ElCap Report 6/13/12

Submitted by Tom Evans on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 23:53

ElCap Reports from June 2012

By Tom Evans

Yo… warmer and warmer each day now. The heat may close out the season before the end of the month. Not a lot of replacement climbers coming forward just yet. Some are fixing and others are holding out for a little cooler conditions. Still, the mornings are quite nice but the mid day temps are not the best. The big trades dominate the climbing as they usually do this time of year.

Today’s ElCap Report…written just for you…unique in all the world!

Zodiac: Lots of action on the route as a couple of teams arrived and blasted today. Up top Dave made the top in late morning and had kit off my mid afternoon.

1) Dave on the next to the last belay this morning.

Lower down, Kevin and Elliot, Utah boys, climbed the MOZ and are most likely Peanut bound for the evening with maybe a pitch fixed in the evening.

Lower yet a team of two, who fixed yesterday blasted on the route from the top of two. They are Wes Goulding and Dave Gerwe.

2) Leading off on Zodiac’s third.

Lower down yet, Matt Lambert along with friends Joey and Aaron fixed two today and will blast in the morning.

LA Steve and Larry climbed off this afternoon after a routine ascent of the route.

Mescalito: Dan and John, from Colorado hauled the last of their supplies to the base and after having fixed 4 pitches will blast tomorrow.

Nose: Two teams bivied on Dolt Tower last night and the team of three were the first out of the blocks this morning. They headed to the Jardine and were seen in the Grey bands by afternoon.

The other team, a team of two from Canada, were behind the other team and were also doing the route via the Jardine.

3) The two teams leading and waiting.

4) The Canadian team of Bill and Jordan hauling above Dolt this afternoon.

Lower down and then higher up Hans and Hondo did a practice run up the Nose in preparation for their full out effort at the record on Sunday, starting at 6:30am on that day. They cruised up the route and were reportedly looking at around 4 hours for this jaunt. They looked good, especially going to ECT. Hans lead the first half of the climb and Alex the second. When it was all said and done they did a time of 2:50:38 according to Hans who came by the Bridge with Alex and chatted for a while. Take 15 minutes off that and that will be a record. That time was a surprise as they were not really giving it the full treatment! Tomorrow will see another practice run and they will go on Sunday no matter what the time is tomorrow.

5) Alex climbing above Dolt.

7) Hans lowering off the Great Roof. Alex back cleaned the upper part!

Lower down, Scott Stowe and client, Trevor Jones, from Aberdeen, Scotland, climbed to Sickle ledge this afternoon and will go from there in the morning. Looks like Scott won’t get rained off this trip!

Salathe/Freerider: The Salathe team of Brian and Travis climbed above the Spire and were last seen in the vicinity of the Block where I think they will bivy tonight.

8) Brian and Travis climbing above the Spire this morning.

Lower down I noticed a speedy team at the Ear just finishing the Monster Crack. I hear it is Ben Ditto and a pard taking a shot at Freerider free in a day.

In other news: Lots of climbers at the bridge today along with a pretty big crowd of Tourons. Most of the climbers are hiding from the heat or just plain stalling! Others are basking in the Glory of recent ascents!

The Colorado girls left for home today. They lit the place up for a couple of weeks and encourage other women to come on out and show what they can do.

So that’s the way it is, for this Wednesday, the 13^th day of June, 2012.

Later,

Tom