South Face with a Fractured Foot

Climbed the South Face in two days, hauling only to Dinner Ledge. Fractured my foot on a lead fall in the  transition between crack off dinner ledge and the first bolt of Kor Roof. We kept at it and ended up summiting the next day. Both my partner and I were new to aid so those pitches took a long time. Everyone else on the wall bailed rather than summited this weekend.

Below is a time-based description, but you can read the rest of the story details here:

http://www.bricepollock.com/climbing-washington-column-south-face-big-wall-factured-foot/

Day 1 – Fix to 7

• Midnight: Got to El Portal
• 3:45am: Wake up and drive to Valley
• 6:20am: Arrive to base of climb after 1.5 hour hike
• 9:00am: Dinner ledge (2:15 hrs for first three pitches all free)
• 1:00pm: Top of Kor Roof (2 hrs lead / 1 hrs follow) [Max lead this pitch in an hour]
• 2:30pm: Aid traverse P5 with fun little swing. (0.5 hrs lead / 0.5 hrs follow)
• 5pm: Aid P6 (1.5 hrs lead / 0.5 hrs follow)
• 5:30pm: Fixed pitch 6 and 5 to dinner ledge in 35 min
• 8:20pm: Sleep, complete darkness

Day 2 – Blast to summit

• 6:45am: Full light, wake up
• 7:45am: Jug up fixed lines (30 min hrs lead / 0.5 hrs follow)
• 11:15am: Aid thin P7 cracks (1:20 hrs lead / 0:40 hrs follow)
• 1:00pm: Awkward P8 chimney (1:20 hrs lead + follow)
• 1:50pm: Nice P9 crack  (0:50 hrs lead + follow)
• 2:50pm: Linked 10+11 to the top reached (1 hrs lead + follow)
• 3:50pm: Hang out on summit
• 6:15pm: Rap to Dinner Ledge (2.5 hours for six raps)
• 7:05pm: Rap to base
• 8:00pm: Descent and arrive to car