)
2. Depends. If you’re alone on the wall then the choice is up to you. Obviously hiking down the NDG can be tricky if it’s dark and requires you to haul your bags up through the slabby loose hellscape that is the top of WC. Rapping is painless as long as your ropes don’t get stuck. If there’s other parties on the route (99.9% chance) the rapping is best as you’ll be able to avoid loosing rocks from the top down over the route and directly onto the death zone that is Dinner Ledge. Keep in mind that rapping with parties below you will take a bit of time as you maneuver through their ridiculous nood junk show anchors. With two 70m you can also rap Skull Queen which will get you out of the path of upcoming climbers. Two 60m will NOT work for this unless you plan on clipping into the traversing rivets on Skull Queen’s 5th pitch to return to the alcove belay above Dinner Ledge.
   1. If you do end up topping out with all your gear, another option is to rap the Royal Arches raps. This is more of a top out at nighttime thing since you don’t really want to get in the way of the freeclimbers conga lining down that thing during the day. Or you do, your call, you do you boo. Benefit of these raps is that though they take a long time, they plop you down less than five minutes from your parking at the Ahwahnee. To do this, you hike over and find the tree above the raps, you’ll hike through some boulders to find a large tree with webbing attached to it (GPS of tree is approx 37°44’57.9″N 119°34’12.2″W or 37.749424, -119.570062) Send a climber without the bag first as once you rap over the edge, you’ll need to climb up a bit (very easy) to reach an obvious tree with webbing on it at the base of the headwall. Second will send down the bag or rap with it, whatever your comfort level is. From this tree you can rap and veer right a bit to hit the first of the many anchors that make up the Royal Arches Raps – Don’t try to traverse to the start of the Royal Arches raps, there’s no value to doing this and is too much work. Then rap as normal (It’s helpful to have a rotor/swivel on the top of your pigs to prevent the haul bag straps from getting spun into a knot as you’re rapping.)
3. There is almost always a party on this route Sept/October. The weekday is almost always better than trying to do something on the weekend. If you have the ability to do it midweek, that’s your best bet because you’re only competing with other tourist climbers instead of competing with those and the Bay Area weekend warriors charging up the route in a day or two days. Recently I watched from the Prow as a party on Saturday morning was so slow and clusterf*cked attempting to reach Dinner Ledge that three parties behind them basically just had a tea party all day and bailed when the sun set and the slow noob team had yet to reach Dinner Ledge. I kid you not. While we’re on that topic of being new and slow. Do not underestimate the Kor Roof pitch. It’s hard for a new leader and even harder for new followers. I’ve watched many followers constantly pass pieces while hanging off the edge of the roof and dealing with the wind and pain of jammed ascenders due to this. Best bet is for your second to swing over onto the face and stay in the crack as they clean – this requires a bit of balance and footwork in the crack. It takes more work at first but saves much time and effort later.