Day 2, this is the big day of the trip. We were debating between Solar Slab and Olive Oil the evening before and we thought Yinan could get more leading experience if we do Solar Slab. So we woke up a bit after 5 and had breakfast at Starbucks and headed over to the park. We were at the gate at 6:18. By the time we were at the base, there was already a team on the second pitch of Johnny Vegas and it looked that they were very fast and wouldn’t hold us up. Another team was ahead of us but they took the gully. We would later beat them to the ledge by 15 minutes.

We started off Johnny Vegas a little before 8. I led the first pitch in less than 25 minutes to the bolted belay station. I have climbed Johnny Vegas in the previous trip so route finding wasn’t an issue. It’s not an issue anyway though. Grace followed and led out the second pitch, which is a runout. Yinan came a little behind Grace and we shared the narrow ledge. Grace was a bit slow on this lead and it took her about 45 minutes to reach the next belay. I followed and started off the next pitch.

Pitch 3 is a runout too but less serious than pitch 2. I slung rock horns all my way up which saved tons of time placing pros. This is a pretty long pitch and the last part is a low angle slab which made dragging the rope some serious work. The 4th pitch is rated 5.0 and it’s more like class 4. We didn’t unrope here because that’d make rope management more difficult. We could hear the team in the gully and I knew we were going to beat them.

I took a 15 minute break at the ledge to wait for Yinan and Jack to catch up. Grace decided she wants to lead out on Solar Slab and off she went. The first part is a 5.4 runout but it looks even easier. Then you reach the base of a 5.6 hand crack. Grace put in a piece and went for it. Strangely she wasn’t using the crack at all although she’s a good crack climber. I would later find out that the face is an easier option although it didn’t look so from below. She reached the belay at the tree and I followed. Yinan led this pitch right behind me and made good time. The next pitch (2nd pitch on Solar Slab) goes to the left to a small tree and goes up left with a lieback. I somehow remembered it’s a 5.4 lieback and was surprised that it felt much harder. I’d later find out it’s rather 5.6. Anyways, there is not good placements for a while, so don’t fall here. It reaches to the next ledge on a flake. There is a big hole behind the flake where you can bivy. You go inside the hole and climb the chimney (5.4) and out of the flake. You can also stay right on the face and it’s a 5.6R. The top of the 2nd pitch is a relatively big ledge with boulders and trees. However the bolts are on the right of the ledge for easier rappel. So you’d have to do a little hanging belay which is not too comfy.

Grace then had a little problem with route finding for the next pitch. The topo shows a 5.6 crack to the left and a 5.9 crack right above the belay. However it turned out the 5.6 is the one above us. When Jack came up we discussed our time. It was 12ish and we had 5 pitches to go. We were doing 45 minutes per pitch average so far. We were a little short of time although not bad enough to call it off yet. Then we spent too much time on this pitch. Jack decided to start leading before I followed. He ended up on the next belay only a little after Grace even he started half an hour later. This pitch (pitch 3 of solar slab) goes up the crack and a little bit to the right. I don’t have much recollection of it though since I followed too fast to make up the time. We stayed at the belay for less than 2 mintues and started off the next pitch, which is a short one. It’s a runout pitch again. There are 2 cracks on either side of a juggy face. It turned out the face is probably the easiest way up. I put in a few pieces but I wasn’t proud of any of them. I reached the belay before the runout looks too serious. This ledge is pretty big, enough for 4-5 people comfortably.

Grace then started pitch 5 which according to supertopo is a 140 ft pitch. The crack goes straight up and after about 80 feet, Grace saw a couple of bolts on the right. We believed in the topo and she continuted up. After about 150 feet out, we realized that the topo might be wrong. Grace was finally out of rope and built a gear anchor. I raced up and discussed the route with her. We both believe we are now on the upper middle section of pitch 6, about 25 feet below a slung boulder. I later confirmed when I saw that bolder on the next pitch. The next pitch is pretty easy and straight-forward although I didn’t really see the trees which are shown in the topo. So I missed the bolts of belay 6 and continued up untill I had no more rope. I found a rap station there and belayed from it. I suspected this is the end of pitch 7 already and Jack later comfirmed. So we did the route in 6 pitches instead of 7.

We high fived once Yinan topped out and began descending. It’s now 3:20. I spotted the bolts of belay 6 on my way down and we regrouped here. This is when I dropped my belay device and I heard “tink tink tink” and it was gone. “Fuck”, I cursed and collected 4 D shaped biners on Grace’s rack to do a carabiner brake. I’m never a big fan of carabiner brake but it’s a bit easier to autoblock than Munter rappel. To speed things up, we decided to try rappelling in paralell. We’d fix both ropes to the anchor and Jack and I would each rap on one rope. The next two people then do a normal rap. The idea is that we can each untangle one rope on the way down to save some time. After the first rap, Jack and I had a discussion and we both thought we didn’t save much time this way and it added to the complexity of the system and we were both not very comfortable with it. So we decided to abandon it and go with what we would normally do. We want to get down fast but we want to get down alive more. At this rap station, Jack made a mistake and there was a moment he was not connected to the anchor at all. We were all very scared. Three more rappels bring us to the base of Solar Slab. We took extra caution to avoid having the rope going over jugs and cracks. Fortunately we didn’t have much difficulty. It was around 5 and we felt much better being out of the exposed slab. The topo shows that you can also rap from the belay 3 of Johnny Vegas with only two rappels. We discussed our options and decided not to go that route for a few reasons: 1. we don’t want to down climb the last pitch of Johnny Vegas although it’s quite mellow; 2. It’d require us to coil and uncoil the rope if we do that; 3. We have both rapped off the gully and Jack has done it millions of times; 4. we can split up into two ropes if we go down the gully.

Another hour and half later, we were finally at the base. We packed and hiked out. All cars are racing out of the park which closes at 8. When we cross the gate, the clock on the car showed 8:00, sweet. It was a long day, 11 hours on the rock, but super fun. This is the longest route I’ve done so far.