ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 5/31/07

By Tom Evans

Yo... here it comes... right on target, dropped by a B-2 bomber on a laser guided bomb so it can’t miss... Today’s ElCap Report. Skipping the long intro today in favor of the BIG NEWS OUT OF THE VALLEY TODAY... Rob Miller and Justing Sjong did indeed free the freeable Muir and even added a few nicer pitches to the route than the old "Shaft" route... they are calling it PreMuir and I was fortunate to be able to shoot them over the past 2 and 1/2 years they have worked on it on and off... you can guess that the lads were quite happy to have finally put it together in a 7 day ascent... Rob spent some of the day hanging at the Bridge and talking about the good time they had on the route... neither he nor Justin looked at all "worked"... Now to the other news from deep in the ditch...Today's ElCap Report...

 Zodiac: two parties are on the route and another is readying for a push... the higher of the two (a team of 3) were into the white circle and heading for the start of the nipple when I left.... the other guys were leading the Black Tower..

PO Wall... Marc was hauling on the next to the last pitch today when I departed and will be off today most likely... nice work from a guy who got better and better as he got further into the route...

SSPO: Ragan was climbing above the rubber band man pendulum when arrived this morning and was starting the next pitch when I left... seems the man is starting to hit his stride now..

Mescalito... Ottawa Doug was leading the next to last pitch as I started shooting and he topped out at about 3:30 this afternoon... I gave him a blast of the fog horn and he turned around and I was able to get the summit arms in the air shot... Thus completes what I believe to be the oldest solo climb of the Cap and certainly of the route... nice Doug... see you at the bridge tomorrow for a cold Cobra and the Bridge Heroes photo!! Lower on the route the two guys were just past the pendulum on the molar so I missed shooting that one for them. As I left I noticed that they were on the pitch above the chimney... The solo lad (who is this guy?) was right on their backs as he had gained 5 pitches on them over the past few days... pretty impressive! He did the molar traverse and was at the base of the chimney pitch when I left...

Nose: I didn’t get down to the west side this afternoon as there was lots of activity at the bridge all day, so I don’t know if or when the Seattle team topped out... nothing bad was heard from anywhere on the Cap so I assume all is well with them... Lower down a team of 3 wildly dressed climbers were dragging up the stovelegs in a very strong breeze late in the day... they were miles from Dolt tower and inching along... on the bright side.. they had a portaledge with them...

Muir: A team of two started yesterday on the bottom pitches in a push and will haul loads to mammoth tomorrow when they finish up the first 10 as they managed the first 8 yesterday...

Shield: BoBo and Seg were seen pushing hard for the top as the wind was howling and it looked really cold up There, they were short fixing and hit chicken head ledge around 3pm.. they could go higher...the burst of speed has left the lower team in the dust (two Colorado guys) Seg was cleaning well and working like an old hand..it  was good experience for her. The Shield is no small feat for a first time up the Captain newbie.... a couple of pitches behind them a team of two was going up the triple cracks and moving right along... ropes were hanging sideways most of the day...

Salathe Free Rider... the gang of 4 made it down to the bridge this afternoon and my god did they smell bad!!! The river never looked so good! They had a great time and moved the baggage train along with considerable skill... they reported on seeing Stephane on the route and camped with him one night on the spire... I think I saw him at the traverse under the roof high on the route... imagine he will be off tonight or tomorrow sometime... nice!!

Dihedral Wall... the lead team was reported to be on Tgiving ledge by the push team of the Flash and KFC who did manage to get some sleep at "the Ledge" and higher on Thanksgiving ledge.. they liked the route and while dirty and smelly did seem to have things under control this afternoon at the victory celebrations at the bridge... KFC commented that his left jumar was always on top!

In other news:  The bridge was a hub of activity today as all kinds of climbers, friends, tourons, newbies came around and took advantage of the shade to get out of the sun and hide from the wind too... preps were underway for the big extravaganza about to happen on the Salathe tomorrow with Tim and Sean O'Neil and full supporting cast... should be interesting... I heard that Bando Loopers were active in the area but have yet to spot one of them... Cedar and Nick did make the Free Rider free so the free climbers are ruling the roost here at the moment... most of the big wallers are on easy to moderates this season with Piton Pete threatening to go on the Ranch again soon... watch that third placement on the first pitch Pete!!!

Well that’s about it from the gates of adventure... the days are going by and the monkeys are having the time of their lives... come on by folks and test the rocker and lift a cold one... The van is packed and locked up and I have jugged the fixed invisible lines up the my deck on the south side of the west end of Heartbreak hotel... the clouds came in earlier with some hint of possible showers but nothing really came of it ... so until tomorrow... remember.. a ten year old rope is only rated to hold a ten year old... get a new one sometime ...

ElCap Tom