El Cap Report 10/10/08

ElCap Report 10/10/08

By Tom Evans

Yo.. Well it started out nice but by noon the clouds had come in driven by a strong SW wind. The Cap got cold and all the contestants went into the puffy jacket and colorful windbreaker mode... nice for the shots!! But the cliff is pretty empty at the moment. Today's report is brought to you by the turnout in front of the SW face where I sat today and shot a few parties on the Salathe and worked on the mess in the van... nice place that is BTW devoid of Tourons. I was loving it!! Today's Report ......

Zodiac: The two Pete wantabees made it to the top of the Nipple pitch yesterday and stayed there today. They fixed a pitch above the ledge. They did put the rain fly over the ledge however.

NA Wall: These 3 guys are continuing to go upward.. good work guys.

Moving up on the NA Wall

[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/elcap-pics/StayingwarmNAWall.jpg[/IMG]

Pacific Ocean Wall: A couple of SAR girls are on this route I hear... actually one is a SAR subbie sometimes. It looked cold up there.

Nose: One lone party in the Stove Legs that made Dolt around 3pm.

Waiting at the belay in the Stove Legs

[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/elcap-pics/WaitingtoclimbintheStoveLegs.jpg[/IMG]

Shield: My man Narek (aka Regan) made Chicken Head Ledge late in the afternoon. The lad looked to be going well and it had to be cold up there on that route.

Salathe: Well this one had some climbers on it. A team of two climbed over the Headwall this morning and were headed to Long ledge the last time I looked. Below them a team of smartly dressed climbers bailed from a couple above the ECS. Below them a team of two climbed the Ear and onward above it. Below them a team of two climbed a few pitches behind the above mentioned team.

Climbing above the roof on the Salathe

[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/elcap-pics/OvertheroofonSalatheWall.jpg[/IMG]

On the Salathe Head Wall

[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/elcap-pics/OntheSalatheHeadwall.jpg[/IMG]

Close up on the Salathe Head Wall

[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/elcap-pics/CloseupontheSalatheHeadwall.jpg[/IMG]

Starting the Ear on the Salathe Wall

[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/elcap-pics/StartingtheEarpitchSalatheWall.jpg[/IMG]

Bailers passing by ascenders on Salathe Wall

[IMG]http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll27/elcap-pics/Salathebailerspassingthroughascende.jpg[/IMG]

In other news: The Ranger team pushed hard and made the long climb to the top yesterday from the Bismarck ledge, on Mescalito. Pretty impressive boys!!

Erik and Alec finished their push on Lost World and finished up on LF. They reported it was cold over on the west side.

There were a few extremely light snow showers above 6,000 ft and the pass is closed at Lee Vining. I wonder if the Hans and Yuji show will go Sunday or wait until Monday? I guess I should check out Hans' website to find out.

So that's the way it is on this, a slow day, the 10th day of October 2008.

Later ECP's