ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 10/12/2022

By Tom Evans

Yo… Continuing clear weather has dominated this Fall climbing season.  The downside is the sun has baked the great rock day after day and the conditions are more late-August than mid-October.  However, lots of teams have flocked to the Nose, where the bail rate is an all-time high of 65%.  Salathe/Freerider has been deserted, although recently several teams are making plans for Freerider.  We await their actual presence on the rock. I am getting some nice shots as Fall has the best lighting of any season.  But there still exist a plague of Gray sun hoodies and similar dark colors, on the rock.  Actually the bright yellow sun hoodie keeps the sun off just as well as gray does, so consider and up-grade in the clothing department… please.. stay away from the dumpster when picking what to wear on the Cap!

Today’s ElCap Report… written just for you…unique in all the world!

1)  This climber, with great enthusiasm and running speed, did the “ElCap Mile” a couple of days ago.  The “ElCap Mile” is the distance someone runs on the King Swing when they can’t seem to figure out how or where to go to finish the Swing off.  This unfortunate swinger spent close to 2 hours to complete the pitch.  He showed a lot of grit and tenacity and did his duty for the team, and in the end was successful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2)  The last pitch of the Shield Headwall.  In this case the team was finishing off the Albatross route you saw shots of a few days ago. The Shield and a couple of other routes use this corner as the finish.  The haul bag usually gets stuck at the corner of the roof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3)  Behold, Behold!  Pete and crew (Minions, Tom Canac and Luke Antonia) are seen here in the Alcove preparing their kit for their big adventure on the unrepeated Dave Turner route, Atlantis. We counted 17 bags, of all sorts, comprising this unpresented, prodigious mass that would soon be blasted into the air and fixed on the route as the lads finally get started climbing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4)  The pre-spray was almost as voluminous as the kit itself.  You can imagine the excitement when the moment finally arrived for lift off.  Most of the Tourons, and unsuspecting local crew, felt the first shock of air, blast across the Valley, at the speed of sound, as the massive kit actually broke from the deck and started upward.  The ground trembled and shook, women with children ran for their lives thinking the world was coming to an end.  The religious fell to their knees and prayed for salvation. The NPS Geologist arrived with fear in his eyes, thinking the mass might just pull ElCap itself, over into the Valley and block all traffic.  The Minions and Old Pete hauled half of the gargantuan mass at a time.  They used Pete’s circular hauling system that allowed not only Pete, up at the belay, to haul, but the Minions to also put their weight onto the counter line while on the deck.  It was a glorious sight to behold.  Personally, the excitement was almost too much to bear, but I hung in there working the camera, waiting for the mass to arrive at the belay.  Actually, it all went without a flaw and I was impressed.  Gotta say… even if it pains me a bit… Old Pete knows his shit and not many others could have pulled it off so well and so quickly.  The result put about 1600 pounds hanging on that belay, pictured here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5)  Lunar Eclipse… Marek is finishing up this excellent and photogenic route.  Here is a shot of one of the major lower outs on the route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6)  Marek had to lower past the station as the angle of the lowering line produced a lot of force and it was impossible to go straight to the belay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7)  Here Marek is climbing on the tooth (not sure of the name) to reach the short crack leading to Lunar Ledge and the off ramp to the 4 finishing pitches on Zodiac.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8)  Gosia approached the bolt ladders today. Here is a shot from 2 days ago as she started to long corner leading there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9)  Legendary Old Timers, Mark Hudon and his climbing partner of 50 years, Max Jones, are seen here hauling kit to the start of the traverse to the slab pitch, on Virginia to the Trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10)  Max Jones is seen here on the lead to start the slab up to the belay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11)  Ken Bokelund and partner Hunter Sibbald are teeing it up on Kaos… yeah.. I know, Schneider and Gagner did it last week… not often done, it has suddenly become relatively popular.  This shot is from today… Do you want to beat the heat?!  You gotta love that Sunbrella!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few Oldies for your viewing pleasure.

12)  This is a shot I got on 10/11/2010 and is the first big rock fall I saw in my years of watching ElCap.  This shot was on the front page of the LA Times the next day.  It turned out to be trite compared to what would happen 7 years later!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13)  This is a shot of some of the ElCap Bridge crew in Fall of 2009.

 

 

 

14)  One Scot Deputy, looking rather dapper, standing by his rig in Fall of 2009.  He has since upgraded his kit to powerful road locomotives, consuming vast resources as he moves up the socio-economic ladder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news:  Eli Nisson is solo on LA. The Mikes are off ND/Tribal.  Steve Schneider and the Manly men are on Aurora, after the VA start. Freerider is in the works from a Columbian crew.  El Corazon is getting attention.  Cosmos has Sean Warren humping and puffing kit to is seldom visited base. Zodiac in a push, soon.

So that’s the way it is, on this Wednesday, the 12^th day of October, 2022.

Capt. Tom …survivor of the lift off blast this morning!