ElCap Reports

 ElCap Report 5/21/10

By Tom Evans

Yo… Well the weather has turned into February and the Rats are leaving the ship. Today was cold and windy at the Bridge, after a calm early morning. The extended forecast calls for cold and SNOW! That sucks big time!

Remember all the YOSAR training yesterday?  Well today it was put to use.  Bad fall on the Salathe ... big rescue... read about it below.

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

 Yesterday, late in the evening, a 48 year old French climber  fell 65 ft. into the Alcove below ElCap Spire.   I talked to Stefan Bruner, who was on the spire at the time of the accident.  He relates the following account.  The French climber was aiding the crack on the wall behind the spire and had back cleaned some of the pieces.  As the climber reached the level of the top of the spire he placed a #3 cam which Stefan says was 95% open.  As the climber leaned over to reach for the spire the piece pulled and he fell over backwards.  Stefan said he was looking the man in the face and half his torso was above the level of the ledge.  He fell down the chinmey, a lower piece partially broke his fall but the rope stretch caused him to bang his head on the side wall, did not completely arrest his fall and he hit the deck with a thud.  He was severely injured with a lot of blood coming from him.  He had broken several ribs too.  The five other climbers at the Alcove did what they could for him, but he did not regain conscious. In the morning YOSAR mounted a full rescue with a team at the top and choppers ready to fly to the Spire to do an extraction.  They even pressed Gleason back into service after they found him sleeping in the Camp 4 dumpster.   I got there too late to see the extraction but the CHP crew flew one of their best missions right up to the Spire, lowered down rangers who did what they could for the injured climber. Then they came back and somehow extracted him from the cliff. He was soon on his way out of here to a hospital in the central valley. He didn’t regain consciousness and Stefan said his vitals were good and he was stablized by the rangers.  I don't know his present condition (as of 1pm 5/22) but we are of course hoping for the best.  More updates tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHP crew, in tan flight suits, with our YOSAR brass after the extraction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

 

Park Service chopper heading to the spire to pick up rescue team members only to find the winds too high to risk the extraction for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

 

YOSAR members and climbers who were at the Alcove, rappelling off in late morning. They all got down safely.

 

Zodiac: Peyton Hassinger and Andrew Tau did a Zodiac in a Day climb today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

 

Peyton climbing into the White Circle in crappy colored clothing.

 

Zenyatta: The two man Swiss team climbed to and past the Lightning Bolt Roofs this afternoon in good order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

 

Starting the Lightning Bolt Roofs.  A red shirt, my kingdom for a red shirt!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

　

 

Leading the Roofs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

　

 

The pitch after the Roofs and into the White Circle.

Trip: The four man team was passing the last bolt ladder as I left today. Those guys did a good job on the route, especially considering the size of their party. They are most likely off by now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

　

 

Starting the bolt ladders on the Trip.

Genesis: EE was out on lead again today and got a couple of very beautiful looking pitches just before and into the smooth dihedrals that define this line. They still are a few days away from the top and will have to suffer through the coming bad weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

 

 

Eric crossing some interesting rock on Genesis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

　

　

 

Eric climbing into the smoothness.

Tribal Rite: The lads topped out around noon today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Topping out on Tribal Rite.

Nose: There are still a couple of parties on the Nose as I write these lines. One is Jim and Karla, a wall style team that is anything but fast. They will be in deep shit if they don’t pick up the pace. A couple of other teams are low on the route and might just fix and bail. Hans Florine and Buddy climbed the Nose in a day today in blustery conditions. That makes number 1232 trips up the route for the speedy Hans!

Salathe: The parties in the vicinity of the accident all bailed without incident as far as I can tell. I did see a team climb to the roof and around to the Freerider finish. They had been working Golden Gate I think.

I didn’t see anyone else from my vantage point at the bridge.

In other news: Many luminaries and human relics from the past, have shown up for the Frank Sacherer memorial this weekend… going on as I type these lines. I will attend tomorrow night. The Bridge was cold and forbidding today but on a positive note … the ElCap Shuttle started today.. So use it!!

That’s the way it is for this the 21^st day of May, 2010. Not a good day in the Valley.

Later Tom