ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 10/6/07

 By Tom Evans

Geeze.. People are asking for this report even before I have stopped shooting for the day!! Guess that is a good thing. Anyway, today’s report is brought to you from the ECBridge today via our climbing ranger Jessie who reports that so far marriage is a good thing... HA! He says he is looking to get the Dolt Cart from Yeager so he can be hauled up the Cap in good style. Check your knots, double back your buckle, and chalk up good because there is a lot of climbing to report on this clear and sunny day.... here it is without further delay... Today’s ECReport

... Surgeon General: Aaarrrrhhhh... ships first mate, McNeeley, is back on board and has the helm on this "not exactly a trade route" climb... saw him on the ledge adjacent to Zodiac's third pitch this afternoon watching some of the other mates cruise up that one.... Alert!! Alert!! This is not a push, I repeat, this is not a push.. or a shove or even a nudge...

Zodiac: The party of two that lost the race to the 2nd belay a couple of days ago did manage to sprint by Michael, the soloist, and at last sighting were heading to the Black Tower pitch. Michael was climbing the 3rd and has blasted on this, one of the most photogenic routes on the upper east side of the big stone.. go man go.. FYI: Andy, Karen, and the two Aussie helpers topped out in a snow squall but managed to get down yesterday in slippery conditions... all pledged that they will never climb this stupid rock again.. the standard promise made by most climbers after it is over!!!

El Nino, NA Wall,: Stanley and Martina continued to work on the upper part of the route but got lost in the wake of the O'Neill Battle Cruiser as it rolled up the NA Wall.. Timmy's lads will be off tomorrow at the latest (my mole, Dave, secretly radioed me right under the nose of Timmy who was oblivious after inhaling the smoke from an old camel cigarette left on a ledge by Bridwell some time ago)...

PO Wall: I did intercept a radio message by the now famous route stitcher, Ivo. He said things were going smoothly I think.. or maybe he was calling in a pizza order to the deck at Curry... hard to tell what the lad is saying some times.. anyway the team was into the Bearing Straits on a windy and exposed lead by Ivo in early afternoon...

Mescalito: The team of Muff and Jeff are getting pretty close to the end and if all goes as planned will finish off tomorrow if they get some pitches linked today... did talk to Jeff, the small one, on the radio and she is in good shape and they are looking forward to the summit... nice!! Lower down I spotted T2 as he lead and hauled the seagull pitch which is the 6th on this excellent, moderate +, endurance contest of a route.. didn't talk to him because he was out on lead... he has many days to go so don't start asking about when he will finish... we will just have to see how things go..

New Dawn... did spot that team around the 4th pitch this afternoon... too low to really report anything specific.

Nose: Well there were several parties on the nose today... there was a NIAD with a leader who looked a lot like Mikie or the Dutch paint boy with his hair curling out from the bottom of his helmet.. maybe? Behind them was a team of two who were on the great roof when I went down to the west side around 3pm. Below them was a team that climbed to the top of Texas flake and bailed from there. Lower than that was a huge team of 14 climbers all crammed into one of the stoveleg belays... well maybe that is a slight exaggeration... anyway, it was hard to sort the bodies out thru the scope.. below them... god does this ever end?... were some guys at sickle doing what they all do there... haul too much stuff up... A and T Huber came by to see the number of parties they would have to deal with Monday when they give it another go. They left with disturbed looks on their faces... Oh Yes... did spot a team of three with a yellow bag heading for the last pitch late in my shooting... thank god this part of the ECR is finished!!!

Salathe: Saw a speedy team of two climb above the ear to ECspire in the afternoon. Dihedral: Caught a glimpse of PTPP lowering out some bags from the top of 3 when I was down there... looked nice and warm over there after what was surely a cold morning...

Lurking Fear.. I know, I know, I don't do this climb ... but since the recent Mongolian ascent I thought I might just take a look anyway.... saw SS who was on that record shattering Mongolian ascent, going up again with a friend and they were around the 6th pitch and close on the heals of another party of two... Any other parties I happened to see were doing fine too..

In other news: A very different day today than yesterday.. all the snow was quickly melted and the sun was brightly shining. All the climbers on the wall were doing great and most were even going in the right direction... up... The Bridge, because my spot is in the shade all day, was pretty chilly and that seemed to keep the Tourons at bay most of the time. A few climbers drifted through but not many, especially considering it is a weekend day. Erik Sloan stopped in and gave us a little slide show from his computer of a winter climb of TTrip this past Feb... pretty cool stuff... FYI.. the traffic pattern will be changing early next week so BE CAREFULL as many one way streets will become two way. Ranger Jessie did stop by and shot at some Ducks that happened by to show off his new pistol and impress us with his marksmanship....we also discussed the trash problem at the top of EC and the urine problem that is becoming epidemic on some routes... no conclusions.... With the weather improving now and camp 4 filling rapidly we should be seeing some great climbing on the Cap in the coming weeks... I did stop by the Sugar Maple today and it is going out of condition rapidly... it will be bare in a few days.

So there you have it folks... Today’s report for 6 October 2007 another great day in a long series of great days here in the Valley...

signing off... Tom Evans