1993-94: THE JOKER

The Joker (5.12c) was named in honor of Derek Hersey, who I intended to do the climb with after he returned from Yosemite Valley in 1993, but he never arrived. Derek died while free-soloing the Steck-Salathe Route on Sentinal Rock. I knew Derek was the perfect partner for this radical climb with some horrifyingly bad rock in the 2nd and 3rd pitches. This would not phase him in the least. With Derek gone I still wanted to do this climb for him, so I twisted Chip’s arm (he owed me) to go up with me and take a look at this unlikely section of the Diamond. We got shut down on the rotten 2nd pitch, which turns out to be the crux, but returned soon after and pushed through the 3rd pitche, and bailed once again. Chip thought it was a pile and was done with it, so I talked Steve Levin into going up there. We succeeded in topping out on the route, but Steve took a fall on the crux 2nd pitch and then had to take aid on a short wet off-width near the top. We dubbed this section “The Last Laugh” because we thought we were done with all the difficulties and had smooth sailing to the top, but we got pranked. I returned the next season with Pat Adams and freed the entire route, including the Last Laugh, but I took a fall on the second pitch when a hold broke. A few weeks later I returned with Pat to look at a new direct finish to the Joker, and he led the 2nd pitch cleanly. But we retreated from higher, so the Joker, to this day, has probably never had a continuous free ascent with no falls or hangs. Josh Wharton, one of the top climbers in the world, backed off the 2nd pitch because the rock is so bad.

In this photo I am leading the 3rd pitch – overhanging 5.11d on pretty bad rock. But this is one of the easiest pitches on the route! BTW, the rock gets steller-good on the higher pitches of the climb.