ElCap Reports

Eagles Way: Nico and Sean worked on some good free climbing on the upper part of this route today. They are making short work of the route and were seen sending some nice stuff. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say about the possibilities there.

Surgeon General: Kris had a temporary setback this morning as he took a little daisy whipper and squashed his kidneys. He didn’t feel he could climb in his condition and needed more water anyway so he came on down to the deck. He reported it was blazing hot on that dark rock and was looking forward to a change in the weather. He is NOT off the route and will be back!

Zodiac: Rick and Maribel, climbed the pitch to and then past the Nipple this afternoon. They moved along steadily and may have climbed another pitch after I left around 4:20pm.
Sizing up the Nipple pitch.

Maribel climbing toward the Nipple on Zodiac.

Kaos: PTPP lead the 4th pitch very rapidly today after posing for pictures for his partner, Kate. It was one of the moderate pitches on the route and perhaps they will have plenty of time to move the freight up this evening. Kate was shaded up most of the afternoon. Tonight is Pete’s 365th night on the Captain!!
Pete and Kate photographing each other on the top of 3rd pitch Kaos

The Ranch: Alec climbed a couple of pitches today and seemed to be completely in control of the situation. He was in the dark rock for the morning and broke into the lighter stuff in the afternoon. He is getting up there on the route and could be off sooner than we expected.
Alec cleaning high on the Ranch.

Atlantis: Richy and his partner moved a couple of pitches higher on this second ascent and are now high enough to be easily visible from the bridge. It looks like they are moving along well enough.

Mescalito: The higher team moved right along today and will be off tomorrow for sure if they continue to roll along, as they are just a few short pitches from the top.
Lower down the team continued up the long corner up toward the Molar traverse. They are making good progress at a measured pace.
Tending the belay on Mescalito.

Seventh pitch Mescalito just before the shade arrived.

The Nose: Well the traffic higher on the route has diminished greatly. Cal lead Steve up the last pitch and topped out around 1pm. The team of two who came over on the 3D yesterday topped out right behind them.
Lower down a team was seen climbing across the Grey Bands and were last seen heading for camp 5. A team of three was seen midway up the Stove Legs late in the afternoon and were aiding most of the way so will be hoping to make Dolt tonight. Around Sickle ledge were several teams including the Jay-Jeanette team who are staying the night and heading for ECT tomorrow if all goes as they wish.

Muir: The team of 4 is putting on a clinic up there. They climbed the entire upper part in just two days and are now off, I assume, as they were nearing the end when I departed.

Salathe: I saw a team of two from yesterday climb from the top of ECS to the Roof by the time I left. Above them were several climbers who appeared to be top roping the headwall pitches and may have come onto the route from the top… don’t know for sure about that. They may be one of the teams from yesterday with the nice red shirt. I didn’t spend much time watching them hang dogging.

In other news: Nice day here today. Alex Honnold stopped by, with Ms Brown’s very well behaved dog, today. It was nice to talk to the lad and see what was up with him. Later Chris Mac came through as mentioned above. There were few Tourons today, a nice change. Several of the Face Lifters drifted through later in the day. Reagan,(Narek Raganowicz)the Polish climber who soloed SSPO last year, is back to do the Shield solo. Dave Turner is off to try for the solo record on the SF of Mt Watkins tomorrow. The usual posse members were here to feed on the leftovers from yesterdays opening ceremonies. It was a bit hazy in the afternoon so I didn’t shoot a lot after around 2pm.
Hans and Yuji are going to have another run at the Nose again as Yuji thinks they can get it down into the 2:20’s. So there will be some good climbing to be seen soon. I hear Ammon is coming in tomorrow. There were lots of climbers at the shows tonight and tomorrow night looks to be as good or better.
So that’s the way it is for this the 25th day of September 2008.
Bye Bye ECP’s