ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 9/19/13

By Tom Evans

Yo.. Beautiful weather continues to send the crews marching to the Captain.  Lots of action on the Nose, but not much else.  I had a shot of Joe fixing the brakes on my van yesterday and hear that one can’t legally fix cars in the Valley.  I’m not sure if it is true, but you can see what a problem it could cause, so use the local garage for work requiring removing or replacing parts. 

The Face Lift is coming in a week or so and we would like all the help we can get to clean up the park.  Great entertainment is on hand with the premier showing of the film, “Assault on ElCap” kicking off the event.  If you have ever been to a Face Lift then you know it is a lot of fun and valuable prizes will be given away.

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

1)  Zodiac:  So far, Saku, from finland, is getting it done in good style.  Here he is climbing into the White Circle this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2)  Later in the day he was at the start of the Nipple Pitch.  Notice the Nipple pitch goes up and right of him and the 9 O’clock Roof is down and left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lower down I spotted a team of two climbing the first two pitches.

Lost in America:  Jim Bayer climbed off the route and onto ZM late in the day.  He has a few pitches left to go.

3)  He is seen here climbing off the belay on one of the crux pitches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4)  Tribal:  I didn’t get a very good shot of Kevin DeWeese today but here he is climbing to the ledge at the base of the Carrot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nose:  The Nose is loaded with several large teams.  Three seems to be the magic number today as there were 3 such teams, one of 4, and a couple deuces.

5)  These guys lounged on ElCap Tower for most of the morning and you know what that means!  Kevin texting from Tribal Rite above them, says they dropped one of their ropes.  How does a climber "drop" a rope?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6)  Congratulations lads!!  YOU WON THE BAIL OF THE DAY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7)  A team of three to include, “No pants” Ben, his buddy Max, and Jorg , made pretty good time on a NIAD shot.  Here seen above Dolt Tower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8)  Higher up, another team of three is seen here hauling bags to the start of the Great Roof.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9)  Much higher is the 4 man Korean team that has been on the route for a few days.  Here the lead climber starts the last pitch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10)  3D:  Around the corner from the Nose is the first two thirds of the route and this afternoon I spotted Curt Lyons and Kevin Mokracek on the Muir portion, above Mammoth Terrace.  I am guessing the “Orange Man” is Curt.  Edit.... they bailed the next day from Grey Ledges, in the morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11)  Sunkist:  A little further west of the 3D I spotted Matt and Keenan on the traverse pitches to the start of the upper headwall.  Here Keenan is leading through a thin section of weird looking rock.  Earlier Matt made a difficult pendulum to climb to the belay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12)  Higher up the Brits climbed to the upper part of the headwall and will be off tomorrow.  Here they are as the morning light illuminated them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13)  Dihedral to Horse Play:  Old Piton Pete is moving higher in what must be some nasty heat.  Several parties have bailed out west in the past few days, but Pete is soldering on.  Here he is on the Horse Chute part of the route where it goes left past the Triangular Roof while the regular Dihedral goes right.  Tough going out there in the afternoon heat and glare.  Hang in there Bro!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t spot anyone west of Pete.

14)  Here is a shot of the ElCap Tree… dead now, from several years of drought.  Someday, in the distant future, one of its offspring will replace it, using the decaying roots and remains for subsistence.  I won’t see it, but it will be there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In other news:  Most of the introduction should have gone down here but I wanted to make sure you paid attention to it. 

The beer restocking effort has been a great success, thanks to the generosity of the readers of the Report!  Several people hand delivered the goods right to the Bridge, just in case some exhausted, filthy, thirsty climbers were too far gone to wait for me to make the run to the store.  I have the reserve funds, you guys sent, and will use them as needed.  Many thanks!!

“Thought of the Day” comes from Woody Allen.  “I don’t want to gain immortality through my work.  I want to gain immortality by not dying!”

So that’s the way it is, for this Thursday, the 19^th day of September, 2013.

Later,

Capt. Tom