Yosemite and Indian Creek 2025
- George Palmer
- Jan 2
- 16 min read
We’ve all seen the movies, the photos and the online stoke…
A group of 5 of us (Robin L, Geoff B, George P, Seb S, Paul K.) from AMC headed off to Yosemite valley for the bulk of October to experience it for real. Geoff and Seb headed out early in September and took in a hot Indian Creek to dial in their crack jamming. Arriving in the valley in early October, we had the usual humbling of Brit climbers thinking they can knock a few grades off their UK version and climb 40m long cracks. Big Walls were the main focus, with a mix of aid and free as required, starting well with successful multi-day ascents of Leaning Tower West Face and Gold Wall.
With only one portaledge and a homemade fly between us, we took it in turns and turned our attention to the bigger walls – Seb & Geoff choosing the path less travelled climbing Mount Watkins South Face (often referred to as ‘the Alpine Nose’) and George and Robin climbing the Triple Direct variant of the Nose on El Cap over 5 days, including 36 hours on the portaledge sitting out some bad weather. Geoff knocked off the Prow on Washington Column right at the end. Various free climbing day routes were squeezed in, such as East Buttress of El Cap, East Buttress of Middle Cathedral– burly HVS/E1’s - Royal Arches (16 pitches of 5.7/HS!) and the ever popular Nutcracker.
If you are curious to visit the valley – I can’t recommend it highly enough – it feels like one destination any lover of long trad rock routes should try to visit at least once in their life. It is busy – the media has pulled in the climbing crowds – and at times does not feel like a wilderness experience – but it is easy to lose the crowds (just don’t climb the Nose or Freerider). The valley is beautiful, the weather dreamy, Camp 4 was fun and it was inspiring to meet many famous and less famous climbers climbing at such a high level - free routes are becoming the norm even on El Cap. In hindsight I might consider visiting in June, to get longer daylight hours, though this makes camping logistics harder, and spending more time at the beginning, such as a week+ dedicated purely to free climbing to move faster on part-free routes.
Here’s a flavour of a few of the routes we got on - hopefully the selection of photos tells it all, on top of a few of the vital statistics, highlights and lowlights. If anyone is interested for more info, tips, inspiration - feel free to ask any questions from any of us.
Indian Creek
Seb & Geoff
Geoff and I were frustrated - we had landed in Las Vegas, ready for a 5 week climbing trip. We were standing in the airport being informed that ‘Our bag didn't make it on the flight’. We were also informed that the missing haul bag - containing all of Geoff's camping gear and the portaledge, would be available to collect on the following day.
A day passed, including an accidental stay at “Excalibur”, a heinous castle themed casino hotel… and we were back at the airport, being informed once again that ‘Our bag didn't make it on the flight’, and again that it would be available to collect the following day… It turned out that this time they spoke the truth and the relief when the haul bag finally showed up was palpable. Two wasted days of the trip due to handling staff at Heathrow airport but we finally had all the gear. In the spare time we had filled the Ford Bronco with provisions for the week ahead in Indian Creek - famous for its primitive camping facilities and requirement to bring your own water.
We drove to Indian Creek as soon as we had the Haul bag - an 8hour drive towards Utah across increasingly beautiful landscapes, roads filled with larger and larger pick-up trucks.
We arrived late, pitched tents and observed the night sky for a while before hitting the hay, the clearest view I have seen of it with the milky way clearly visible overhead - unreal.
And then waking up was unreal as well! The red rocks and blue sky at Indian creek is unlike anywhere I have been before. We were armed with as many cams as we could get our hands on and could not wait to get started.
The climbing at Indian Creek is incredible. And Humbling. The pure crack style is demanding for those who are unaccustomed, yet local climbers appear to float up the cracks with little/no effort. I found the learning curve to be very steep and you quickly figure out your preferred crack sizes. #2 and tight #3 for me whilst 0.75/tight #1 and anything wider than #4 felt extra challenging. After a few days it felt like we were in a good flow with it.
We climbed 6 days, with a forced rest day after an amazing lightning storm hit the area. The quality of the routes were amazing and consistent. My highlights from the trip include Mudslide 5.10d, Neat 5.10c, Keyhole Flakes 5.10c, attempting 4x4 5.11a and Coyne Crack 5.11d. And of course the famous Supercrack of the Desert 5.10b among many others.
Indian creek is popular with individuals who group together at crags to climb. The extreme number of cams required (sometimes 6+ of the same size!) lends itself to this where people will happily share their racks. This leads to the popular crags feeling social and friendly.
I left the creek feeling beaten up and humbled but ultimately feeling like I had learned an exceptional amount about crack climbing in the time I was there. This was the intention - pick up some crack skills before heading across to Yosemite. In the time we were there we barely even scratched the surface on the famous crags. The area is absolutely vast and full of crags with corners and cracks to get your jam on in.
Indian creek is an awesome climbing venue and place that I wish to return to in the future.
Gold Wall, Ribbon fall wall - 5.9 C2
Geoff and Seb - 2 days on the wall
We had picked this as a first wall for us, as was the right grade range and the difficult approach meant we should to be alone to take our time dialling systems and working it all out on a real big wall for the first time.
After shuttling a load the day before we set off the following day early to get started. The approach was heavy going so early in the morning, 2hrs of hard uphill! We tossed a crab to decide who led first and got to packing the haul bags and racking up….here we went!
This was the first time we had put all the practiced big wall skills to the test and everything went pretty smoothly….i had some aid/free mix pitches and Seb linked two pitches into a huge 60m aid pitch having to back clean kit loads and by the end of a long day we were setting up the ledge under a huge roof high on the wall, looking out towards el Cap with stars starting to appear across the sky….it felt great….in Yosemite setting up camp with a Portaledge up high on a wall! What we had dreamt of 🥳
The next morning we broke camp and left the haul bag and ledge at the belay to finish the route as we would be rapping back down the line anyway. I was thankful we took this approach, did as it was my lead went which straight up into a chimney and then popped out through a crazy letterbox opening with mad exposure…it would have been a nightmare to haul through!!
Some difficult pitches came up this day either to follow or lead with a lot of big flared cracks that sucked you in and made for the perfect place for all the ropes/aiders/gear to get tangled up and slow your progress! Some frustrating lessons learnt for us big wall newbies 😂
A few more pitches brought us to the end of our first big wall experience which we felt was a huge success. We had moved at our own pace with no big mess ups and had learnt a bunch about our systems and where we could be more efficient moving forward.
After rappelling to the ground we had the difficult long decent to go with all the kit on us. Then a well earnt beer and debrief before some days of rest - it turns out big walls are bloody hard work!!
West Face, The leaning tower, 5.8 C3
George and Robin, 2 days on the wall
We set off for the leaning tower as our ‘warm up’ wall, and after a horrific approach up the endless boulder fields with our haul bag full of water and life’s essentials, we got to the base and bivvied for the night after fixing the first pitch of the route. This approach really hammered home that the haul bag is designed for being dragged over vertical rock faces, but when on your back it feels like you’re carrying a swaying walrus.
Next morning, we got cracking and raced up the severely overhanging pitch two, only to be met by the haul bags of the novice aid soloist who was on the route ahead of us. What then ensued was the longest hanging belay of both our lives. We swapped the belay seat every hour, and rationed how frequently we could look up, so as not to ruin morale. Finally, we got on lead after a 6.5 hour sit in our harnesses, and Robin eventually got to dismantle the belay 8 hours after building it. The climbing was excellent, though, with essential aid moves using sky hooks and beaks – spicy!
After a luxurious night on the spacious Ahwanhee ledge, we made good progress the next day through the unrelentingly steep terrain. However, we were behind schedule due to our enforced slow down the day before, and were forced to bivvy on the top of the leaning tower. This turned out to be one of the best bivvys we had all trip – the moon was full and exceptionally bright, illuminating the cliffs in the valley, and we settled in for the night to the sound of bats darting around us.
Mt. Watkins South Face route VI 5.9 C2+
Seb and Geoff
After a deflating experience on our second big wall attempt on the Prow, Geoff and I decided we wanted to get away from the crowds of the more popular Yosemite climbs.
We chose this route - dubbed the 'alpine nose', guessing that the long approach and long descent hike would be a strong filter to reduce the numbers on the route. We were right and had a spectacular expedition away from the campsite - 4 nights in total without seeing any other climbers. This route also has natural ledges which allows the climbing team to leave the portaledge behind, as well as the delightfully fresh Tenaya Creek to fill up on water at the base - very helpful indeed for the long approach resulting in approximately 36kg of saved pack weight between us.
Day 1 - Paul kindly dropped us at the closest road location in his hired whip and was keen to join us for the approach hike. We set off up towards Mt Watkins, A beautiful walk past Mirror 'Lake' lead to the start of the climbers trail. Probably more appropriately named mirror meadow, showing the extent of the warm and dry summer that the valley experienced. Thoughts as to whether Tenaya Creek would be flowing soon crossed our minds - we only had water for the approach. The packs felt light and we made good time to the water point which thankfully was flowing fast, just before the toe of Mt Watkins. We filtered the water we needed - 1Gal/day/person and shuttled it to the start of the approach scrambles, which we climbed twice each to split the loads down. I found the approach scrambles with ~20kg in the pack very testing - hard to trust my feet on the glacier polished granite, relying heavily on the in situ fixed lines.
We eventually arrived (just) at the top of the fixed lines where the bivvy site was for the evening - but we still had some work to do - We fixed the first pitch of the route and hauled the bag there - only leaving the food we required for the evening and bivvy kit. We scoped the next morning’s activities - Geoff requested the second pitch to use a makeshift clipstick to cross a 5.12a friction slab, instead of doing another long simuclimb pitch and multipitch pendulum traverse.
Day 2 - Watching Geoff balance on the top step of the ladder, with the makeshift clipstick at full extension struggling to make the last clip on the line of bolts, I think we both started to wonder if we had made the right decision to take the short cut... Thankfully after 15 minutes of trying different options to gain a few centimetres, he made the clip - and quickly surmounted the ledge. What followed was an excellent day of a mix of Free and Aid climbing.
A particularly great pitch followed a thin seam in a left facing corner, past a wide bit to a hanging belay. I hauled the bag and looked down at the growing series of corners and valley below - wonderful!
The "routefinding crux" of the route followed before the bivvy ledge. The long, hugely weaving line left me fighting extreme rope drag. With half ropes this would have been a delightful HS pitch, but the heavy single and haul line on the harness made it feel very strenuous and off balance!
We reached the bivvy ledges with some time to spare before dark - perfect to soak in the evening light and wonder where the third person goes on the "ledge that sleeps 3". I lost the Krab toss and set to work terraforming myself a flat spot to try and get a comfy night sleep.
Day 3 - This was planned to be a short day as the next natural ledges were only 4 pitches away. After a leisurely breakfast (packet oats) I set off on a C2+ pitch involving some fixed gear with previously blown wire loops - lovingly tied back together with sheet bend. The face was very blank so the only option was to trust it to keep progressing...
Geoff got a large traversing pitch - despite lowering out the bag as far as possible it still took an enormous pendulum and crashed into a distant arete. We got to the bivvy ledge and fixed the first pitch of the next day - With so much time spare we chilled in the sun and took in the position. The ledges were very exposed and the whole climb was visible below us. what a fantastic experience.
Day 4 - The push for the summit. We jugged the lines that Geoff fixed the day before and it was my lead. From cold - a spicy 5.9 section of free climbing with high potential for an anchor fall from higher than you would like - knowing what I know now I would have put on my climbing shoes for this. This led to an extremely fun section of left traversing aid climbing in a thin crack system. I then had to execute my first pendulum on lead - time to put the youtube learning into practice - 800ish metres above the valley floor.
We were getting there, we could see the top. The tiredness of the previous days was starting to collect - my lead up now up an incredibly awkward flared groove. As a free climb this would be awkward but aiding up the constricted corner very slow progress. I worked away and finally got through the roof of the flare in an extremely exposed overhanging position high above the wall and the valley floor below.
I was within 10m of the next set of bolts... Geoff called up to me. "errrr Seb…. The haul line..." I had forgotten to connect the haul line to my harness. Very fortunately I had not passed the halfway mark so I was able to lower down to the belay to collect it. Lowering down was mentally painful - the hard earned metres in the groove lost and with building time pressure to top out before dark.
Now with the haul line connected I had to jug the free hanging line to my previous high point on the pitch - with a huge amount of air beneath my feet - exciting to say the least! I finished the pitch past a tricky wide bit to a hanging belay. I hauled the bag - light now with most of the water consumed.
The next pitch, at ground level would make an excellent but hard 5.10d hand and fist crack. With the tiredness of the previous days and the sun dropping quickly Geoff set off in the ladders. Geoff got to the anchors and fixed the lines - I quickly set about jugging the line to get to my final lead to the top out.
With the tiredness creeping in and time pressure to get to the top I had a momentary lapse in concentration whilst lowering out from a cam to clean it. I didn't put a snapgate in my jumar the protect the rope from escaping the teeth and suddenly the rope popped out. I fell before I knew what was happening - all the way to my backup knot, and stopped between 5 and 10m below. I was thankful that it was a clean fall on vertical granite. I was thankful that I had been vigilant on tying regular back up knots. I took a moment to compose myself with the adrenaline pumping, then put the jumars back on the fixed to finish the pitch.
The last pitch was wonderful - the sun was dropping so it was a race to try and get the pitch finished. C1, into a wildy exposed bolt ladder on hanging arete, high above the route and a final section of C1 - Topping out just after sunset. Geoff jugged in the twilight. An amazing culmination to an amazing climbing experience.
To top it off we had an excellent (but cold) bivvy at the top of Mt Watkins, overlooking Half Dome illuminated by a bright full moon. We did a firewood collection and heated some cans of chilli in the fire and reflected on the epic adventure.
Triple Direct, El Cap, 5.9 C2
George and Robin, 5 days on the wall
After a winter storm interrupted our big walling ambitions mid trip, Robin and I jumped on the Triple Direct, which climbs the first 10 pitches of Freerider, then traverses for a day into the second half of The Nose, just before the Great Roof.
The first 10 pitches of Freerider were fantastic climbing, elevated all the time by thinking that Honnold free soloed this. I led the free blast slabs, and was horrified by them. There’s nothing there. I had to resort to pulling on bolts and the occasional sky hook to navigate my way across them, so the idea of soloing on tiny ripples for your feet, trusting the friction was mindblowing. Having finished late into the evening, we abseiled down from the heart ledges fixed lines to return for a rest day in camp.
We set off from the ground properly two days later, with the joy of hauling our bag 1/3 of the way up El Cap in a day back up to the Heart ledges. This was surprisingly satisfying, as we both got into the rhythm of the big wall hard labour.
Highlights from the next few days included endless corners up steep rock in golden light, some cramped and sloping bivvy ledges, and hanging out with (and definitely holding up) Pietro Vidi, the man of the moment, as he was on his free Muir Wall push.
After a few days of climbing we were on to the iconic great roof, which Robin led with aplomb. Following that, I led the pancake flake which was incredible, pulling free moves hundreds of metres off the floor in a spectacular position and building up a full body pump from the weight of the aid rack.
We then sat out a day in a storm, and offered shelter to two Frenchmen who didn’t have a fly sheet, extending our portaledge into a very cosy tent for 4. We were all very thankful to Geoff’s sister and mum for making us both a fashionable (bright yellow) and highly functional fly sheet.
Then, summit day! We were going to the top, and moved as quickly as we could up the final pitches. This was still not quick. We had the Changing Corners pitch, this day, on which I took a big inverted whipper after some gear ripped (micro and cam hooks). Robin then felt the free moves (5.14) doing his best Lynn Hill impression, and concluded they were desperate so decided to jug the pitch instead. Next time though….
We topped out and slept on the top, waking to incredible views of Half Dome, enjoying the deserted otherworldly summit of El Cap.
The Prow, Washington’s Column - 5.8 C2+
Geoff and David - 2 days on the wall
For the last few days of my trip I craved one more route so put an advert up in camp and teamed up with David the Frenchman. He was keen to get on the The Prow but as Seb and I had been shut down on it earlier in the trip by multiple slower parties I was keen but apprehensive!
We got up at 4am and were walking in by 5am to give ourselves the best shot at it. It helped that I knew the walk in well and as Seb and I had done the initial pitches previously I headed off up a simple crack system by headlamp loaded with the weight of big wall kit, hearing the clank of dismantling ledges down the valley and the chirp of birds. I was hauling at the top of pitch 1 as the sun rose with not a soul on the previously packed wall…perfect!
The day went smoothly but not quickly, the route was filled with half broken ‘copper heads’ (soft metal mashed into tiny seams to hold wires which are for body weight only to progress) and cracked/broken pitons to use which always felt nerve racking to get on! What I learnt this day is that a surprisingly small amount of metal can hold your body weight to aid on! These were always exciting at height and I was continually impressed with the bravery of first ascensionists. Some of the crack systems were almost unnoticeable from the belays as we headed on up!
My leads were challenging but fun, I understood why it was popular up there although thankfully we had been alone all day on route to enjoy ourselves 👌🏽We were setting up the ledge atop pitch 6 as it got dark with half dome glowing in the sunset across from us and feeling minimal aches and pains as I drifted off above the valley floor.
A decent sleep had us waking to the view of half dome and were breaking camp by 8am. Day two on the route was amazing! The aid was some of the most challenging I had done and I had multiple very run out but safe pitches that kept me focused with David continually laughing about how us brits love our nuts! He laughed but the tiny seams were perfect for the array of copper wires and micros I had hanging off me, not that I didn’t feel exposed with only these tiny pieces protecting 20+ metres of climbing, but you got used to the run outs and my ‘gear fear’ had subsided remarkably over the trip.
Along with some large sections of free climbing and easy ground towards the top we both massively enjoyed ourselves, topping out of pitch 11 to watch sunset down the valley was a treat and the Bivvy spot was top tier with a sky full of stars to drift off too! We both felt chuffed to have got it done.
The next day we woke up, out of water so headed off down the notoriously dodgy ‘north down gully’ descent arriving back to camp for a beer in the sun by midday. David had a flight to catch so I spent the rest of the day eating and resting, a perfect end to my trip!
Robin L, Geoff B, George P, Seb S, Paul K.
Totally epic. Well done!
Great read, great pictures. What an adventure!!