ElCap Report 10/06/09Submitted by Tom Evans on Wed, 10/07/2009 - 04:30 |
ElCap Report 10/06/09
By Tom Evans
Yo… Splendid day here in the Valley. The weather looks good for the foreseeable future. There are few parties on anything except the Trip which has suddenly become the flavor of the week. Zodiac also has some suitors on the early part of the route. The Nose has three teams, all of whom are going off tomorrow most likely. This is the time for you to get here and get on the Captain. The time and the situation are right on.
I am running short on time tonight so this is it…
Today’s ElCap Report .. Written just for you… unique in all the world!
Zodiac: Mike has ropes fixed to the top of two and is blasting tomorrow morning. Karl Baba and Kevin climbed the first two pitches fixing for a blast in the next couple of days.
Tangerine Trip: Ok… I will try to get this straight. Two teams did the direct start yesterday day. Mike and Grover were behind the other team. Today they were both back on the route and the second team passed through the first at the top of five and that was that.
1 Matt Lambert cleaning just before the pass
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2 Grover Shipman belays as Matt moves off on the Trips 8th.
The Polish solo climber, Regan, climbed the regular route to the middle of the 5th pitch with the plan of rappin to the top of 3 to pick up his bags and go on from there. A good plan. I wasn’t there long enough to see if it all went down as planned.
3 Regan on the Trips 5th pitch from way out west.
Anna Phaff, a solo woman with some EC experience, climbed to the top of the first and is going back tomorrow to fix to 4.
A Korean team of 4, from the Doo-Ri Big Wall climbing School in Dae-Jeon, is starting on the route tomorrow. Their Lead climbers are, Jeon Un-dik and Wang Cheung-Sik. The students, along for instruction and the "dirty work" of hauling etc. are Ha Jong-Gu and Jeon Sung- Whan. The Ground man is Yu Sang-Rae. My advice is to forget about the Trip for a while!!
New Dawn: Chris came down today after doing some serious retreating across the Dawn to EML traverse yesterday. He was down by early afternoon after a brisk retreat. He said the storm had hit him pretty hard and he was sporting a foot injury. At his high point yesterday, it became apparent to him that he had lost the psyche to continue, thus forcing a technically difficult and dangerous retreat. He is fine now.
Nose: Two teams were off to the races today with one going the Jardine route with a bag and the other the regular ECT, KS way. The King Swing team didn't have much stuff and may be pushing the route for many more hours.
4 Jardine traverse team and climber hanging out on Texas Flake.
5 Finishing the King Swing. The ECT KS team beat the Jardine team to Eagle Ledge, as you can see.
Steve and Benjy climbed from Dolt to C5 today and will be off tomorrow. EC master Steve was in his element with long strings of pitches linked and lengthly hauls from strategic locations.
6 Steve Schneider crushing the Grey Bands.
I hear there are several teams lurking around the first several pitches and bags on Sickle too. Tomorrow, it will be a fight to the death to see gets to the Legs first.
Muir: I finally saw Nicki and Allisyn today at the central traverse pitches on this route. They climbed to the triangular roof by mid afternoon and will soon be on the sweetness that is the upper part of this great climb.
Around the Heart: Mason and Brad, were over there working on a little ditty that Mason spotted a few weeks ago. He did some preparations on the route last week. It looks pretty cool and they made good progress past the left side of the Heart this afternoon, on some stellar crack. These guys are free climbers and seem to have found a way through some pretty desperate territory.
7 Mason working an outrageous crack on the Heart's left side. Sweet!!
Octopussy: The drama unfolds high on the route as Kate is time constrained and must leave immediately. They hauled the Show to Thanksgiving ledge today and are going down LF instead of schlepping across the top to the East Ledges.
8 Sunset photo from home:
In other news: Quite a few of the recent climbers of the Cap were at the bridge this afternoon and I took several nice hero pics of them. Unfortunately the camera didn’t have a memory card in it and thus there are no photos… damn I hate when that happens. It makes me feel old and foolish. The truth hurts! Maybe they will all be back tomorrow and I can try it again!!
So that’s the way it is for this the 6th day of October, 2009.
I’m out,
Tom
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A big fuck yeah for Lambone and da DocG!!!
Lookin good cruisin up the trip! Damn, I wish I was with ya or at least killin a cobra at the bridge with ol tommy. Keep crushin it ya'll!
blake
Protection?
Is it my imagination or does Mason not have any pro? He looks totally unprotected! Very cool climb.
Zodiac
Funny Karl... I wrote you in to the report first and then saw a post by you that you were not going for a while and changed it when someone said the rangers were going to do it. Hard to keep accurate track through the rumor mill!! Thanks for the update. Loved the shirt!
Prod sez.
Never a dull report!
Thanks
Prod.
Chris
Thank you again Tom for your ever watchfull eyes
Chris's old man
Whoa.
Hella(!) good shots today, mn.
Dude, Trip's locked up, Tight!
Good to see The Schnied(!) Up there tearin' it up.
Go Mason!.....Beautiful spot. At least from here......Skully
That was actually me, Karl
That was actually me, Karl Baba and Kevin that climbed the first two on Zodiac starting about noon. I soloed the first pitch while my partner Kevin went back and humped a load of water. We're also tentatively planning on blasting tomorrow except for one minor/major setback (we'll find out in the morning) I was within 4 inches of grapping the anchor on top of pitch one when my blue alien pulled and I went flying. I strained something when my right leg hit and it doesn't like to get weight the wrong way. Still, I jugged back, finished the pitch solo and my partner led pitch two. I followed with some new tricks (jugging and swinging on the haul line while lowering out from the anchors to clean the horizontal roof on pitch 2. Then I hobbled back to my house.
Some guys climbed up the talus claimed they were lining up for Zodiac and saying there were four people behind them but they were just pulling my leg. THat might have been Max and Jake but they headed off to the East of Zodiac. Don't know for what.
If my leg is a bit better in the morning, I'm off supertopo until Monday night!
Peace
Karl
Go Mason
Well I was there when young Mason was scoping out his route. Nice to see a little deviation. Figured the guy on New Dawn was going to bail too bad. So, the trip is the new nose.
^^^^^^^^^^^^ Yay
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yay Tom it is not an age thing...maybe a cobra thing!
Princess of the El Cap Bridge :)
t*r
it's ok tom, my memory card filled up and for like a month i could not for the life of me figure out how to empty it. i'm in my twenties. not an age thing at all!