ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 9/6/07
 By Tom Evans
Yo... Here it comes straight to you from the Oklahoma folks, Tony, Lori, and Joe who just got here and hung at the bridge for a time today. Tony and Joe are set for a shot at the Nose tomorrow and part of the next day. Nice here today.. got some quality shots in the morning with no visitors to break the serenity. Another nice day for climbing and viewing with some haze coming in late in the day... Anyway without further delay.... here is the ElCap report for this day....
 

Zodiac; Andy and friend climbed the Nipple pitch and the two above and should be standing on Peanut ledge at this very moment. The rest of the route is empty at the moment.
Trip... all gone... empty route... NA Wall: Cam and Scott climbed out of the Cyclops eye early in the day and were seen heading to the Igloo late in the afternoon with a possible late evening push to the top as they had planned to be off this day.
Tempest: Got down early to shoot Aaron and found him hard at work on the traverse pitch at half height where he seemed to get lost for a time before coming back and getting it right later in the morning. He did put in 3 pitches before settling into his ledge around 4:30 this afternoon.. nice going KFC!!
Mescalito: Matt made the Bismarck ledge this afternoon and hopefully found the 2.5 gallons of water that were left there last week by another solo climber... I think he will be off in 3 more days.
Nose: The two teams of two Spanish climbers did make it to Dolt tower last night and today climbed to and did the king swing in good form and were last seen starting the pitch above the pendulum around 4:30pm. They were moving rather slowly but persistently and determined it appears...go guys!! Behind the Spanish teams there is the team of 3 climbers who were seen yesterday fixing above Sickle ledge in hopes of a rapid start today. Well the start was made but they were miles away from Dolt when I left at 4:30 today. But they are plugging along with the leader wearing a pack while on the sharp end and they are also hauling bags.. seems a little strange to me but it is their cross to bear. Unfortunately my friend Logan Talbot, aka Chuck Pratt, and his partner were stuck behind the three mentioned above all day and their plan of fixing above ElCap Tower today is most likely a pipe dream at this time... but maybe they can pass late in the evening as they are pretty fast and on a limited schedule and have no reservations about climbing by headlamp. They will also have to get past the Spanish teams if their schedule is to be kept... good luck on that!!
Muir: The two man team is high in the final dihedral and pushing right along... who are they? Below them and just above mammoth terrace there are two climbers who just might be ranger Jessie and partner... I yelled up for him to fire his 9mm three times if it was indeed him but heard no gunfire... a shame to have the gun and not be able to signal with it... ;) Below them.. like on pitch 3, I saw a team of three with a guy in nice red clothing leading that pitch late in the day... figured it might be our own Matt Lambert aka Lambone, as he has reported he might be here this day... Heart ledges... two guys there going where? Couldn't tell in the few moments I saw them.
Lurking Fear: Now don't get excited... I don't shoot this route but did see a team of 2 guys and a girl at the third pitch.. don't know them and won't be looking for them.
In other news... had a casual day here at the bridge... mentioned that OK Tony, wife and friend Joe were here for a time. Dee Thomas came by too getting psyched to do the Nose with Timmy O in a few days. She also sported us some coronas to get us thru the day... Mara, as usual, provided a great lunch of chips and salsa, turkey sandwiches, beer, watermelon etc... Nice! Thanks Mara!! Corbin was hanging and Dave showed up late to get ready to blast on DNR (Dave's new route)... Bullwinkle showed up too and hung for a while eating watermelon and pontificating on Dave's particular "style" of climbing. With the shuttle bus running there are quite a few Tourons tramping around the bridge trying to figure out which rock is Half Dome! We just point at ElCap and tell them its Half Dome. Very nice here folks... do come by if you get the chance... I will be around until Sat afternoon and then out and back around the 20th of this month..
. So that's the way it is here in the Ditch for 6 Sept 2007...
good night and good luck.... Tom Evans