ElCap Report 6/10/10

ElCap Report 6/10/10

By Tom Evans

Yo… As promised the weather has turned toward the cooler end of the scale. The climbers on the Cap were mostly bundled up in puffy’s and wind jackets today. Still lots of action on the great rock but the King continues to languish the shadow of Roy’s big climb on the SW Face. The SE Face is pretty busy with several routes seeing action while the SW is busy but on few routes.

Now some words from the NPS, paraphrased, of course.

For climbers who leave good ropes on the Heart rapps or the East Ledges rapps for the benefit of the rest of us… the boys in green say that they can not take bad ropes off the rock and leave just good ones. We can’t and don’t want to depend on Rangers to police these lines and they don’t want to anyway. So here’s the deal. If you are replacing a bad rope with a good one then you should take the bad one with you and just leave the good one. Having 2 or 3 shitty ropes at a single station is unacceptable and when that happens the Rangers will have to take ALL the ropes down. They are not authorized to judge which rope is best because if they did then they would be liable if something happened involving that rope. When you are jugging up one of several lines you don’t really know which one is the good one and which ones are not, so let’s not leave bad ropes in place at all. Thanks for your cooperation!

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

Zodiac: The team of invisible Koreans turned out to be good climbers and are moving right up the rock. They were finishing the MOZ when I departed and may stay on Peanut or more likely just finish the route today. They had a moment or two of proper color presentation but most of the day were in black… perhaps their warm stuff is all black. Next time lads, don’t come to Yosemite with such ugly stuff. I will have agents at the SF Airport to make sure you comply with our rigid standards in the future.

Lower down the two climbers from the other day who fixed to the top of 4 showed up today. They have increased in number by one, and were bundled in warm clothing today. They are from Jtree and are Ben, Beth, and Ryan from Nomads. Unfortunately, they are painfully slow and I figured would bail by late afternoon, as they had only done the bolt ladder pitch by 3:30pm. However, they sent a leader out to do the tiny pitch to the start of the Black Tower pitch as I departed. Stay in the game guys!

Trip: Justin continues to put the pitches behind him and today is headed to the bolt ladders. He is pretty close to Kate and Kitty and a couple of times they all fit in the same shot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justin coming back to the belay on the steep Tangerine Trip.

 

Aurora: Kate and Kitty continue to make good time up this route with short fixing efficient climbing. They are above the GFF now and may be off in two days.  This isn't one of those Pete style ascents!

Lost in America: The three Koreans showed up and are on the climb in earnest. They had only done one pitch as I departed today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Korean leader, Kum Sek, leading the 2nd pitch on LA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEST DRESSED TEAM OF THE DAY!!  Extreme Team climbers, Kum Sek, Jung Shang, Ki Cheol know how to dress for success!

 

Mescalito: Jan and Mark are climbing well and are most likely making the Bismarck ledge for the bivy and maybe fixing above too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finishing the Molar Traverse this morning

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The Lines: The Lines continue to hang from the top and are in use for both rappelling and jugging.

Tribal Mark: Mark climbed off the big bivy ledge this morning and was topping out in early afternoon…. Way to go Bro!! We hooted and monkey called but the wind was up all day and he didn’t seem to notice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark heading for home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark at the end of a long journey, both in days and years.

 

New Dawn: The team of three, SAR Ben, Eric, and Scott jumped ahead of the Korean team of 4, a good move for both parties, and are planning on jamming this route in three days. They are rabid short fixers and had better be on this long route.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The team on ND’s 5th pitch.

 

I have not seen the Koreans but hear they have fixed a couple and may be blasting today.

Nose: The team from yesterday did top out this afternoon.

Lower down a couple of teams climbed to Dolt this morning but the lead team promptly bailed. The remaining team was last seen fixing above Texas flake in mid afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morning on Dolt Tower.

 

Shield: Mash and partner Justin were seen by my spies making the wrong turn at the Muir junction…. Headed to the 3D instead of the Shield. Pretty cold, windy and lonely up on that bald face, and it might have been the best move they could make.

Pace Maker: I did see Pete and Mark dealing with their Show up on the Tower to the People this morning and into the afternoon. They have the Golden Desert and the A5 Traverse to do today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hanging on the Tower to the People.

Salathe/Freerider: Nick, with Mason as jug monkey, was seen flying up the Freerider today… looked good and sent it in 12:30!! Sweet!!… I did see Duncan and Melissa climb the pitches above Long Ledge this morning.

Lower down several wall style teams were heading to the Block, but all together in a huge cluster! Lower down a couple of teams were seen in the vicinity of the Ear and were headed to ECS.

Lost World: Bob, recent ascender of the Nose, has hauled kit to this route and has fixed two. He had the good fortune of getting 8 gallons of fresh bailer water right at the base! He is taking a couple of days off and then blasting.

Lurking Fear: I hear that a party of two has fixed and ready to blast tomorrow.

In other news: The Bridge was pretty calm but cold and windy most of the day. Several climbers hung out part of the day and we were happy to be there rather than in the wind and cold on the wall. The river has gone down considerably. My buddy, Jingy, showed up and enjoyed some down time.

Javier and Pedro came by after finishing the Shield a couple of days ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Javier and Pedro, glad to be at the bridge.

So that’s the way it is on ElCap for this the 10th day of June, 2010.

Later Tom

Congrats Mark! Glad to see

Congrats Mark! Glad to see all went well!

Thanks for doing what you do, Tom. Excellent job!

Awesome Mark!

Awesome Mark!

Looking great, Justin!

Looking great, Justin! -Stanley

감사 합니다! GAMSA HAMNIDA! THANKS

감사 합니다!

GAMSA HAMNIDA!

THANKS FOR REPORT
SEE YOU THIS SUNDAY
THANKS
-KB-

Huge Congrats Mark. Nice

Huge Congrats Mark. Nice send.

Good paraphrasing on the fixed ropes issue Tom

Cheers,

Doug

Yeah, Mark. Glad you had such

Yeah, Mark.

Glad you had such awesome weather. Sick watching you move that freight up the wall.

Congratulations!

Chad

Way to go Mark!!!! Jay

Way to go Mark!!!!
Jay Renneberg

Huge congratulations to

Huge congratulations to Mark... Good work.

Kudos to you Tom for tracking

Kudos to you Tom for tracking Mark right to the summit. Mark is gonna love the shot of him topping out!

-John Fine

Tom- What was the story with

Tom- What was the story with Javier and Pedro, how long did they end up spending up there??? We left them a 1/2 gallon of water at Chickenhead, thought they might want it, hope it helped them out! dave
 
REPLY  They picked up the pace and appreciated the water but didn't need to use it.  So you are doing someone you don't know a real favor!  Javier just came up to me and said you also left a beer that they did use! 
Tom

Mark, way to go! You make us

Mark, way to go!

You make us all in the Hood proud.
I hope to climb El Cap with the same style and drive!
Cory

Congrats, Hud. Way to

Congrats, Hud. Way to persevere. I followed your trip via your photo topo you sent me. I counted twelve days. Very impressive to hang tough that long in the vertical world. Looking forward to your trip report.

Drew

Mark, you da man...!!!

Mark, you da man...!!! Rocko

Yowza! I Knew Hudon was gonna

Yowza!

I Knew Hudon was gonna cruise it!
Ol' Bob will tear it up on The Lost World, too.
Oh, yeah. Skully

Go Bob!!!! Way to resist the

Go Bob!!!! Way to resist the Cobra's call today! :)
-Seige

Great pics of Mark, Tom! way

Great pics of Mark, Tom! way to go MH!!!! making us all proud!

those Koreans do look spiffy. Excellent idea to get Homeland Sec in on the dress code for the Big Stone.

WooHoo for Mark on Tribal

WooHoo for Mark on Tribal Grape or whatever Skully calls it and Nick 12:30 up freerider. Yeah Baby

Russ

JT wall dudes/ettes! Make it

JT wall dudes/ettes! Make it happen for the home team!
Remember, it totally sucks up there and it always seems like yer are gonna die..... and you might.... but it is soooo good when you top out and then finally get to hit them ground zero beers! w00t!!!!
Russ

Way to go Mark!

Way to go Mark!

You the man Tom! Hope you

You the man Tom! Hope you are feeling better :)
Congrats to Mark WooHoo!!

The Princess

Wow- I'm forst? WOOOT for

Wow- I'm forst?

WOOOT for Hudon!

-Pate

Tom, the pics look great today, really crisp.

Yay for the Nomad Ventures

Yay for the Nomad Ventures team from Joshua Tree!