ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 6/3/07

 By Tom Evans

Ok here it comes... I fixed a zip line down from Heartbreak Hotels east deck all the way down to the Bridge railing... so I just grabbed the T bar and went down for the ride of a lifetime... landed at the bridge to find that, Scott Stowe, had taken "My Parking Spot" on the SW corner of the bridge even though he could have used many others... thus I had to shoot in the wind today and that means that a lot of nice climbers will have blurry pictures of themselves .... thanks a lot Scott!!! If you see the man tell him to give us all a break!!!   Actually the pics came out fine and Scott can park anywhere he wants :)  Direct from a vulture to the ISP comes today’s report with the dirt and the dis on all the danglers and manglers on the Big Stone... So drop that slightly used rack that you went out with today and wash those smelly, climbing shoe stains off your feet ... because you want to be clean and not sober to take in the full impact of the news... Today's ElCap Report...

Zodiac: The Canuck girls team bivied on Peanut as predicted and went off this afternoon... seems like a crowd had gathered on the summit to greet the ladies... The team of three was seen doing the nipple this morning and were flagging the ledge below the haul bags.. when they hauled the wind spun the thing like a propeller in a B-25 thus dragging the bags all over the place... they were seen headed for peanut for the night.... Further down the drama was playing out as my bros from the Bridge, Lance, KFC, and the bailer pushed off on their version of a push on the route... when I arrived Bailer was cleaning the 5/6 pitch and they were getting ready to go on the Black Tower... KFC had the lead and he quickly make it up to the towers top were he pounded and welded a pin into the crack above using about 521 hits on the poor piece of chrome molly.. a bit later they all got up there and proceeded to sit on the ledge at the end of that pitch for a 2 hour "Lunch".. a two hour lunch on a "push"?!!  Ah... breaking new ground... redefining the term for the new generation... I left at six as Lance was hugging the end of the nipple ... Some random activity was seem on the 1st pitch but you never know about that kind of stuff..

NA Wall: I gave a orange shirt to one of the members of the team starting today... saw them below the big roof at the 5 pitch and the shirt looked great... he was going to wear a gray one... who dresses you people??

SSPO: Well Ragon was moving up the Bearing Straits as I arrived having done away with the Central latitudes and not the nothing atolls as mistakenly reported yesterday... see Ricardo?.. we do corrections in this rag.. anyway I got some nice shots of the lad as the wind whipped his rope around on the exposed face above the corner...

Mescalito: The party of two and the solo both topped out this afternoon about an hour apart... nice going guys...

Nose... the party of three were seen on the great roof this morning and climbing into camp 5 in the afternoon.. the leader on Pancake flake had a bright lime green shirt sporting the number 9...some have suggested that I issue shirts with numbers to climbers so they can be better tracked... and I could sell them the shirts after they topped out... yeah right... :( Two speedy dudes in red shirts were seen on Dolt tower as I arrived and they quickly climbed up the Jardine and into the gray bands where upon they bailed ... they came by and told me that this was just a training run for tomorrows speed climb.. Sharp dressers, Oklahoma men!!!

Muir: Picked up the Muir team I had talked to a few days ago a pitch above the gray bands and they went well all day... nice yellow shirt and helmet combination ... they were slowed when RM showed up sweeping the upper part of the route of stuff he had used for the free ascent of Premuir...

Shield: A Party of two suddenly appeared at the groove pitch like they had been beamed up there by Scotty. I completely missed them until then... they destroyed the pitch in half and hour... sorry to have missed the roof and the long pitch above.. sometimes I miss things... tell me before you go and if you change plans let me know...

El Corazon... TC and BR were seen working the upper part for a pose down under the auspices of one "Link Inc" former water carrier for the NPS who is undergoing deprogramming to make him human again.. he is directing the action for a movie of the "Staged Event" I heard through the grapevine that they had freed the route last week... just a rumor to my way of thinking.. very likely as TC is the unstoppable man at the moment...

Salathe/ Free Rider.. The O'Neil jamboree got off the deck this morning with one DP crusin up the freeblast at the sharp end of the rope... TO was aiding in hauling stuff and SO was making good time up that awful slab... an entourage was accompanying them including the Flash who was doing the filming.. others involved are unknown to this writer... European woman was doing well and has done FR in good style thus far and will most likely become the first EU to climb it free... her husband is along for support and it is said in the cafe by those in the know.. (one Micha Dash) that the route is below his standard so he is just along for her effort... mmmm ... nice move... usually the other way around... Other climbers are starting behind the O'neil caravan which will be five days + on the big stone.. R and Amee are going ahead of the all female team of Jean and Anna. Anna is hot off of a 5 day climb of the SF of Mt Watkins and the LT before that... should be interesting as Jean is becoming one of the more experienced women on the stone and Anna is eager to do more... go girls!!

In other news... Stephane did SEND FREE RIDER AS THE FIRST FREE ROPED SOLO OF THE ROUTE. A quiet, modest man, I had to drag it out of him as we sat at the bridge today and laid around like lizards in the sun... SWEET!!! Big Hands Greg was trying to fix the clusterfuck that the lack of logistics has produced in several of the parties doing tricks on the Big stone. He was rounding up porters like a Sidar on an Everest expedition.  Karl Baba came by today and hung for a while with his partner, John? They had done the Prow I think.. nice to see him again... DT came by with SEG for a few moments before going off to de-rack. Gabe and Janie hung here most of the day as he is recovering from an ankle injury on Electric lady land with M. Ousley last week... seems to be enjoying the recuperation with the bridge treatment for any ailment... Cobra's... Ottawa Doug is still basking in the glory here too... several attractive members on the distaff side floated through to the oggling eyes of the senior members of the posse.. all in all another great day here at the gates of adventure... I had fun at the slide show I gave at the lodge last night but was very disappointed that the computer and the projector didn’t like each other and the shots came out with weird colors... sorry about that ... I will get with Ed Whittle and see what can be done before the next one on June 16th... So the van is packed and the trash picked up and I have hand over handed up the zip line to the deck of Heartbreak Hotel and am having a cool one as the Report comes to you across the electronic airwaves... Remember that in a journey of a thousand miles .... the first beer must be drunk!!!

Later ElCap Tom