The South Face of Washington Column is a classic first wall for many aspiring big wall climbers in Yosemite. A mix of free climbing and easy aid makes it a straightforward two-day outing for most teams. Thin, stopper-eating splitters abound—only a few require aid if you can free 5.10a. Its accessibility and quality also make it the busiest wall route in the Valley.

FA/FFA: Layton Kor and Chris Fredericks, September 1964. After losing their food to animals, they climbed the first three pitches to Dinner Ledge in three hours, then endured a long day of nailing and a rough bivy above the ledge. The next morning, they followed a splitter crack to the summit by noon—just a day and a half for the FA! Matt Wilder freed the route in October 2002, describing it as “a 5.12 version of Serenity Crack.”

Nate and I climbed the route in a single day, with me leading. It was actually my first true aid lead using ladders. Earlier in the trip I had led the Dolt Run (5.9 C2, 9p) on El Capitan, but mostly French-freed and never broke out the ladders. I really enjoyed the process on this route. I really enjoyed the process on this route—my first true big wall aid lead, I suppose! (Though after following the Nose (5.9 C2, 2900') on El Capitan twice and climbing the Regular Northwest Face (5.9 C2, 2200') of Half Dome twice, it’s hard to think of Washington Column as a big wall.)

We short-fixed to stay efficient: I’d pull up slack to fix the rope for Nate to jug, yell “rope fixed,” and start into the next pitch, effectively belayed by the anchor. When Nate reached the anchor, he’d put me on belay and clip the gear he’d cleaned to the tag line I was trailing, which I’d then haul up to resupply. The system worked smoothly—we topped out our route in 7 hours and 21 minutes. 

There were several other parties on the wall that day. Two were ahead of us, both having started from Dinner Ledge, and we passed one of them on the way up. When we rappelled, a few more teams were on Dinner Ledge fixing pitches above.

We debated walking off via the North Dome Gully but opted to rappel instead. We skipped Pitch 11 to the true summit (reportedly chossy and unremarkable). The descent went quickly, and we enjoyed hanging out on Dinner Ledge chatting with the other climbers.

This page includes a route overlay, time stats, and pitch-by-pitch photos.