ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 6/6 to 6/7 2014

By Tom Evans

Yo... Splendid weather continues to dominate the late Spring season on ElCap.  Hotter the next few days.  The Nose and Zodiac are seeing most of the action with some other climbers on Never Never Land, the Salathe, and Tribal Rite.  Allfrey and Honnold zipped the Zod in 5:05 this morning and were down by noon for a party thrown by Dave's folks at my tree in the meadow.  Good times for sure!

ElCap Report 6/5/14

By Tom Evans

Yo... Beautiful days here in the Valley and lots of routes still to be done by.... you Puke!!  Get here... soon.  Or miss some of the best climbing weather we have seen in many a year.  Allfrey and Honnold are still knocking off EC routes daily.  They did the Nose today at what, I recall, Alex calls, "Recreational Pace".  No record this day but none was expected as that record requires considerable preparation and practice.  Still 5:15 is pretty smoking!!

ElCap Report 6/4/14

By Tom Evans

Yo... still sweet weather here these days and the cliff is seeing some action.  Two teams on Tribal via New Dawn, several teams on the Nose, Zodiac has a bunch including several fromTeam Extreme Riders, Salathe has a team, Hudon and Richards are finishing the Albatross as I write this.  Italians have finished Mescalito. Allfrey and Honnold have set a speed record on the three climbs they have done over the past three days including, New Jersey Turnpike, Tangerine Trip and today they sent Eagles Way. 

ElCap Report 6/3/14

By Tom Evans

Yo... continued great weather... get here soon folks.  Gotta run today so this will be short on words but long on picture quality.

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

ElCap Report 6/2/14

By Tom Evans

Yo.. kind of a slow here today with not a lot of action on the cliff, in spite of the great weather.  We had climbers on the Nose, Salathe, Albatross, Mescalito, Zodiac, and New Jersey Turnpike.  Dave Allfrey and Alex Honnold are on the higher reaches of the Turnpike as I type these words. Here are a few shots of today's action.

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

ElCap Report 5/30 to 6/1/2014

By Tom Evans

Yo... Continued great weather prevails here in the Ditch.  Where are you?  You are not here?  You screwed up!  Allfrey and Honnold are blasting tomorrow on New Jersey Turnpike to do it in a day and for the next several days they will be trying to do an ElCap route a day!  You are going to miss it all, Puke.  But I will be sure to let you see the highlights on the Report!  Part of my, Mr. Nice Guy Policy.

ElCap Report 5/27 to 5/30/2014

By Tom Evans

Yo... Spectacular weather doesn't seem to be enough to bring in many climbers... so this is YOUR chance to get on that route you always wanted to yourself!  The climbing that is going on is of a high quality.  James McAffie and partner Dan just got down from a send of El Nino, just a few days after Tobias Wolf and his partner Thomas did the route.  Hudon and Jones made it back from their climb of Reticent.  Honnold and Allfrey are in the Valley now and are formulating some amazing plans... stay tuned.  Team Extreme Riders, from Korea, are due in soon.  So the stage is set for good things to happen.

ElCap Report 5/23 to 5/27/2014

By Tom Evans

Yo... perfect weather is bringing them back to the Valley, although today was not a very busy one on the Cap.  Hudon and Jones are down from Reticent after a very nice ascent of this difficult route.  A Zodiac team finished this afternoon and a solo is going into the circle now.  The Nose has had a lot of action in the past few days.  New Dawn has the normal Piton Pete crew on it but have not cleared the trees yet... maybe later in the week! The British climber James McCaffy and his partner are half way up El Nino.  The rest is sort of explained in the pics below.

ElCap Report 5/23/14  Rescue Edition.

By Tom Evans

Yo... Nice weather these days but the cliff doesn't reflect the great conditions.  Perhaps the big holiday weekend is keeping them away.  Yosemite Search and Rescue had their annual May helicopter training day on the 21st of the month.  All the rangers qualified to get a ride on the bottom of a very long rope, suspended from the chopper, got to practice taking flight and landing on the side of the East Buttress of the Cap.  The weather was not great that day but they pushed through it with Richard Shatto doing the precision flying.

Well just two days later, Tobias Wolf and his partner Thomas, were rappelling near the area of the practice when a rock fell, without warning, from above and hit Tobias in the left knee.  YOSAR was quickly dispatched to the scene with Fire chopper 551, flown by Richard Shatto again.  It was the same flight as was practiced just two days before and it went quickly.  Below are some shots I got as I arrived a bit late for the first part of the flight.

ElCap Report 5.15...22.2014 A week of climbing.

By Tom Evans

Yo...  Well, it has been hot.. cold.. dry... and wet, this past week.  Right now the conditions are perfect for climbing.  The Spring climbing season is in full swing now, so come on Cubicle Pukes... get out of your prison!