El Cap Report 10/09/07

ElCap Report 10/9/07
 By Tom Evans
All right... yeah there is action on the big stone to report... there is also one of those nice control burns that gave me the afternoon off as the smoke was thick at the bridge.. So this will be quick as I have images to do tonight too... Today’s ElCap report is brought to you on the rock shard from the hook that blew off on Ammons third move off the belay in the white circle.... Drum roll please....... Today’s ECR, just so you will be in the know...

Surgeon General: Aaarrrrhhhh... Capt. McNeeley (he got promoted from first mate) spent a nice morning sleeping in his quarters and about 1 pm stuck his head out into daylight and decided this was a day he would climb... so off he went on a pitch that appeared to be mostly hooking with a rivet or two for safty... his patience was tried a weee bit right off the belay but he was right back on it hooking on some pretty featureless white rock about 1/3rd up the circle... he was still at it when I left early this afternoon...
 
Zodiac: The two man team high on the route was heading to the last two pitches when I left around 3pm...off in a few hours... Solo Michael (yes Ottawa Doug, it was the same guy as last time and he said he came back because he got inspiration from your climb of Zodiac) is in the white circle and may do the pitch up to the nipple later this afternoon... hard to tell as the wind is up this afternoon and some forecasts call for a chance of rain... Lower down there was no sign of the guys who climbed to pitch 3 yesterday.
 
Trip: The two man team is going pretty fast and are into the big corner system about the same level as the 9 o'clock roof. Lower down there was no sign of a solo woman who fixed one yesterday...
 
PO Wall: Looks like that team is about off now... unfortunately they missed the Huber bash in camp4 last night that went on until 2am much to the dislike of the other campers I hear.
 
Mescalito: T2 is still leading the pack at the moment and climbed to the Molar traverse pitch which he just may do later in the afternoon...he looks good and is climbing well thus far. Below him is a team of two that are about to catch up with T2, maybe tomorrow... Did see one well known free climber come down the face and look around all the way down to Wino tower... nice orange shirt and helmet too...must have spoken to the Croatian girls..
 
New Dawn: Charley and buddy were seen logging some air time yesterday and today went onto the Nose from ECtower... "not so fast lads" the Cap said as they got spanked hard on the king swing but eventually figured it out... Nose: The thing is pretty much empty save a party high on the upper part and one team of three in the stovelegs... did see a party of two bail from Dolt tower this morning... Looked like several parties on the first section but you never know how many of them will survive to make the stovelegs these days...
 
Salathe: Did see a couple of teams around hollow flake this morning hauling bags...
 
Golden Gate: Saw Lee and Lawrence start the cutoff from Salathe to head onto this proud route... should be fun to watch this one...
 
In other news:  I didn't get to the west side as the smoke was thicker down there and I was short on time today...  the bridge was very quiet today in nice weather ... a lot of folks went up to the rostrum to Slack line and hang out... the Tourons were thinly staffed this day... so I had the place to myself for most of the day with a couple exceptions.... Pretty mellow here...
So that’s the way it is on this 9th day of October 2007...see you around town.... I'm out of here. Tom Evans