Day Four - November 13, 1999
Knowing that I had the whole day to get down, I planned to sleep in a little bit longer on the fourth day. However, my plan was spoiled by my two Irish buddies who were motivated to start the descent as early as possible. I wasn't sure what the rush was, but I got up and ate breakfast with them anyway. They ate peanut butter and pita bread, and I ate my last can of fruit cocktail. After breakfast, they mumbled something about getting down in time to go climb another route later in the day. I wasn't thinking about the left climb yet, I was more preoccupied about getting down in one piece. By this point, every muscle in my body ached, from my fingers and hands, down to my legs and feet. I was feeling completely shot and burnt-out.

The Irish guys then asked me if I wanted to do the descent with them instead of doing it by myself. It was a tempting offer, but I knew I would be going much slower than they would because of my huge haul bag. This wasn't the only reason however, I had started climbing the route solo, and I wanted to finish the route solo too. So I let my two Irish friends head out while I stayed behind to take my time packing the gear into the pig one last time. I strategically placed each item into the bag, knowing that this time the bag was going to be extremely heavy to carry. I packed the heavier gear closer to my back and higher off my hips, and the lighter gear toward the outside of the pack so the load would feel better once on my back.

There was a little section of fourth-class climbing that needed to be done before I could start the rappels over the back-side of the Tower. Since my pack was so heavy, and falling would have been dangerous in this spot, I decided to climb up the short section without the gear first in order to fix a rope to self-belay myself back up with. Once I reached the true top of the Leaning Tower, I was dazzled by the spectacular view of El Capitan to the north. The descent route was also clearly seen from this vantage point.

I needed to make three short raps down a slab, and then move south (away from El Cap) into the Leaning Tower Chimney. Since everything had been going according to plan thus far, I decided to be extra conservative on the way down. I didn't want to have anything go wrong at the end of my trip so I decided to use two ropes tied together for each of the rappels just in case one of the raps was longer than 30 meters in length. I also decided that I would have to wear the haul bag on my back rather than let it hang between my legs because the slab was at a very low angle -- this was too bad because it is much more comfortable when the bag is hanging by itself. The combination of these two facts caused what should have been a quick and easy three rappels into a much longer ordeal than it should have been.

Since I couldn't throw the rappel ropes down very far because of the slab, I had to constantly lean over with the heavy-as-hell haul bag on my back to pick up the wad of ropes and throw them down the slab a little farther again and again. I was concerned that if I rapped past the knotted pile of ropes, the pile might have gotten stuck above me, leaving almost no way of getting it unstuck from below. Besides this hassle with the ropes, the first three rappels were fairly routine -- the raps start at a large tied-off boulder at the very top of the Tower, then go down to a tree, then down to a depression with slings tied through a hole in the rock, and finally down to the ground located near the start of the Leaning Tower Chimney.

Once at the bottom of the first three raps, I had to take a rest. The back-side of the Tower actually faces the sun in the morning, and I was getting cooked right from the start of the day. However, the good news was now that I was about to head down into the chimney system, I would be back in the shade for the rest of the morning. Thank God! The hot sun was really starting to take its toll on me.

After the much needed break, I climbed down to scope what the next set of rappels looked like. The first one turned out to be a steep rap heading straight down to a flat spot in the chimney. That was good news for me because it meant that I could lower the haul bag down by itself, and then rap without it. I liked that idea and quickly implemented it -- the section was complete in no time. At this point, two or three rappels led down the low-angle chimney system towards the ever-nearing ground. This part of the descent really sucked because I had to carry the load on my back the entire way down. At one point there was a fixed static line tied off to only one good bolt in the Chimney. Since I didn't like the idea of rapping off of just one bolt, I backed the anchor up using a bunch of slings tied to a small tree nearby and left them there -- money well-spent in my book, and I'm sure the next party of climbers will be happy about it too!

It was on this fixed line that I learned another valuable big wall lesson. About half-way down, I encountered a knot in the rope. This was a typical scenario with fixed lines because sometimes a knot must be tied around a damaged piece of the rope. The only problem this caused for me was that I was on rappel with a Gri-Gri, and my jumars were packed away in my haul bag. Duh! I needed to use my jumars to take myself off-belay for a moment while passing the knot. This could have been a real nasty problem had I been rapping down steep terrain because I could have gotten stuck there, not being able to go up or down without my precious jumars.

"With only one more rap to go, I started to feel the excitement of knowing that the technically and mentally tough part of the climb was about to end..."

In the end, I got lucky. There was a small ledge that I could stand on right under the knot. This ledge was the only thing that allowed me to pass the knot without the use of my jumars. This taught me a valuable lesson: climbers should always have their jumars clipped off to their harness while rappelling on a big wall; you just never know when you will need them. Anyway, you can bet your ass that I dug through the bag at the next belay to find them before heading back down on the final rappels.

From here, there were two more raps to go, both on fixed lines. Even though the ropes were stiff and obviously worn, they provided fast access to downward progress because I didn't have to rig and re-rig each rap anchor. However, The second-to-last fixed line had about seven knots in it near the top. This caused me to rig my own rap station at the same huge tree that the fixed line was tied to. I thought it would simply be easier to use my own ropes rather than passing seven knots with the massive pig hanging from my back. I rapped my lines to the final belay, and then pulled them down for the last rap to the ground.

It had been a long, hard journey to get off the formation, but it was almost over. With only one more rap to go, I started to feel the excitement of knowing that the technically and mentally tough part of the climb was about to end. But of course, the Tower wasn't going to let me off that easy. I rigged my Gri-Gri onto the last fixed rope and headed down. I made one crucial error, however, I left the haul bag on my back and the last rappel was a steep one. So instead of having the pig comfortably hanging from my harness on the final rap, it was pulling me over backwards and making the ride down pretty gnarly. I had to crunch my stomach muscles as hard as I could to remain upright, and by the bottom, I wasn't sure if I would have to pitch the haul bag off my bag or risk having my back break into two pieces! When I finally reached the bottom, I made my landing on the ground in a horizontal position with me laying on my back on top of the bag which was also laying on the ground -- kind of like a sandwich, with the haul bag squished in-between me and the ground. I didn't move from this position for about ten minutes. I was so exhausted and wigged-out that I just laid there while still strapped into my pack. But that was it, the hard part was over, and I made it down in one piece!

Now I was sure that everything was going to be fine, all I had to do was walk down the approach and back to my vehicle. I took a long break at the bottom of the last rappel. Now I had to put both ropes into the haul bag, thus making it an even heavier and bulkier load than it was before. It turned out to be so heavy in fact, that I dragged it down to the top of the talus field below instead of carrying it at first. This option seemed easier than putting it on my back, and it ended up working like a charm.

Once I reached the top of the boulder fields, I discovered that I was almost out of water -- now I would really have to conserve, only drinking a little at a time to quench my cotton-mouth. The sun was now starting to shine on the west face, making the temperature climb almost instantly. And worst of all, I knew I would have to put the pig on my back for the rest of the descent. The haul bag was so heavy with both ropes in it, that I had to first situate it on a perfectly-sized rock, and then strap myself in while its weight was still resting on the rock. It was only then that I could muster the strength and coordination to actually stand upright with the pack on.

"It was on this fixed line that I learned another valuable big wall lesson..."