ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 5/24/07

 By Tom Evans

Ok... it is that time again... go to your room, close the door, sit down and relax. It's time to take some time for yourself for a change... escape to Yosemite with me. Yes, it is ElCap Tom dishing the dirty and the delightful, fresh from the ElCap Bridge and brought to you directly, paper clipped on the wing of the raven I called down from above.  As you would expect, it was a fine day with lots of action on the big stone. But first a quick sidebar about this report... some of my good friends here have brought into question this report and whether or not it should be done anymore. They feel that anything that reports Valley doings on the net could be used by NPS to keep track of us, or follow our exploits in such a way as to compromise our positions here.  They would feel more secure if nothing was reported, even though I try my very best to give just general news with nothing specific about anyone in particular. I frankly didn’t even think about this aspect of the Report, as I was just having a little fun with it and hoping you were too... but they do have a good point and many have learned that any information is sometimes too much information... I need to know what you think too... It does take time to do these things and I guess I could be doing something else if that is what you think should be done. .. you make the call... have I said anything that is out of line in that dept.?  If so don’t post it here but email me...

ElCap Report 5/23/07

 By Tom Evans

Yo.... Well here it is ... fresh off the back of a trout swimming upstream from the ElCap Bridge. All the news from the center of the universe of wall climbing... the ElCap Bridge... direct to you from your man on the scene, Telephoto Tom, Ansel Evans, ElCap Tom Ewans, the most famous climber in Japan, ELCap-pics... call me what you want... the dirt is dished here and I report on it all, the good, the bad, the ugly!  So tie in, hang on, and pay attention as I'm only going to type this once! Today started out cloudy and calm and I was thrilled!! This was the best light I've seen on the Captain all year and I melted the shutter on my camera I was taking so many shots.... then around noon the sun came out and that was the end of the excellent light.

Today's ElCap Report:

ElCap Report 5/22/07

 By Tom Evans

Yo... I know you have been waiting all your boring day to get this report... so here it is fresh from the base of the ElCap scree slope and brought to the computer by a Sherpa runner who is here for the week... from Dead Bird ledge to the Teflon Corner here is all the latest dirt dished by the man on the scene...Today's ElCap Report:

ElCap Report 5/21/07

 By Tom Evans

Direct to you from a U2 spy plane flying over the valley this afternoon... a beautiful day here with a few clouds appearing from the northwest late in the day.... Here it is ... the news from the Nipple of Zodiac to the Ear of the Salathe... Today’s ElCap Report

ElCap Report 5/20/07

 By Tom Evans

 Yo....this report is brought to you fresh from the shores of the mighty Merced river at the ElCap Bridge... A beautiful, warm California day with a strong up canyon breeze shaking the Aspens along the river and the sun warming the climbing lizards basking in the glow at the bridge. Anyway....the ElCap news covers the Big Stone from the East Butt to the West Butt... the latest... direct from the scene!!

ElCap report 5/19/07

 By Tom Evans

Yo... From the shade of the El Cap Bridge... Nice here today... 

Today's ElCap Report...

Mescalito: Team of two moving right along to the 8 pitch today. Eric and Mo are finishing up space via Mescalito and are a few from the top.

ElCap report 5/18/07

 By Tom Evans

Yo... well today was a lot quieter than yesterday!!  I went over to the SAR cache this morning and gave the many shots I took to John Dill... Keith Lober showed up as did Merry Braun and we all sat around looking at some of them on the computer and talking about the rescue... I said I wanted to shake the hand of the man who lowered into that situation from a chopper hovering just a few feet from the wall. Great work Keith and Jack!!  Nice day today with some action starting on different routes.

ElCap Report 5/17/07

 By Tom Evans

BIG RESCUE ON THE CAP TODAY. A guy fell from the pitch above the king swing and broke his femur with gallons of blood on eagle ledge. I called it in around 9:30 am and told 911 to get some one here fast as the guy was bleeding to death. He was on Eagle ledge with his partner who was doing everything he could to keep him alive... never seen such an amount of blood... the ledge was streaming with it. Anyway ... 3 choppers showed up and the full SAR rescue team arrived after a time.

El Cap Report 5/16/07

 By Tom Evans

Yo... another nice day in the valley. Today’s ElCap Report.

ElCap Report 5/15/07

 By Tom Evans

This report is an idea I had that resulted from so many people asking me "What is going on ElCap these days?"  I figure that with the internet and such a lot of people would like to know too.  So I am going to try to write some of what I see ... I will post these reports on SuperTopo and we will see what comes of it....

Ok... the Cap is pretty empty in great weather..

Nose... one party on El Cap tower another fixed to sickle and that’s it.