Resist! V 5.7 A2+
October 2019, Bosque, DeWeese, Poston
Ribbon Falls Amphitheater, Yosemite NP
In June of 2019, Steve Bosque, Tyler Poston, and I hiked up to Ribbon Falls Amphitheater to begin a new route on the West side of the Amphitheater. Though the weather on the valley floor was warm and sunny, we found that the Falls (because of the high snow pack level the previous winter) were raging so heavily that the entire Amphitheater had been turned into our own private self-contained rain forest. Upon getting drenched from the rainfall contained within these crack-spewed walls after sussing out the route that we would follow, we retreated back to the valley floor to dry our clothing and gear and plan our next attempt for this new route.
A little over a month later, we returned and began our route up a continuously thin crack that lead directly up the West wall near the front of the Amphitheater. Steve Bosque took the lead on the first two pitches, working his way up this perfect beak crack whose base he has been at the previous season observing Nicolas Favresse working his way through his inspired “Eye of Sauron” route on the East wall of the Amphitheater. On the second pitch of this crack, Bosque took a short fall 40’ before the end of the pitch, damaging his foot in the same spot as previous breaks from falls while climbing in the years prior. Ignoring our team rule of “No Heroes” Bosque continued the final 40’ of beaking to finish the pitch using only one foot. Attempt to convince the team that this pitch should be called “One Foot in the Grave” were ill received.
The next day, as Steve prepared to self-rescue himself down the trail to the valley floor, he insisted that we continue on without him. Tyler and I worked together on the next 60m pitch that would follow a system of broken ledges, wide cracks, loose features, and intricate beaking to reach the middle of the wall.
From here we continued to work right, tensioning to a hooking traverse across an edge to reach a perfect hand crack that spilt the wall and led to a corner system. At this point we came across a old set of ¼” bolts indicating that another team had come through this portion of the wall previously. We returned to the ground to research this unreported route and to see if we could determine where the route went. Unable to discover who had put up this route, we were able to see that our route would share the next pitch for most of its length before the other route would spilt off to the right while our desired direction would branch out left, heading for an improbable looking flared system on the headwall.
Returning to the route with Bosque now that his foot had healed, Tyler worked for multiple weekends, clearing our dirt-clogged cracks and avoiding stacks of detached rocks precariously perched upon one another to complete a 60m rope-stretching pitch to the base of the headwall. To Celebrate his return, Steve performed magic tricks while at our portaledge camp as is custom for our team.
From here, Steve moved left, through a section of strange bubbly orange rock that led into a thin corner system that would place us right below our intended flared system. During his lead, Tyler an I marveled at the views of El Cap and the meadow at its base that reward climbers as they ascend the West wall of the Amphitheater.
The next pitch would be mine, starting with a beautiful hand to fist crack on a vertical wall before it deposited me in what was not to be a flare at all but a chimney system that required mandatory free climbing to surpass a large chockstone that guarded a hidden cave that would tunnel into the headwall allowing a path to the summit. By now it was close to Halloween and we brought pumpkins up on the wall for what we believe to be the first pumpkin carving act while on a bigwall first ascent.
Named the I.C.E. Detention Center belay, Steve and I shivered as Tyler charged for the summit, refusing to nail any pitons after the first placement and finishing upon a small ledge in the blocky forest above the steep Amphitheater walls. From here we placed dedicated rappel anchors to allow future parties to descend the route without need of leaving rope behind to mitigate the traversing nature of the route.
All anchors are at least two 3.8” bolts with all rappel anchors containing stainless rappel hardware. Variations are possible to many portions off these pitches allowing for the possibility of freeclimbing this route at a moderate grade. During our time moving over this wall, we discovered another line that would intersect and mirror many of the pitches of this route and continued to work this new line, bringing Jens Christ onto the team to replace Tyler. This new route will be finished early 2020 with a more difficult nailing grade and similar thin beak systems and perfect crack systems.
Resist! V 5.7 A2+
October 2019, Bosque, DeWeese, Poston
Ribbon Falls Amphitheater, Yosemite NP
8 Pitches
Pitch 1: A2: 80’ of thin nailing to two bolt anchor below a small roof. Anchor visible from the base of the route.
Pitch 2: A2+: 120’ of thin nailing continuing up the continuously thin feature
Pitch 3: A2+: 200’ move right and down from the belay to move around a corner on easy free moves to a full rope length of thin to wide climbing finishing with an intricate and discontinuous beak system to reach the belay in the center of the wall.
Pitch 4: A2: 120’ Move right from the belay to reach a rivet via beaks in a bottoming and loose crack, tension around a corner to establish yourself on hooks to make a traverse (protectable with hidden arrow placements) to a laser-cut arrow corner that allows you to reach over to a perfect hand crack on the opposite wall. Follow this to a slanting ledge before moving through a gently overhanging and loose groove to anchor.
Pitch 5: A1: 200’ Continue up dirty climbing through a few ledges, carefully avoiding a precarious stack of loose blocks towards the top of the pitch.
Pitch 6: A2+: 120’ Move left to establish yourself in a left-facing corner system taking cams, thin pitons, and heads to a hooking traverse along a flake system to the anchors.
Pitch 7: 5.7 C1: 130’ of steep hands to fist before establishing yourself in a chimney system requiring mandatory free climbing to reach the belay cave at the end of the pitch.
Pitch 8: C1: 110’ Move to back of the cave and climb out the back up easy aid to blocky climbing to the anchors.
Decent: Rap from 8-7, 7-6, 6-dedicated rap anchor, rap anchor to 3, 3-dedicated rap anchor, rap anchor to ground. All raps two 60m ropes. All anchors equipped with stainless rap rings.
Rack:
Beaks: 8 large, 8 medium, 6 small
Arrows: a few small
Blades: a few thin
Angles: 1 each #1-2
Heads: 1-2 each #2 and #3
Camhooks
Rivet Hanger
Nuts: 1 set
Hooks 2 each Grappling and Cliffhanger
Cams:
– 3 each 0.3″-4.5″
– 2 each 6″,
– 1 optional 8″
