ElCap Report 5/27/16

ElCap Report 5/27/16

By Tom Evans

Yo… Spectacular weather continues to make up for weeks of uncertainty as the climbing season really takes off.  Sunny and warm today with a cooling breeze on El Capitan.  So pay attention fans, cubicle pukes, senders, and pretenders.  Cool happenings today along with some unexpected events.  Remember the weekend is here and the crowds are poised to crush Valley attendance records… so beware of getting caught in the congestion.

Today’s ElCap report..written just for you..unique in all the world.

1 Zodiac: Corey and Kim took the morning off after climbing the entire White Circle yesterday.  Here they are as the sun reached them this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 Shortest Straw:  The Polish team of, Maciek and Mateusz, climbed the Sun and Steel pitch this morning and made Peanut Ledge as the routes join up there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Over on Kaos Tito Krull and Brandon Adams topped out around 3pm today after a rapid ascent of the route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 Sean Warren took his final load up to the top of the first on ZM this morning and was able to give Mark Hudon some assistance as he went by the base.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 Aurora:  Mark Hudon was short on suffering psyche and decided to bail this morning from just below the Bat Cave.  He had difficulty as he didn’t have enough rope to rappel off and retrieve the rope.  Later he borrowed a 100m line and all his stuff was back at the car by dark. 

Congratulations Mark you got the “BAIL OF THE DAY”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 Atlantic Ocean… turned into Iron Hawk.  Nathan and Chris turned right above the roof and headed to Iron Hawk.  This shot is the belay just over the roof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6a Here the leader is on the Knife Blade Traverse and after a time turned back and retreated back to the belay. I didn’t stay long enough to see just what they did after that.

TOM'S SHOT OF THE DAY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

North America Wall:  Yesterday Dustin Moore, Liz Kim and Mark Richie fixed three and returned to blast today.  I didn’t get any worthy shots for this report but will see what I can get tomorrow.  They were just below the chimney above the 5th as I departed and looked to be going strong.

 

The Nose was jammed today.

7 This crew is in the line at Gray Bands.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 A NIAD team, consisting of Roger Putnam and Justin Jendza, cruised by all kinds of sleeping climbers this morning and went to the head of the pack.  Here they are crossing the Gray Bands just as the light hits them.  They were off by 3pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 Another NIAD team took one look at the ECT area and went for the Jardine Traverse, as you can see in this shot.  They made excellent time and should be off by dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 Several King Swings were thrown down as the center of the route was jammed all day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11 Over on the Salathe the teams that spent the night in the vicinity of Lung ledge headed up this morning. The mixed team is seen here on the Hollow Flake pitch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 This is a shot of the notorious 5.7 chimney above the Hollow Flake that everyone says should be a 5.9.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 As the afternoon wore on the heat went up and the Salathe teams ground to a crawl.  Soon parties were spotted just sitting around.  All in all the three teams over there were not making very good time and no one reached the Ear while I was shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 Over on the fixed lines Kitty and Elaina spent the day hauling kit up to Mammoth in support of their soon to start climb of the Muir Wall.  Looked very toasty over there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news:  The weekend is the big news.. lord help us.

So that’s the way it is, for this Friday, the 27th day of May 2016.

Capt. Tom… dealing with the hordes.

 

Great to have the reports back!

The shots on the knifeblade traverse are awesome.
Doug

Polish team

Does anyone know the names of the Polish team?

Polish team

Maciek Kowalczyk & Mateusz Zablocki. :)

NIAD team in the lead

That was me and my buddy Justin Jendza. It was his second El Cap ascent and we pulled off a 8:21 ascent! Thanks for everything, Roger Putnam

 

I should have known!!  Tom