From: billw@ace.mentorg.com (Bill Wright)
Subject: Trip Report: On Da Nose with Da Loobster!
Originator: billw@ace
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 23:05:12 GMT
Reply-To: billw@sjc.mentorg.com
Organization: Mentor Graphics 
Keywords: 
Followup-To: 


WARNING: Massive posting.  Proceed at your own risk.

Well the length of this post is surely going to give Eugene fits.  "Where
do I find the time" he wonders?  The fact that this is two months late probably
indicates that I don't find it very easily. This baby is over 7500 words.
Sorry for the verbosity, but it was a special event for me. As usual
comments, questions, flames, etc. are welcome.

-----------------------------------------
Adventure on El Capitan

This is the sequel to my 1991 trilogy "Misadventures on El Cap." We, 
Da Loobster and I, had hopefully learned from our past mistakes and 
were finally ready to make a full on assault on the Nose of El Capitan. 
I had been doing lots of rock climbing this year with over a hundred 
routes and three marathon days behind me already. Our final tune-up 
was doing the South Face of Washington Column in a day. We were 
ready. Only weather or crowds would stop us...

We were planning the traditional 3 1/2 day ascent where you fix lines 
to Sickle Ledge on your first day and return to the ground. The next 
day we wanted to sleep on El Cap Tower (15 pitches up), the 
following night at Camp Five (25 pitches up), and then top out on the 
fourth day. We planned on strictly swinging leads the entire way up 
with me leading mostly the even pitches. The pitches that occupied 
my thoughts were the pendulum into the Stovelegs, Texas Flake, King 
Swing, Pancake Flake, the Glowering Spot, and Harding's tour de 
force bolt ladder. The Loobster would be concentrating on the 
pendulum to Sickle Ledge, the pendulum to Dolt Hole, Boot Flake 
and the Great Roof. The route had so much to offer us.

Monday, May 11th: 

The Loobster met at my house tonight to plan what we would take on 
the route. We agreed on short pads, tiny overbags for sleeping bags, 
bivy bags, five gallons of water, a shit pot (we wanted to do an 
environmentally clean climb), rain gear, extra clothes (minimal), 
headlamps, etc. We planned our food and assigned further tasks. Our 
friend John Blackberries was donating his haulbag and his #4 Camalot 
to the adventure and he would be our ground crew for the ascent. 
Blackberries was going to accompany us up to Sickle Ledge to video 
us. The following day he would retrieve our dropped fixed lines (after 
we jugged them to Sickle Ledge) and meet us on the summit Sunday. 
He proved to be an invaluable team member.

Wednesday, May 13th:

The Loobster and I met Bo Fana Banana Berries at the Wendy's in 
Merced and crammed my car full of gear. It was a tight fit, but we 
didn't want to drive two cars to the Valley and have one sit the entire 
time. Our plan was to bivy at the secret spot outside of the park and 
then cruise in early in the morning to fix our lines.

Thursday, May 14th:

We woke at 5 a.m. and moved quickly into the Valley. The El Cap 
Meadow turnout was crowded with cars and my anxiety over other 
parties increased, but so far no movement. Then a climbing team 
drove up and, already organized, started to hike in with two haulbags! 
Yikes! Which route were they heading for? "Blackberries, go ask 
them which route they are off to do." It turns out they are headed for 
Lurking Fear and we breathe a sigh of relief. These guys turned out to 
be really rude to Berries so he retaliated. Berries has only known one 
guy who has done the Lurking Fear and this guy was really good and 
did a one day ascent. So Berries says to these assholes:

	"What are the haulbags for? I don't know much about the 
	route, but everyone I know does it in a day? Are you guys 
	just beginners?"

He says all this with a real innocent expression on his face like he 
doesn't know anything about climbing, but that he as some friends that 
do it. The assholes didn't respond but looked crestfallen. Berries 
returned to us satisfied with his success.

Then another party turns up and they are off to jug their fixed lines to 
Sickle Ledge. That's okay. They will be a day ahead of us and 
shouldn't pose any problem to us unless they are really slow. After 
breakfast and some organizing we are finally off.

I won't belabor these first four pitches as I have written about them 
before. I led the first and third ones French-free and the Loobster 
aided the 2nd and 4th ones. We hauled the bag with us up these 
pitches because I didn't want to haul it the next day as I felt it would 
slow us down too much. We had extra sleeping bags for tonight. 
Blackberries jugged along after us and videoed these first four pitches.

Everything went smoothly here as we had done them twice before. 
Before cleaning each pitch the second would lower out the haulbag 
and Blackberries as each pitch traversed quite a bit, especially the last 
one to Sickle Ledge. It was nice having a haulbag chaperone along 
and we started calling John the Bag Master. The leader would lead 
while trailing three ropes: the lead rope, the haul line, and an 
additional fixed line for the Bag Master to jug.

The Loobster got a gimme on the 4th pitch as a ratty old fixed line 
was left here and he used one jumar to sort of jug/batman up this rope 
while placing some protection. I used this line to lower myself out on 
the traverse.

We had intended only to fix four pitches that day, but we had five 
ropes with us and wanted to give ourselves every advantage in making 
El Cap Tower the next night. We knew making this bivy was the key 
to getting off this wall by Sunday night. So, I led the 4th class pitch 
above Sickle and hauled the bag up. WE lowered the bag out onto the 
face here to avoid hauling it up the 4th class garbage and the haul 
went very smoothly. I then fixed the haul line back down to Sickle 
Ledge and brought the lead line down with me. We fixed the lead line 
at Sickle Ledge and the Bag Master rapped off trailing three extra 
ropes from his harness to fix the next three belays. The Loobster and I 
followed him and we were down by 1 p.m.

We spent the rest of the day watching various parties flail on the 
Nose, doing some last minute shopping, eating, and praying for a 
large dump. The first question any non-climber every asks me when 
they hear I am doing a multi-day climb is always: "How do you go to 
the bathroom?" I hate this. Of all the neat, exciting questions to ask, 
they ask the most undignified. Our plan was to dump into a 
Tupperware container and haul our waste up with us (being 
environmentally minded climbers.) Our hope was to clean out our 
systems (via numerous large dumps) and then pray for constipation on 
the wall. Hence, a lot of the conversation centered around dumping 
that day. Each time someone would return from the bathroom we 
would ask, "Well, how did go? Was it substantial?" Everyone was 
having success (Blackberries joined us in our quest although he had 
no need) except me. I was eating large quantities of food in hopes of 
stimulating some activity but with no luck. Now I was worried about 
eating so much. I would never make it up the wall without the urge. 
Try as I would nothing was happening. Finally, the next morning I 
met with success (twice) and we both ended up controlling our bowels 
for three continuous days of stink free climbing. Well, it actually 
wasn't stink free. As the Loobster liked to put: "I think I am so highly 
processing the food that it is merely emerging as a gas." And emerge 
it did, but at least the wind blew the scent away. With this I will end 
this overly detailed discussion of crapping.

That afternoon we watched the two climbers in front of us (Reinhart 
and Mike Whitehead of Teton Village, WY) flail miserably on the pendulum 
into the Stovelegs. Having led this pitch before and also flailed I could 
empathize with the climbers. They weren't moving too fast and would end 
up sleeping at Dolt Tower that night. This still wasn't a problem for us 
because they should then go to Camp 4 and then Camp 6 and finish early on 
Sunday. More alarming, we saw a party just sitting around on El Cap 
Tower in the middle of the afternoon. We knew they didn't start today 
so they must have just climbed from Dolt to El Cap Tower (only three 
pitches!) They could be more of a problem...

After eating early in the cafeteria we headed back to El Cap Meadow 
to sleep in the woods. We knew there was some risk here, but figured 
the rangers would give us a break since we already had our ropes 
fixed. The Loobster, worried that another party had fixed ropes next to 
ours as John assured us people do, ran up to the base to check the 
situation. We wanted to know if there was to be a race the next 
morning. I wasn't too worried since I hadn't lost a start time race this 
year and had won quite a few. We get up early than most. We know our 
limitations. We can't climb fast, but we can wake up early.

Friday, May 15th:

Early this morning (3 a.m.) two climbers walked by (as we were 
sleeping just off the trail) and startled me. I popped up immediately 
my head swimming with thoughts of our route being stolen. 
Blackberries quickly assured me that they weren't carrying a haulbag 
and were probably a "Nose-in-a-day" team. Doing the Nose in one day 
is being done more and more, but it is still a simply awesome 
achievement in endurance and climbing efficiency, and requires at 
least solid 5.11 free climbing skills. I thankfully went back to sleep 
satisfied that my route wasn't in danger.

Berries is up early and off to watch the "Nose-in-a-day" climbers so 
that when the Loobster and I get up, around 4 a.m., he is nowhere to 
be found. We head back to the car to stash our bivy gear (our second 
set is already five pitches up in our haulbag) and eat some breakfast. 
Berries joins us and we are soon hiking toward our fixed lines. The 
Loobster goes first and then I follow. I leave the ground at 5:30 a.m.

I drop three of the fixed lines to the ground where Berries dutifully 
coils them up. It is so great to have support personnel. We are left 
with just our lead line and haul line. I start leading the 5.9 6th pitch a 
little after six and it doesn't take me that long. I have seen these 
pitches before. I have never freed the top of this pitch, but it looks 
harder than 5.9 to me. Our philosophy is to climb as fast as we can. 
Whether that means free climbing, French free, or full on aid climbing 
is irrelevant. We know it will be a race to El Cap Tower. A couple of 
judicious tugs on pro and I am at the belay by 6:30. The "Nose-in-a-
day" climbers aren't very far ahead of us -- one of them in a pitch 
above me at the Dolt Hole belay. They would soon leave us in the 
dust.

The Loobster nails the pendulum on the 7th pitch and quickly 
scampers up to the belay to my cheers of "Looby Dooby Do!" This 
time I untie from the end of the rope and successfully lower out all the 
way across the pendulum. On my last try I smashed into this wall by 
not lowering out far enough. We lost some time here as the rope got 
wedged in the crack. The belay at Dolt Hole really sucks as it is a 
complete hanger and it is difficult to keep things straightened out. 
Despite all our practice we had a couple of VERY long change-overs 
that would plague us the entire way up the climb. Sometimes I think 
the Loobster is so mentally drained by the time he reaches a belay 
stance that he doesn't think through the process of setting up a clean 
belay. He also had the annoying habit of clipping in with about 
sixteen quickdraws. He knows how to tie a clove-hitch and I think this 
method is so much safer since there are fewer points of failure, but it 
is hard to change a Loobster set in his ways.

I started up what I consider to be one of the tougher pitches. I have 
some strenuous, vertical 5.9 wide jamming to reach the bolt ladder, 
then up a 50 foot bolt ladder, then I get lowered back down to the 
bottom of the bolt ladder where I have to pendulum into the Stoveleg 
crack and climb 100 feet to the belay. Whew! It was tiring just writing 
about that pitch. Here you get to do 200 feet of climbing on a single 
pitch. This pitch gave me all kinds of trouble last year when we did a 
reconnaissance up the first nine pitches.

The bolt ladder has one bolt missing. There use to be a fixed piece for 
this gap, but it was gone. You might be able to clip the next bolt by 
top stepping, but the wall is so steep here that I didn't think I could do 
it. The 2nd step doesn't get you there. I fiddled around trying to place 
a #1 RP in a tiny crack and eventually got it to stick, but when I 
weighted the piece it slipped down two inches startling me and 
wedging deeply into the crack. I thought the chances of cleaning this 
piece were minimal now, but it allowed me to reach the next bolt.

The last time I did this pendulum I made the mistake of not lowering 
down far enough and ran myself ragged trying to reach the damn 
Stoveleg crack. I didn't want to give up the precious altitude I had 
gained. This time I gave it up readily. I lowered clear down to the 
bottom of the bolt ladder and even a little beyond. I nailed it on my 
third try. At this point we employed a unique technique that added to 
my speed and safety.

The first Stoveleg pitch is usually climbed in one of two ways: free 
climb to the belay (100 feet of 5.8/9 jamming) with no pro or aid to 
the belay and back clean every piece. It is necessary to back clean this 
section for two reasons. One, to reduce the drag induced by the "Z" 
pattern you would have created and two, to it easy for the second to 
lower out.  Previously I had aided this section since I didn't feel solid 
enough with the climbing to risk a 100 foot fall/pendulum. This is also 
the method Reinhart used the day before, but it wasn't my method 
today.  I had previously tied the haulline into my harness and now 
merely switched over to leading on the haulline. Now I could free 
climb the pitch and place protection normally. I had no drag since the 
rope was running straight up to me from the belay and things went 
quickly. The only drawback was that I couldn't haul the bag all the 
way to the belay until the Loobster cleaned the pro from the haulline. 
The Loobster also had to down-jumar about twenty feet after lowering 
out the pendulum since the first piece I placed in the Stovelegs was 
below him. All told we did this pitch about twice as fast as last time.
The credit for this idea must go to Bo Fana Banana Berries and we now
must pay him a royalty whenever we use it.

As soon as the leader is finished with the hauling he needs to get 
things ready for the next leader. One of the habits we used was to 
always clip the haulline to the lead rack (pre-threaded through our 
wall-hauler and ready to go). This way it was impossible to forget to 
clip the haul line to you (something the Loobster and I have been 
guilty of more than once.)

The Loobster leads the next Stoveleg pitch, the last one we are 
familiar with. All but one of the Loobster's leads on this climb were 
aid pitches for him and this one was no exception. Cleaning his leads 
were easy and fast because of his ferocious back cleaning. He never 
wanted to leave anything behind in case he needed it higher up on the 
pitch, consequently he left protection behind sparingly.

As I take over the lead on the 10th pitch we enter new ground. I take a 
quick glance at the topo and am off, free climbing. This pitch is 
supposedly rated 5.9 and I move quickly up it. A bit too quickly 
apparently since I climb right by the belay without noticing it. I  get to 
a long 10a fist section and vigorous pulling on #3 Camalots gets me to 
a small stance with a single bolt just as I run out of rope. After 
backing up the belay, I haul the bag. It still hasn't dawned on me that I 
have bypassed a belay when the Loobster takes off on the next pitch 
so it comes as quite a surprise that after 100 feet of climbing the 
Loobster calls down, "I'm on Dolt Tower!" "Dolt?" I saw. "Are you 
sure? We are a pitch early!" Sure enough the Loobster is correct. We 
had reached Dolt Tower in 11 pitches and arrived before 2 p.m.

We have only three pitches to reach El Cap Tower and plenty of 
daylight. We celebrate with a well deserved break. I look down into 
El Cap Meadow and spot the same little speck of a person that has 
been there since 6 a.m. -- Berries. I waved a greeting at him hoping 
that he is watching us. After some food and drink and even a little 
videoing, the Loobster lowers me off the right side of Dolt Tower and I 
free climb right into the main crack system. Steep crack climbing 
leads me up to a nice triangular belay ledge. As I haul the bag up the 
pitch, the Loobster is jugging right below it and getting a Gatorade 
shower! He now thinks that he might have punctured one of the water 
containers dragging the bag across Dolt Tower. Damn! We had 5 
gallons of water/Gatorade with us but with expected hot temperatures 
we felt we needed it all.

The next pitch is steep and fist width. The Loobster wants me to lead 
it because I can move faster and then maybe, if the leak is a small 
one, we can salvage some of the liquid. I quickly free/French free up 
the pitch until it becomes very wide. I have to run out the upper 45 
feet because I have no pro big enough. It is probably only 5.8 here, 
but still exciting. I move continuously hoping that momentum will 
keep me on the rock. I reach the belay winded and dripping with 
sweat as the anxiety has prompted me to work harder than necessary. 
By the time the Loobster joins me we know it is a lost cause to 
salvage any of the liquid. The Loobster leads the next 5.6 pitch, his 
only free lead of the climb, and thinks to himself: "I can't pull out my 
aiders on this pitch!  What will Bill think?" when he catches himself 
reaching instinctively for the etriers.

El Cap Tower! By 5 p.m.! We are quite excited to reach our first day's 
goal so comfortably. After stringing rope along the 30 foot by 4 foot 
ledge, we began the depressing job of unpacking the haul bag. 
Everything was coated and soaked by a gallon of Gatorade. I pulled 
out a couple of pairs of soaked socks, polypro, underwear, paperback 
books, raingear, etc. Eventually I got down to culprit. It was our 
unmodified, stock gallon jug of Gatorade. Earlier in the week when 
we got together to pack the haul bag I asked the Loobster why all of 
our water containers were bullet proofed with duct taped except the 
Gatorade jug. His answer: "Well, I think that container is pretty much 
bullet proof already." Bullet proof? Maybe. Loobster proof? NOT!

We got out our pads, reclined on them and relaxed, enjoying our 
incredible bivy location. This was my greatest bivy ledge of my, 
admittedly limited, wall career. It is very flat. Not as smooth as I 
would like it, but at least it didn't lean. We ate some dinner and just as 
the Loobster said he was going to get into his bag I decided I would 
go up and take a look at the next pitch: the infamous Texas Flake 
chimney.

This pitch starts off the western edge of the ledge and then works back 
east. Some 5.8 crack/face climbing leads up to a broken ledge and the 
start of the chimney. Ten feet up the chimney is a large chock stone 
with a sling around it. This is the last piece of protection for forty 
more feet. Passing the chock stone is probably the technical crux as it 
is a bit offwidthy and overhung. Once on top of the chock stone I 
found it to be more of a complete floor behind the Texas Flake. From 
here a three foot wide chimney leads straight up to the top of the flake. 
The walls are completely devoid of any cracks, dead vertical, and 
generally smooth, but with a few widely spaced incut foot holds. I had 
heard that the "western" side of Texas was the easiest section and 
head up over there. The flake is only about 18 inches wide so it was 
possible for me to reach the outside edge of the flake and layback off 
of it. This proved to be too great of a reach to do comfortably and I 
mainly stuck to strict chimney moves.

The climbing is pretty reasonable, but could be scary as a fall would 
have major consequences and the chimney is wide enough where you 
don't feel very secure. It was here that I discovered a new climbing 
aid that is sure to transform the climbing world in much the same way 
as the Fire rubber did. Remember the spilled Gatorade? Well it got all 
over my shoes also and now the soles were really sticky. They 
sounded like I was pulling tape off the rock each time I moved my 
feet. Forget Stealth rubber and C4, use GatorRubber! It worked for 
me.

Once at the top I fixed the rope and rappelled back down to El Cap 
Tower cleaning the two pieces of protection I had placed on the pitch. 
Since I had to rappel down the chimney we also had to jug up that 
way in the morning. This is not a problem and I would actually 
recommend it because the walls make the jumaring easier.

Shortly after I returned to the ledge we snuggled into our bags and I 
read a few pages from the Gatorade-soaked book I had brought. What 
a great bivy ledge!

Saturday, May 16th:

We were up by 5:30 or so, but we weren't moving particularly fast. 
We ate something and then repacked the Gatorade soaked haul bag 
with the Gatorade soaked clothes. The Loobster had agreed to jug first 
and haul the bag -- what a nice Loobster. He had no trouble with the 
jumar (and we jugged the inside of the chimney), but he had a hell of 
a time setting things up for the haul. The top of Texas Flake is no 
more than a foot high and three feet away from the main wall. The 
anchors are on the top of the flake so in order to haul you have to 
hang off the bolts on the outside face. I am not sure why this bothered 
the Loobster so much or why it took so long to figure out, but it did. I 
think it was the lack of coffee. Loobsters really need their coffee in 
the morning.

When I arrived at the belay I got to stretch out and recline on top of 
the slightly slanted flake and belay the Loobster on the Boot Flake 
pitch. This pitch took a long time to lead. We were off to a slow start. 
The exposure here is extraordinary and it unnerved me a bit as I 
started to jug the fixed line. The pitch starts with a long bolt ladder 
that goes up and strongly left. I hate following traversing pitches. It is 
a real hassle to avoid smashing your lower jumar up into the piece as 
you weight the upper jumar.

The King Swing! We had endlessly discussed our strategy on how we 
would lead and follow this double pendulum pitch the night before we 
left the ground. It is logistically tricky because of the length of the 
pendulum which is over 50 horizontal feet left and the belay ends up 
BELOW where you start.

With little fanfare the Loobster lowers me down the left side of Boot 
Flake to the top of the instep. I run left a bit and then hard back right 
clear to the other side of the boot. A brief pause and I am hurtling left 
towards the fixed pin which marks the start of the second pendulum. 
Missed! Back right. Now left again with more speed. Dive! Got it! I 
clip a quickdraw into the short sling on this fixed pin and then into my 
rope before requesting that the Loobster lower me still further. I lower 
another 20 or 30 feet and complete the second pendulum. I have lost a 
total of about 80 feet of elevation and must now reclimb it...without 
protection. Thankfully the climbing is left facing dihedral so I don't 
feel as exposed to the pendulum fall I would take to the right. The 
climbing is rated 5.9 with a 10a move at the top. I find the climbing 
reasonable and occasionally place a piece to protect a move and then 
immediately pull the piece. I can't afford to place any protection here 
as the rope drag will impede further climbing.

The last 10a move is difficult, but nothing a well-placed stopper and a 
good tug couldn't solve and I am on a sloping belay ledge. The 
Loobster ties in the haulbag short and lowers it out as I haul it across. 
We try to bring it across as close to horizontal as possible so that the 
Loobster will still have the free end of the haul line. This works and 
once I have the bag secured the Loobster threads the haul line through 
the anchors at the top of Boot Flake and I lower him down while he 
pulls himself across with the jumars on the lead line. This works 
extremely well and the Loobster is soon at the belay. He had some 
trouble removing my last piece but finally retrieved it. Miraculously 
we didn't leave a single piece behind on this climb despite having a 
couple of problematic ones. This is certainly a record for the Loobster 
and me. We must be getting better.

The Loobster runs the next two pitches together in one massive, 160 
foot, two hour aid lead. Sections of this pitch were probably French-
freeable but the Loobster committed firmly to his aiders. Once again 
the pitch was very quick to clean because of Loobster's backcleaning, 
but this pitch is very steep and I frequently hung free on the jumar up 
to Loobster's hanging belay.

Once again the Loobster lowers me down and I tension traverse across 
to a 4th class ledge. The Loobster follows this in the same manner he 
followed the King Swing pitch. After some 4th class scrambling that 
is a royal pain in the ass with the haul bag (I climbed it with the haul 
bag clipped to my harness -- very strenuous, but thankfully very short) 
we had one pitch to reach Camp IV. This next pitch is supposedly 5.9 
but that is complete bullshit. French freeing I reached a bolt in a 
smooth face. By standing in a sling clipped to the bolt I was able to 
face climb up to a crack and place some protection after running it out 
15 feet or so. From here the climbing is probably 5.9 to the Camp IV 
ledges. These ledges, although great for a midday break, didn't look too 
comfortable for bivying since there aren't any good flat spots big 
enough. Little did I know that Camp V wasn't much better.

We reached Camp IV at 2:15 p.m. and took a food and water break. We 
hadn't been moving very fast today due primarily to some very time 
consuming aid leads, but felt confident we were still in good shape to 
make Camp V if we didn't break too long. 

The next lead is mine also since it is a 5.9 free pitch and provides some 
very nice climbing. Interesting face moves with good protection and 
nice stances to place it make for a very enjoyable, low stress pitch to a 
small stance belay the infamous Great Roof. What tremendous 
position here! The Roof looms right above your head and the 
foreshortening convinces me this won't be that long of a pitch. 
WRONG!

Now the Loobster took over the lead once again and methodically 
worked his way up to and horizontally across the huge roof to a stance 
at the far end. The exposure at this little belay is incredible but we 
getting pretty immune to it due to all the work that needed to be done. 
Belaying offered a perfect opportunity to marvel at our position. 
Jugging up to the roof was routine, but when I had to traverse 
completely horizontally things got interesting. The protection was 
close enough together so that I didn't need to lower out from any of 
the pieces, but there was something about weighting a completely 
horizontal jumar that unnerved me. I was, of course, tying in short to 
backup the jumars but it was still wild.

At a point about 2/3 of the way across the roof I notice that the next 
piece is a #1 TCU shoved straight up into a tiny seam that barely 
contains the cams. Hmmm.... "I don't think that TCU is going to 
hold," I tell the Loobster. Carefully I move my jumar around the 
current piece I am weighting and then slowly transfer my weight onto 
the TCU. Rock dust pours out of the crack and I whimper further, 
"Damn! It's going to pull! It's going to pull!" But it doesn't. I inch 
upward and reach back to clean my previous piece. Another look at 
the TCU shows it moving slightly. "SHIT!" Bang! The TCU rips out 
of the crack and down I go. Smack! I hit the wall with my elbow and 
the pain starts just as I come to a stop five feet down. Whew! At least 
that is one piece I don't have to clean. This was the only fall taken by 
either of us on the entire climb.

This pitch ends with some 5.7 free climbing.  The Loobster merely
stepped out of his aiders and free climbed over to the belay fifteen
feet to the right while I belayed him. Unfortunately this left me with
the task of cleaning the aiders myself while free climbing and
belaying myself my sliding my jumars along the fixed line.

After the 5.7 free climbing I joined the Loobster at the belay and we 
organized for the next lead. This is the famous Pancake Flake pitch 
which supposedly has some of the best free climbing on the route. The 
rating is 10a for the first 100 feet and then it finishes with a 30 foot 
11b/A2 section so I had to take the aiders for only the second time on 
the climb. I didn't know it at the time, but not only was I being 
watched from El Cap Meadow by almost a hundred people but I was 
being videotaped through a ten foot telescope set up 2000 feet below.

This flake is very thin but with nice positive holds. Unfortunately it is 
also very steep. With the rack I was carrying I wasn't able to flash this 
pitch and didn't really try too hard. I would climb up to a good hold 
and struggle to either clip the fixed pin or place a piece before 
hanging on it and preparing for the next section. After about 25 feet 
the climbing eased a bit and I was able to free climb without hanging. 
This section is so incredible!

Towards the end of the pitch the crack closes down and steepens past 
vertical. Time to get out the aiders. This section is supposedly A2 and 
I sure had some problems with it. It was my first real aid section (the 
bolt ladder was mainly a clip and go) of the climb and I was very slow 
getting going on it. I had lots of trouble placing solid pro. After what 
seemed like an eternity I free climbed the last block and clipped into 
the belay. It had taken me nearly 45 minutes to lead this pitch and it 
was now 7:15 p.m.

When the Loobster arrived at the belay we realized that he wouldn't 
finish the next pitch to Camp 5 before darkness so we dug out the 
headlamps. The next pitch was a very awkward and strenuous flare 
which caused all kinds of problems for the Loobster. Thirty feet up 
the headlamp was turned on and he worked into the darkness. I could 
hear the heavy breathing of his struggles and didn't envy his position.
 Two hours later the "off belay" call drifted down from above and I 
started to jug.
 
The Loobster brings me up  to his belay and I am a bit curious why he 
stopped short of the bivy ledges. I think he was just confused about 
where they were. I grabbed some gear and went exploring for a place 
to sleep. The first platform I stumbled across was plenty large enough 
for one person but wouldn't accommodate both of us. It also had a 
pronounced slope to it. The beta on Camp 5 (or Camp 6, as the 
Loobster kept referring to it. He maddeningly kept calling Camp 5, 
Camp 6 and vice-versa. I didn't understand where the confusion came 
in. The camp with the higher number was the one higher up the route. 
He is such a Loobster!) was that the higher platforms are the best 
ones. I climbed up (5.7) to the next platform and found it to be a little 
more level, but quite small. It would be a tight squeeze for me. 
Frustrated by the lack of good sites I continued up to the base of the 
aid climbing on the next pitch to confirm we had the best sites. I then 
placed a piece and lowered clear back down to the first big ledge. All 
this was occurring in darkness via my headlamp.

I brought the Loobster up and we unpacked the haulbag to eat and 
drink. It was now about 10:30 p.m. After satisfying our hunger, I 
packed up the haulbag, climbed the 30 feet up to the higher platform 
and hauled up the bag. Loobster had his sleeping and would spend the 
night on the lower ledge. No bedtime stories from the Loobster 
tonight...

As I struggle to organize myself in the "penthouse" ledge of Camp 5, I 
can hear yelling from the Valley floor and I know it must be my 
friend Magoo. If you ever see this guy you will understand why a 
climb called "The Nose" would be ideal for him. Well, at least he 
had to come watch us climb it. This is a guy intimately familiar with 
big Noses.

I finally turn off the headlamp at 11:30 a.m. and start the cycle of 
sleep-wakeup-readjust-curse-the-bright-moon-check-my-watch which 
I repeated every fifteen minutes. The Loobster slept like a baby.

Sunday, May 17th:

Up at 5:30 and, after hauling up the Loobster's sleeping gear and 
packing the haulbag, I was climbing by 6:30. The first pitch above 
Camp 5 is the Glowering Spot pitch. Harding's name for this pitch 
seemed appropriate now as I glowered at the incipient crack I had to 
ascend. This is the only pitch on the route where RPs were used. I 
didn't like most of the placements on this pitch and yanked a couple 
out while testing them. Occasionally I got a bomber stopper placed 
and my stress level was reduced. The dicey aid continues for about 50 
feet where you can switch into the right crack and use friends the rest 
of the way. I freed the last ten foot section and ended at a nice, 
slanting, two foot ledge. This pitch took me almost an hour to lead 
and was my toughest aid lead of the climb.

The Loobster quickly cleaned and led the next, short aid pitch. This 
pitch leans a bit and looked pretty awkward, but by now the Loobster 
was pretty fast on these awkward pitches and he reached a small belay 
stance in short order. The next lead, the 25th of the climb, officially 
marked this as the longest climb I had ever done in my life (Half 
Dome is 24 pitches.) This pitch goes all free at 5.8 but follows a 
circuitous route.  I first traversed right, climbed up a wide crack, 
traversed back left, and then ascended another wide crack to Camp 6 
where I found a couple of marooned climbers. They greeted me with, 
"We have sort of a traffic jam here." I looked up to see another party 
above them and moving slow. Damn!

I had only placed one piece on the last pitch so that the Loobster 
would be able to jug straight up the pitch and not follow the traverses 
and he soon joined me. Our new friends were Reinhart and Tim -- the 
guys we had watched after fixing on our first day. They were quite 
friendly and agreed to fix a rope for us (as the party above them had 
done for them) in order to make up for some of the time we would 
lose.

We ended up sitting at the aromatic Camp 6 for two hours. We ate, 
drank, rested. I read thirty pages from the paperback book that I 
brought (I never go anywhere without a book!) Eventually it was time 
to go and we started jugging the overhanging line. The Loobster went 
first in order to haul the bag as the next lead was mine. As I struggled 
up the free hanging rope I marveled at the incredible exposure and the 
cathedral-like dihedrals I was entering. It was almost enough to make 
me religious as I prayed the rope was anchored securely.

The next lead was mine and it was a great one. A perfect #1 Camalot 
crack on my left provided an easy "friend jumar" for me. Halfway up 
it turns to 5.8 free climbing and I left the aiders behind and moved up 
the beautifully exposed hand crack on awesome jams. The belay is 
very unsettling as there is a large block right above the belay that is 
held onto the cliff by some slings around it and attached to a big hex 
in the crack behind it. If this block were to come off (and this looks 
like a real possibility) it would definitely kill the belayer and probably 
cut the rope. I made the Loobster promise not to touch this block as he 
moved by it. I was at this belay for a long time as the next pitch 
proved very time consuming and draining for the Loobster.

The next pitch proves to once again to be a very difficult and time 
consuming lead for the Loobster. It is so steep that he frequently 
hangs free from his placements. The steepness was also quite evident 
to me as I jugged the line and frequently had to pull myself back into 
the rock to clean the pro. The belay at the top of this pitch is a full 
hanging belay in an alcove. It took us probably 45 minutes to sort 
things out here and the Loobster did another one of his "clip in with 
29 quickdraws" belays. I could tell the Loobster was frazzled and 
didn't want the next lead. We had agreed that he would do this next 
pitch and that I would do the final bolt ladder, but I took  the lead.

It is supposed to be 5.9 face climbing up out of the alcove and then up 
a 10b thin crack. I grabbed pro shamelessly up the very difficult 5.9 
section and then got in the aiders for the 10b crack. This crack is 
absolutely beautiful and I would have loved to tried to free climb it, 
but it was simply too much for me at this point. There are so many 
great pitches in the upper reaches of this route. It is too bad the 
"approach" to them is so long.

The belay at the top of this pitch consists of about four bolts (two 
brand new ones) and a couple of pins. I was able to really keep things 
organized with so many places to hang things. The Loobster joined 
me shortly and we stowed most of the gear in the top of the haul bag. 
I took tons of quickdraws and biners to clip the numerous bolts that 
led from here up the overhanging headwall and over the lip.

I was thankful for the brand new retro-bolts in this section. At first the 
bolt clipping is very straightforward as it generally ascends straight 
up. A few places have some large reaches but still quite manageable. 
After turning the lip of the overhang the bolts lead almost straight 
sideways with some rather large gaps. I had to place one TCU to 
bridge one of the gaps, but it wasn't so bad for me. I worried about the 
Loobster following this section, but there was nothing I could do for 
him and knew he would figure something out.

When the bolts peter out you have to do some free climbing up slabs and 
over small steps. This section is easy, but the rope drag was getting to 
be ferocious so I didn't place any protection at all on this section. As I 
climbed the last 5.7 section up the summit slabs I kept expecting to 
see Berrries or Sheri but they weren't there. I anchored the rope and 
yelled down that I was off belay but communication between the 
Loobster and me was impossible. I set up the hauling system and started 
to haul hoping that it would indicate that I was off belay and 
everything was fixed. After numerous attempts at screaming 
commands I was able to haul the bag up...at least until it got stuck on 
the lip of the overhang. I assumed that the Loobster was now cleaning 
the pitch. 

Shortly after I started hauling, Berries appears out of the manzanita 
and  yells "Billy!!" His face is filled with joy for finding me safe and 
sound on the summit. He pulls out the video camera and videos me 
hauling. I disappoint him a bit in not being elated about our 
accomplishment. It hasn't sunk into my consciousness yet and I 
haven't got the Loobster up here yet and the bag is still stuck down 
there and...

Eventually the Loobster tops out (this is a very difficult pitch to 
follow due to all the horizontally placed bolts) and we celebrate. Sheri 
soon joins us and I give her a big hug. Berries and Sheri have brought 
us fresh clothes, our hiking boots, cookies, and even cold beer!! The 
greatest support crew ever!

Then they hit us with the bad news: it is an 11 mile hike out to the 
road! In retrospect there were better trails to get to the summit of El 
Cap, but they didn't know it at the time. The hike would have been 
"only" eight miles if the road into the Tamarack Flat campground wasn't closed. 
Ugh! Suffice to say the walk out was long and arduous. At first we 
furiously traded stories about our last three days, but eventually just 
plodded along into the darkness. We reached the cars at 11:30 p.m. 
and started the 4 1/2 hour drive home. I made it about an hour before I 
had to stop and sleep the night by the side of the road. My sleeping 
bag was in the other car (with Berries and the Loobster) so Sheri and I 
huddled together under her bag. We returned home by nine the next 
morning.

Aftermath:

I can't adequately express what it means for me to climb El Capitan. 
Granted this is a trivial climb for some, but for me it was the pinnacle 
of my climbing career. A pinnacle that will not likely be surpassed. El 
Capitan is undeniably the most famous rock climbing cliff. The most 
sought after big wall in the world! A truly awe inspiring piece of 
granite. So smooth and hard it looks man-made except for the fact that 
it is simply enormous. Dwarfing all man-made structures.

Just like after I ran my first (and only) marathon, I don't have less 
respect for this climb having done it, but more. And I respect anyone 
who has climbed it. It demands a lot of climbing knowledge, 
perseverance, and skill to ascend its walls. Truly the greatest rock 
climb I have done. There are so many great pitches that would be fun 
to work on free climbing them, but the approach is a bitch!

I thought as soon as I got off this wall that I wouldn't want to climb 
again. That somehow my thirst for climbing would be sated by this 
great cliff. But, somewhat disappointingly, this was like other tough 
climbs in that the pain and hardship quickly vanished and I simply 
remember the joy, the adventure. By Monday afternoon I couldn't 
wait to go climbing again and by Tuesday I was making plans for my 
next big wall.

-- 
             Bill Wright / bill_wright@mentorg.com

                  "When in doubt, run it out!"
Xref: sparky rec.climbing:2611 rec.backcountry:5647