The
Regular Northwest Face (5.9 C2, 23 pitches) of Half Dome is one of the most famous big wall climbs in the world: 23 pitches of mostly clean granite crack and aid climbing up the steep northwest face of the formation. First climbed in 1957 by Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas, the route marked a major breakthrough in Yosemite big wall climbing and helped pave the way for ascents of El Capitan.
The climb follows corners, cracks, and bolt ladders through steep golden granite, with legendary features including the Zig-Zags, Thank God Ledge, the Robbins Traverse, and the visor-like overhangs high on the wall. Some parties climb it in two to four days, hauling gear and bivying on narrow ledges, though teams now routinely do it in a day. Free climbers have pushed difficulties into the 5.12 range, but the traditional aid route (5.9 C2) remains a classic introduction to Yosemite Grade VI wall climbing. There is a fair bit of 5.8–5.9 free climbing on the route. The descent follows the cables route down the backside of Half Dome, turning the climb into a full-value Yosemite adventure from valley floor to summit.
In July 2015, a massive rockfall dramatically changed the
Regular Northwest Face. During a period of heavy thunderstorms over the Fourth of July weekend, an enormous section of granite — estimated at roughly 200 feet tall and weighing millions of pounds — peeled off the wall around pitches 10–12. Fortunately, no climbers were on the route at the time, and nobody was injured. But the collapse erased key sections of the historic line, including parts of the Robbins Traverse area and a well-known bivy ledge. The route was temporarily considered unclimbable, and Yosemite climbers and rangers spent the following seasons establishing new ways through the damaged terrain.
I first climbed the
Regular Northwest Face in
2007, during my first major climbing trip to the Valley. This was before the rockfall. My partner Ross Peritore led the entire route, impressively French freeing any aid rather than using ladders, and we topped out in late afternoon. I climbed the route again in
2017, after the rockfall. That time we moved slower — the ad hoc new bolt ladder and mandatory rope toss didn’t help — but we still managed the route in a single push. Both of those ascents began from a bivy at the base.
This trip report represents my third ascent of the
Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. This time we did it car-to-car.
I climbed with Sean Whelan, whom I had met a few weeks earlier in Red Rocks where we had climbed
Fiddler on the Roof (5.10d, 7p) together. Sean had made his way to Yosemite and had never climbed Half Dome. I had originally planned to climb the route with another partner who was injured and unable to make the ascent, so Sean and I teamed up instead. It was his first time up the route.
As always, it was a big and memorable day high above the Valley. We approached via the Death Slabs, having a couple of route-finding errors that cost us nearly an hour: first hiking the wrong side of the river toward Mirror Lake and realizing too late we could not cross, then struggling in the dark to find a way across wet slabs to a fixed rope. We ended up bushwhacking briefly through steep slide alder before retreating and eventually finding a safer way across the slab. Even with the delays, we made it to the base in 3.5 hours from the car.
Another party started up the route just as we arrived — Chris Guzman, whom I had climbed
Hotline (5.12b or 5.11b A0, 7p) with the previous season, and his partner Anthony Tucciarone. They were moving quickly, and we lost sight of them after a while. We climbed the route in traditional 5.9 C2 style, with the follower jugging and carrying the pack. Sean led the first block (Pitches 1–9), mostly free climbing through long 5.8–5.9 crack systems. We switched leads, and I took over for Pitches 10–17, including the major bolt ladders and the free climbing through the chimneys to Big Sandy Ledge. Sean then led Pitches 18–20 above Big Sandy in C1/C2 mode, before I finished the route with Pitches 21–23, starting with Thank God Ledge and ending on the summit.
A second party — Alex Moss and Nick Brune — started a couple of hours behind us and slowly gained ground throughout the day. They caught us at the Pitch 12 bottleneck, the awkward traversing aid pitch established after the 2015 rockfall. I kept ahead in the chimneys, but they passed us on the aid climbing above Big Sandy. They were super nice, and it was fun sharing belays as they executed their climbing-in-tandem pass. By the upper pitches the day had turned collaborative: Nick tagged my lead line through the Pitch 21 trickiness, and we freed their stuck tagline from a flake below the pitch.
I started the final pitch in the twilight, and Sean completed his final jug in the dark. The Half Dome cables were not yet up for the season, but we were still able to hand-over-hand the down cables during the descent. The hike out felt nearly endless, though it took just under four hours — probably not much longer than reversing the Death Slabs would have taken, considering the wraparound needed to regain the base of the wall, and certainly a far more mindless descent option.
It was a glorious day — probably mid 80's in the Valley, hardly a breath of breeze, and utterly comfortable in a light layer on the wall. The route was completely dry despite the snow patch lingering on the summit.
This page includes various route overlays, time stats, and pitch-by-pitch photos from our ascent of the
Regular Northwest Face of Half Dome. Always a good day high on the wall.
I came back a month later and climbed the route again in
under 16 hours car to car. It helped to have climbed it recently.
