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Submitted by Tom Evans on Thu, 06/05/2014 - 00:55
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ElCap Report 6/4/14
By Tom Evans
Yo... still sweet weather here these days and the cliff is seeing some action. Two teams on Tribal via New Dawn, several teams on the Nose, Zodiac has a bunch including several fromTeam Extreme Riders, Salathe has a team, Hudon and Richards are finishing the Albatross as I write this. Italians have finished Mescalito. Allfrey and Honnold have set a speed record on the three climbs they have done over the past three days including, New Jersey Turnpike, Tangerine Trip and today they sent Eagles Way.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Wed, 06/04/2014 - 00:56
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ElCap Report 6/3/14
By Tom Evans
Yo... continued great weather... get here soon folks. Gotta run today so this will be short on words but long on picture quality.
Today's ElCap Report... written just for you...unique in all the world!
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Tue, 06/03/2014 - 01:02
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ElCap Report 6/2/14
By Tom Evans
Yo.. kind of a slow here today with not a lot of action on the cliff, in spite of the great weather. We had climbers on the Nose, Salathe, Albatross, Mescalito, Zodiac, and New Jersey Turnpike. Dave Allfrey and Alex Honnold are on the higher reaches of the Turnpike as I type these words. Here are a few shots of today's action.
Today's ElCap Report...written just for you...unique in all the world!
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Mon, 06/02/2014 - 02:14
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ElCap Report 5/30 to 6/1/2014
By Tom Evans
Yo... Continued great weather prevails here in the Ditch. Where are you? You are not here? You screwed up! Allfrey and Honnold are blasting tomorrow on New Jersey Turnpike to do it in a day and for the next several days they will be trying to do an ElCap route a day! You are going to miss it all, Puke. But I will be sure to let you see the highlights on the Report! Part of my, Mr. Nice Guy Policy.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Sat, 05/31/2014 - 02:16
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ElCap Report 5/27 to 5/30/2014
By Tom Evans
Yo... Spectacular weather doesn't seem to be enough to bring in many climbers... so this is YOUR chance to get on that route you always wanted to yourself! The climbing that is going on is of a high quality. James McAffie and partner Dan just got down from a send of El Nino, just a few days after Tobias Wolf and his partner Thomas did the route. Hudon and Jones made it back from their climb of Reticent. Honnold and Allfrey are in the Valley now and are formulating some amazing plans... stay tuned. Team Extreme Riders, from Korea, are due in soon. So the stage is set for good things to happen.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Wed, 05/28/2014 - 02:17
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ElCap Report 5/23 to 5/27/2014
By Tom Evans
Yo... perfect weather is bringing them back to the Valley, although today was not a very busy one on the Cap. Hudon and Jones are down from Reticent after a very nice ascent of this difficult route. A Zodiac team finished this afternoon and a solo is going into the circle now. The Nose has had a lot of action in the past few days. New Dawn has the normal Piton Pete crew on it but have not cleared the trees yet... maybe later in the week! The British climber James McCaffy and his partner are half way up El Nino. The rest is sort of explained in the pics below.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Tue, 05/27/2014 - 03:38
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ElCap Report 5/23/14 Rescue Edition.
By Tom Evans
Yo... Nice weather these days but the cliff doesn't reflect the great conditions. Perhaps the big holiday weekend is keeping them away. Yosemite Search and Rescue had their annual May helicopter training day on the 21st of the month. All the rangers qualified to get a ride on the bottom of a very long rope, suspended from the chopper, got to practice taking flight and landing on the side of the East Buttress of the Cap. The weather was not great that day but they pushed through it with Richard Shatto doing the precision flying.
Well just two days later, Tobias Wolf and his partner Thomas, were rappelling near the area of the practice when a rock fell, without warning, from above and hit Tobias in the left knee. YOSAR was quickly dispatched to the scene with Fire chopper 551, flown by Richard Shatto again. It was the same flight as was practiced just two days before and it went quickly. Below are some shots I got as I arrived a bit late for the first part of the flight.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Fri, 05/23/2014 - 00:27
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ElCap Report 5.15...22.2014 A week of climbing.
By Tom Evans
Yo... Well, it has been hot.. cold.. dry... and wet, this past week. Right now the conditions are perfect for climbing. The Spring climbing season is in full swing now, so come on Cubicle Pukes... get out of your prison!
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Wed, 05/21/2014 - 02:55
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ElCap Report 5/20/14 Remembering Richie Copeland and Sean Leary.
By Tom Evans
On 5/18/14 we lost one of the best climbers and friends the Yosemite climbing community has ever known. Richie Copeland was, as best we can figure, at the base of the first pitch of a Liberty Cap route, after hiking there with a friend to do the climb. He put down his pack and scrambled around to, perhaps, get a better view of the climb, when the rocks he was standing on suddenly collapsed, causing his fatal fall down the cliff.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Tue, 05/20/2014 - 01:10
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We lost a great man and friend to all, yesterday, as Richie Copeland fell to his death on the approach to Liberty Cap. This has been a rough year for Yosemite climbers as Sean Leary was killed base jumping in March. If you have been reading the Report, these past years, you know what fine men these friends were. I will see if I can get together some photos and such for each of these unique men who left us far too early. We here in Yosemite are just crushed by the loss of these men.... both were one of a kind and we won't see the likes of them again...
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Fri, 05/16/2014 - 00:01
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ElCap Report 5/15/14
By Tom Evans
Yo… Sunny and very warm here in the Valley. The action on the great rock is presently confined to the Nose and Salathe routes. The rock has no bird closures and is completely open to climbing. I have procured a place to stay, outside of the park, which entails a fairly long drive to and from the valley. I will be shooting climbers on ElCap daily from now until July.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 18:35
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ElCap Report 10/02/13 Special Shutdown Edition.
By Tom Evans
Yo… Things are getting weird here now. There is a ranger check-point on the road at camp 4. They stop you and tell you that if you leave and do not have a nps sticker or employee card that you will not be able to return once you drive past that check-point. Another check-point is at the EC crossover. Everyone must be gone by 3pm tomorrow. I have a site in camp 4 tonight and will be attending an impromptu “last night” party there. I can’t go down to the Bridge to check on those on the wall who may be of interest to you, so this will be the last report until the government grows up and stops playing childish politics.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Wed, 10/02/2013 - 03:30
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ElCap Report 10/1/13
By Tom Evans
Yo…Fortunately the Government can’t yet control the weather! Perfect day for another NOSE RECORD!!! Read about it below. The government shutdown is having a huge impact here in Yosemite. If nothing is done we all have to be out of here on Thursday at 3pm. Many of the shutdown regulations, now in force, are pretty stupid, even for the park service, normally known for illogical, ill thought out regs. However, to their credit, most of those kind are being ignored. An example is.. you cannot stop at a turn out, to look at the view, or take a photo. Another is that you can’t go out for a morning walk/hike. Anyway, we all, park service included, are hoping for a quick resolution. In-park and local business are losing a ton of money each day this shutdown goes on.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Tue, 10/01/2013 - 04:17
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ElCap Report 9/30/13
By Tom Evans
Yo.. Today was perfect for climbing on ElCap, with 80% cloud cover in the morning, dropping to 50% later in the day. In the forecast are eight sunny days, of 70 degree weather. Lots of action on the Cap with a record number of shots on this report. So check your knots, clip into the first piece, and get out on the lead with Capt. Tom watching every move.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Mon, 09/30/2013 - 03:54
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ElCap Report 9/29/13
By Tom Evans
Yo… It was another beautiful day here in big wall heaven. Lots of interesting routes are getting attention. The Nose is essentially empty now that the ladies are done … SETTING A NEW WOMAN’S SPEED RECORD, THIS MORNING!! More about that below. Many Bigs have shown up to climb on the Captain… Gerberding, Trotter, Caldwell, Leary, Smith-Gobat, Sharma, Cecil, Hillary, Harding…the list goes on!! Do they know something you don’t? Yes!! They know that this is the time to get it on with the Captain…now, you know too!
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Sun, 09/29/2013 - 03:19
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ElCap Report 9/28/13
By Tom Evans
Yo… It was an absolutely spectacular day here! The Nose and Salathe saw most of the action today and most of the other routes were standard fare. It is high season on El Capitan, so if you are coming to climb the big stone, now is the time. I would go on and on with the usual spray but I have been slowly running out of energy these past few days and I sure need to get some rest. So……
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Sat, 09/28/2013 - 05:05
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ElCap Report 9/27/13
By Tom Evans
Yo.. The weather continues to be sunny but with a chilling wind up high and down below. Lots of action on the Nose and Salathe.
We had a new mixed team speed record on the Nose and I will show several shots below.
The last night of shows are going on tonight so I will cut to the chase so I can get to bed at some reasonable time tonight.
I also wanted to mention that Jim Beyer, if you didn’t read about it in a previous report, became the oldest person to solo ElCap by virtue of his recently completed Lost in America solo. He was 57 years 11months at the time. Congratulations to Jim!
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Fri, 09/27/2013 - 03:50
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ElCap Report 9/26/13
By Tom Evans
Yo… Sunny, windy, and cold on the Captain today. Lots of action, scattered around the cliff, in spite of the conditions. Saturday is forecast to be the start of warmer weather. I spent the shooting day in the EC Meadow shooting in windy and comfortable conditions. So drop what you are doing and come along, up to the big stone, where the puffy’s were out and the ropes blew east.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Thu, 09/26/2013 - 03:05
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ElCap Report 9/25/13
By Tom Evans
Yo… The weather and a mishap on the Nose are the news of the day. It was unseasonably cold, with high winds today and the forecast rain is yet to appear. Climbers in the wind prone areas were in expedition puffy’s all day while those in protected areas were comfortable with T-shirts. We are expecting some nicer weather within the next couple of days. The Nose is empty of teams wanting to climb to the top.
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Submitted by Tom Evans on Wed, 09/25/2013 - 01:18
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ElCap Report 9/24/13
By Tom Evans
Yo…Nice day here but some clouds floated by later in the day, forerunners of some rain tomorrow afternoon I hear. Not a lot of different routes being done on the great rock… mostly… you know the one… the King! The Facelift is on now and the first program is tonight so this will be short and sweet.
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