Yosemite Day 6 - After 6 on Manure Pile Buttress

Day 6 - 13 September 2012

Whew!  Finally some more time to work on this darn thing.  I need to hurry up and finish this before I can't recall things that actually happened.  One climbing adventure seems to blur into the next half the time.

Anyway, back to my Yosemite adventures...

"...Manure Pile Buttress is anything but a heap of shit."  So says the SuperTopo guide for the Valley.  They're damn right.  It's called Manure Pile Buttress because back in the days of horses bringing folks up to the Valley they needed a nearby place to put all that manure.  This is where it ended up!

We got out of camp fairly early, knowing that MPB might be busy, even mid-week.  As we drove past Camp 4 I spotted Arthur out in the parking lot and swung in there real quick for a chat.  We found out about Seth and Simone and knew they were now in the park and were around.  Everyone had gotten a spot just fine in Camp 4.  Cool.

We drove on and found the lot for MPB, pretty close to El Capitan.  Expecting to find the place crawling with people we were once again pleasantly surprised to find we had it to ourselves.

After 6 corner on the left, After 7 is the crack on the right

We scoped the place out and settled on doing all of After 6, a lovely 6 pitch 5.7 climb to the top of the buttress with a walkoff on top.  Sweet.  What's the catch?  The catch is that it gets sun ALL DAY.  Perhaps that's why it was completely empty.

Well, there we were and we were there to climb.  So off we went.  And just as we started who comes strolling up the trail but Seth and Simone!  Pretty cool to run into them there.  They decided to climb next to us on After 7 but then bailed after that pitch cuz of the heat...honestly I can't say I blame them, though I'm glad we stuck it out.

Anyway, Mitch took the first pitch, which is pretty much the crux.  It's a big right-facing corner with a crack in there that protects well, but the face to your right is just polished like a granite countertop in some spots.  To make matter worse for Mitch, one of his water bottles started leaking just as he's about 15 ft. up.  It was leaking into his chalkbag.  It was like a comedy of errors.   Gear was being finicky, it's getting hotter by the second, water leaking into the chalkbag.  Ugh.  Finally Mitch finishes it up and I follow.  It's a very tricky pitch, and very hot at this point.  I felt like I was in a reflector oven as I climbed the corner.  Pulling up to the top of the pitch though provided some relief as there was a really good breeze.  Actually, it was a pretty good constant wind.

We swapped pitches the rest of the way with Mitch leading 2 pitches at one point and me then taking 2.  We ran into another party who were moving pretty fast.  Thankfully the last pitch had a few alternate options.  We talked it over with them and agreed that they'd finish up the original 5.6 line and I'd take the other alternate finish on the left at about 5.7.  It was a fantastic pitch with lots of interesting flakes and incut face-holds.  Gear was sparse but never quite to the point of being runout...ok, there was one crappy placement before some committing moves, but the holds were all there and the position was excellent.  Below the final corner, I stopped and looked around.  Wow.  I was on the top of this corner arete while El Capitan loomed over me to the left, the 3 Brothers up and right and off in the distance was Half Dome.  A good gust of wind drew my attention back to the task at hand and I pulled the last few moves on to the top.

Manzanita trees at the belay

Mitch atop pitch 2

The other team on the original last pitch

Andy on an alternate last pitch of After 6

I linked up with the other party on the huge flat area atop the buttress and shared a belay anchor with them.  It didn't take Mitch long to make his way up and he had a big grin on his face.  He immediately came over and said very nonchalantly, "That was awesome.  I'm really glad we took that route because it was just fantastic.  Nice job on the lead." (or something along those lines).  We shook hands and congratulated each other on another fine ascent then snapped a few pictures of each other.  Shortly thereafter we made our way back down to the base.

Andy on top of Manure Pile Buttress

Mitch on top of the Manure Pile Buttress

Upper pitches of After 6 on Manure Pile Buttress with The 3 Brothers behind

It's always cool to come back to your stuff after a long day like that.  The base of MPB actually has a few big bear boxes for gear so we pulled our stuff outta there and just sat down reflecting on the day.  We took a good look at After 7 and I contemplated leading it, but I decided Mitch had the right idea.  We had just finished a great day of climbing.  No need to push it a bit further and possibly turn a great day into an epic.  And at this point, I had gotten used to the pace of being finished with a route and then heading to camp or the little cafe to get food.  And besides, After 7 would be there tomorrow!