ElCap Reports

ElCap Report 10/8/07

 By Tom Evans

Yo.... Sweet day here for all the monkeys... weather, perfect.. sun, brilliant... hangers at the bridge, many happy folks... you missed another great day now didn't you? What were you thinking? Where the hell are you? Oh yes... That’s right, you are working for a living aren't you... busting your butt to make the bills... well, because you are then someone needs not to be... that is us... we the proud, the dullards, the broke or in my singular case... the retired! Anyway here it comes to you direct from the summit where Winky, Mutt and Jeff were spectators to the end of the Huber attempt on the Nose speed record this morning.... Today’s ElCap Report..

 Surgeon General: Aaaarrrrhhhh... seems our first mate slept in late today after a little ping late yesterday making him fall from the yard arms... aaarrrrrhhhh... Anyway the lad was up early for him... noon... and on the next pitch which he lead to a belay right next to the one at the end of the Black Tower pitch on Zodiac... he was cleaning when I left this afternoon... the lad seems to be running on all cylinders and is going to continue his voyage.

Zodiac: The two guys high on the route did get the nipple pitch done this morning and the next one in the afternoon... they may do another before dark... Lower Down... Michael got the infamous Black tower pitch done this afternoon and was seen chatting with Ammon who was just a few feet away for some time... he reported that Ammon was doing fine. Nice... Lower down than that a party of two as seen fixing the first pitch.. Trip: The two guys from yesterday did the classic 5th pitch and then the 6th before I departed... pretty fast climbers these... Lower down someone was fixing the 1st pitch...

NA Wall: Timmy and his surly crew landed in the valley today and hit the river as there was a certain stench associated with the lads.. they had big fun up there... Tim O soon departed to check up on his vast empire in the outside world...

PO Wall: These guys were up early and on the lead above the Island in the sky and will be off tomorrow is all goes as planned... pretty smooth big wallers these are...

Mescalito: Mutt and Jeff came down today to a round of applause from the crowd gathered here this afternoon...they looked great but were pleased to be on terra firma... Lower down... T2 knocked off two more pitches and will soon be on the molar traverse... tomorrow I think... there is a party of two below him who will overtake him in the next day or so.. they are climbing well too on this great SE Face Classic. New Dawn: Charley and buddy moved up above lay lady ledge today and appeared to be going well...

Nose: Several teams continued to climb from yesterday... I didn’t see any new teams on the route today EXCEPT FOR THE HUBER BROTHERS!!!! Yes!!! As promised, they were back for a last shot at this fabled route, the first on the Cap and probably the most famous big rock climb in the entire solar system if not the galaxy!!!

Here is the story of their climb today:

I slepped over to the cafe early again to get some grub and then headed for my spot at the bridge... arrived around 7am.. set up stuff and settled in to find the lads... the pressure was off them as they already had the record but wanted to firm it up a bit.. leave all the whiners with nothing to whine about... close the deal so to speak... I picked Alex up in my scope about 2 pitches below Dolt Tower and he looked a little slow to me.. mmmm.. I was wondering if maybe without the pressure the boys would naturally slow down.. but I did notice that while not rushing like before, they were instead climbing very deliberately, steady as you go kind of climbing... plus Thomas wasn't jugging all the time like the second normally does, choosing to smiulclimb a lot of the time... Wow that was a surprise to me as I had not seen them practice that technique and they certainly didn’t do it last time. It seemed to me that the old adage "dance with the one that brought you" would have been the best tactic... However they made good time to Dolt and then were at the boot flake in 10min less than they felt was their pace time... they hadn't encountered any traffic to this point and were moving right along... monkey calls and yells floated up at various intervals from the large crowd that had gathered to watch them...

They passed a party of three French climbers at the great roof without any difficulty and were cheered on by that team as they passed... then on to camp 5 smoothly enough... no lost aider this time, since of course they brought a spare, and when you bring a spare you never need it... insurance if you will... Above camp 5 they ran into three more climbers, more French I believe, who were not quite ready for them and there was a crunch above the glowering spot as they had to climb over haul bags and bodies to get it done. Above the Glowering spot they went out of my view and I set the spotting scope on the alcove which was the next place I could see them again. So I shot other parties and passed the time chatting with the others here. I was watering a nearby tree when a great cheer arose from the meadow, telling me they had come into view again. So I ran to my scope and started shooting. All went smoothly until Alex was doing pull ups on the Harding bolts and he missed putting his foot into an aider and thus was hanging by one arm from the sling with an 80ft loop of rope going straight to the belay.. He spun around twice before he could regain control and power up the rest of the pitch. Then it was up to Thomas to get the last jugging done and make it to the tree. His rope got tangled for a moment and that was killing precious seconds until he got it untangled and was able to forge ahead. Up he came, charging up the rope with all his strength and will. From the meadow came a great roar of encouragement with monkey calls and screams of "go Thomas, go, go,go"... I hit my air horn several times to goose him along that last stretch... soon he was at the tree and they were gone from view... it was over!!

Later they came to the rim and held up their arms... the signal that they had broken the record again ... but by how much? That would have to wait until they got down. Around 1pm they arrived at the bridge to much cheering and excitement. They sat down and told their story... their time.... 2:45:45. So that was that... they had the record in a time that would leave no question of any kind unanswered. A lot of folks came by and heard the news of the day and shared in the success with beer and good cheer.. Jean and Laurie were down from Mescalito too and they had a good time hanging with everyone... it was good fun!!!

Golden Gate: Saw Lee and Lawrence climb from Hollow flake to the alcove this afternoon going right up the so called Monster Crack...looked a little shakey low down but soon were in form...

Salathe: I saw a team of three go over the roof and headwall this afternoon... no one lower down but did see two climbers at the top of the free blast... maybe Salathe or 3D candidates?

Horse Chute: Saw PTPP lounging at the 7th belay in the afternoon sun.... I didn't really check out Lurking Fear as I didn't go up to the woodyard, aka.. old 120 highway.

In other news... nice spell of weather here now... climbers going up on the routes again...camp 4 is filling up or is full.. life is good here ... but soon the traffic pattern is going to change so beware folks... got to go... party coming up... That’s the way it is here in the valley this 8th day of October 2007... the last day Alex and Thomas will speed climb the Nose... thank goodness!!!

I'm out... Tom Evans