Half Dome- Regular Northwest Face

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September 5, 2026

The Regular NW Face (RNWF) of Half Dome climbs up the left side of Half Dome's sheer and very recognizable north face. It was first climbed in 1957 by a trio of Royal Robbins, Mike Sherrick, and Jerry Gallwas, marking the start of Yosemite's big wall era. Several decades of climbing history have been woven into this route which is now often regarded as one of the most significant routes in American rock climbing. 

Although the first ascent took several days, modern gear and tactics often reduce the time spent on route to just 1-2 days, or even a matter of hours for some. I decided that the single day car-to-car method was preferred, mainly due to the route's traversing nature which made hauling a pain. 

There was also the aid climbing requirement of the route. Even though all four of us were well versed in free climbing, none of us had climbed much more than a few pitches of aid in our lives, let alone be familiar in efficient aid tactics. The following report details our (successful) attempt to gumby our way up our first big wall with very little big wall aid experience. 

Routes climbed

Name	Grade (YDS)	# Pitches	Quality (1-5)	Type
Regular Northwest Face	5.9 C2	23	4	trad, aid

Peaks/Towers climbed

Peak	Elevation	Topographic Prominence	Summit Coordinates (lat/lon)
Half Dome	8,846 ft	1,369 ft	37.74602, -119.53321

The pitch breakdown below follows Steph Abegg's excellent topo which can be found here

Pitch/lead breakdown

Pitch	Grade	Distance	Leader	Method
1	5.10c or 5.8 C1	160 ft	Eric	simul
2	5.9	100 ft	Eric	simul
3	5.8	105 ft	Eric	simul
4	5.11c or 5.8 C1	110 ft	Eric	simul
5	5.9	100 ft	Eric	simul
6	5.9	145 ft	Eric	simul
7	5.7	135 ft	Eric	simul
8	4th class	120 ft	Eric	simul
9	5.9+	100 ft	Eric	simul
10 (Robbins Traverse)	C0	80 ft	Carson	pitch out or short fix
11	5.10 or C1	60 ft	Carson	pitch out or short fix
12	5.11c C0 or C2	160 ft	Carson	pitch out or short fix
13 (chimney block)	5.7	100 ft	Carson	simul
14 (chimney block)	5.9	70 ft	Carson	simul
15 (chimney block)	5.9	100 ft	Carson	simul
16 (chimney block)	5.9	100 ft	Carson	simul
17 (Big Sandy)	5.9	120 ft	Carson	simul
18	5.12a or C1	100 ft	Eric	pitch out or short fix
19 (Zig Zags)	5.12a or C2	120 ft	(fixed)	jug
20	5.10 or C1	40 ft	(fixed)	jug
21 (Thank God Ledge)	5.9+	90 ft	Eric	pitch out or short fix
22	C2	90 ft	Eric	pitch out or short fix
23	5.8+ or C1	120 ft	Eric	pitch out or short fix

Gear

- 70m rope
- cams: triples 0.3-0.75, doubles 0.1-0.2 and 1-3, single 4
- 16 alpine draws

- 1 sky hook (optional, but very nice to have)

- 2 micro traxions (per party)

- 2 aiders (per person)

- 2 jumars (per party)

Total Stats

11.3 miles

5,320 ft gain/loss

Approach

There are two most common ways to approach the north face with similar degrees of popularity. The easier but longer way follows the Half Dome tourist trail to Sub Dome, then traverses below the north sides of both domes until the start of the route. The harder but shorter way ascends a drainage to the west of Half Dome. There are several sections of loose rock, bushwhacking, and manky fixed lines, resulting in the colloquial term for this approach: the Death Slabs. We decided to take this approach, finding it was a bit tedious but not as horrendous as some made it out to be. 

Four of us started from Happy Isles just after 3am, heading northeast on the Mirror Lake loop trail. We reached our turnoff at a carabiner sign and began the steep hike up and eastwards. The ensuing footpath was generally easy to follow, especially with the help of a GPS track. There were three different sections of fixed lines on 5.5 terrain. For each of these, we would attach our grigris as backup and ascend one at a time. Towards the end, it was best to stay on the southern side of the main drainage to avoid bushwhacking.

turnoff for the Death Slabs

As first light appeared, we finally reached the base of Half Dome's north face and hiked along it to the left (northeast), soon locating the corner system which marked the start of pitch 1 with a decent sized bay tree growing out of it. 10 ft to the right of the base of this corner was a spring with some muddy water in it. Usually this spring flowed nicely earlier in the year, but now in late summer it was just a drip. 

 

Our plan was to simul as much as possible, mainly pitching out the sections with significant aid. I would take the first simul block as pitches 1-9. Carson would take the first significant aid (pitches 10-12) and then chimney block (pitches 13-17), and I would take the final aid block (pitches 18-23). We did not short fix, although I would recommend it for pitches 10-12 and 18-23.

 

Most of the belays would consist of one or two old pitons which were equalized with webbing or cordelette in various stages of decay. We would usually back these up with at least one cam and an anchor chord.  

 

Sometime around sunrise, Andrew and David started up first. Carson and I waited about 20 minutes before starting up after them. 

Pitch 1 (5.10c or 5.8 C1, 160 ft)

I started up easy blocks into a right-facing corner, making a few fun moves left of the bay tree before climbing into it. Higher up, the corner turned into a series of fingerlock pin scars which were slightly pumpy and very well protected. A belay station could be found just off to the right after the fingerlock section, marking the end of pitch 1. 

David starting up pitch 1

Pitch 2 (5.9, 100 ft)

There was an obvious chimney above. I continued through it, then out left on easy blocks. 

Pitch 3 (5.8, 105 ft)

straight up some easy bouldery corners followed by a hand crack 

Pitch 4 (5.11c or 5.8 C1, 110 ft)

A few strenuous moves up an undercling (easy to aid) brought me to a slab with a short bolt ladder consisting of three bolts. I clipped my way up these and then climbed into an amazing hand crack which continued up about 50 ft to a belay anchor. 

Andrew up ahead following pitch 4

Pitch 5 (5.9, 100 ft)

From the belay, I traversed left on easy ledges, then turned right into a finger crack which was hidden from view until the last minute. Above this crack was a slab with an anchor.

Pitch 6 (5.9, 145 ft)

I continued up easy blocks into the obvious gully above, which steepened and required some fun creative funk. There were many slabby and insecure feet.

Pitch 7 (5.7, 135 ft)

From the anchor, I headed up an easy shallow slabby corner to the first large tree, then turned right and pulled a few hand jams up a brief steeper section which deposited me at some ledges. I continued right until eventually reaching a large gully.

Pitch 8 (4th class, 120 ft)

straight up the gully to the top of a prominent white flake 

Pitch 9 (5.9+, 100 ft)

From the top of the white flake reached on pitch 8, I turned right and traversed along a series of ledges to a flake on the left with some tat sticking out of it. I clipped the tat, threw in a piece as backup, and performed a fun dynamic move to get onto a higher ledge system. Once on it, a short traverse further up and right brought me to a belay station. 

Carson in the gully of pitch 8

David jugging pitch 10

Pitch 10 (C0, 80 ft) Robbins Traverse

We swapped leads here. Carson got out his aiders and stepped up the obvious bolt ladder to the right, taking a ~10 ft pendulum/tension traverse at the end to a piton anchor. He fixed the rope and I jugged, performing a lower-out at the pendulum. This was my first time ever doing a proper lower-out.  

Pitch 11 (5.10 or C1, 60 ft)

This was a short pitch with funky movement. Carson led out right for about 15 ft on underclings with slabby feet, then headed up on bouldery moves and good gear to another ledge with an anchor.  

Pitch 12 (5.11c C0 or C2, 160 ft)

This is often regarded as the slowest pitch. The first half was a straightforward bolt ladder angling up and right. At the end of this, a pendulum/tension traverse right brought Carson to a further right-trending ledge which steepened into a thin C1 corner. He continued up this corner, clipping pitons and placing thin cams, eventually arriving at a single bolt which he clipped into and performed a second pendulum right off of to an anchor below the chimneys. 

 

This was where I got into some shenanigans while following pitch 12. After the initial bolt ladder, I proceeded to lower-out, feeding a long bight of rope through a carabiner on the highest bolt and rappelling about 30 ft on it. After feeling the other side of the rope go taught, I proceeded to pull out the bight, realizing pretty quickly that it was stuck in the lower-out biner, having knotted into itself. After some requisite cursing, I slapped on the jumars and proceeded to jug back up to the biner. Halfway up, the bight of rope below me became caught on a bolt hanger from another route about 20 ft below. I could not go up anymore as that bight of rope held my backup grigri in place. Delicately and carefully, I pulled out some slack from the grigri and walked the jumars back down, eventually reaching a point where I could flick out the rope and cache it on my harness. I jugged back up and finally reached the stuck rope, freed it, and repeated the lower-out without difficulty. 

 

I continued jugging up past the C1 corner to a second lower-out right before the anchor. This was short enough that I could just pull on draws to traverse sideways instead of performing another lower-out.

Pitch 13 (5.7, 100 ft)

I was happy to transition back to free climbing even though it was just for a few more pitches. Pitches 13-16 followed the obvious chimney system up. There was pretty much only one way to go. For pitches 13 through the first half of 16, I took off my pack and trailed it behind.

Pitch 14 (5.9, 70 ft)

Pitch 15 (5.9, 100 ft)

Pitch 16 (5.9, 100 ft)

Pitch 17 (5.9, 120 ft)

From a large sandy ledge (not yet Big Sandy), Carson headed up a fist crack to a break and then up another fist crack, arriving at a large ledge that angled right. The correct way was to turn right and follow this ledge around a corner to Big Sandy. Instead, he made the easy mistake of continuing further straight up and French freeing a finger crack (5.11+ ish?) to a ledge system which he then downclimbed to the right for about 20 ft to Big Sandy.

Pitch 18 (5.12a or C1, 100 ft)

A short section of easy free climbing brought me to a corner where I busted out the aiders and proceeded to aid up with small cams. This went pretty quickly and I was soon on a small ledge where Andrew was belaying David who was linking pitches 19-20.

 

We hung out there for quite a while and waited for David to finish pitch 20. It finally dawned on us how late it was as the sun dipped below the horizon. As David shouted "off belay", we asked Andrew to fix our rope onto the pitch 20 anchor, speeding things up. Carson and I proceeded to jug pitches 19-20 after Andrew. 

great views from the top of pitch 18

Pitch 19 (5.12a or C2, 120 ft) Zig Zags

This looked like a great pitch to aid as well as free climb. We jugged through it. The routefinding looked fairly obvious, heading up a small roof before continuing up a long right-facing corner. 

Pitch 20 (5.10 or C1, 40 ft)

This was basically a continuation of pitch 19 but without the corner. I would recommend linking it with pitch 19. 

Pitch 21 (5.9+, 90 ft) Thank God Ledge

The skies grew dark as three of us watched Andrew scoot across the famous Thank God Ledge. Once the ledge ended, there was a strenuous chimney without any protection for about 30 ft. We listened intently as Andrew made several gasps and groans while ascending the chimney, but made it through unscathed. I waited less than 5 minutes after David left before continuing myself. Even though it was dark and I was a little cold, this was an amazingly enjoyable pitch. Most of the Thank God Ledge was walkable, especially if I faced my front side into the wall. There was only one 10 ft section where I had to get down and scoot with one leg dangling off. I climbed through the chimney without too much difficulty and arrived at a nice sitting belay stance, listening to the sounds of Andrew taking aid whips off the following pitch.

the famous photo of Honnold on Thank God Ledge (photo credit: Jimmy Chin)

Andrew scooting across Thank God Ledge

my view of the ledge

Pitch 22 (C2, 90 ft)

This was the last major aid pitch, consisting of two bolt ladders with sideways traverses in between. These traverses were long enough that simple pendulums would not be able to reach. For both of these, we watched Andrew try a series of hooks to get across, taking multiple whips off each one. Eventually he ended up getting through both traverses by stepping on a sky hook followed by a black totem. I had my work cut out for me. David left a couple long slings while cleaning the pitch, allowing me to grab them and jug across the traverses on lead. Carson would perform two lower-outs while following. The pitch ended at a double piton belay.

huddling at the belay after finishing pitch 22 around 11:30pm

Pitch 23 (5.8+ or C1, 120 ft)

Through the darkness, this pitch did not look 5.8, but maybe it was and we were just tired. From the belay, I headed up to the large undercling roof with slabby feet, then traversed dead left for about 40 ft on more of the same. Eventually I was able to swing around the left edge of the roof and continue up on easier terrain, placing a 0.5 cam as my last piece before running it out on easy terrain. I reached a sandy ledge with some trash on it (likely blown over from tourists above on the summit), performed an easy but strenuous mantle, then set up a belay. From here I could look up and see that the remaining terrain was an easy scramble. 

 

I knew that there was a bolt anchor somewhere, but didn't really have the motivation to find it after a quick cursory glance revealed nothing. It was around 11:45pm at this point and it would be over half an hour before the others would all make their ways up. Sometime before 12:30 we were all standing on the summit, tired but elated. 

Descent

We were done with the climbing, but had a remaining 7.6-mile hike down the cables and tourist trail to get back to Happy Isles. Strong gusts of wind blasted us as we descended the cables. We were happy that the North Face had mostly been windless. The trail back was very easy to follow. I found my eyes beginning to droop as sleep deprivation finally began kicking in. Somewhere around the Mist Trail around 3am we encountered the first hikers coming up the trail towards Half Dome, many of which were surprised to see us hiking down at that hour. The stairs below Vernal Falls were knee jarring, but not too horrible psychologically since I was already anticipating them to be bad.

 

Sometime after 4am, we finally arrived back at Happy Isles, taking around 25 hours car to car. It was definitely possible to gumby our way up half dome. It just took some patience and sleep deprivation to do so. 

 

the following day