ElCap Reports

ElCap report 5/18/07

 By Tom Evans

Yo... well today was a lot quieter than yesterday!!  I went over to the SAR cache this morning and gave the many shots I took to John Dill... Keith Lober showed up as did Merry Braun and we all sat around looking at some of them on the computer and talking about the rescue... I said I wanted to shake the hand of the man who lowered into that situation from a chopper hovering just a few feet from the wall. Great work Keith and Jack!!  Nice day today with some action starting on different routes.

Zodiac: Two guys are on the ledge after the Black tower pitch this evening after making good time today. Also two others got past my eagle eye doing a speed ascent and it wasn’t until I was just about to leave for the evening that I noticed them on the pitch after the Mark of Zorro... no bags and no bright shirts!! Looking strong.

Virginia/Trip:  Dave, Aaron, Matt topped out on Virginia to the trip in about 26 hours... Matt’s first time up the cap this season... they were all sitting around at the El Cap bridge today with the 1000 yard stare!!

LA ..Kate and Mike are continuing to move right along and I think were on pitch 7 when I left.

Space: Eric and Mo were doing the pitch above the Bismarck when I left as their route shares some pitches with Mescalito... moving along at a good steady pace they were too..

Nose: well... lots of parties on the nose with most between boot flake and camp 5 but two or three parties low or fixing.

Muir... looks like Rob Miller and Justin are off the route for now.

Salathe/Free Rider/Golden Gate.. Stanley and friend are way up on Golden gate... I haven’t gotten down that side to shoot them much but they seem to have things under control...Salathe.. a team of two went over the headwall this afternoon in good style.

Dihedral... talked to a soloist (first timer on the Cap) who is starting tomorrow... I will keep a close eye on this lad as he seems confident but I am not totally convinced that he is really in the know about it... he is taking 6 gallons of water for the entire ascent!

Triple Direct.. Mike Schaffer and company went up the free blast today to fix some ropes down the heart ledges descent for a climb in a few days... three others on the blast today ahead of mike.

NA Wall... Two Women are about to start on this old classic... best of luck girls!

Shortest Straw has a rope fixed up the first pitch but I know nothing about who it belongs to or when they are blasting.

Mescalito:  Tommy Caldwell has some ropes and bags on Mescalito and surrounding areas but I have not seen the man through my scope yet.. Hey!!!..Come by the bridge and let me know when and what you are going on... so you can get some good shots from me and so I can keep you under scrutany in case it all goes south for you.

That’s it for today... signing off from my rocking chair at the east end of the ElCap Bridge!! Peace and happiness to you all!! ElCap-pics